TIME | EVENT DESCRIPTION | LOCATION |
UNIVERSE | ||
1,000,000,000,000 YBN | 1) | |
990,000,000,000 YBN | 2) | |
980,000,000,000 YBN | 3) | |
970,000,000,000 YBN | 11) | |
960,000,000,001 YBN | 5) | |
950,000,000,000 YBN | 6) Light particles become trapped with each other and so form structures such as protons, atoms, molecules, planets, stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. This forming of light particles into atoms may be the result of particle collision, gravitation (an attraction of matter with itself) or a combination of both. | |
940,000,000,000 YBN | 7) All of the billions of galaxies we see are only a tiny part of the universe. We will never see most of the universe because no light particles from there can ever reach us. Most galaxies are too far away for even one particle of light they emit to be going in the exact direction of our tiny location, and all the light particles they emit are captured by atoms in between there and here. One estimate has 70e21 (sextillion) stars in only the universe we can see. That is 10 times more stars than grains of sand on all the earth. As telescopes grow larger, the number of galaxies we see will increase. | |
935,000,000,000 YBN | 4) There is a pattern in the universe. Light particles move from highly dense volumes of space to volumes of less density. In low density volumes, light particles slowly accumulate to form atoms of Hydrogen and Helium which exist as gas clouds (like the Magellanic Clouds or Orion nebula). These gas clouds, called nebulae continue to accumulate trapped light particles. At points of high density planets and stars form and the cloud is eventually dense enough to become a galaxy of stars. The stars emit light particles back out to the rest of the universe, where the light again becomes trapped and forms new clouds. Around each star are many planets and pieces of matter. On many of the planets rotating around stars, living objects evolve that can copy themselves by converting matter around them into more of them. Living objects need matter to replace matter lost from the constant emitting of light particles (decay). Like bacteria, these living objects grow in number, with the most successful organisms occupying and moving around many stars. These advanced organisms then move the groups of stars they control, as a globular cluster, away from the plane of the spiral galaxy. As time continues, all of the stars of a galaxy are occupied by living objects who have organized their stars into globular clusters, and these globular clusters together, form a globular galaxy. The globular galaxy may then exist for a long time living off the matter emitting from stars, in addition to the accumulation of light particles from external sources. So free light particles are trapped into volumes of space that grow in density first forming atoms, then gas clouds, then stars, a spiral galaxy, and finally a globular galaxy. Stars at our scale may be light particles at a much larger scale, just as light particles at our scale may be stars at a much smaller scale. This system may go on infinitely in both larger and smaller scale. For any given volume of space, there is a ratio of light particles going in versus light particles going out. If more light particles are entering than exiting the volume has a deficit of light particles, and so acts as a vacuum and grows in size, if more particles are exiting than entering, the volume is already very dense, has a surplus of light particles, and is losing density. | |
930,000,000,000 YBN | 8) An expanding universe seems unlikely to me. The supposed red-shifted calcium absorption lines may be a mistaken observation, for one reason because of the different sizes of spectra as clearly seen in the 1936 Humason image, and because distance of light source changes the position, but not the frequency of spectra. Beyond this, the claim of a "background radiation" is probably simply low frequencies of light particles from light sources that are close enough to be detected. Most light sources are too far away for even one particle emitted from them to reach us. | |
920,000,000,000 YBN | 9) Quasars may be very distant regular galaxies. | |
910,000,000,000 YBN | 10) Globular clusters and elliptical galaxies may be made by intelligent life, and spiral galaxies formed without the direct help of living objects. The star types are almost all long lived yellow stars, and there is little or no Hydrogen or Helium "dust" as there are in spiral galaxies. The stars in elliptical galaxies are light weeks apart, much closer together than our star which is 4 light years to the closest star system. Life orbiting any star of a spiral galaxy probably would leave the plane of the galaxy by going up or down. | |
890,000,000,000 YBN | 12) How photons form atoms may still be unknown. Perhaps simply from gravitational attraction, or maybe there need to be large groups of photons to limit available spaces for photons to move in (for example in stars, or galactic centers, and or supernovas. | |
870,000,000,000 YBN | 14) Photons take on a variety of shapes at different scales from the smallest forms in light, up to atoms, molecules, molecule groups (like living objects), planets, stars, galaxies, galactic clusters and the visible universe is the largest formation of photons we can see. | |
LIFE | ||
165,000,000,000 YBN | 13) | |
33,000,000,000 YBN | 6180) | |
22,000,000,000 YBN | 6181) | |
10,000,000,000 YBN | 6182) | |
5,500,000,000 YBN | 16) | |
5,000,000,000 YBN | 22) In a star system, because of gravitation, heavier masses move closer to the center and lighter masses move farther out. | |
4,600,000,000 YBN | 17) | |
4,600,000,000 YBN | 30) | |
4,600,000,000 YBN | 50) | |
4,571,000,000 YBN | 31) | |
4,566,000,000 YBN | 32) Allende Meteorite 4,566 million years old. | |
4,530,000,000 YBN | 33) | |
4,450,000,000 YBN | 21) | |
4,404,000,000 YBN | 34) Oldest "terrestrial" zircon; evidence that the crust and liquid water are on the surface of earth. A terrestrial zircon is not from a meteorite. This zircon if from Gneiss in West Australia that is 4.4 billion years old. | |
4,400,000,000 YBN | 18) Larger molecules like amino acids, phosphates and sugars, the components of living objects, form on Earth. These molecules are made in the oceans, fresh water, and atmosphere of earth (and other planets) by lightning, light particles with ultraviolet frequency from the Sun, and from ocean floor volcanoes. | |
4,395,000,000 YBN | 19) Nucleic acids form on Earth. One of these RNA molecules may be the ancestor of all of life on Earth, being part of the series of copies that leads to all later living objects on Earth. Even if bacteria survived the journey from a different star to this star and seeded the earth, the chemical evolution of the first cell is necessary somewhere in the universe. The initial building blocks of living objects are very easy to produce, but the next step is more difficult: assembling the simple building blocks into longer-chain molecules, or polymers. Amino acids link up to form longer polymers called proteins, simple fatty acids plus alcohols link up to form lipids (oils and fats), simple sugars like glucose and sucrose link together to form complex carbohydrates and starches, and finally, the nucleotide bases (plus phosphates and sugars) link up to form nucleic acids, the genetic code of organisms, known as RNA and DNA. How nucleic acids (polymers made of nucleotides), proteins (polymers made of amino acids), carbohydrates (polymers made of sugars) and lipids (glycerol attached to fatty acids) evolved is not clearly known. Possibly all proteins, carbohydrates and lipids are strictly the products of living objects. Some proteins and nucleic acids have been formed in labs by using clay which can dehydrate and which provides long linear crystal structures to build proteins and nucleic acids on. Amino acids join together to form polypeptides when an H2O molecule is formed from a Hydrogen (H) on 1 amino acid and a hydroxyl (OH) on the second. Perhaps proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and DNA are the products of living objects, with RNA being made without the help of living objects. The most popular theory now has RNA (and potentially lipids) evolving first before any living objects. But perhaps proteins evolved first, and a protein linked together the first nucleic acid. A bacteria can survive the trip between two stars, and possibly a eukaryote cell could survive frozen and be waken up again many years later, but it seems unlikely that a multicellular eukaryotic organism could survive and be revived from one star to another. Probably bacteria from a variety of stars lands on all planets and asteroids, and is revived on many where the temperature allows them to copy. There is still a large amount of experiment, exploration and education that needs to be done to understand the origins of living objects on planet earth. | |
4,390,000,000 YBN | 25) An RNA molecule may evolve that can copy other RNA molecules. Perhaps RNA molecules, called "ribozymes" evolve which can make copies of RNA, by connecting free floating nucleotides that match a nucleotide on the same or a different RNA, much like tRNA do in assembling amino acids into proteins. But until such ribozyme RNA molecules are found, the only molecule known to copy nucleic acids are proteins called polymerases. These early RNA molecules may have been protected by liposomes (spheres of lipids). This process of RNA (and then later DNA) duplication is the most basic aspect of life on Earth, and for all the diversity, the one common element of all life is this constant process of DNA duplication, which will later evolve to include cell division. This starts the unbroken thread of copying and division that connects the earliest ancestor, perhaps some RNA molecule, to all life on earth that has ever lived. This may be the start of the constant conversion of other matter into nucleic acids. This constant copying will ultimately result in billions of living objects on earth. | |
4,385,000,000 YBN | 167) The first proteins on Earth. Transfer RNA molecules evolve (tRNA), and link amimo acids into proteins using other RNA molecules (mRNA) as a template. For the first time, a nucleic acid functions both as a template for building other nucleic acid molecules, and also as a template for building proteins (with the help of tRNA molecules). This protein assembly system is the main system responsible for all the proteins on Earth. Whether the first tRNA and protein assembly evolved before or after the evolution of the ribosome is currently unknown. Random mutations in the copying (and perhaps even in the natural formation) of RNA molecules probably creates a number of the necessary tRNAs (tRNA, are RNA molecules responsible for matching free floating amino acid molecules to three-nucleotide sequences on other RNA molecules). This is a precellular, pre-ribosome protein assembly system, where tRNA (transfer RNA) molecules build polypeptide chains of amino acids by linking directly to other RNA strands. Part of each tRNA molecule bonds with a specific amino acid, and a 3 nucleotide sequence from a different part of the tRNA molecule bonds with the opposite matching 3 nucleotide sequence on an mRNA molecule. Since there are tRNA molecules for each amino acid (although some tRNAs can attach to more than one amino acid), there must have been a slow accumulation of various tRNA molecules for each of the 20 amino acids used in constructing polypeptides in cells living now. Perhaps after the evolution of the first tRNA, the first polypeptides were chains of all the same one amino acid. With the evolution of a second tRNA polypeptides would have more variety because now two amino acids would be available to build polypeptides. This polypeptide assembly system may exist freely in water, or within a liposome. This system builds many more proteins than would be built without such a system. The mRNA with the code to make copier RNA, now also contains the code to produce various tRNA molecules. These molecules function as a unit, and proto-cell, with the rest of the mRNA initially containing random codes for random proteins. | |
4,380,000,000 YBN | 168) The ribosome evolves. First Ribosomal RNA (rRNA). The ribosome may function as a protocell, providing a platform for more efficient protein production. A single RNA may contain all the instructions needed to make more ribosomes. Ribosomes are the cellular organelles that carry out protein synthesis, through a process called translation. They are found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. These molecular machines are responsible for accurately translating the linear genetic code on the messenger RNA (mRNA), into a linear sequence of amino acids to produce a protein. All cells contain ribosomes because growth requires the continued synthesis of new proteins. Ribosomes can exist in great numbers, ranging from thousands in a bacterial cell to hundreds of thousands in some human cells and hundreds of millions in a frog ovum. Ribosomes are also found in mitochondria and chloroplasts. This early ribosome may function as a protocell, holding an mRNA molecule which is used as a template by tRNA molecules to assemble amino acids into proteins. A single mRNA molecule may contain the instructions for an RNA polymerase and for all the necessary rRNA, and tRNA molecules needed to make more ribosomes. This ribosomal RNA may serve as an early ribosome. As time continues the ribosome will grow to include two more RNA molecules, some protein molecules, and a second half that will make polypeptide construction more efficient. The modern ribosome is a large ribonucleoprotein (RNA-protein) complex, roughly 20 to 30 nanometers in diameter. It is formed from two unequally sized subunits, referred to as the small subunit and the large subunit. The two subunits of the ribosome must join together to become active in protein synthesis. However, they have distinguishable functions. The small subunit is involved in decoding the genetic information, while the large subunit has the catalytic activity responsible for peptide bond formation (that is, the joining of new amino acids to the growing protein chain). | |
4,370,000,000 YBN | 40) A protein can copy RNA. This protein is called an RNA polymerase, and may be more efficient than RNA itself, at copying other RNA molecules, or may be the first molecule that can copy RNA. An RNA polymerase must have been one of the first useful proteins to be assembled by the early (presumably) precellular protein production system. Eventually an mRNA that codes for the necessary tRNA, and RNA polymerase may be copied many times. | |
4,365,000,000 YBN | 166) The first Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule. A protein evolves that can assemble DNA from RNA. This protein, built by a ribosome, changes ribonucleotides into deoxyribonucleotides, which allows the first DNA molecule on Earth to be assembled. Ribonucleotide reductase may be the molecule that allows DNA to be the template for the line of cells that survives to now. If RNA and DNA evolved at the same or different times is not clear yet. Possibly RNA and DNA were created by the same process. | |
4,360,000,000 YBN | 212) A protein can copy DNA molecules, a DNA polymerase. | |
4,355,000,000 YBN | 20) The first cell on earth (a bacterium). DNA is surrounded by a membrane of proteins made by ribosomes. The first cytoplasm. This cell may form in either fresh or salt water, near the sunlit water surface or near underwater volcanoes on the ocean floor. Binary fission evolves. A protein duplicates DNA within the cell and then the cell divides into two parts. Procaryotes reproduce by binary fission. The chromosome begins to replicate at a specific place on the chromosome called the "origin of replication" producing two origins. As the chromosome continues to replicate, one origin moves rapidly toward to opposite end of the cell. While the chromosome is replicating, the cell grows longer. When replication is complete and the bacterium has reached about twice its initial size, its plasma membrane grows inward, dividing the parent cell into two child cells, each with a complete genome. The DNA of this cell contains the template for itself: a copying molecule (DNA polymerase), and the necessary mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA molecules needed to build the cytoplasm. For the first time, ribosomes and DNA build cell structure. DNA protected by cytoplasm is more likely to survive and be copied. Copies of this cell also have cytoplasm. This cell structure forms the basis of all future cells of every living object on earth. These first cells are probably anaerobic (do not require free oxygen) and heterotrophic, meaning that they do not make their own food: amino acids, nucleotides, phosphates, and sugars. These early bacteria depend on obtaining external sources of these molecules and light particles in the form of heat to reproduce and grow. Amino acids, nucleotides, water, and other molecules enter and exit the cytoplasm only because of a difference in concentration from inside and outside the cell (passive transport) and represent the beginnings of the first digestive system. This membrane forms the first protective barrier between for DNA and the external universe, and serves as a container to hold water. Two important evolutionary steps evolve: DNA duplication in cytoplasm, and cell (DNA with cytoplasm) division. Not only must the DNA copy and divide, but the cell membrane must divide too. A system of division may evolve which attaches the original and newly synthesized copy of DNA to the cytoplasm, so that as the cell grows, the two copies of DNA can be separated and the first membraned cells can divide into two cells. The process of DNA duplication is probably similar if not the same process using the same proteins that were used to duplicate DNA without cytoplasm. It is possible that bacteria could arrive on Earth from some other star, or even from a different galaxy and be the ancestor of all life on Earth. | |
4,350,000,001 YBN | 26) | |
4,350,000,000 YBN | 183) The first lipids on Earth; (fats, oils, waxes). Cells evolve that make proteins that can assemble lipids. | |
4,345,000,000 YBN | 6340) | |
4,340,000,000 YBN | 23) | |
4,335,000,000 YBN | 28) | |
4,330,000,000 YBN | 44) | |
4,325,000,000 YBN | 213) | |
4,315,000,000 YBN | 196) Active transport evolves. Cells evolve in which both proteins and ATP are used to transport molecules into and out of the cytoplasm. Active transport enabled a cell to maintain internal concentrations of small molecules that differ from the cell's surroundings. A transport protein that generates voltage across a membrane is called an "electrogenic pump". Proton pumps, the main electrogenic pumps of plants, fungi, and bacteria are proteins that create an voltage across membranes. Using ATP, a proton pump moves a positive charge in the form of hydrogen ions out of the cell. Another example of active transport is how Escherichia coli imports lactose using an ion gradient-mediated active transport. Lactose is transported across the plasma membrane by a membrane associated permease which is coded for by a gene of the lac operon. | |
4,305,000,000 YBN | 64) Operons evolve which allow for turning off the assembly of any protein. Operons, sequences of DNA that allow certain proteins coded by DNA to not be built, evolve. Proteins bind with these DNA sequences to stop RNA polymerase from building mRNA molecules which would be translated into proteins. Operons allow a bacterium to produce certain proteins only when necessary. Bacteria before now can only build a constant stream of all proteins encoded in their DNA. | |
4,260,000,000 YBN | 27) Peptidoglycan occurs only in the Bacteria (except for those without a cell wall, such as Mycoplasma). Peptidoglycan is a long-chain polymer of two repeating sugars (N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetyl muramic acid), in which adjacent sugar chains are linked to one another by peptide bridges that give the link rigid stability. The nature of the peptide bridges differs considerably between species of bacteria. Peptidoglycan synthesis is the target of many useful antimicrobial agents, including the β-lactam antibiotics (e.g., penicillin) that block the cross-linking of the peptide bridges. Some of the proteins that animals synthesize as natural antibacterial defense factors attack the cell walls of bacteria. | |
4,193,000,000 YBN | 77) Archaea (also called archaebacteria) evolve. Phylum Nanoarcheota. Eubacteria and Archaea are the two major lines of Prokaryotes. Prokaryotes are the most primitive living objects ever found. Prokaryotes differ from the later evolved eukaryotes in have a circle of DNA located in their cytoplasm (not chromosomes) and have no nucleus. There are many widely varying estimates of when the last common ancestor between Eubacteria and Archaea evolved. At least one genetic comparison shows the common ancestor of Eubacteria and Archaea evolving now. | |
4,189,000,000 YBN | 193) | |
4,189,000,000 YBN | 292) (It seems logical that the prokaryote flagellum would evolve in proteobacteria because most prokaryotes with a flagellum are in the Proteobacteria domain. There is a unity between pili, flagellum, and exchange of DNA (sex), in particular, in the proteobacterium E. Coli.) | |
4,187,000,000 YBN | 78) Archaea Phylum: Korarchaeota evolves according to genetic comparison. This group, originally identified by two environmental sample sequences from the Obsidian Pool hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, currently includes only environmental DNA sequences and no Korarchaeota have been cultured yet. | |
4,187,000,000 YBN | 180) Archaea Phylum: Euryarchaeota {YRE-oR-KE-O-Tu} (methanogens, halobacteria) evolve according to genetic comparison. Earliest cell response to light. The Euryarchaeota {YRE-oR-KE-O-Tu} are a major group of Archaea (or Archaebacteria). They include the methanogens, which produce methane and are often found in intestines, the halobacteria, which survive extreme concentrations of salt, and some extremely thermophilic aerobes and anaerobes. They are separated from the other archaeans based mainly on rRNA sequences. The Euryarchaeotes may be the living object with the most primitive DNA still found on earth (depending on the accurate determination of the origin of Eubacteria and Archaea). Halophilic archaebacteria, such as Halobacterium salinarum, use sensory rhodopsins for phototaxis (positive or negative movement along a light gradient or vector). | |
4,187,000,000 YBN | 181) Genetic comparison shows the Archaea Phylum, Crenarchaeotes evolving now. The phylum Crenarchaeota, commonly referred to as the Crenarchaea, contains many extremely thermophilic (hot-loving) and psychrophilic (cold-loving) organisms. They were originally separated from the other archaeons based on rRNA sequences, since then physiological features, such as lack of histones have supported this division. Until recently all cultured crenarchaea have been thermophilic or hyperthermophilic organisms, some of which have the ability to grow up to 113 degrees C. These organisms stain gram negative and are morphologically diverse having rod, cocci, filamentous and unusually shaped cells. | |
4,112,000,000 YBN | 58) | |
4,100,000,000 YBN | 49) replace wiki source | |
4,030,000,000 YBN | 35) | |
4,000,000,000 YBN | 43) The simple equation of photosynthesis is: 6 H2O + 6 CO2 + photons = C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6O2. The detailed steps of photosynthesis are called the "Calvin Cycle". Prokaryote cells can now produce their own glucose to store and be converted to ATP by glycolysis and fermentation later. Of the 5 phyla of eubacteria that can photosynthesize, only 1, cyanobacteria, produces oxygen. | |
4,000,000,000 YBN | 51) | |
3,900,000,000 YBN | 57) | |
3,850,000,000 YBN | 36) | Akilia Island, Western Greenland |
3,850,000,000 YBN | 45) Oldest sediment, the Banded Iron Formation begins. Banded Iron Formation is sedimentary rock that spans from 3.8 to 1.8 billion years ago, made of iron-rich silicates (like silicon dioxide SiO2) with alternating layers of black colored ferrous (reduced) iron and red colored ferric (oxidized) iron and represents a seasonal cycle where the quantity of free oxygen in the ocean rises and falls, possibly linked to photosynthetic organisms. | Akilia Island, Western Greenland |
3,850,000,000 YBN | 189) Possible earliest fossils. Microstructures from Isua Banded iron formation, Southerwest Greenland. Because of the simple shape, the biotic nature of these fossils is not certain. | (Isua BIF) SW Greenland |
3,800,000,000 YBN | 185) | Isua, Greenland |
3,700,000,000 YBN | 184) | Isua, Greenland |
3,700,000,000 YBN | 215) The Carbon-13 to Carbon-12 ratio in 3700+ million year old carbon grains is consistent with biotic remains, possibly the remains of planktonic photosynthesizing organisms. These carbon-13 "depleted" grains support the earlier finding by Mojzsis et al of carbon-13 to carbon-12 ratios that imply living objects on Greenland earlier than 3850 million years before now. | Isua, Greenland |
3,500,000,000 YBN | 37) | |
3,500,000,000 YBN | 39) | Warrawoona, Western Australia, and, Fig Tree Group, South Africa |
3,500,000,000 YBN | 287) | Warrawoona, northwestern Western Australia and Onverwacht Group, Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa |
3,500,000,000 YBN | 289) | |
3,470,000,000 YBN | 182) | North Pole, Australia |
3,430,000,000 YBN | 833) | |
3,416,000,000 YBN | 218) | |
3,400,000,000 YBN | 190) Earliest fossils of coccoid {KoKOED} (spherical) bacteria from the Kromberg Formation, Swaziland System, South Africa. | Kromberg Formation, Swaziland System, South Africa |
3,260,000,000 YBN | 71) Earliest fossil evidence of prokaryote reproduction by budding. Fossils from Swartkoppie chert, South Africa are oldest evidence of procaryotes that reproduce by budding and not binary fission. Budding evolves in prokaryotes. Like binary division, budding is a form of asexual reproduction. However, with budding a new individual develops from a certain point of the parent organism. The new individual may separate to exist independently, or the buds may remain attached, forming colonies. Budding is characteristic of a few unicellular organisms (certain bacteria, yeasts, protozoans) but some metazoan animals (certain cnidarian species) regularly reproduce by budding. | Swartkoppie, South Africa |
3,235,000,000 YBN | 68) | (Sulphur Springs Deposit) Pilbara Craton of Australia |
3,200,000,000 YBN | 66) Earliest acritarch fossils (unicellular microfossils with uncertain affinity). These acritarchs are also the earliest possible eukaryote fossils. Organic-walled microfossils of large size (50 micrometres or more) and of uncertain biological affinities are known as acritarchs. The oldest known acritarchs are from rocks of the Moodies Group of South Africa that date to about 3.2 billion years ago, and are almost twice as old as the next known acritarchs which come from mid-Proterozoic rocks that are about 1.8 billion years old. Acritarchs, the name coined by Evitt in 1963 which means "of uncertain origin", are an artificial group. The group includes any small (most are between 20-150 microns across), organic-walled microfossil which cannot be assigned to a natural group. They are characterised by varied sculpture, some being spiny and others smooth. They are believed to have algal affinities, probably the cysts of planktonic eukaryotic algae. They are valuable Proterozoic and Palaeozoic biostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental tools. Living spherical prokaryotic cells rarely exceed 20 microns in diameter, but eukaryotic cells are nearly always larger than 60 microns. Although their precise nature is uncertain, acritarchs appear to be phytoplankton that grew thick coverings during a resting stage in their life cycle. Some resemble the resting stage of modern marine algae known as dinoflagellates (known from the "red tides" that periodically poison fish and other marine animals). Chitinozoa are large (50-2000 microns) flask-shaped palynomorphs which appear dark, almost opaque when viewed using a light microscope. They are important Palaeozoic microfossils as stratigraphic markers. The oldest known Acritarchs are recorded from shales of Palaeoproterozoic (1900-1600 Ma) age in the former Soviet Union. They are stratigraphically useful in the Upper Proterozoic through to the Permian. From Devonian times onwards the abundance of acritarchs appears to have declined, whether this is a reflection of their true abundance or the volume of scientific research is difficult to tell. Although these acritarch fossils may be from eukaryotes, they may also be from ancestors of eukaryotes before a nucleus existed which there may be some genetic support for. | (Moodies Group) South Africa |
2,923,000,000 YBN | 178) Eubacteria Phylum Firmicutes evolves (low G+C {Guanine and Cytosine count} Gram positive bacteria: botulism, tetanus, anthrax). | |
2,920,000,000 YBN | 288) First endospores. The ability to form endospores evolve in some firmicutes. An endospore is a tough reduced dry form of a bacterium triggered by a lack of nutrients that protects the bacterium, and allows it to be revived after long periods of time. Some 25 million year old spores have been revived. | |
2,800,000,000 YBN | 76) | |
2,800,000,000 YBN | 177) Gender and sex (conjugation) evolve in Escherichia Coli {esRriKEo KOlE} bacteria. Conjugation is the exchange of DNA (plasmids) by a donor {male} bacterium through a pilus to a recipient {female} bacterium. This may be the process that evolves into eukaryote sexual reproduction. In addition to pili and conjugation, proteins that can cut DNA and other proteins that can connect two strands of DNA together evolve. Some protists (cilliates and some algae) reproduce sexually by conjugation. So perhaps conjugation is related to the transition from a single circle of DNA to multiple linear chromosomes in eukaryotes. If conjugation in eukaryotes descends directly from a proteobacteria then perhaps the ancestor of all eukaryotes, or certainly those that can conjugate was a proteobacteria. | |
2,784,000,000 YBN | 176) | |
2,784,000,000 YBN | 179) The Phylum Actinobacteria have 5 Orders: ORDER Acidimicrobiales ORDER Actinobacteriales ORDER Coriobacteriales ORDER Rubrobacteriales ORDER Sphaerobacteriales | |
2,775,000,000 YBN | 174) Genetic comparison shows the Eubacteria Phylum, Spirochaetes (Syphilis, Lyme disease) evolving now. The spirochaetes (or spirochetes) are a phylum of distinctive bacteria, which have long, helically coiled cells. They are distinguished by the presence of flagella running lengthwise between the cell membrane and cell wall, called axial filaments. These cause a twisting motion which allows the spirochaete to move around. Most spirochaetes are free-living and anaerobic, but there are numerous exceptions. Spirochaetes only have one order: ORDER Spirochaetales and 3 families. | |
2,775,000,000 YBN | 175) | |
2,775,000,000 YBN | 217) Chlamydiae have a life-cycle involving two distinct forms. Infection takes place by means of elementary bodies (EB), which are metabolically inactive. These are taken up within a cellular vacuole, where they grow into larger reticulate bodies (RB), which reproduce. Ultimately new elementary bodies are produced and expelled from the cell. Verrucomicrobia is a recently described phylum of bacteria. This phylum contains only a few described species (Verrucomicrobia spinosum, is an example, the phylum is named after this). The species identified have been isolated from fresh water and soil environments and human feces. A number of as-yet uncultivated species have been identified in association with eukaryotic hosts including extrusive explosive ectosymbionts of protists and endosymbionts of nematodes residing in their gametes. Evidence suggests that verrucomicrobia are abundant within the environment, and important (especially to soil cultures). This phylum is considered to have two sister phyla Chlamydiae and Lentisphaera. There are three main species of chlamydiae that infect humans: * Chlamydia trachomatis, which causes the eye-disease trachoma and the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia; * Chlamydophila pneumoniae, which causes a form of pneumonia; * Chlamydophila psittaci, which causes psittacosis. CLASS Chlamydiae ORDER Chlamydiales PHYLA Verrucomicrobia ORDER Verrucomicrobiales | |
2,775,000,000 YBN | 6309) | |
2,775,000,000 YBN | 6310) Verrucomicrobia is a recently described phylum of bacteria. This phylum contains only a few described species (Verrucomicrobia spinosum, is an example, the phylum is named after this). The species identified have been isolated from fresh water and soil environments and human feces. A number of as-yet uncultivated species have been identified in association with eukaryotic hosts including extrusive explosive ectosymbionts of protists and endosymbionts of nematodes residing in their gametes. Evidence suggests that verrucomicrobia are abundant within the environment, and important (especially to soil cultures). This phylum is considered to have two sister phyla Chlamydiae and Lentisphaera. There are three main species of chlamydiae that infect humans: * Chlamydia trachomatis, which causes the eye-disease trachoma and the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia; * Chlamydophila pneumoniae, which causes a form of pneumonia; * Chlamydophila psittaci, which causes psittacosis. CLASS Chlamydiae ORDER Chlamydiales PHYLA Verrucomicrobia ORDER Verrucomicrobiales | |
2,740,000,000 YBN | 216) | |
2,730,000,000 YBN | 80) | |
2,706,000,000 YBN | 299) | |
2,700,000,000 YBN | 60) Eukaryotic cell. The first cell with a nucleus. The first protist. The nucleus may develop from the infolding of plasma membrane. The word "Eukaryote" is from the Greek "eu" which means "true" and "karyon" which means "kernel", in this case refering to the nucleus. All cells have several basic features in common: They are all bounded by a selective barrier, called the plasma membrane. Enclosed by the membrane is a semifluid, jellylike substance called cytosol, in which organelles and other components are found. All cells contain chromosomes, which carry genes in the form of DNA. And all cells have ribosomes, tiny bodies that make proteins according to instructions from the genes. There are some difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells: In prokaryotic cells the DNA is concentrated in a region that is not membrane enclosed called the "nucleoid" while in eukaryotic cells most of the DNA is contained in a nucleus that is bounded by a double membrane. Eukaryotic cells are generally much larger than prokaryotic cells. Typical bacteria are between 1-5 um in diameter, while eukaryotic cells are typically 10-100 um in diameter. Unlike prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic cells have a cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton enables eukaryotic cells to change their shape and to surround and engulf other cells. Eukaryotic cells also have internal structures that prokaryotic cells lack such as mitochondria and plastids. DNA in prokaryotic cells is usually in the form of a single cicular chromosome (sometimes with additional small circles of DNA known as plasmids), while DNA in the nucleus of eukaryotes contains linear chromosomes (some organelles in eukaryotes also contain DNA, most mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA is also circular reflecting their prokaryote origin). All protists, fungi, animals and plant cells descend from this common eukaryotic cell ancestor. Like prokaryotes, this first eukaryote cell is probably haploid, having only a single unique DNA. Most later eukaryotes will be diploid, having two sets of DNA. Other alternative theories are that the nucleus may be a captured bacterium, virus, or plasmid. That a eukaryote cell survived the journey from a different star or galaxy cannot be ruled out. | |
2,700,000,000 YBN | 62) | Northwestern Australia |
2,700,000,000 YBN | 192) | (Bulawaya rock sequence) Zimbabwe |
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2,680,000,000 YBN | 65) Eukaryote cells with linear chromosomes (instead of a circular chromosome) evolve. Perhaps the first eukaryote descended from one of those prokaryotes with linear DNA. Some prokaryotes without a single circular chromosome are: Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Proteobacteria), Borrellia burgdorferi (Spirochaete), Streptomyces griseus (Actinobacteria). Some prokaryotes do not have just one circle of DNA. Brucella melitensis has 2 circular chromosomes. Agrobacterium tumefaciens has a circular and a linear chromosome. Streptomyces griseus can have one linear chromosome. Borrelia burgdorferi contains a linear chromosome and a number of variable circular and linear plasmids. Chromosomes are linear in eukaryotic nuclei, but circular in eukaryote organelles except for the mitochondria of most cnidarians and some other forms. | |
2,680,000,000 YBN | 291) Eukaryote cell evolves two intermediate stages between cell division and DNA synthesis. In prokaryotes, DNA synthesis can take place uninterrupted between cell divisions, but eukaryotes duplicate their DNA exactly once during a discrete period between cell divisions. This period is called the S (for synthetic) phase. It is preceded by a period called G1 (meaning "first gap") and followed by a period called G2, during which nuclear DNA synthesis does not occur. For the first time, a cell is not constantly synthesizing DNA and then having a division period (as is the case for all known prokaryotes), but this cell has a period in between cell division and DNA synthesis where DNA synthesis is not performed. | |
2,660,000,000 YBN | 72) Mitosis evolves in Eukaryote cells. Mitosis is the process in eukaryotic cell division in which the chromosomes are separated and the nucleus divides resulting in two new nuclei, each of which contains a complete and identical copy of the parental chromosomes. Mitosis is usually immediately followed by cytokinesis, the division of the cytoplasm. All eukaryote cells divide using the same general plan. The cell division cycle contains four stages, G1 ("first gap"), S ("synthesis"), G2 ("second gap"), and M ("mitotic phase". The first three stages are called "interphase" which alternates with the mitotic phase. Interphase is a much longer stage that often accounts for 90% of the cycle. During interphase the cell grows and copies its chromosomes in preparation for cell division. In the mitotic phase, mitosis, division of the nucleus is followed by cytokinesis. Mitosis is thought to have evolved from prokaryote binary fission. That some proteins involved in prokaryote binary fission are related to eukaryotic proteins that function in mitosis supports the idea that mitosis evolved from prokaryote binary fission. Possible intermediate stages can be seen in some protists. In dinoflagellates, replicated chromosomes are attached to the nuclear envelope which remains in one piece during cell division. Microtubules from outside the nucleus pass through the nucleus inside cytoplasmic tunnels. The nucleus then divides in a process similar to prokaryote binary fission. In diatoms and yeasts the nuclear envelope also reamins together during cell division, but inthese eukaryotes the microtubules form a spindle within the nucleus. Microtubules separate the chromosomes and the nucleus splits into two nuclei. Finally, in most eukaryotes including plant and animal cells, the spindle forms outside the nucleus, and the nuclear envelope breaks down during mitosis. Microtubules separate the chromosomes, and the nuclear envelope then forms again. | |
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2,640,000,000 YBN | 73) Eukaryote sex evolves. Two identical cells fuse (isogamy). First diploid cell. First zygote. Increase in genetic variety. Haplontic life cycle. Eukaryotic sexual reproduction, which is initially the fusion of two cells and their nuclei, probably first occurs in a single cell protist that usually reproduces asexually by mitosis. Two haploid eukaryote cells (cells with one set of chromosomes each) merge and then their nuclei merge (karyogamy) to form the first diploid cell, a cell with two sets of chromosomes, the first zygote. This fusion of two haploid cells results in the first diploid single-celled organism, which then may immediately divide (both nucleus and cytoplasm by a single division) back to two haploid cells. Because of sex, two cells with different DNA can mix providing more genetic variety. Having two chromosome sets also provides a backup copy of important genes (sequences that code for proteins, or nucleic acids) that might be lost with only a set of single chromosomes. This first sexual eukaryote cell and its descendants will have a life cycle with two phases, alternating between haploid and diploid. Conjugation, the second major kind of sexual phenomenon, which occurs in the eukaryotes ciliates, involves the fusion of gametic nuclei instead of independent gamete cells. "Syngamy" refers to gamete fusion and "karyogamy" to nucleus fusion. In most cases syngamy is immediately followed by karyogamy, as a result, a fertilized zygote is produced. Note that gender (anisogamy) probably evolves later, initially sex is probably the fusion of two indistinguishable cells (isogamy). Some protists have diploid nuclei with two chromosomes of each type, such as those found in the somatic cells of most higher animals and plants, and other protists have haploid nuclei with unpaired chromosomes, such as those found in the gametes of higher animals and plants; polyploid nuclei with several sets of chromosomes also occur in protists. Diploid nuclei in protists may undergo a process of meiosis to produce haploid nuclei (a reduciton division), but more commonly both haploid and diploid nuclei divide by mitosis to produce two child nuclei like the original parent cell. Some of the genes related to the process of meiosis occur in Giardia, one of the most primitive living protists, which is evidence that meiosis may have evolved before the evolution of all known eukaryotes. Now, two cells with different DNA can mix providing more chance of variety and mutation. Two chromosome sets provides a backup copy of important genes (sequences that code for proteins, or nucleic acids) that might be lost with only a set of single chromosomes. This first sexual eukaryote cell and its descendants will have two phases, a gamophase (haploid until syngamy becoming diploid), and a zygophase (from diploid until meiosis becoming haploid). For sexual species there are 3 basic life cycles: 1) Haploid (Haplontic) life cycle: (zygotic meiosis) Life as haploid cells, cell division immediately after creation of zygote from fusion. (All fungi, Some green algae, Many protozoa) 2) Diploid (Diplontic) life cycle: (gametic meiosis) Instead of immediate cell division, zygote reproduces by mitosis. Haploid gametes never copy by mitosis. (animals, some brown algae) 3) Haplodiploid (Haplodiplontic, Diplohaplontic, Diplobiontic) life cycle: (sporic meiosis) Diploid cell (sporocyte) meiosis results in two haploid sporophytes (gamonts), not two haploid gametes. These haploid cells then differentiate? or mitosis? to form haploid gametes. Haplodiplontic organisms have alternation of generations, one generation involves diploid spore-producing single or multicellular sporophytes (makes spores) and the other generation involves haploid single or multicellular gamete-producing multicellular gametophytes (makes gametes). (Plants and many algae) These first sexual cells are haplontic, with zygotic meiosis; they reproduce asexually through mitosis as haploid cells, fusing to a diploid cell without mitosis, then dividing back into haploid cells. An important evolutionary step evolves here in that now two cells can completely merge into one cell. This merge not only includes their nuclei, but also their cytoplasm (although the DNA do not merge). Before now, as far as has ever been observed, no two cells have ever completely merged, although, through conjugation some prokaryotes have been observed to exchange DNA. This is the beginning of the label "gamete" for haploid cells that can merge to form a diploid zygote. In addition, the label "gametocyte" or "gamont" is any polyploid cell that divides (meiosis) into haploid gamete cells which can merge to form a zygote. The alternation of meiosis and fertilization is common to all organisms that reproduce sexually, but there are three main different types of life cycles; haplontic, haplodiplontic, and diplontic. Haplontic organisms are predominantly haploid; mitosis does not occur in the diploid phase. In Haplodiplontic organisms, mitosis occurs in both the haploid and diploid phases. Diplontic organisms are predominantly diploid; mitosis does not occur in the haploid phase. Most fungi and some protists including some algae have a "haplontic" life cycle where after gametes fuse and form a diploid zygote, meiosis occurs without a multicellular diploid offspring developing. Meiosis produces not gametes but haploid cells that then divide by mitosis and give rise to either unicellular descendents or a haploid multicellular adult organism. The haploid oganism then carries out further mitoses producing cells that develop into gametes. The only diplod stage found in these species is the singe-celled zygote. Plants and some algae have a second type of lifestyle called "haplodiplontic" or "alternation of generations". This type includes both diploid and haploid stages that are multicellular. The multicellular diploid stage is called the "sporophyte". Meiosis in the sporophyte produces haploid cells called spores. Unlike a gamete, a haploid spore doesn't fuse with another cell but divides mitotically, generating a multicellular haploid stage called the gametophyte. Cells of the gametophyte give rise to gametes by mitosis. Fusion of two haploid gametes at fertilizations results in a diploid zygote, which develops into the next sporophyte generation. A third type of sexual life cycle, "diplontic", occurs in animals in which gametes are the only haploid cells. Meiosis occurs in germ cells producing haploid gametes that no other cell division prior to fertilization. After fertilization the diploid zygote divides by mitosis producing a multicellular organism that is diploid. | |
2,640,000,000 YBN | 206) Meiosis evolves (one-step meiosis: 2 haploid cells or two pronuclei fuse into a diploid cell and a divide into 2 haploid cells). Meiosis, which looks similar to mitosis, is the process of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms that reduces the number of chromosomes in reproductive cells from diploid to haploid, leading to the production of gametes in animals and spores in plants. Most protists divide by two-step meiosis, and meiosis with only one cell division is rare. Some view one-divisional meiosis as having an independent and secondary origin while others view one-step meiosis as the primitive meiotic process. Without the reduction back to haploid, genomes would double in size with every generation. Mitosis and one-step meiosis are the same with the only exception that: in meiosis two haploid cells join (or 2 pronuclei fuse) before cell division, but in mitosis the DNA is duplicated internally in the nucleus before cell division. Meiosis can be one step (one fusion and then one cell division) or two step (fusion, DNA duplication and then two divisions). Probably one step meiosis evolved first and two step meiosis later. The Protists Pyrsonympha and Dinenympha have up to a four step meiosis. Because meiosis is similar and complex in detail in all species that do meiosis, people think that meiosis only evolved once, and was inherited by all species that do meiosis. | |
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2,590,000,000 YBN | 298) Sex between a flagellated gamete and an unflagellated gamete evolves in protists (oogamy {OoGomE}, a form of anisogamy). | |
2,580,000,000 YBN | 300) Only a few species exhibit this property (e.g. the Oxymonad Notilla, Diatoms, Dasicladales {Acetabularia}, in many foraminiferans, and in gregarines). Gamontogamy may have evolved into two-step meiosis. The vast majority of eukaryotes living now that reproduce sexually fuse haploid cells. All "gametes" are haploid cells that can merge, diploid cells that can merge are gamonts. Gamonts (Meiocytes) are cells that produce gametes. In theory this should be very similar if not exactly like haploid cell fusion, so perhaps this is not a major evolutionary step. | |
2,570,000,000 YBN | 295) Two-step meiosis (diploid DNA copies and then the cell divides twice into four haploid cells). Meiosis and mitosis are similar in being nucleus and cell division, but are different. Differences between meiosis and mitosis: 1) At least one crossover per homologous pair happens in 2 step meiosis but crossover usually does not happen in mitosis. (explain crossover) 2) Two step meiosis involves cell divisions that happen one after the other, where the cell division of mitosis only happens after one DNA duplication (there are never 2 mitosis divisions together without a DNA duplication between them to my knowledge). The cell division in two step meiosis that involves a separation of sister chromatids (not homologous chromosome pairs) is basically identical to mitosis. For two step meiosis, this is the second nucleus and cell division. Later multistep meiosis evolves, where there may be as many as 4 divisions (for example in the protists Pyrsonympha and Dinenympha). (Determine if it can be said that meiosis is simply a division after the fusion of two nuclei while mitosis is a division after an internucleus DNA copy. Clearly the duplication of two complete nuclei within a single Eukaryote cell must include the inte r-nucleus copying of DNA - and is probably similar to a typical prokaryote cell division. This process just goes further in duplicating the nuclear membrane too. Then the division after the fusion of two nuclei must be basically the same as a mitosis division. So really, in this view, the unique processes are: DNA, nucleus, and/or cell copy, nucleus and/or cell fusion, nucleus and/or cell division.) | |
2,558,000,000 YBN | 171) The Eubacteria phylum "Deinococcus-Thermus" evoles now (includes Thermus Aquaticus {used in PCR}, Deinococcus radiodurans {can survive long exposure to radiation}). The Deinococcus-Thermus are a small group of bacteria comprised of cocci highly resistant to environmental hazards. There are two main groups. The Deinococcales include a single genus, Deinococcus, with several species that are resistant to radiation; they have become famous for their ability to eat nuclear waste and other toxic materials, survive in the vacuum of space and survive extremes of heat and cold. The Thermales include several genera resistant to heat. Thermus aquaticus was important in the development of the polymerase chain reaction where repeated cycles of heating DNA to near boiling make it advantageous to use a thermo-stable DNA polymerase enzyme. These bacteria have thick cell walls that give them gram-positive stains, but they include a second membrane and so are closer in structure to those of gram-negative bacteria. PHYLUM Deinococcus-Thermus CLASS Deinococci ORDER Deinococcales ORDER Thermales | |
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2,558,000,000 YBN | 315) PHYLUM Chloroflexi CLASS Chloroflexi CLASS Thermomicrobia | |
2,500,000,000 YBN | 52) End of the Archean and start of the Proterozoic {PrOTReZOiK or ProTReZOiK} Eon. The Proterozoic spans from 2,500 to 542 million years ago, and represents 42% of Earth's history. | |
2,500,000,000 YBN | 56) Banded Iron Formation starts to appear in many places. | |
2,400,000,000 YBN | 59) | |
2,400,000,000 YBN | 316) (Determine if this is just an example of a cell forming a spore. Clearly forming a spore can be viewed as cell differentiation. But clearly, a cell changes form in small ways all the time.) Which cell differentiation is first is unknown, between cells that form spores, or cysts, and the cell differentiation that is observed in cyanobacterial filamentous cells. Heterocysts are specialized nitrogen-fixing cells formed by some filamentous cyanobacteria, such as Nostoc punctiforme and Anabaena sperica, during nitrogen starvation. They fix nitrogen from dinitrogen (N2) in the air using the enzyme nitrogenase, in order to provide the cells in the filament with nitrogen for biosynthesis. Nitrogenase is inactivated by oxygen, so the heterocyst must create a microanaerobic environment. The heterocysts' unique structure and physiology requires a global change in gene expression. For example, heterocysts: * produce three additional cell walls, including one of glycolipid that forms a hydrophobic barrier to oxygen * produce nitrogenase and other proteins involved in nitrogen fixation * degrade photosystem II, which produces oxygen * up regulate glycolytic enzymes, which use up oxygen and provide energy for nitrogenase * produce proteins that scavenge any remaining oxygen Cyanobacteria usually obtain a fixed carbon (carbohydrate) by photosynthesis. The lack of photosystem II prevents heterocysts from photosynthesising, so the vegetative cells provide them with carbohydrates, which is thought to be sucrose. The fixed carbon and nitrogen sources are exchanged though channels between the cells in the filament. Heterocysts maintain photosystem I, allowing them to generate ATP by cyclic photophosphorylation. Single heterocysts develop about every 9-15 cells, producing a one-dimensional pattern along the filament. The interval between heterocysts remains approximately constant even though the cells in the filament are dividing. The bacterial filament can be seen as a multicellular organism with two distinct yet interdependent cell types. Such behaviour is highly unusual in prokaryotes and may have been the first example of multicellular patterning in evolution. Once a heterocyst has formed, it cannot revert to a vegetative cell, so this differentiation can be seen as a form of apoptosis. Certain heterocyst-forming bacteria can differentiate into spore-like cells called akinetes or motile cells called hormogonia, making them the most phenotyptically versatile of all prokaryotes. The mechanism of controlling heterocysts is thought to involve the diffusion of an inhibitor of differentiation called PatS. Heterocyst formation is inhibited in the presence of a fixed nitrogen source, such as ammonium or nitrate. The bacteria may also enter a symbiotic relationship with certain plants. In such a relationship, the bacteria do not respond to the availability of nitrogen, but to signals produced by the plant. Up to 60% of the cells can become heterocysts, providing fixed nitrogen to the plant in return for fixed carbon. The cyanobacteria that form heterocysts are divided into the orders Nostocales and Stigonematales, which form simple and branching filaments respectively. Together they form a monophyletic group, with very low genetic variability. | |
2,400,000,000 YBN | 322) Nitrogen fixation. Cells can make nitrogen compounds like ammonia from Nitrogen gas. Without bacteria that convert N2 into nitrogen compounds, the supply of nitrogen necessary for much of life would be seriously limited and would drastically slow evolution on earth. Nitrogen fixation is the process by which nitrogen is taken from its relatively inert molecular form (N2) in the atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds useful for other chemical processes (such as, notably, ammonia, nitrate and nitrogen dioxide). Nitrogen fixation is performed naturally by a number of different prokaryotes, including bacteria, and actinobacteria certain types of anaerobic bacteria. Many higher plants, and some animals (termites), have formed associations with these microorganisms. The best-known are legumes (such as clover, beans, alfalfa and peanuts,) which contain symbiotic bacteria called rhizobia within nodules in their root systems, producing nitrogen compounds that help the plant to grow and compete with other plants. When the plant dies, the nitrogen helps to fertilize the soil. The great majority of legumes have this association, but a few genera (e.g., Styphnolobium) do not. | West Africa |
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2,325,000,000 YBN | 199) Eukaryote Golgi Apparatus evolves (packages proteins and lipids into vesicles for delivery to targeted destinations). A vesicle is a closed structure, found only in eukaryotic cells, that is completely surrounded by a membrane but, unlike a vacuole, contains material that is not in the liquid state. (Is this the only form of cellular digestion?) | |
2,300,000,000 YBN | 47) Evidence of free oxygen accumulating in the air of Earth for the first time, most recent uraninite {YRANninIT}, a mineral that cannot exist for much time if exposed to oxygen. | |
2,300,000,000 YBN | 48) The oldest "Red Beds", iron oxide formed on land, begin here, and are also evidence of more free oxygen in the air of Earth. | |
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2,000,000,000 YBN | 63) A parasitic bacterium, closely related to Rickettsia prowazekii, an aerobic proteobacteria, is engulfed by an early eukaryote cell and over time a symbiotic relationship evolves, where the Rickettsia forms the mitochondria. Mitochondria are membrane-bound organelle found in the cytoplasm of almost all eukaryotic cells where cellular respiration occurs and most of the ATP in a eukaryote cell is produced. Mitochondria are typically round to oval in shape and range in size from 0.5 to 10 μm. The number of mitochondria per cell varies widely; for example, in humans, erythrocytes (red blood cells) do not contain any mitochondria, whereas liver cells and muscle cells may contain hundreds or even thousands. Mitochondria are unlike other cellular organelles in that they have two distinct membranes and a unique genome and reproduce by binary fission; these features indicate that mitochondria share an evolutionary past with prokaryotes. In eukaryotes the mitochondria perform the Citric Acid Cycle and Oxidative phosphorylation using oxygen to breakdown pyruvagte from glycolysis into CO2 and H2O, and provide up 36 ATP molecules. This presumes that all known living eukaryotes descend from a eukaryote that had mitochondria, and that eukaryotes without mitochondria, like the metamonada, lost their mitochondria secondarily. | |
1,982,000,000 YBN | 99) | |
1,874,000,000 YBN | 61) | (Banded Iron Formation) Michigan, USA |
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1,800,000,000 YBN | 46) End of the Banded Iron Formation. | |
1,700,000,000 YBN | 6279) Earliest possible multicellular brown algae (and Stramenopiles) fossil. These fossils help support a limit for multicellular algal fossil (metaphyta) of at least 1700 million years ago. If eukaryote these would be the earliest eukaryote fossils with both filamentous multicellularity and cell differentiation and also the earliest algae fossil with leaf structures. Knoll et al write in 2006 that: "Examination of Tuanshanzi structures in outcrop by one of us (A. H. Knoll) suggests that the features in question can alternatively be interpreted as rare, fortuitously shaped fragments deposited among many irregular mat shards.". | (Tuanshanzi Formation) Jixian Area, North China |
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1,520,000,000 YBN | 202) Ribosomal RNA shows the Protist Phylum Amoebozoa (also called Ramicristates) which includes amoeba and slime molds evolving now. The Amoebozoa are a major group of amoeboid protozoa, including the majority that move by means of internal cytoplasmic flow. Their pseudopodia are characteristically blunt and finger-like, called lobopodia. Most are unicellular, and are common in soils and aquatic habitats, with some found as symbiotes of other organisms, including several pathogens. The Amoebozoa also include the slime moulds, multinucleate or multicellular forms that produce spores and are usually visible to the unaided eye. Mycetozoa are the slime molds. 4. Plasmodial Slime Molds a. Plasmodial slime molds exist as a plasmodium. (the earlier evolved acrasid cellular slime molds exist as individual amoeboid cells.) b. This diploid multinucleated cytoplasmic mass creeps along, phagocytizing decaying plant material. c. Fan-shaped plasmodium contains tubules of concentrated cytoplasm in which liquefied cytoplasm streams. d. Under unfavorable environmental conditions (e.g., drought), the plasmodium develops many sporangia that produce spores by meiosis. e. When mature, spores are released and survive until more favorable environmental conditions return; then each releases a haploid flagellated cell or an amoeboid cell. f. Two flagellated or amoeboid cells fuse to form diploid zygote that produces a multi-nucleated plasmodium. Nuclear division in giant amoebas (Peolobiont/Amoebozoa) is neither mitosis nor binary fission, but incorporates aspects of both (Fig. 3-7). Chromosomes are attached permanently to the nuclear membrane by their centromeres (MTOCs, microtubule organizing centers), and the nuclear membrane remains intact throughout division. After DNA duplication produces two chromatids, the point of attachment, the MTOC duplicates or divides, and microtubules are assembled between the two resulting MTOCs. Elongating microtubules form something akin to a spindle within the nuclear membrane that pushes the daughter chromosomes apart and elongate the membrane-bounded nucleus until it blebs in half in something akin to binary fission. Simple assembly of microtubules accomplishes the separation of daughter genomes in this simple nuclear division. In typical eukaryotic mitosis, the separation of daughter chromosomes is accomplished by a dual action, the disassembly of spindle fibers connecting the daughter chromosome to the polar MTOC, and assembly of spindle fibers running pole to pole. Thomas Cavalier-Smith and Ema E. -Y. Chao write: "Amoebozoa are a key protozoan phylum because of the possibility that they are ancestrally uniciliate and unicentriolar (Cavalier-Smith 2000a,b); present data on the DHFR-TS gene fusion leaves open the possibility that they might be the earliest-diverging eukaryotes (Stechmann and Cavalier-Smith 2002), but they may be evolutionarily closer to bikonts or even opisthokonts. Amoebozoa comprise two subphyla (Cavalier-Smith 1998a): Lobosa, classical aerobic amoebae with broad ("lobose") pseudopods (including the testate Arcellinida), and Conosa (slime molds {Mycetozoa, e.g., Dictyostelium} and amitochondrial-often uniciliate-archamaebae {entamoebae, mastigamoebae}). Contrary to early analyses (Sogin 1991; Cavalier-Smith 1993a), there is no reason to regard Amoebozoa as polyphyletic; the defects of those classical uncorrected rRNA trees are shown by trees using 123 proteins that robustly establish the monophyly of both Archamoebae and Conosa (Bapteste et al. 2002). Unless the tree's root is within Conosa, Dictyostelium and Entamoeba must have evolved independently from aerobic flagellates by ciliary losses. A recent mitochondrial gene tree based on concatenating six different proteins grouped Dictyostelium with Physarum (99% support) and both Mycetozoa as sisters to Acanthamoeba (99% support), thus providing strong evidence for the monophyly of Mycetozoa and the grouping of Lobosa and Conosa as Amoebozoa (Forget et al. 2002)-the same tree also strongly supports the idea based on morphology that Allomyces should be excluded from Chytridiomycetes (in the separate class Allomycetes) and is phylogenetically closer to zygomycetes and higher fungi (Cavalier-Smith 1998a, 2000c). Furthermore, the derived gene fusion between two cytochrome oxidase genes, coxI and coxII (Lang et al. 1999), strongly supports the holophyly of Mycetozoa. Since Archamoebae secondarily lost mitochondria, the root cannot lie among them either-although anaerobiosis in Archamoebae is derived, it is unjustified to conclude from this that their simple ciliary root organization, which was a key reason for considering them early eukaryotes (Cavalier-Smith 1991c), is also secondarily derived (Edgcomb et al. 2002). Thus the root of the eukaryote tree cannot lie within the Conosa. As Mycetozoa and Archamoebae have very long-branch rRNA sequences, Conosa were excluded from the analysis in Fig. 1, which includes only Lobosa. Although the monophyly of Acanthamoebida (99%) and of Euamoebida (85%) is well supported, the basal branching of the Lobosa is so poorly resolved that the monophyly of Lobosa might appear open to question. The four lobosan lineages apparently diverged early. However, in the 279- and 227-species trees, which included Conosa, anaeromonads did not intrude into the Amoebozoa as they do in Fig. 1, and Amoebozoa were monophyletic (low support) except for the exclusion of M. invertens. M. invertens is another wandering branch, which in some taxon sample/methods groups very weakly with other Amoebozoa, but more often ends up in a different place in each tree! We concur with the judgment of Milyutina et al. (2001)Edgcomb et al. (2002) that it should not be regarded as a pelobiont or Archamoeba, but as a lobosan that independently became an anaerobe with degenerate mitochondria. Its tendency to drift around the tree, coupled with its short branch, suggests that it may be a particularly early-diverging amoebozoan lineage. If so, its unicentriolar condition would give added support to the idea that Amoebozoa are ancestrally uniciliate, if it could be shown that Amoebozoa are either holophyletic or not at the base of the tree. Most, if not all, amoebae evolved from amoeboid zooflagellates by multiple ciliary losses (Cavalier-Smith 2000a). As the uniciliate condition is widespread within Amoebozoa (Cavalier-Smith 2000a, 2002b), it may be their ancestral condition; if so, ordinary nonciliate amoebozoan amoebae arose several times independently. Evolution of amoebae from zooflagellates by ciliary loss also occurred separately in Choanozoa to produce Nuclearia and in several bikont groups, notably Percolozoa (heterolobosean amoebae, e.g., Vahlkampfia) and Cercozoa. However, we cannot currently exclude the possibility that the eukaryote tree is rooted within the lobosan Amoebozoa, in which case one of its nonciliate lineages (Euamoebida or Vanellidae) might be primitively nonciliate and the earliest-diverging eukaryotic lineage. However, as the idea that the nucleus and a single centriole and cilium coevolved in the ancestral eukaryote (Cavalier-Smith 1987a) retains its theoretical merits, we think it more likely that all Amoebozoa are derived from a uniciliate ancestor and that crown Amoebozoa are a clade.". Amoebozoa vary greatly in size. Many are only 10-20 μm in size, but they also include many of the larger protozoa. The famous species Amoeba proteus may reach 800 μm in length, and partly on account of its size is often studied as a representative cell. Multinucleate amoebae like Chaos and Pelomyxa may be several millimetres in length, and some slime moulds cover several square feet. The cell is typically divided into a granular central mass, called endoplasm, and a clear outer layer, called ectoplasm. During locomotion the endoplasm flows forwards and the ectoplasm runs backwards along the outside of the cell. Many amoebae move with a definite anterior and posterior; in essence the cell functions as a single pseudopod. They usually produce numerous clear projections called subpseudopodia (or determinate pseudopodia), which have a defined length and are not directly involved in locomotion. Other amoebozoans may form multiple indeterminate pseudopodia, which are more or less tubular and are mostly filled with granular endoplasm. The cell mass flows into a leading pseudopod, and the others ultimately retract unless it changes direction. Subpseudopodia are usually absent. In addition to a few naked forms like Amoeba and Chaos, this includes most amoebae that produce shells. These may be composed of organic materials, as in Arcella, or of collected particles cemented together, as in Difflugia, with a single opening through which the pseudopodia emerge. The primary mode of nutrition is by phagocytosis: the cell surrounds potential food particles, sealing them into vacuoles where the may be digested and absorbed. Some amoebae have a posterior bulb called a uroid, which may serve to accumulate waste, periodically detaching from the rest of the cell. When food is scarce, most species can form cysts, which may be carried aerially and introduce them to new environments. In slime moulds, these structures are called spores, and form on stalked structures called fruiting bodies or sporangia. Most Amoebozoa lack flagella and more generally do not form microtubule-supported structures except during mitosis. However, flagella occur among the pelobionts, and many slime moulds produce biflagellate gametes. The flagella is generally anchored by a cone of microtubules, suggesting a close relationship to the opisthokonts. The mitochondria characteristically have branching tubular cristae, but have been lost among pelobionts and the parasitic entamoebids, collectively referred to as archamoebae based on the earlier assumption that the absence was primitive. Traditionally all amoebae with lobose pseudopods were treated together as the Lobosea, placed with other amoeboids in the phylum Sarcodina or Rhizopoda, but these were considered to be unnatural groups. Structural and genetic studies identified several independent groups: the percolozoans, pelobionts, and entamoebids. In phylogenies based on rRNA their representatives were separate from other amoebae, and appeared to diverge near the base of eukaryotic evolution, as did most slime molds. However, revised trees by Cavalier-Smith and Chao in 1996 suggested that the remaining lobosans do form a monophyletic group, and that the archamoebae and Mycetozoa are closely related to it, although the percolozoans are not. Subsequently they emended (to improve by editing) the older phylum Amoebozoa to refer to this supergroup. Studies based on other genes have provided strong support for the unity of this group. Patterson treated most with the testate filose amoebae as the ramicristates, based on mitochondrial similarities, but the latter are now removed to the Cercozoa. Amoebae are difficult to classify, and relationships within the phylum remain confused. Originally it was divided into the subphyla Conosa, comprising the archamoebae and Mycetozoa, and Lobosa, including the more typical lobose amoebae. Molecular phylogenies provide some support for this division if the Lobosa are understood to be paraphyletic. They also suggest the morphological families of naked lobosans may correspond at least partly to natural groups: * Leptomyxida * Amoebidae * Hartmannellidae * Paramoebidae * Vannellidae * Vexilliferidae * Acanthamoebidae * Stereomyxidae However, many amoebae have not yet been studied via molecular techniques, including all those that produce shells (Arcellinida). PHYLUM Amoebozoa (Lühe, 1913 emend.) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 CLASS Breviatea CLASS Variosea CLASS Phalansterea (T. Cavalier-Smith, 2000) SUBPHYLUM Lobosa (Carpenter, 1861) Cavalier-Smith, 1997 (lobose amoebas) CLASS Amoebaea CLASS Testacealobosea (includes shelled lobosid amebas {testate amoebas}) CLASS Holomastigea T. Cavalier-Smith, 1997 ("1996-1997") SUBPHYLUM Conosa (Cavalier-Smith, 1998) INTRAPHYLUM Mycetozoa (De Bary, 1859) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 (Slime Molds) SUPERCLASS Eumyxa (Cavalier-Smith, 1993) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 CLASS Protostelea (C.J. Alexopoulos & C.W. Mims, 1979 orthog. emend.) CLASS Myxogastrea (E.M. Fries, 1829 stat. nov. J. Feltgen, 1889 orthog. emend.) (plasmodial slime molds) SUPERCLASS Dictyostelia (Lister, 1909) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 CLASS Dictyostelea (D.L. Hawksworth et al., 1983, orthog. emend.) INTRAPHYLUM Archamoebae (Cavalier-Smith, 1983) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 CLASS Pelobiontea (F.C. Page, 1976 stat. nov. T. Cavalier-Smith, 1981) CLASS Entamoebea (T. Cavalier-Smith, 1991) SUBPHYLUM Lobosa SUBPHYLUM Conosa The Conosea unifies amoebae which usually possess flagellate stages or are amoeboflagellates. This clade consists of two relatively solid groups � the Mycetozoa and Archamoebae, grouped by Cavalier-Smith (1998) in the taxon Conosa, as well as a number of independent lineages, including two flagellates � Phalansterium (Cavalier-Smith et al. 2004) and Multicilia (Nikolaev et al. 2004), and two gymnamoebae � Gephyramoeba and Filamoeba (Amaral Zettler et al. 2000). Because of large variations of the substitution rates in SSU rRNA genes within this clade, its internal relationships are not resolved yet. The Mycetozoa comprises two distinct groups of "slime molds", the Myxogastria and Protostelia (Dykstra and Keller 2000). This is a well-defined group of protists, characterized by the ability to form so-called "fruiting bodies". In some lineages of Mycetozoa the fruiting body is raised over the substratum on a distinct stalk. Both groups possess complex life cycles including an aggregation of cells, however the essential difference between them is that in Protostelia, only a pseudoplasmodium is formed (without fusion of the cells constituting the aggregate), while in Myxogastria a true plasmodium is formed (the cells completely fuse, forming a single organism) (Olive 1975; Dykstra and Keller 2000). The monophyly of Mycetozoa was proposed based on elongation factor 1-alpha gene sequences (Baldauf and Doolittle 1997) but it is not always recovered in SSU rRNA trees (Cavalier-Smith et al. 2004; Nikolaev et al. 2004). The Archamoebae comprise amoeboid and amoeboflagellate protists characterized by a secondary absence of mitochondria (mostly due to parasitism or life in anoxic environments). This group includes the free-living genera Mastigamoeba, Mastigella, and Pelomyxa (the pelobionts) and the parasitic genera Entamoeba and Endolimax (the entamoebids). The consistent grouping of all these amitochondriate amoeboid organisms in both SSU rRNA and actin gene phylogenies (Fahrni et al. 2003) suggests a single loss of the mitochondria during the evolution of Amoebozoa. CLASS Amoebaea ORDER Euamoebida Lepsi, 1960 FAMILY Amoebidae (Ehrenberg 1838) The Amoebidae are a family of amoebozoa, including naked amoebae that produce multiple pseudopodia of indeterminate length. These are roughly cylindrical in form, with a central stream of granular endoplasm, and do not have subpseudopodia. During locomotion one pseudopod typically becomes dominant, and the others are retracted as the body flows into it. In some cases the cell moves by "walking", with the relatively permanent pseudopodia serving as limbs. The most important genera are Amoeba and Chaos, which are set apart from the others by longitudinal ridges. They group together on molecular trees, suggesting the Amoebidae are a natural group. Shelled amoebozoans have not been studied molecularly but produce very similar pseudopodia, so although they are traditionally classified separately they may be closely related to this group. GENUS Amoeba (Bery de St. Vincent 1822) Amoeba (also spelled ameba) is a genus of protozoa that moves by means of temporary projections called pseudopods, and is well-known as a representative unicellular organism. The word amoeba is variously used to refer to it and its close relatives, now grouped as the Amoebozoa, or to all protozoa that move using pseudopods, otherwise termed amoeboids. Amoeba itself is found in freshwater, typically on decaying vegetation from streams, but is not especially common in nature. However, because of the ease with which they may be obtained and kept in the lab, they are common objects of study, both as representative protozoa and to demonstrate cell structure and function. The cells have several lobose pseudopods, with one large tubular pseudopod at the anterior and several secondary ones branching to the sides. The most famous species, Amoeba proteus, is 700-800 μm in length, but many others are much smaller. Each has a single nucleus, and a simple contractile vacuole which maintains its osmotic pressure, as its most recognizable features. Early naturalists referred to Amoeba as the Proteus animalcule, after a Greek god who could change his shape. The name "amibe" was given to it by Bery St. Vincent, from the Greek amoibe, meaning change. A good method of collecting amoeba is to lower a jar upside down until it is just above the sediment surface. Then one should slowly let the air escape so the top layer will be sucked into the jar. Deeper sediment should not be allowed to get sucked in. It is possible to slowly move the jar when tilting it to collect from a larger area. If no amoeba are found, one can try introducing some rice grains into the jar and waiting for them to start to rot. The bacteria eating the rice will be eaten by the amoeba, thus increasing the population and making them easier to find. Family Hartmannellidae (Volkonsky 1931) The Hartmannellidae are a common family of amoebozoa, usually found in soils. When active they tend to be roughly cylindrical in shape, with a single leading pseudopod and no subpseudopodia. This form somewhat resembles a slug, and as such they are also called limax amoebae. Trees based on rRNA show the Hartmannellidae are paraphyletic to the Amoebidae and Leptomyxida, which may adopt similar forms. FAMILY Vannellidae (Bovee 1970) The Vannellidae are a distinctive family of amoebozoa. During locomotion they tend to be flattened and fan-shaped, although some are long and narrow, and have a prominent clear margin at the anterior. In most amoebae, the endoplasm glides forwards through the center of the cell, but in vannellids the cell undergoes a sort of rolling motion, with the outer membrane sliding around like a tank tread. These amoebae are usually 10-40 μm in size, but some are smaller or larger. The most common genus is Vannella, found mainly in soils, but also in freshwater and marine habitats. Trees based on rRNA support the monophyly of the family. SUBPHYLUM Conosa Cavalier-Smith, 1998 INTRAPHYLUM Archamoebae (Cavalier-Smith, 1983) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 CLASS Pelobiontea F.C. Page, 1976 stat. nov. T. Cavalier-Smith, 1981 ORDER Pelobiontida (Page 1976) The pelobionts are a small group of amoebozoa. The most notable member is Pelomyxa, a giant amoeba with multiple nuclei and inconspicuous non-motile flagella. The other genera, called mastigamoebae, are often uninucleate, have a single anterior flagellum used in swimming, and produce numerous determinate pseudopodia. Pelobionts are closely related to the entamoebids and like them have no mitochondria; in addition, pelobionts also do not have dictyosomes. At one point these absences were considered primitive. However, molecular trees place the two groups with other lobose amoebae in the phylum Amoebozoa, so these are secondary losses. SUBPHYLUM Conosa Cavalier-Smith, 1998 INTRAPHYLUM Archamoebae (Cavalier-Smith, 1983) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 CLASS Entamoebea T. Cavalier-Smith, 1991 The entamoebids or entamoebae are a group of amoebozoa found as internal parasites or commensals of animals. The cells are uninucleate small, typically 10-100 μm across, and usually have a single lobose pseudopod taking the form of a clear anterior bulge. There are two major genera, Entamoeba and Endolimax. They include several species that are pathogenic in humans, most notably Entamoeba histolytica, which causes amoebic dysentery. Entamoebids lack mitochondria. This is a secondary loss, possibly associated with their parasitic life-cycle. Studies show they are close relatives of the pelobionts, another group of amitochondriate amoebae, but unlike them entamoebids retain dictyosomes. Both groups are now placed alongside other lobose amoebae in the phylum Amoebozoa. Studying Entamoeba invadens, David Biron of the Weizmann Institute of Science and coworkers found that about one third of the cells are unable to separate unaided and recruit a neighboring amoeba (dubbed the "midwife") to complete the fission. He writes: "When an amoeba divides, the two daughter cells stay attached by a tubular tether which remains intact unless mechanically severed. If called upon, the neighbouring amoeba midwife travels up to 200 μm towards the dividing amoeba, usually advancing in a straight trajectory with an average velocity of about 0.5 μm/s. The midwife then proceeds to rupture the connection, after which all three amoebae move on." They also reported a similar behavior in Dictyostelium. Entamoeba coli is a non-pathogenic species of entamoebid that is important clinically in humans only because it can be confused with Entamoeba histolytica, which is pathogenic, on microscopic examination of stained stool specimens. A simple finding of Entamoeba coli trophozoites or cysts in a stool specimen requires no treatment. Entamoeba histolytica is an anaerobic parasitic protozoan, classified as an entamoebid. It infects predominantly humans and other primates. Diverse mammals such as dogs and cats can become infected but usually do not shed cysts (the environmental survival form of the organism) with their feces, thus do not contribute significantly to transmission. The active (trophozoite) stage exists only in the host and in fresh feces; cysts survive outside the host in water and soils and on foods, especially under moist conditions on the latter. When swallowed they cause infections by excysting (to the trophozoite stage) in the digestive tract. Endolimax nana, a small entamoebid that is a commensal of the human intestine, causes no known disease. It is most significant in medicine because it can provide false positives for other tests, such as for the related species Entamoeba histolytica which causes amoebic dysentery, and because its presence indicates that the host once consumed feces. It forms cysts with four nuclei which excyst in the body and become trophozoites. Endolimax nana nuclei have a large endosome somewhat off-center and small amounts of visible chromatin or none at all. Actinopod reproduction may involve binary fission or the formation of swarmer cells, and sexual processes occur in some groups. Their mitochondrial cristae are usually tubular, but in some groups there are vesicular or flattened, plate-like cristae. (Are amoeba haplodiploid?) | |
1,400,000,000 YBN | 173) Earliest probable fungi microfossils, "Tappania plana". If true this would be the oldest eukaryote fossil. Neoproterozoic fossils of Tappania from the Neoproterozoic (800-900 MY) have fused branches, a process found in higher fungi. | (Roper Group) Northern Australia |
1,380,000,000 YBN | 220) Protists Opisthokonts (ancestor of Fungi, Choanoflagellates and Animals). Mitochondria with flattened christae. | |
1,300,000,000 YBN | 38) | (earlest red alga fossils:) (Hunting Formation) Somerset Island, arctic Canada |
1,300,000,000 YBN | 67) First "plastids". Cyanobacteria form plastids (chloroplasts) through symbiosis, within a eukaryote cell (endosymbiosis). Like mitochondria, these organelles copy themselves and are not made by the cell DNA. Chloroplasts use their green pigment to trap light particles to synthesize carbon compounds from carbon dioxide and water supplied by the host plant. This is a primary plastid endosymbiosis, and genetic analysis supports the theory that all green plants, which are eukaryotes with double membrane plastids, are descended from a single common ancestor. All primary plastids are surrounded by two membranes, because the cyanobacteria was enclosed in a vacuole. The inner wall being that of the bacterium, the outer wall that of the alga. Most plastids contain a single, circular chromosome of about 200 kilobases and encode about 100-120 genes, while a free-living cyanobacteria typically has a genome of about 2500 Kilobases. The genes that remain in the plastid are primarily involved in photosynthesis, transcription and translation of plastid genes, and ATP synthesis. But, most of the genes needed to maintain the plastid are encoded in the cell nucleus. A secondary plastid endosymbiosis, where an algae cell is captured instead of a cyanobacteria, which results in a plastid with more than two membranes, has happened at least three times. Euglenozoa and chlorarachniophytes acquired plastids from green alga, and the Chromalveolates (the most abundant group with secondary plastids) acquired them from a red alga. A third (tertiary) plastid endosymbiosis occurs when an alga containing a plastid of secondary endosymbiotic origin (for example a chromist) is engulfed and reduced to a photosynthetic organelle. Dinoflagellates are the only group currently known to have tertiary plastids. Tertiary plastids in dinoflagellates have been acquired from haptophyte and prasinophyte algae and from diatoms. Currently there are five plastids known in dinoflagellates, each with its own evolutionary history. There are different kinds of plastids including aleuroplasts, amyloplasts, chloroplasts, chromoplasts, elaioplasts, and etioplasts. | |
1,300,000,000 YBN | 209) | |
1,300,000,000 YBN | 219) unicellular to multicellular (up to 1 m) mostly free-living but some parasitic or symbiotic, with chloroplasts containing phycobilins. Cell walls made of cellulose with mucopolysaccharides penetrated in many red algae by pores partially blocked by proteins (complex referred to as pit connections). Usually with separated phases of vegetative growth and sexual reproduction. Common and widespread, ecologically important, economically important (source of agar). No flagella. Ultrastructural identity: Mitochondria with flat cristae, sometimes associated with forming faces of dictyosomes. Thylakoids single, with phycobilisomes, plastids with peripheral thylakoid. During mitosis, nuclear envelope mostly remains intact but some microtubules of spindle extend from noncentriolar polar bodies through polar gaps in the nuclear envelope. Synapomorphy: No clear-cut feature available; possibly pit connections Composition: About 4,000 species. | |
1,300,000,000 YBN | 323) | |
1,274,000,000 YBN | 187) A captured red alga (rhodophyte), through endosymbiosis, becomes a plastid in the ancestor of all chromalveolates. A secondary plastid endosymbiosis, where an algae cell is captured instead of a cyanobacteria, has happened at least three times. A secondary plastid symbiosis results in a plastid with more than two membranes. Two groups have acquired plastids from green algae independently: the euglenozoa, which are fresh-water algae, and the chlorarachniophytes. The most abundant groups with secondary plastids acquired them from the red algae. Five algal lineages have plastids of red algal origin. These include the crytophytes, the haptophytes, the Strameopiles, which all together are the Chromista, and the Alveolates apicomplexans and dinoflagellates. The alveolate ciliates are thought to have lost their plastid and no traces of the organelle have yet been found. The parasitic apicomplexans have lost the ability to do photosynthesis, probably because of their intercellular lifestyle, but do maintain a vestigial organelle derived from a plastid called the apicoplast, which is surrounded by four membranes and has a small genome. | |
1,250,000,000 YBN | 15) Differentiation in multicellular eukaryote. Gamete (or spore) cells and somatic cells. Unlike gamete cells, somatic cells are asexual (non-fusing), and are not omnipotent. Start of death by aging. Cell differentiation is how cells in a multicellular organism become specialized to perform specific functions in a variety of tissues and organs. All cells of an organism, except the sperm and egg cells, the cells from which they arise (gametocytes) and undifferentiated stem cells, are somatic cells. Although the DNA in each cell of a multicellular organism is the same, each differentiated cell type produces a different set of specific proteins, for example liver cells make albumin while lens cells make crystallin. Another early cell differentiation are that only the cell at the tip of the filament can divide while the older cells below the tip do not divide. | |
1,250,000,000 YBN | 88) | |
1,250,000,000 YBN | 201) | (Hunting Formation) Somerset Island, arctic Canada |
1,250,000,000 YBN | 301) | |
1,230,000,000 YBN | 153) | |
1,200,000,000 YBN | 221) | |
1,200,000,000 YBN | 6295) | (Stirling Range Formation) Southwestern Australia |
1,189,000,000 YBN | 305) Chromista "Cryptophyta" {KriPTuFITu} (Cryptomonads {KRiPToMunaDZ}). | |
1,180,000,000 YBN | 6280) | |
1,150,000,000 YBN | 86) (I think it's tough to say that the more ancient Heterokonts, brown algae (Phaeophyta), and golden algae (Chrysophyta) are not also plants, and the oldest living plants. Perhaps glaucophyta are the first green plants, or perhaps that should be reserved for multicellular species.) | |
1,150,000,000 YBN | 188) Plant Green Algae evolves now according to genetic comparison. Green Algae is composed of the two Phlya Chlorophyta (volvox, sea lettuce) and Charophyta (Spirogyra). The first land plants most likely evolved from green algae. Cysts resembling modern Micromonadophyceae cysts date from about 1.2 billion years ago. Tasmanites formed the Permian "white coal", or tasmanite, deposits of Tasmania and similar deposits in Alaska. Certain Ulvophyceae fossils that date from about one billion years ago are abundant in Paleozoic rocks. Knoll et al cite the earliest recognized green algae fossil as Proterocladus which dates to 750 million years ago. | |
1,100,000,000 YBN | 75) | |
1,100,000,000 YBN | 6284) | |
1,080,000,000 YBN | 87) Excavate Discicristates {DiSKIKriSTATS}, ancestor of protists which have mitochondria with discoidal shaped cristae (includes euglenids, leishmanias {lEsmaNEuZ}, trypanosomes {TriPaNiSOMZ}, kinetoplastids {KiNeTuPlaSTiDZ}, and acrasid {oKrASiD} slime molds). The discicristates include photosynthetic flagellates, such as the green Euglena, and parasitic ones, such as Trypanosoma, which causes sleeping sickness. There are also the acrasid slime molds, which are not closely related to the amoebozoan dictyostelid and plasmodial slime molds. Some euglenids exhibit colonialism and have a cell covering ("pellicle"). In eukaryote mitochondria there are three kinds of christae (the inner membrane protrustions of mitochondria): discoidal, tubular, and flattened. Discoidal are found in kinetoplasts and euglynoids, tubular christae are found in diatoms, crysophyte algae, and apicomplexans, and Flattened cristae are found in opisthokonts (animals and fungi) and both green and red algae. | |
1,080,000,000 YBN | 97) A eukaryote eye evolves; the first three-dimensional response to light. Eyes evolve at least eight times independently in eukaryotes. The earliest eye probably evolves from a plastid. The first proto eye is a light sensitive area in a unicellular eukaryote. Eukaryotes are the first organisms to evolve the ability to follow light direction in three dimensions in open water. Halophilic archaebacteria, such as Halobacterium salinarum, use sensory rhodopsins (SRs) for phototaxis (positive or negative movement along a light gradient or vector), and some cyanobacteria (e.g. Anabaena, Synechocystis) can slowly orient along a light vector. Eukaryotes are the first organisms to evolve the ability to follow light direction in three dimensions in open water. The eukaryotic sensory integration, sensory processing and the speed and mechanics of tactic responses is fundamentally different from that found in prokaryotes. Both single-celled and multi-cellular eukaryotic phototactic organisms have a fixed shape, are polarized, swim in a spiral and use cilia for swimming and phototactic steering. Three-dimensional phototaxis can be found in five out of the six eukaryotic major groups (opisthokonts, Amoebozoa, plants, chromalveolates, excavates, rhizaria). | |
1,080,000,000 YBN | 203) | |
1,050,000,000 YBN | 169) | |
1,050,000,000 YBN | 297) Diplontic life cycle; organism is predominantly diploid, mitosis in the haploid phase does not occur. | |
1,050,000,000 YBN | 304) | |
1,040,000,000 YBN | 313) The ciliophora, apicomplexa and dinoflagelatta are under the title alveolata because they have an alveolar membrane system, which contains flattened membrane-bound sacs (alveoli) lying beneath the outer cell membrane. In dinoflagellates, the chromosomes are always visible and do not condense prior to mitosis. The chromosomes are attached to the nuclear envelope, which persists during mitosis. The main method of reproduction of the dinoflagellates is by longitudinal cell division, with each daughter cell receiving one of the flagella and a portion of the theca and then constructing the missing parts in a very intricate sequence. Some nonmotile species form zoospores, which may be colonial. A number of species reproduce sexually, mostly by isogamy, but a few species reproduce by anisogamy. Dinoflagellate zygotes are similar to some acritarchs (early eukaryote fossils). The earliest undisputed, structural fossils of dinoflagellates are cysts dating from the Triassic (251-201 Ma), with a few likely Permian records. Some Silurian (c410 Ma) fossils have been attributed to the group but the relation is uncertain. Acritarchs are microfossils with no known affinity. Some people have tried to link acritarchs with dinoflagellates. Some later acritarchs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous, have been shown to be dinoflagellate cysts and so are no longer treated like acritarchs. A correlation has been noted between the presence of triaromatic dinosteroids and acritarch abundance, implying that these acritarchs may be the cysts of ancestral dinoflagellates. If acritachs are dinoflagellates, then dinoflagellates may date back to at least 1.8 billion years and perhaps even 3.5 billion years to the earliest known acritarchs. Dinosterane, derived from dinosterol produced by dinoflagellates, occurs in the 1.1 Ga Nonesuch Formation, in the United States. | |
1,005,000,000 YBN | 306) Earliest certain Stramenopiles fossil a xanthophyte (or yellow-green algae): "Palaeovaucheria". | (Lakhanda Group) Siberia |
1,000,000,000 YBN | 154) | |
1,000,000,000 YBN | 223) | |
1,000,000,000 YBN | 324) Protists (Mesomycetozoea {me-ZO-mI-SE-TO-ZO-u} (also called DRIPS). Mesomycetozoea are in the protist Phylum Choanozoa (which includes Choanoflagellates). This phylum contains the first protozoans (Choanoflagellates), thought to be the ancestor of sponges. DRIP is an acronym for a small group of parasites mostly of fish and other freshwater animals. | |
985,000,000 YBN | 309) Protist Phylum Oomycota {Ou-mI-KO-Tu} evolves according to genetic comparison, (includes the Class Oomycetes) (Water molds). Oomycetes (Water molds), with about 580 species, vary from unicellular, to multicellular highly brached filamentous forms. Oomycetes have mitochondria with tubular christae. Oomycetes grow by closed (or nearly closed) mitosis with pairs of centrioles near the poles. | |
965,000,000 YBN | 155) | |
900,000,000 YBN | 326) | |
900,000,000 YBN | 6281) | |
855,000,000 YBN | 286) In sponges all cells are "totipotent", which means that every cell is capable of becoming any of the sponge's different cell types. Any isolated cell is capable of growing an entire new sponge. In sponges there is no distinction between germ line and soma. Some people think that multicellular organisms arose at least six times: in animals, fungi and several groups of algae. | |
850,000,000 YBN | 81) The first animal and first metazoan evolves (Porifera: sponges). Metazoans are multicellular and have differentiation (their cells perform different functions). There are only three major kinds of metazoans: sponges, cnidarians, and bilaterians (which include all insects and vertebrates). Sponges have a variety of different cell types: cells that line surfaces (pinacocytes, porocytes, choanocytes), cells that secrete the skeleton (collencytes, sclerocytes), contractile cells (myocytes), archaeocytes (amoeboid cells that play a major role in digestion and food transport), and several other cell types. Sponges have many holes which is why they are good at holding water in the bath. All sponge cells are totipotent and are capable of regrowing a new sponge. Mixtures of sponge cells of two species reconstitute into the separate sponge species. The process involves cell-cell recognition, which is a basic attribute for building and retaining a multicellular body. The molecular mechanisms that guide this process involve many proteoglycans (compounds made of 95% polysaccharide and 5% protein) on the cell surface. Sponges have no nerve cells or muscles. Like plants their movement is at the cellular level. Sponges live by passing a constant current of water through their body from which they filter food particles. The sponges have no obvious symmetry while Cnidarians have radial symmetry, and Ctenophores have biradial symmetry. Porifera have a simple level of cellular integration and are loosely constructed, but all other later animals including cnidarians and ctenophores have cells which are grouped together as tissues that are arranged in layers. All sponges are capable of sexual and asexual reproduction. There is a large diversity of sexual reproductive sequences in sponges. Sperm are formed from choanocytes, and eggs from choanocytes or archaeocytes. Generally, sperm are contained in spermatic cysts, which are choanocyte chambers transformed by spermatogenesis. Eggs are distributed throughout the mesohyl. Some sponges are oviparous (zygote develops outside the body). Following gamete release, fertilization and development occur externally. Other sponges are viviparous, with fertilization and development both occurring in the mesohyl. Some sponges can live for over 1000 years. | |
850,000,000 YBN | 224) | |
850,000,000 YBN | 517) | |
804,000,000 YBN | 319) Protist Phylum "Radiolaria" {rADEOlaREo} evolves now according to genetic comparison. Radiolaria are ocean protozoa, many with silica shells. Radiolarians are protists found in the upper layers of all oceans. Radiolarians, are mostly spherically symmetrical, and known for their complex and beautifully tiny skeletons, called "tests". Tests are usually made of silica. Pseudopodia extend through the perforated skeleton. A chitinous central capsule encloses the nuclei and divides the cytoplasm into two zones. The outer cytoplasm contains many vacuoles that control the organism’s buoyancy. Asexual reproduction is by budding, binary fission, or multiple fission. Generally, the skeleton divides, and each daughter cell regenerates the missing half. In some cases, however, one daughter cell escapes and develops an entirely new shell, the other daughter remaining within the parent skeleton. | |
804,000,000 YBN | 321) Protist Phylum "Foraminifera" evolves now according to genetic comparison. Foraminifera (or "forams" for short), are unicellular protists characterized by long, fine pseudopodia that extend from a uninucleated or multinucleated cytoplasmic body encased within a test, or shell. Shell sizes may be as large as 5 cm in diameter and vary in shape and chemical composition. Foraminifera are the most diverse and most widely studied of microfossils. Forams are related to the amoeba but unlike an amoeba they have a shell. Forams secret skeletons of calcium carbonate (the mineral calcite), which is different than radiolarians which secrete skeletons of silica. Most are marine and live on or in the sea bottom (are benthic) but one family, Globigerinidae, are tiny and buoyant and make up a major part of the marine plankton. Foraminifera, especially the calcareous forms, have a fossil record stretching back to the Early Cambrian, and are especially important biostratigraphically. Much of the Earth's chalk, limestone, and marble is composed largely of foraminiferan tests. | |
780,000,000 YBN | 79) Metazoan Phylum "Placozoa" evolves. Placozoans look like amoebas but are multicellular. The only known species in this phylum is Trichoplax adhaerens. Trichoplax lives in the sea and feeds on single celled organisms, mostly algae. Trichoplax has only 4 cell types compared to the more than 200 cell types in humans. Trichoplax has two main cell layers, like a cnidarian or ctenophore. Between these two layers are a few contractile cells that are similar to muscle cells, however placozoans lack muscle and nerve cells and have no symmetry or organs. Trichoplax has only 1 hox gene (Trox-2). Possible eggs have been observed, but they degrade at the 32-64 cell stage. Neither embryonic development nor sperm have been observed, however Trichoplax genomes show evidence of sexual reproduction. | |
767,000,000 YBN | 312) Protist Phylum "Ciliophora" ("Ciliates") evolves according to genetic comparison (includes parameceum). Earliest mitochondria with tubular christae. There are about 12,000 described species of ciliates. Ciliates are very common in benthic and planktonic communities in both marine and fresh water. Both sessile and free moving types are known and many are ecto- or endosymbionts, including some parasitic species. Most are single celled, but branching and linear colonies are known in several species. Ciliates have a fixed shape which is maintained by the alveolar membrane system and underlying fibrous layer. Ciliates use their cilia for locomotion. Mitochondria in ciliates have tubular cristae. Ciliates have two distinct types of nuclei, a hyperpolyploid macronucleus and a diploid micronucleus. Ciliates reproduce by asexual reproduction using transverse binary fission, and by sexual reproduction using conjugation: a pair of ciliates fuse and exchange micronuclei through a cytoplasmic connection at a point of joining. Ciliates include many different feeding types. Some are filter feeders, others capture and inject other protists or small invertebrates, many eat algal filaments or diatoms, some eat attached bacteria, and a few are saprophytic parasites (live on dead or decaying organic matter). In almost all ciliates feeding is restricted to a specialized area containing the "cytostome or "cell mouth". Food vacuoles are formed at the cytosome and then circulated through the cytoplasm as digestion occurs. A few ciliates (for example Laboea, and Stronbidium) contain photosynthetically functional chloroplasts derived from injested algae. The chloroplasts lie free in the cytoplasm, beneath the pellicle, where they actively contribute to the ciliate's carbon budget. A few ciliates (for example tintinnids), secrete external skeletons, or loricae, which have been found in the fossil record as early as the Late Proterozoic in the Doushantuo Formation (580 million years ago). Biomarkers for ciliates have been found dating back ever farther to 850 million years ago. | |
767,000,000 YBN | 314) | |
750,000,000 YBN | 41) Cells that group as tissues that are arranged in layers evolve in metazoans. | |
750,000,000 YBN | 83) First nerve cell (neuron), and nervous system evolves in the ancestor of the Ctenophores and Cnidarians. This leads to the first ganglion and brain. Earliest touch and sound detection. The most primitive extant organisms that contain a neuron cell are the ctenophora. Simple and sessile cnidarians have no sense organs, but they do have sensory cells in both tissues that respond to light, chemical or mechanical stimuli. These sensory cells are often structurally similar to those of vertebrates. Each has a cilium that protrudes into the water. The sensory cells synapse (are closely spaced to) with nerve cells, allowing the animal to generally respond to stimuli at a distance instead of responding at the site of the stimulus. Some Cnidarians have ganglia, aggregations of nerve cells. | |
750,000,000 YBN | 96) | |
750,000,000 YBN | 204) Earliest known fossil protozoan (single celled nonphotosynthesizing eukaryotes) and earliest fossil of a testate amoeba. This fossil indicates that the last common ancestor of animals and fungi appeared at least 750 million years ago. This fossil was found in the Grand Canyon in Arizona. | ( black shales of Chuar Group) Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA |
750,000,000 YBN | 225) | |
750,000,000 YBN | 414) | |
750,000,000 YBN | 458) Fungi Phylum "Glomeromycota" (Arbuscular {oRBuSKYUlR} mycorrhizal {MIKerIZL} fungi). Glomeromycota {GlO-mi-rO-mI-KO-Tu} are also know by their class name Glomeromycetes {GlO-mi-rO-mI-SETS} | |
713,000,000 YBN | 6320) Earliest chemical biomarker evidence of animals (metazoans), steranes associated with demosponges. Demosponges comprise 85% of all extant sponge species. | (Huqf Supergroup) South Oman Salt Basin, Oman |
700,000,000 YBN | 82) Radiata Phylum Cnidarians {NIDAREeNS} evolve (sea anemones, corals, jellyfish). Earliest animal eye. Cnidaria {NIDAREeo} are a phylum of invertebrate animals composed of the sea anemones, corals, jellyfish, and hydroids. Cnidarians are radially symmetrical. The mouth, located at the center of one end of the body, opens into a gastrovascular cavity, which is used for digestion and distribution of food, there is no anus. Cnidarians have a body wall composed of three layers: an outer epidermis, an inner gastrodermis, and a middle mesogloea. Tentacles encircle the mouth and are used in part for food capture. Specialized stinging structures, called nematocysts, are a characteristic of the phylum and are located in the tentacles and often in other body parts. These contain a coiled fiber that can be extruded suddenly. Some nematocysts contain toxic substances and are defense mechanisms, while others are adhesive, helping to anchor the animal or to entangle prey. Cnidarians have two alternate body plans, the polyp and the medusa. A sea anemone or Hydra is a typical polyp: non-moving, mouth on top, bottom end fixed to the ground like a plant. A jellyfish is a typical medusa, swimming through the open sea. Many cnidarians have both polyp and medusa forms, alternating them through life cycle, like caterpillar and butterfly. Polyps often reproduce by budding, like plants. A new baby polyp grows on the side of a freshwater Hydra, eventually breaking off as a separate individual clone of the parent. In many marine relatives of Hydra, the clone doesn't break off but stays attached, and becomes a branch like a plant. Sometimes more than one kind of polyp grows on the same polyp tree, specialized for different roles, such as feeding, defense, or reproduction. Cnidarians have a nervous system which is a network, not centralized into a brain, ganglia or major nerve trunks. They also have muscles which are contracted to propel them. Their digestive organ is a single cavity with only one opening which is both mouth and anus. They have no circulatory system. All cnidarians have cells called cnidocytes, each with its own cell-sized harpoon called a cnida. All cnidarians have cnidae, and only cnidarians have them. Once triggered the harpoon cell cannot be used again, but are constantly replaced. Simple and sessile cnidarians have no sense organs, but they do have sensory cells in both tissues that respond to light, chemical or mechanical stimuli. These sensory cells are often structurally similar to those of vertebrates. Each has a cilium that protrudes into the water. The sensory cells and nerve cells are separated by a small space (synapse), allowing the animal to generally respond to stimuli at a distance instead of responding at the site of the stimulus. Medusae and complex motile colonies of Cnidaria have more complex sense organs: the statocyts detect the degree of tilt of the body, and the ocelli {OSeLlE or OSeLlI} are light receptors. Cnidarian ocelli range from patches of photoreceptors alternating with pigment cells, to complex structures in which the light receptors have a cup shaped shield of pigmented cells behind them and are covered by a lens formed from cytoplasmic extensions from neighboring cells {see image}. Cnidarians see in black or white, because their eyes have only one pigment, for color vision the eye must have more than one pigment. Porifera (sponges have no obvious symmetry), while Cnidarians are radially symmetrical and Ctenophores are biradially symmetrical. There are differences between Cnidaria and Ctenophora. In Cnidaria, cells have a single flagellum or cilium, while the cells of Ctenophora have large numbers of cilia. Stinging cells called cnidocytes, are unique to cnidarians, and adhesive cells called "coloblasts" are unique to Ctenophora. Ctenophora swim by using arrays of fused cilia arranged in eight rows, while the Cnidaria move by means of muscle contraction of an epithelial cell. Cnidarians lack true muscle cells. The muscle fibers in Cnidaria are always extensions of an epithelial cell. Ctenophora have true muscles. Unlike Cnidaria, Ctenophora have gonoducts and gonopores by which gametes exit the body. Cnidaria do not have complex reproductive organs; gonads develop in the body wall or mesenteries by differentiation of interstitial cells. In many species the gonads are absorbed again after spawning has occurred. Gonads may be formed in the tissue and gametes released directly into the water or gonads may be endodermal and the gametes released into the water through breaks in the body wall or through the mouth. Genders are usually separate, but some species are hermaphroditic (produce both ova and sperm). Sperm are released into the water and fertilization is usually external. In species that brood their eggs, fertilization occurs at the brooding site, which may be in the gastrovascular cavity or on the outside of the body. Sperm are often attracted to the eggs by highly specific chemicals. Digestion in Cnidarians starts in the gastrovascular cavity, but once the food is reduced to particles small enough to enter the digestive cells of the gastrodermis, digestion is completed inside the cell (intracellularly). Cnidarians make the great barrier reef which is more than 2,000 kilometers long. The cnidarian, the box jellyfish, is one of the most dangerously venomous animals on earth. | |
700,000,000 YBN | 226) The second largest Fungi phylum, "Basidiomycota" {Bo-SiDEO-mI-KO-Tu} evolves now according to genetic comparison (most mushrooms, rusts, club fungi). The Division Basidiomycota is a large taxon within the Kingdom Fungi that includes those species that produce spores in a club-shaped structure called a basidium. Essentially the sibling group of the Ascomycota, it contains some 30,000 species (37% of the described fungi) | |
700,000,000 YBN | 227) The largest Fungi phylum "Ascomycota" {aS-KO-mI-KO-Tu} evolves now according to genetic comparison: (yeasts, truffles, Penicillium, morels, sac fungi). There are 47,000 described Ascomycota species. | |
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680,000,000 YBN | 222) Fungi Ascomycota Class "Archaeascomycetes" (fission yeast, pneumonia fungus) evolve. | |
675,000,000 YBN | 156) | |
650,000,000 YBN | 69) Start of 60 million year (Varanger) Ice Age (650-590 mybn). | |
630,000,000 YBN | 107) Bilateral species evolve (two sided symmetry). Earliest animal brain (ganglion, memory). First triploblastic species (third embryonic layer: the mesoderm). In bilaterians food enters in one end (the mouth) and waste exists at the opposite end (the anus). There is an advantage for sense organs: light, sound, touch, smell, and taste detection to be located on the head near the mouth to help with catching food. Unlike the diploblastic Cnidaria and Ctenophora, flatworms and all later metazoans are triploblastic. A third embryonic layer, the mesoderm, lies between the ectoderm and endoderm. This layer increases the options for the development of organs with specific functions, formed by the association of tissues of various kinds. The earliest brain (ganglion, memory) develop in a bilaterian worm. This begins the Animal Subkingdom "Bilateria". | |
630,000,000 YBN | 403) Earliest extant bilaterian: Acoelomorpha (acoela flat worms and nemertodermatida). The phylum Acoelomorpha (acoela flat worms and nemertodermatida) is the oldest surviving bilaterian. This begins the Subkingdom "Bilateria". Acoelomorpha lack a digestive track, anus and coelom. Flatworms have no lungs or gills and breathe through their skin. Flatworms also have no circulating blood and so their branched gut presumably transports nutrients to all parts of the body. | |
630,000,000 YBN | 459) | |
630,000,000 YBN | 532) Cylindrical gut, anus, and through-put of food evolves in a bilaterian. All bilaterally symmetrical metazoans except the Phyla Acoelomorpha and Platyhelminthes, have a tubular gut with an anus, mouth, and through-put of food. The Phyla Nemertea and Entoprocta are the earliest bilaterians with an anus. | |
630,000,000 YBN | 593) The genital pore, vagina, and uterus evolve in a bilaterian. | |
630,000,000 YBN | 660) The penis evolves in a bilaterian. | |
625,000,000 YBN | 6328) | |
610,000,000 YBN | 95) (Perhaps the space in between body and gut walls separates potentially harm-food food from mixing with and damaging important mechanical, chemical and other parts of the metazoan.) | |
600,000,000 YBN | 91) | Sonora, Mexico|Adelaide, Australia| Lesser Karatau Microcontinent, Kazakhsta |
600,000,000 YBN | 98) | |
590,000,000 YBN | 70) | |
590,000,000 YBN | 93) Bilaterians Protostomes evolve. Protostomes are divided into two major groups: the Ecdysozoa {eK-DiS-u-ZOu} and the Lophotrochozoa {LuFoTroKoZOu}. The Ecdysozoa are animals that molt or lose their outer skin as they grow, and include Priapulids {PrIaPYUliDZ}, Nematodes, Tardigrades {ToRDiGRADZ}, Onychophorens {oniKoFereNS}, and the arthropods {which is a large group including all crustaceans and insects}. The Lophotrochozoa, is subdivided into the Platyzoa {PlaTiZOu}, which includes rotifers, gastrotrics and Platyhelminthes, and the Trochozoa, which includes bryozoans {BrI-u-ZO-iNZ}, Nemertea {ne-mR-TEu}, Phoronids {FerOniDZ}, brachiopods {BrA-KE-O-PoDZ}, Entoprocts {eNtoProKTS}, molluscs and annelids. | |
580,000,000 YBN | 131) First shell (or skeleton) evolves in unicellular protists. The first known shell belongs to unicellular protists ciliates called the tintinnids. This shell is called a lorica. These fossils are thought to be in shallow marine waters, not far from the coastline. Similar modes of skeleton formation have evolved independently in different groups to fulfill similar needs. These are also the earliest known ciliate fossils. Unfortunately there has been no consistent terminology for coverings. The terms lorica, shell, test, and case are often used synonymously. Euglenozoa have an outside covering which is called a "pellicle". A pellicle usually has openings for injestion, egestion, and water expulsion. Some ciliates (tintinnids) secrete an external skeleton called a "lorica", which start to appear in the fossil record around 500 million years ago. Foraminifera secrete a heavy shell of silica or calcium carbonate. The shape of Dinoflagellates is maintained by alveoli beneath the cell surface, and by a layer of supporting microtubules. In some, these alveoli are filled with polysaccharides, typically cellulose, and these dinoflagellates are said to be "thecate", or "armored", while dinoflagellates that have empty alveoli are said to be "athecate", or "naked". Diatoms secrete silicon in the form of an internal test or frustule, that contains two parts called valves. Beneath the test is the cell membrane enclosing the nucleus, chloroplasts and cytoplasm. Some protists build a "test" of sand grains or other particles cemented together. Resistant covering are sometime formed for brief parts of the life cycle. This is especially true for parasites, which usually pass from one host to another as cysts or spores, covered by a resistant membrane that protects them while out of the host. In addition to its supportive function, the animal skeleton may provide protection, facilitate movement, and aid in certain sensory functions. Support of the body is achieved in many protozoans by a simple stiff, translucent, nonliving envelope called a pellicle. In nonmoving (sessile) coelenterates, such as coral, whose colonies attain great size, body support is provided by non-living structures, both internal and external, which form supporting axes. In the many groups of animals that can move, body support is provided either by external structures known as exoskeletons or by internal structures known as endoskeletons. The skeleton may be on the body surface, for example the lateral sclerites of centipedes and the shell of crabs. These structures carry no muscle and form part of a protective surface armor. Similarly, the scales of fish, the projecting spines of echinoderms (for example sea urchins), the needle-like structures (spicules) of sponges, and the tubes of hydroids, raised from the body surface, all provide protection. The bones of the vertebrate skull protect the brain. In the more advanced vertebrates and invertebrates, many skeletal structures provide a rigid base for the insertion of muscles as well as providing protection. The skeleton assists movement in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of the animal. The bones of vertebrates and the exoskeletal and endoskeletal units of the cuticle of arthropods (insects, spiders, crabs, etc.) support opposing sets of muscles. | (Doushantuo Formation) Beidoushan, Guizhou Province, South China |
580,000,000 YBN | 165) Earliest bilaterian fossil, Vernanimalcula, 178 um in length. First fossil of organism with bilateral symmetry, mouth, digestive track, gut and anus. | (Doushantuo Formation) China |
580,000,000 YBN | 318) Protostome Infrakingdom Ecdysozoa {eK-DiS-u-ZOu} evolves. Ecdysozoa are animals that molt (lose their outer skin) as they grow. This is the ancestor of round worms, and arthropods (which includes insects and crustaceans {also known as "shell-fish"}). | |
580,000,000 YBN | 331) Protosomes Lophotrochozoa {Lu-Fo-Tro-Ku-ZO-u} evolve. Ancestor of all brachiopods {BrA-KE-O-PoDZ}, bryozoans {BrI-u-ZO-iNZ}, and molluscs. | |
580,000,000 YBN | 6293) Earliest cnidarian fossil. These are fossil cnidarian embryos and larvae from Doushantuo Formation in China. Cnidarians which possessed hard skeletons, in particular the corals, have left a significant fossil record of their existence. | (Doushantuo Formation) Beidoushan, Guizhou Province, South China |
578,000,000 YBN | 92) | |
575,000,000 YBN | 139) Earliest sea pen fossils ("Charnia"). A member of the Cnidarnian Anthozoans (sea pens, corals, anemones). Sea pens are grouped in the Class "Pennatulacea". Some people have suggested that a fossil from China shows that the fronds are ciliated which implies that these fossil organisms are possibly more closely related to Ctenophores than sea pens. | (Drook Formation) Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland |
570,000,000 YBN | 89) Protostome Lophotrochozoa {Lu-Fo-Tro-Ku-ZO-u} subgroup Trochozoa evolve. Ancestor of all Bryozoans, Nemerteans, Phoronids, Brachiopods {BrA-KE-O-PoDZ}, Molluscs and Annelids. | |
570,000,000 YBN | 94) | (Doushantuo formation) China |
570,000,000 YBN | 105) Bilaterians Deuterostomes evolve. This is the ancestor of all Echinoderms (iKIniDRMS } (Phylum Echinodermata: sea cucumbers, sea urchins, starfish), hemichordates (Phylum Hemichordata: acorn worms), and Chordates (Phylum Chordata: all tunicates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds). | |
570,000,000 YBN | 311) Bilaterians Chaetognatha {KE-ToG-nutu} evolve (Arrow Worms). Earliest teeth. Animals start to eat other animals. The evolution of teeth and then of animal predation starts an "arms race" that rapidly transforms ecosystems around the Earth. So in this sense hard teeth evolve first and then the shell evolves as an advantage to survival. Chaetognaths are bilaterally symmetrical enterocoelous animals, with an elongated cylndrical body; they are usually colourless, transparent or slightly opaque. The body is divided in three parts by internal partitioning: head, trunk and tail. The head is slightly rounded and separated from the trunk by a constricted neck. Each side of the head bears a group of curved grasping hooks and one or two rows of teeth, called the anterior and posterior teeth; the hooks and teeth are made of chitin. A pair of uniquely arranged pigmented eyespots is present. The earliest Chaetognath fossil is from around 520 mya. The placement (phylogeny) of the Chaetognatha within the Bilateria is currently somewhat uncertain. Some place them as protostomes, others as deuterostomes. Some people group them with the Ecdysozoa, others as Lophotrochozoa, others as an independent group in between Ecdysozoa and Lophotrochozoa. Chaetognatha appears close to the base of the protostome tree in most studies of their molecular phylogeny. This may be evidence that protostomes descend from a deuterostome ancestor, like a chaetognath. | |
570,000,000 YBN | 327) Protostome Lophotrochozoa {Lu-Fo-Tro-Ku-ZO-u} subgroup Platyzoa {PlaT-i-ZO-u} evolves. Ancestor of rotifers, gastrotrichs and Platyhelminthes (flatworms). Thomas Cavalier-Smith proposed the new infrakingdom in 1998 for "ciliated non-segmented acoelomates or pseudocoelomates lacking vascular system; gut (when present) straight, with or without anus". | |
570,000,000 YBN | 345) | |
570,000,000 YBN | 346) Deuterostome Phylum Echinodermata ("Echinoderms" (iKIniDRMS }) (sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sand dollars, star fish). | |
565,000,000 YBN | 347) Deuterostome Phylum Chordata evolves. Chordates are a very large group that include all tunicates {TUNiKiTS}, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. The most primitive living chordate is the tunicate. Chordates get their name from the notochord, the cartilage rod that runs along the back of the animal, in the embryo if not in the adult. Chordata is the highest phylum in the animal kingdom, which includes the lancelets or amphioxi (Cephalochordata), the tunicates (Urochordata), the acorn worms and pterobranchs (Hemichordata), and the vertebrates (Craniata) comprising the lampreys, sharks and rays, bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Members of the first three groups, the lower chordates, are small and strictly marine. The vertebrates are free-living; the aquatic ones are primitively fresh-water types with marine groups being advanced; and the members include animals of small and medium size, as well as the largest of all animals. The typical chordate characteristics are the notochord, the dorsal hollow nerve cord, the pharyngeal slits, and a postanal tail. The notochord appears in the embryo as a slender, flexible rod filled with gelatinous cells and surrounded by a tough fibrous sheath, and contains, at least in some forms, transverse striated muscle fibers; it lies above the primitive gut. In lower chordates and the early groups of vertebrates, the notochord persists as the axial support for the body throughout life, but it is surrounded and gradually replaced by segmental vertebrae in the higher fish. | |
565,000,000 YBN | 348) Earliest extant chordate: Tunicates {TUNiKiTS} evolve (sea squirts). | |
565,000,000 YBN | 6294) Earliest coral fossil (corals are cnidarian anthozoans). These are fossil cnidarian coral (tabulata) from Doushantuo Formation in China. The tabulata are an extinct Paleozoic order of corals of the subclass Zoantharia characterized by an exclusively colonial mode of growth and by secretion of a calcareous exoskeleton of slender tubes. | (Doushantuo Formation) Beidoushan, Guizhou Province, South China |
560,000,000 YBN | 117) Earliest chordate fossil. | (Flinders Ranges, 490 km north of Adelaide) Australia |
560,000,000 YBN | 349) | |
560,000,000 YBN | 6290) Earliest extant fish, Lancelets {laNSleTS} (also called amphioxus {aMFEoKSeS}). Lancelets are the most primitive chordates to have a liver and a kidney, which are not found in hemichordates or tunicates. The Lancelet is a protochordate and not a vertebrate. Lancelets have only a nerve tube on the notochord and no brain other than a small swelling at the front end of the nerve tube. They also have an eye-spot. There are gill slits at the sides used for filter feeding and not primarily for breathing which would mean that gills for breathing evolve later. The Lancelet is not like a worm in not being cylindrical, and swims like a fish using its muscles with side-to-side undulations. | |
560,000,000 YBN | 6292) Oldest mollusc fossil. | |
560,000,000 YBN | 6318) Earliest animal shell (or skeleton). Earliest evidence of animals eating other animals (predation). Appearance of the small shelly fossils and deep burrows correlated with a decline in stromatolites possibly from feeding. The earliest animal shells are made by tiny organisms with simple tubelike skeletons, such as Cloudina and Sinotubulites in addition to sponge skeleton fossils. The shell of Cloudina is made of Calcium carbonate (CaCO3), possibly made by some kind of worm. Predatory bore holes have been found in Cloudina shells. This is the oldest evidence of predation known. The earliest animal shells are agglutinated tubes built of foreign objects by the animals inhabiting them, an example being the worm Onuphionella, with its collection of mica flakes lining its shelter. The appearance of the small shelly fossils and deep burrows are correlated with a decline in stromatolites. Before the appearance of small invertebrate animals, nothing fed on cyanobacterial mats. Some small shelly fossils must be primitive molluscs that graze on stromatolites. Stromatolites survive today only in environments that are hostile to grazing invertebrates. Tehse include lagoons too salty for grazing snails like Shark Bay, Australia, and shallow channels in the Bahamas where currents are too strong for clinging invertebrates. The soft-bodied multicellular (but non-skeletonized) Ediacaran fauna appear starting around 600 mybn and may represent the next logical step up from single-celled life. The next stage is the appearance of small mineralized shells starting around 545 million years ago. These small shells are referred to as "small shelly fossils" and were first reported by a team of Soviet scientists headed by Alexi Rozanov of the Paleontological Institute in Moscow. Rozanov reports in 1966 that the oldest limestones of Cambrian age contain many small and unfamiliar skeletons, few larger than 1 cm (1/2 inch) long. These fossils are referred to as "small shelly fossils". At the time these are the earliest known fossils of hard skeletons. Their discovery rewrites the story of the earliest Cambrian and sheds light on the Cambrian radiation. Most of the small shelly fossils are made of calcium phosphate, the same mineral that makes up the bones of vertebrates, but today, most marine invertebrate shells are made of calcium carbonate (the minerals calcite and aragonite). To some scientists this suggests that the later appearance of large calcified trilobites and other fossils, represents a time when atmospheric oxygen is abundant enough to allow calcite skeletons to be secreted. There is evidence that seawater chemistry favored aragonite precipitation during the late Precambrian and favored calcite precipitation during the Tommotian, and that carbonate skeletal mineralogy is determined by the chemistry of seawater at the time carbonate skeletons first evolve in a clade. Prokaryotic cyanobacteria also develop the ability to secrete carbonate skeletons around the same time. Eventually, the expansion of infaunal life destroys the widespread and vast cyanobacterial mats in shallow regions of the sea. | (Ara Formation) Oman|Lijiagou, Ningqiang County, Shaanxi Province |
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550,000,000 YBN | 328) Ecdysozoa Superphylum "Aschelminthes" evolves. This includes the 5 Phyla: Kinorhyncha (kinorhynchs), Loricifera (loriciferans), Nematoda (round worms), Nematomorpha (horsehair worms), Priapulida (priapulids). | |
550,000,000 YBN | 329) | |
550,000,000 YBN | 6339) | (Rawnsley Quartzite -same as White Sea Assemblage) Nilpena, South Australia |
547,000,000 YBN | 333) Trochozoa Phyla Phoronida (phoronids {FerOniDZ}). | |
547,000,000 YBN | 334) Trochozoa Phylum Brachiopoda (brachiopods {BrAKEOPoDZ}). Brachiopods are marine invertebrates that have bivalve dorsal and ventral shells enclosing a pair of tentacled, armlike structures that are used to sweep minute food particles into the mouth. Also called lampshells. | |
547,000,000 YBN | 335) The Lophotrochozoa (Trochozoa) Phylum Entoprocta (entoprocts). | |
544,000,000 YBN | 310) | southwestern Mongolia |
543,000,000 YBN | 101) | |
543,000,000 YBN | 336) Lophotrochozoa (Trochozoa) Phylum Bryozoa (Bryozoans or moss animals). | |
542,000,000 YBN | 53) End of the "Precambrian". End of the Proterozoic and start of the Phanerozoic {FaNReZOiK} Eon, and the start of the Cambrian Period. The term "Precambrian", was traditionally used for the division of time older than the Phanerozoic, and is currently considered to be informal and without specific stratigraphic rank. | |
542,000,000 YBN | 114) | Ediacara, Australia |
542,000,000 YBN | 6297) The Cambrian radiation, (or "Cambrian explosion"), the rapid diversification of multicellular animals between 542 and 530 million years ago that results in the appearance of many (between 20 and 35) of the major phyla of animals. An increase of animals with shells. It was once thought that the Cambrian rocks contained the first and oldest fossil animals, but these are now to be found in the earlier Ediacaran (or Vendian) strata. Ediacaran animals are soft-bodied and so are infrequently preserved. When animals begin to develop hard parts, their probability of preservation greatly improves. The first animals to develop hard parts are small shelly fossils, like sponge spicules, gastropods, and others with uncertain affinity. Small shelly fossils can be found back into the Neoproterozoic. Two fossil locations preserve this period on Earth, the Burgess Shale in British Columbia Canada, and the Chengjiang in the Yunnan Province of China. The Burgess Shale fossils were discovered in 1909 by Charles D. Wolcott (CE 1850-1927), and are shiny black impressions on the shale bedding planes. Many are the remains of animals that lacked hard parts. Altogether there are four major groups of arthropods (trilobites, crustaceans, and the groups that include scorpions and insects), in addition to sponges, onycophorans, crinoids, mollusks, three phyla of worms, corals, chordates, and many species that cannot be placed in any known phylum. The Chengjiang Fauna resemble that of the Burgess Shale, but the Chengjiang fossils are older and better preserved. The fossils include many soft-bodied animals that are not usually not preserved. For example jellyfish show the detailed structure of tentacles, radial canals, and muscles, and on soft-bodies worms, eyes, segmentation, digestive organs, and patterns on the outer skin can be recognized. The Chengjiang fossils include the earliest fossil of a fish. One theory is that the Cambrian radiation is triggered by predation, since the oldest traces of feeding within the mud occur around this time in addition to the various ways to protect the body by secretion of a mineral skeleton or building tubes by collected mineral grains that are developed by animals around this time. | |
541,000,000 YBN | 132) | |
540,000,000 YBN | 104) Platyzoa Platyhelminthes {PlaTEheLmiNtEZ} evolve (flatworms). | |
540,000,000 YBN | 6287) Platyzoa Phylum Gastrotricha (Gastrotrichs {GaSTreTriKS}). | |
539,000,000 YBN | 461) The first circulatory system (blood cells actively moved by muscle contraction) evolves in bilaterians. Circulatory systems can be divided into two kinds, "open" and "closed", both which contain a circulatory fluid or blood. In an open circulatory system, the blood and body cavity (hemocoelic) fluid are one and the same; the blood, often called hemolymph, empties from vessels into the body cavity (hemocoel) and directly bathes organs. In a closed circulatory system blood is kept separate from the coelomic {SElomiK} fluid. Circulatory systems, open or closed, generally have structural mechanisms for pumping the blood and maintaining adequate blood pressures. Beyond the influence of general body movements, most of these structures fall into the categories: contractile vessels (as in annelids); osiate hearts (as in arthropods); and chambered hearts (as in molluscs and vertebrates). The method of initiating contraction of these different pumps (the pacemaker mechanism) may be intrinsic (originating within the muscles of the structure itself) or extrinsic (originating from motor nerves from outside the structure). Nemerteans, cylindrical worms evolved from an earlier ancestor, have a network of blood channels in the mesenchyme (undifferentiated tissue between organs) but have no heart or pumping vessel. This bilaterian, a coelomate (the earliest of which are the molluscs), like some surviving coelomates, has a series of channels or blood spaces outside the coelom tissue, that form a circulatory system, often with muscle cell contractible walls connected to the larger vessels that act as pumps to move the blood cells through the channels. | |
539,000,000 YBN | 506) | |
537,000,000 YBN | 341) The Lophotrochozoa (Trochozoa) Phylum Nemertea {ne-mR-TEu} (ribbon worms). | |
537,000,000 YBN | 344) The Lophotrochozoa Phylum Sipuncula (peanut worms) evolve. | |
533,000,000 YBN | 342) Trochozoa Mollusks evolve. The phylum name is derived from mollis, meaning soft, referring to the soft body within a hard calcareous shell. Soft-bodied mollusks make extensive use of ciliary and mucous mechanisms in feeding, locomotion, and reproduction. The Mollusca are a successful phylum with probably over 110,000 living species, more than double the number of vertebrate species. More than 99% of living molluscan species belong to two classes: Gastropoda {GaSTroPeDu} (snails) and Bivalvia (muscles and clams). These two classes can make up a dominant fraction of the animal biomass in many natural communities, both marine and fresh-water. The haemocoel forms the major body cavity of molluscs, usually in the form of several large, connected sinuses. Haemocyanin is the chief oxygen-carrying blood pigment, although a number of species have haemoglobin. A heart of variable complexity is usually present. A coelomic space is represented by the pericardium, kidneys and gonads. Among the most primitive mollusks are the Aplacophora which do not have shells but their epidermis secretes aragonite (calcareous) spicules and their body has a repetition of structures along their front-back (antero-posterior) axis. Mollusks are thought, by some, to be descended from a segemented worm (annelid) because of this segmented repetition of structure which is lost in most of the other later evolved mollusks. But others think mollusks descend from a nonsegmented ancestor. An early Cambrian fossil mollusk named Maikhanella, which has a shell made from sclerites that are only loosely fused together, implies that after millions of years of evolution the spines become more fused into a single, rigid shell familiar in mollusks of the present time. Among the earliest fossil mollusks known from the Cambrian are simple cap-shaped shells, similar to an extant mollusk named "Neopilina". Neopilina is clearly a mollusk with a single cap-shaped shell secreted by the mantle, as well as a mouth, digestive tract, anus, and gills. But unlike all other known mollusks alive today, Neopilina still retains the segmentation of its worm-like ancestors. Around the body are segemented gills, kidneys, hearts, gonads, and paired retractor muscles to pull down the shell. Beyond the difference in segmentation, in terms of skeleton, some annelids have chaetae which are tiny, spinelike structures and are derived from single epidermal cells, while mollusks are covered by a thick sheet of skin called a mantle which secretes a hard calcareous (KaL-KAREuS} (calcium) skeleton (aragonite or calcite), either as tiny sclerites or as plates. A sclerite {SKli-rIT} is a chitinous or calcareous plate, spicule, or similar part of an invertebrate, especially one of the hard outer plates forming part of the exoskeleton of an arthropod. In addition annelids have a well developed coelon and a closed circulatory system while mollusks have a reduced coelon and an open circulatory system. | |
530,000,000 YBN | 338) The Ecdysozoa Phylum Arthropoda "Arthropods" evolve (includes crustaceans and insects). Arthropods can be compared to a segmented worm encased in a rigid exoskeleton. The phylum Arthropoda is the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. Arthropoda consists of more than one million known invertebrate species in four subphyla: Uniramia (includes insects), Chelicerata (includes arachnids and horseshoe crabs), Crustacea (crustaceans), and Trilobita (trilobites). All arthropods have a segmented body with bilateral symmetry covered by an exoskeleton containing chitin, which serves as both armor and as a surface for muscle attachment. Each body segment may have pair of jointed appendages. The phylum includes carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, detritus feeders, filter feeders, and parasites in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. | |
530,000,000 YBN | 339) The Ecdysozoa Phylum Onychophora (onychophorans) evolves. Onychophorans, know as "velvet worms", are the living transitional form between worms and arthropods. Although they have segmented worm-like bodies, they also have jointed appendages, antennae, and shed their cuticle like arthropods do. | |
530,000,000 YBN | 340) The Ecdysozoa Phylum Tardigrada (tardigrades) evolves. Tardigrades are slow-moving, microscopic invertebrates, related to the arthropods. Tardigrades have four body segments, eight legs, and live in water or damp moss. Tardigrades are also called "water bears". | |
530,000,000 YBN | 343) The Lophotrochozoa (Trochozoa) Phylum Annelida (segmented worms) evolves. Annelids are various worms or wormlike animals, characterized by an elongated, cylindrical, segmented body and including the earthworm and leech. | |
530,000,000 YBN | 350) Chordata Vertebrates evolve. This Subphylum, Vertebrata, contains most fishes, and all amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. The characteristic features of the Vertebrata are a vertebral column, or backbone, and a cranium, which protects the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and major sense organs. Vertebrates evolved from a lower chordate similar to the present-day Cephalochordata (lancelets). Vertebrates originate in fresh water and develop a kidney as their organ of water balance. The main line of evolution in the vertebrates which leads to the tetrapods remains in fresh waters, however, several vertebrate lines invade the oceans. | |
530,000,000 YBN | 351) Vetebrates Jawless fish (agnatha) evolve. Some extinct jawless fish, that lived in the Devonian 'Age of Fish', such as ostracoderms, had hard, bony armor plating. | |
530,000,000 YBN | 386) Earliest vertebrate and fish fossil. Haikouichthys ercaicunensis: About 25 mm in length. | (Chengjiang) Kunming, Yunnan Province, China |
525,000,000 YBN | 6329) Earliest hemichordate fossil: a Pterobranch "graptolite". | (Chengjiang Konservat-Lagerstätte) Yunnan Province, China |
521,000,000 YBN | 137) Start of Sirius Passet fossils in Canada, early Cambrian fossils (521 mybn). | |
520,000,000 YBN | 133) Earliest trilobite fossils. Trilobites are numerous extinct marine arthropods of the Paleozoic Era. Trilobites have a segmented body divided by grooves into three vertical lobes and are found as fossils throughout the world. There is a transition, after the soft-bodied (unshelled) organisms of the Ediacaran are the earliest small cylindrical shells of Cloudina and Sinotubulites, later in the Proterozoic, to the clam-like shells of the brachiopods in the Tommotian (Early Cambrian) to the segmented calcite and chitin shells of the trilobites in the Atdabianian. One fossil arthropod, known as aglaspids, may be related to both trilobites and horseshoe crabs. Horseshoe crabs are not true crabs, but instead are members of the group known as the Chelicerata- a group that includes spiders and scorpions. True crabs are a family within the Crustacea, a different group entirely. So horseshoe crabs may be descended from trilobites. The segmented shell of the trilobite, which provides more movement then the clam shell may have been a selective advantage. (verify) The largest known trilobite, Isotelus rex, reached 72 centimeters in length. | |
520,000,000 YBN | 134) Trilobite, Brachiopod, and Echinoderm fossils abundant all over earth. | |
520,000,000 YBN | 135) Start of Chengjiang fossils in China, early Cambrian fossils (520 to 515 mybn). | |
520,000,000 YBN | 144) Two agnathan (jawless) lamprey-like and primitive hagfish fossils found in Chengjiang. | |
520,000,000 YBN | 148) | |
520,000,000 YBN | 6296) Earliest worm fossil, a Chaetognath {KETOnat} (arrow worm). The fossil is a member of the phylum Chaetognatha (also called arrow worm), with only about 100 living species, is found in oceans throughout the world and plays an important role in the food web as primary predators | (Maotianshan Shale ) near Haikou, Kunming, China |
517,000,000 YBN | 115) Earliest certain Echinoderm fossils, Helicoplacus. Helicoplacoids are stem group echinoderms with spiral plating and three ambulacra arranged radially around a lateral mouth. They are the most primitive echinoderms and the first to show a radial arrangement of the water vascular and ambulacral systems. Unlike later echinoderms, their skeleton shows no dorsal/ventral (aboral/oral) differentiation. They were probably sedentary suspension feeders. One theory is that Echinoderms evolved from sessile filter feeding organisms similar to Pterobranchs. | (Poleta Formation) Bishop, California, USA |
513,000,000 YBN | 6351) Ancestor of all Arthropod Crustacea (shrimps, crabs, lobsters, barnicles). The earliest crustacean fossils are from the early Cambrian (542-513 MYBN) of Shropshire, England. Molecular phylogenetics has suggested to some that the subphylum Crustacea may be paraphyletic including the Hexapods within it, and so the Hexapoda and Crustacea have been named Pancrustacea. Not all experts agree that Crustacea is paraphyletic, some put hexapods as descended from the Atelocerata, a hypothetical ancestor of both myriapoda and hexapoda that split from the crustaceans before the Myriapod and Hexapod branching, citing complex anatomical features shared by Myriapod and Hexapod and not the crustaceans that would need to be independently evolved, in particular the tentorium {internal head skeleton}, tracheae {fine respiratory tubules}, and Malpighian tubules of the Myriapods and Hexapods). | (earliest fossils) Shropshire, England |
507,000,000 YBN | 136) Start of Burgess shale fossils in Canada, middle Cambrian fossils (507 mybn). | |
507,000,000 YBN | 140) Aysheaia (onychophoran, also described as lobopod) fossil, from Burgess shale. | |
507,000,000 YBN | 141) Sponge fossil, from Burgess shale. | |
507,000,000 YBN | 142) | |
507,000,000 YBN | 143) | |
507,000,000 YBN | 145) Priapulid worm fossils of Burgess Shale. | |
507,000,000 YBN | 146) Opabinia fossils of Burgess Shale. | |
507,000,000 YBN | 147) Anomalocaris fossils of Burgess Shale. | |
507,000,000 YBN | 149) | Burgess Shale |
505,000,000 YBN | 74) Oldest fossil of an arthropod in the process of moulting (ecdysis), the soft-bodied arthropod Marrella splendens. | (Burgess Shale) British Columbia, Canada. |
505,000,000 YBN | 6291) Early Chordata fossil "Pikaia". | (Burgess Shale) Mount Wapta, British Columbia |
501,000,000 YBN | 6348) Arthropod subphylum Myriapoda {mEREaPeDu} (centipedes and millipedes). The earliest possible Myriapoda fossil are marine fossils from the middle Cambrian of Utah and the late Cambrian (488-501 MYBN) of East Siberia, and the earliest certain Myriapod fossils, are land Myriapods from the late Silurian (416 MYO) from Shropshire, England. | (earliest possible fossils Marine deposits)(Wheeler Formation) Utah, USA and (Ust-Majan formation) East Siberia|(earliest fossils) Shropshire, England |
495,000,000 YBN | 138) Start of Orsted fossils in ???, late Cambrian fossils (495 mybn). | |
488,300,000 YBN | 121) End of the Cambrian (542-488.3 mybn), and start of the Ordovician {ORDiVisiN} (488.3-443.7 mybn) Period. | |
488,000,000 YBN | 6314) The Ordovician radiation. During the Ordovician (488-444 million years ago), the number of genera will quadruple. | |
488,000,000 YBN | 6349) Arthropod subphylum Chelicerata (KeliSuroTo) (horseshoe crabs, mites, spiders, scorpions). Chelicerata probably appeared during the Cambrian period. By the late Cambrian there is evidence for both Pycnogonida and Euchelicerata. The earliest pycnogonid (sea spider) fossils are larval sea spiders from the Late Cambrian (488-501 MYO), Orsten of Sweden. | (sea spider fossils, Orsten) Sweden |
475,000,000 YBN | 244) Non-vascular plants evolve, Bryophyta, (ancestor of Liverworts, Hornworts, Mosses). The Bryophytes are the simplest land plants, and reproduce with spores. The Division Bryophyta contains green, seedless land plants that contain at least 18,000 species and are divided into three classes: mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. Bryophytes are distinguished from vascular plants and seed plants by the production of only one spore-containing organ in their spore-producing stage. Most bryophytes are 2-5 cm (0.8-2 in.) tall. Bryophytes are found throughout the surface of earth, from polar regions to the tropics, they are most abundant in humid environments, though none is marine. Bryophytes are extremely tolerant of dry and freezing conditions. | |
475,000,000 YBN | 352) Jawless fish lampreys and hagfish lines separate. | |
475,000,000 YBN | 398) Plants live on land. Earliest fossil spores belonging to land plants. These spores look like the spores of living liverworts and Cooksonia. Plants conquer land before animals do, and like animals may move to land not by sea but by freshwater. | Caradoc, Libya |
472,000,000 YBN | 402) The first animals live on land, arthropods Myriapoda (centipedes and millipedes). The earliest fossil land tracks are from the Ordovician and are at least 472 MYO. The organism that produced these fossil tracks is possibly an Euthycarcinoidea, a rare arthropod group thought to be descended from the Myriapods. Marine stem-group hexapods support the theory that the invasion of the land occurred independently by the Myriapoda and Hexapoda. Adaptation to life on land also occurred independently in the Crustacea (Isopoda), Cheliceriformes (Chelicerata), Tardigrada, and Onychophhora. | (earliest arthropod tracks) Kingston, Ontario, Canada |
470,000,000 YBN | 234) Non-vascular plants Hornworts. | |
460,000,000 YBN | 84) | Wisconsin, USA |
460,000,000 YBN | 235) Non-vasular plants Mosses. | |
460,000,000 YBN | 353) Jawed vertebrates evolve, Infraphylum Gnathostomata {no toST omoTo}. This large group includes all jawed fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. First vertebrate teeth. The jaw evolves from parts of the gill skeleton. The earliest jawed vertebrates, have no bone, there skeleton is made of cartilage. Humans have cartilage too, for example, in the lining of joints and the human skeleton starts as flexible cartilage in the embyro. Most of the human skeleton becomes ossified when mineral crystals, mostly calcium phosphate, become integrated into the skeleton. Except for teeth, the shark skeleton never undergoes this mineral transformation. Sharks lack the swim bladder of the later bony fish, and many sharks have to swim continuously to maintain their desired level in the water. Sharks and rays almost all live in the sea. Unlike the bony fish, no sharks ever climb onto land. Sharks have been the top of the food chains of the sea for hundreds of millions of years. The largest shark known is the whale shark, Rhincodon typus, which can be up to 12 meters long and weigh 12 tons. | Oceans |
460,000,000 YBN | 404) Jawed fishes Chondrichthyes {KoN-DriK-tE-EZ} (Cartilaginous fishes: ancestor of all sharks, rays, skates, and sawfishes). The fossil record of Chondrichthyans dates to around 455 million years ago, but the earliest Chondrichthyan fossil dates to 409 million years ago. | |
450,000,000 YBN | 158) | |
443,700,000 YBN | 122) End of the Ordovician (488.3-443.7 mybn), and start of the Silurian (443.7-416) Period. | |
443,000,000 YBN | 90) End-Ordovician mass extinction. 60% of all genera are observed extinct. Many species go extinct, mostly trilobites, echinoderms, corals, nautiloids, brachiopods, graptolites, conodonts, and acritarchs. | |
440,000,000 YBN | 236) Vascular plants evolve (Phylum: Tracheophytes). Vascular plants are any plant that has a specialized conducting system consisting mostly of phloem (food-conducting tissue) and xylem (water-conducting tissue), collectively called vascular tissue. The phloem transports sugar and the xylem transports water and salts. Ferns, gymnosperms, and flowering plants are all vascular plants. In contrast to the nonvascular bryophytes, where the gametophyte is the dominant phase, the dominant phase among vascular plants is the sporophyte. Because they have vascular tissues, these plants have true stems, leaves, and roots, modifications of which enable species of vascular plants to survive in a variety of habitats under diverse, even extreme, environmental conditions. This ability to flourish in so many different habitats is the primary reason that vascular plants have become dominant among terrestrial plants. Earliest spores of vascular plants. | |
440,000,000 YBN | 360) Ray-finned fishes (Jawed, Class Osteichthyes, Subclass Actinopterygii) evolve. This is the fist bony fish (Osteichthyes) which includes the ray-finned, lobefin, and lung fishes. Bony-fish have a skeleton at least partly composed of true bone. Other features include, in most species, a swim bladder (an air-filled sac to give buoyancy), gill covers over the gill chamber, bony platelike scales, a skull with sutures, and external fertilization of eggs. Most of the ray-finned fish are known as teleosts. They exist in both salt and freshwater. The name ray is because their fins have a skeleton similar to a handheld fan. The teleost fish are a very successful evolutionary line, with about 23,500 species, 30 times the number of shark species. Fish with a swim bladder use the bladder to change their depth, to sink, the fish absorbs some molecules of gas from its swim bladder into the blood which reduces the volume of the bladder, to rise, the fish does the reverse, releasing molecules of gas from the blood into the swim bladder increasing the volume of the bladder. Some teleost fish can gulp air from the surface, but still use their gills to extract oxygen from the oxygenated gill water. However, the lung does not evolve from gills but from the swim bladder. The swim bladder appears to have evolved from a primitive lung, and some surviving teleosts, for example bowfins, gars and bichirs (BiCRZ), still use the swim bladder for breathing. The Anabas and mudskipper are two teleost fish that can walk over land. The mudskipper can crawl on land using its pectoral (arm) fin muscles which can support its weight, and eats insects and spiders. | Ocean and fresh water |
440,000,000 YBN | 6172) The first lung evolves, in ray-finned fishes, from the swim bladder. Some surviving teleosts, such as bowfins, gars, and bichirs still use their swim bladder for breathing. Fish that breathe air through their gill chamber evolved breathing through a completely different route than those fish that breathe with a lung. Bichirs (BiCR) are among the most primitive of the ray-finned fishes. Instead of the swim bladder of most ray-finned fishes, the bichir has a pair of lungs, which enables it to survive out of water for several hours. | Ocean (presumably) |
425,000,000 YBN | 377) Jawed fishes, Lobefin fishes evolve. Coelacanths. Lobefin fish have a fleshy lobe at the base of each fin. There are 2 living species of coelacanths known. The Coelacanths are well known in the fossil record, but were thought to have gone extinct before the dinosaurs, but are found to be still alive in 1938. | |
420,000,000 YBN | 6350) Arthropods Hexapoda {HeKsoPeDu} (arthropods with six legs, includes all insects). The closest relative of the Hexapoda is most likely the Branchiopoda, the brine shrimps and their allies. The earliest hexapod fossils are 396 million years old and from the Rhynie chert of Scotland. They are Rhyniella praecursor and a pair of mandibles described as Rhyniognatha hirsti. The proturans, (class Protura), are any of a group of about 150 species of minute (0.5 to 2 mm), pale, wingless, blind, primitive insects that live in damp humus and soil and feed on decaying organic matter. Proturans, frequently known as telsontails, include some of the most primitive hexapods. The first major division among hexapods is between Entognatha and Ectognatha. Ectognatha are more widely known as the Insecta. In entognaths the mouthpart appendages are recessed within a gnathal pouch on the head capsule. Ectognathy is more primitive and all other hexapods have ectognathous mouthparts. | (Rhynie chert) Scotland |
417,000,000 YBN | 378) Lobefin fish, Lungfishes. There are only six species of lungfish alive today. The Australian lungfish has a single lung, the others have two. The African and South American species bury themselves in mud during the dry season, breathing air through a little breathing hole in the mud. The earliest fossil lungfish dates to around this time. | |
416,000,000 YBN | 123) End of the Silurian (443.7-416 mybn), and start of the Devonian {DiVONEiN} (416-359.2 mybn) Period. | |
415,000,000 YBN | 401) Earliest fossil of land plant, Cooksonia. This is also the oldest fossil of a vascular land plant. Cooksonia is only a few centimeters tall. It has slender, leafless branches with Y shaped forks, topped by capsules that relase microscopic spores. Some fossils have a dark stripe in their stems which may be the remains of vascular tissue, used by plants to move water. They have been found in an area stretching from Siberia to the Eastern USA, and in Brazil. They are found mostly in the area of Euramerica, and most of the type specimens are from Britain. | (Wenlock strata) Devilsbit Mountain district of County Tipperary, Ireland |
410,000,000 YBN | 6352) The most primitive living insects are the order Archaeognatha, the Bristletails, of which there are around 500 known species. The members of this order are distinctive because their mandibles connect with the head capsule in only one place (monocondylic). The mandibles of all other insects have two points of articulation with the head (dicondylic). Other ancestral features of Archaeognatha include their method of reproduction in which species do not copulate and sperm transfer is indirect even though fertilization is internalized. In the most primitive wingless insects (apterygotes) such as the silverfish Lepisma, there is almost no change in form throughout growth to the adult. These are known as ametabolous insects. Engel and Grimaldi write: "...By most measures of evolutionary success, insects are unmatched: the longevity of their lineage, their species numbers, the diversity of their adaptations, their biomass, and their ecological impact. ...". The insects co-radiate with angiosperms; 85% of the 250,000 species of angiosperms are pollinated by insects. The diversity of flowers is due in large part to the insects lured to them. | |
410,000,000 YBN | 6354) Early arachnid fossils: trigonotarbids, spider-like arthropods with lung-books, the typical breathing organs of most of the larger recent living Arachnids. Unlike true spiders, Pleophrynus lacks poison and silk glands. | (Rhynie chert) Scotland |
410,000,000 YBN | 6363) Dicondylic insects (insects in which the mandible has two points of articulation with the head instead of one). Ancestor of Insects Zygentoma (Silverfish). Silverfish and all pterygota (winged insects) have dicondylic mandibles. This second articulation results in the movement of the mandible being roughly confined to a single plane of motion instead of the rotating motion possible in Archeognatha (bristletails) and Entognatha (springtails and relatives). Silverfish have more in common with insects than the more primitive bristletails. | |
400,000,000 YBN | 159) | |
400,000,000 YBN | 399) Earliest fossil of an insect; thought to be a winged insect. The oldest known insect fossil for which there is significant remaining structure (head and thorax fragments) is a bristletail (Archaeognatha), estimated to be 390 to 392 million years old. | Rhynie Chert , Scotland (and Gaspé Peninsula of Québec, Canada) |
390,000,000 YBN | 411) The first flying animal, an arthropod insect. Ancestor of all winged insects (Pterygota {TARiGOTu}) (Mayflies, Dragonflies, Damselflies). The most primitive living pterygotes are the Ephemeroptera (Mayflies) and the Odonata (Dragonflies and damselflies). Unlike most other flying insects both the Ephemeroptera and Odonata have freshwater aquatic larvae, presumed to be an ancestral habit. Arthropods evolve flight 90 million years before the first flight among vertebrates. Insect wings evolved only once, and all winged insects descend from the first winged insect. How flight evolved in insects is still debated. A terrestrial origin of pterygotes is supported by the fact that the most basal insects (apterygotes), the Zygentoma and Archeognatha are fully terrestrial. One theory suggests that wings develop as fixed extensions to the thoracic terga, called paranotal lobes. The paranotal lobes provide early insects with the ability to glide, and eventually to control the aerial descent of the insect from perches of tall plants, and from one Carbiniferous gymnosperm sporangia (which are located on branchlets) to another. Another theory has the wing evolving like the movable abdominal gills on aquatic naiads of mayflies which look like tiny wings and move in a similar way. The development of wings may have helped early insects to escape predators. The earliest full body imprint fossil of a flying insect is like a may-fly (Ephemeropterida) that landed in soft mud, during the late Carboniferous (318-299 mybn) around a fresh water habitat in Massachusetts. Some wing impressions from the Czech Republic date to 324 mybn. The Pterygota is the larger of two subclasses of Insecta. All have wings in the adult stage or have lost their wings secondarily. Some interesting facts about Mayflies are: -The subimagos of mayflies are the only insects that molt when they have wings. -Mayflies have paired genital openings. During copulation, the two penes of the male are inserted simultaneously into the two openings of the female. Sperm is transferred quickly (there is no spermatophore) and eggs are fertilized immediately. -A few species of mayflies reproduce parthenogenically -- no males have ever been found. -Although most mayflies are herbivores, a few are predaceous. -Adult mayflies do not feed. Their digestive system is filled with air, making them light enough to float. -Some mayfly species require up to four years to complete development. In that time they may molt more than 20 times. | (Wamsutta Formation) southeastern Massachusetts and Upper Silesian Basin, Czech Republic |
386,000,000 YBN | 406) Oldest fossil spider (Attercopus {aTRKoPuS}). These spiders represent the first use of silk by animals. | (Givetian of) Gilboa, New York |
385,000,000 YBN | 405) The first forests. Earliest large trees fossils. First progymnosperms (treelike plants). | Gilboa, New York, USA |
380,000,000 YBN | 6330) The fish "Tiktaalik" {TiK ToLiK}, an important transition between fish and amphibian. | (Fram Formation) Nunavut Territory, Canada |
375,000,000 YBN | 380) The first tetrapods (organisms with four feet), the amphibians evolve in fresh water. The first vertebrate limbs (arms and legs) and fingers. Ancestor of caecillians, frogs, toads, and salamanders. Almost no amphibians live in sea water. The earliest fossil amphibian is Elginerpeton, found in Scotland, dates back 368 million years.The earliest well known amphibians come from around 360 million years ago, and are Acanthostega and Ichthyostega. Acanthostega represents the most primitive tetrapod that has hands and feet for which there is a full skeleton. Acanthostega has eight toes per limb, no fin rays, a large load-bearing pelvis and is thought to have retained gills into adulthood. Ichthyostega is a large carnivore, ranging in size from 0.5 - 1.2 m. The earliest known Ichthyostega comes from 363 million year old deposits in Greenland (then on the equator). Ichthyostega is largely aquatic but has massive broad ribs that may be used for support of internal organs while on land. | Fresh water, Greenland (on the equator) |
SCIENCE | ||
375,000,000 YBN | 2599) | Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, in northern Canada |
368,000,000 YBN | 407) Oldest amphibian (and tetrapod) fossil. Tetrapods are four-limbed, vertebrate animals (all vertebrates except fish). | Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland |
367,000,000 YBN | 408) Late Devonian mass extinction caused by ice age. 57% of all genera are observed extinct. 70% of all species go extinct. This include 3 of 5 trilobite orders, 90% of brachiopod genera, and major loss of reefs. | |
365,000,000 YBN | 160) | |
363,000,000 YBN | 379) The first vertebrates live on land (amphibians). | Fresh water, Greenland (on the equator) |
360,000,000 YBN | 237) Vascular plants ferns evolve. Ferns are are flowerless, seedless vascular plants having roots, stems, and fronds (the leaf-like part of a fern or leaf of a palm) and reproducing by spores. There are around 12,000 species of Ferns (Plant division Pteridophyta), which are nonflowering vascular plants that have true roots, stems, and complex leaves and reproduce by spores. The life cycle is characterized by an alternation of generations between the mature, fronded form (the sporophyte) familiar in greenhouses and gardens and the form that strongly resembles a moss or liverwort (the gametophyte). | |
360,000,000 YBN | 6353) The Neoptera, folding wing insects. Neoptera, means "new wing". Ephemeroptera and Odonata, the most primitive living pterygota, do not live on the ground. It seems likely that selective pressures on the first winged insects heavily favor the development of some mechanism for folding the wings against the body after landing, making them less conspicuous, less awkward, and less susceptible to breakage. The neoptera represent a remarkably successful lineage and are the ancestors of all "higher" orders of insects. Unfoldable wings appear in butterflies and various moths, in many dipterans and some hymenopterans. | (Fossil: Archimylacris eggintoni, Coseley Lagerstätte) Staffordshire, UK |
359,200,000 YBN | 124) End of the Devonian (416-359.2 mybn), and start of the Carboniferous (359.2-299 mybn) Period. | |
359,000,000 YBN | 243) | Scotland |
350,000,000 YBN | 361) Ray-finned fishes, (Chondrostei), Sturgeons and Paddlefish. | |
350,000,000 YBN | 362) Ray finned fishes: Bichirs evolve. | |
350,000,000 YBN | 6355) The Neoptera: Dictyoptera {DiKTEoPTRu} (Cockroaches, Termites, and Mantises). Paleozoic "roachoids" are among the most abundant animals that live in the extensive coal swamps of the Carboniferous. Earliest fossils are from the early part of the Late Carboniferous (around 320 MYBN). | |
340,000,000 YBN | 384) The hard-shell egg evolves. The Amniota {aMnEOtu} (ancestor of reptiles, mammals and birds). The hard-shell egg is waterproof. This is the start of vertebrate internal fertilization, because on land the egg cannot be fertilized as most fishes and amphibians do, by a male swimming near the eggs and spraying them with sperm. Amniote males and females must copulate so that the sperm can reach the eggs inside the female. Much of the development of Amniote fetuses occurs inside the female, not in the water. Amniotes (reptiles, mammals, and birds) are distinguished from non-amniote tetrapods (amphibians) by the presence of complex embryonic membranes. One of these, the amnion, gives its name to the group. This group of tetropods, the Amniota, will branch into Sauropsida {SOR-roP-SiDu} (which includes reptiles and birds) and Synapsida {Si-naP-Si-Du} (which includes mammals). All living amniotes (reptiles, birds, and mammals) lay hard-shelled eggs, except in most mammals and some snakes and lizards, where egg laying has been replaced by live birth. The earliest known amniotes, Westlothiana (~338 MY) and Hylonomus (~300 MY), are also the earliest known reptiles. | Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland |
338,000,000 YBN | 410) Earliest amniote fossil. The next earliest amniote fossil is Hylonomus, a small lizard-like reptile that was trapped in the trunk of a swamp tree in what is now Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada (~300 MYBN). | Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland |
335,000,000 YBN | 6331) The tetrapod Amniota divide into the Sauropsida {SOR-roP-SiDu} (which includes reptiles and birds) and the Synapsida {Si-naP-Si-Du} (which includes mammals). The Sauropsida include birds, dinosaurs and modern reptiles. Sauropsids have two major lineages: the Parareptilia (turtles) and the Eureptilia (dinosaurs, crocodiles and birds). The Synapsida are a subclass of extinct amniota from which mammals descend. Synapsids are sometimes called "mammal-like reptiles" but it is incorrect to call them reptiles because they diverge at the beginning of amniote evolution, before the reptiles do. There are two major groups of synapsids: pelycosaurs (sail-backed) and therapsids (mammal-like). The earliest Sauropsid fossils, are Lethiscus(~ 330 MYA) and Westlothiana (~328 MY) from Scotland. The earliest Synapsid fossil is Protoclepsydrops (~314 MY) from Joggins, Nova Scotia, although some people reject the Protoclepsydrops fossil in favor the next oldest possible synapsid fossils, such as Echinerpeton and Archaeothyris from Florence, Nova Scotia (~307 MY). | (earliest possible Synapsid fossil: Cumberland group, Joggins formation.) Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada |
330,000,000 YBN | 409) | |
330,000,000 YBN | 6307) The Synapsids Pelycosauria {PeLiKuSOREu} evolve (includes Edaphosaurus {eDaFoSORuS}, Dimetrodon). There are two main groups of synapsids: pelycosaurs (sail-backed reptiles) and therapsids (mammal-like reptiles). Pelycosaurs arise in the mid-Carboniferous from cotylosaurs and soon enjoy an extensive radiation through the early Permian, coming to constitute about half of the known amniote genera of the time. Some like Edaphosaurus are herbivorous, however, most are carnivores that prey on fish and aquatic amphibians. Pelycosaurs differ in size but not in design. The most notable feature in some species is a broad "sail" along the back consisting of an extensive layer of skin supported internally by a row of fixed neural spines projecting from successive vertebrae. If the sail is brightly colored, it might have been used in courtship or in bluff displays with rivals, similar to ornamentations in birds. The sail may be a sun light collector: when turned broadside to the sun, blood moving through the sail is heated, then carried to the rest of the body. Somewhat suddenly pelycosaurs decline in numbers and are extinct by the end of the Permian. Therapsides evolve from them, and largely replace the Pelycosauria for a time as the dominant terrestrial vertebrates. | |
325,000,000 YBN | 381) The Amphibians: Caecilians evolve. | |
320,000,000 YBN | 238) Gymnosperms evolve. Gymnosperm is Greek for "Naked Seed". Gymnosperms are the earliest surviving seed plants, Spermatophyta, and ancestor of all Cycads, Ginkos and Conifers) evolve. The most primitive extant Gymnosperms, the Cycads evolve now. The earliest known seed bearing plants are the Pteridosperms, seed ferns known only from the fossil record. Gymnosperms are the most primitive seed bearing plants still living. A gymnosperm is any woody plant that reproduces by means of a seed (or ovule) in direct contact with the environment, as opposed to an angiosperm, or flowering plant, whose seeds are enclosed by mature ovaries, or fruits. The four surviving gymnosperm divisions are Pinophyta (conifers, the most widespread), Cycadophyta (cycads), Ginkgophyta (ginkos), and Gnetophyta (a small division with only three genera). More than half are trees; most of the rest are shrubs. Those widely found in the Northern Hemisphere are junipers, firs, larches, spruces, and pines; in the Southern Hemisphere, podocarps. The wood of gymnosperms is often called softwood to differentiate it from the hardwood of angiosperms. Many timber and pulp trees are also planted as ornamentals. Gymnosperms also are a minor source of food; of essential oils used in soaps, air fresheners, disinfectants, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and perfumes; of tannin, used for curing leather; and of turpentines. Gymnosperms were a major component in the vegetation that was compressed over millions of years into coal. Most are evergreen. They produce male and female reproductive cells in separate male and female strobili. | |
320,000,000 YBN | 6356) The Neoptera: Orthoptera evolve (Crickets, Grasshoppers, Locusts, Walking sticks). The Orthoptera and the later Hemiptera are termed hemimetabolous, and are said to undergo incomplete metamorphosis. In incomplete metamorphosis, the general form is constant until the final molt, when the larva undergoes substantial changes in body form to become a winged adult with fully developed genitalia. Many insects in the order Orthoptera produce sound (known as a "stridulation") by rubbing their wings against each other or their legs, the wings or legs containing rows of corrugated bumps. The tympanum or ear is located in the front tibia in crickets, mole crickets, and katydids, and on the first abdominal segment in the grasshoppers and locusts. One characteristic of Orthoptera are jumping hind legs and a thick femur packed with muscles. Orthopterans are the most "vocal" of all the orders, with calling behavior playing a major role in the biolkogy and evolution of the order. Mating calls are critical to recognize many species. Males regularly chorus on warm evenings for females. Sound is produced wither by rubbing a specialized area of the wing against a corresponding area on the other, overlapping forewing or by scraping the legs against stiff edges of the forewings. Scrapers of files are used to create the rasping sounds which are amplified by the specialized membranes of the wings called "mirrors". The earliest Orthoptera fossils are from the Late Permian of France. | |
320,000,000 YBN | 6364) Neoptera: Plectopterida (Stoneflies, webspinners, and zorapterans). | |
317,000,000 YBN | 385) Sauropsids Reptiles evolve (ancestor of all turtles, crocodiles, pterosaurs, dinosaurs and birds). The class Reptila contains approximately 8,700 species and is a group of air-breathing vertebrates that have internal fertilization, and with the exception of the birds, have a scaly body, and are cold-blooded. Most species have short legs (or none), long tails, and lay eggs. Living reptiles include the scaly reptiles (snakes and lizards: Squamata), the crocodiles (Crocodylia), the turtles (Testudines), and the unique tuatara (Sphenodontida). Being cold-blooded, reptiles are not found in very cold regions; in regions with cold winters, reptiles usually hibernate. Reptiles range in size from geckos that measure about 3 cm (1 in.) long to the python, which grows to 9m (30 ft); the largest turtle, the marine leatherback, weighs about 1,500 lb (680 kg). Extinct reptiles include the dinosaurs, the pterosaurs, and the dolphin-like ichthyosaurs. | (Joggins Formation) Nova Scotia, Canada |
315,000,000 YBN | 453) Allegheny mountains form as a result of the collision of Europe and eastern North America. Add other mountain range origins too. | |
310,000,000 YBN | 6357) The Neoptera: Paraneoptera (bark lice, true lice, thrips, and the Hemiptera {HemiPTRu} who have mouthparts adapted for piercing and sucking: Cicadas, Aphids, and "true bugs": such as Bed bugs, and Stink bugs). The evolutionary history of the Paraneoptera is reflected in structure and function of their mouthparts. There is a general trend from the "picking" mouthparts of bark lice with standard insect mandibles, to the probing and puncturing mouthparts of thrips and anopluran lice, and the distinctive piercing-sucking rostrum or beak of the Hemiptera. The Paraneopteran family tree splits into two major branches, one with the lice and the other with the thrips and Hemiptera (aphids, cicadas and Heteroptera: the true bugs). The bark-lice and book lice are very basal Paraneopterans. Not long after the piercing and sucking mouthparts evolve, Hemiptera divides into two sister groups. In one group, Homoptera, (leafhoppers, cicadas, aphids, etc.) , the rostrum is relatively short (1-3 segments) and emerges from near the ventral posterior margin of the head. In members of the second group, Heteroptera, the rostrum is relatively long (3-4 segments) and arises near the front or lower front of the head (prognathous or hypognathous). These insects are known as the "true bugs". | |
310,000,000 YBN | 6359) Ancestor of all Neoptera Holometabola: Holometabolous insects (beetles, bees, true flies, and butterflies). Complete metamorphosis. Neoptera Holometabola (also called Endopterygota) are insects that have complete metamorphosis (holometabolous development), These insects have four developmental stages in the life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult (imago). Unlike hemimetabolous insects in which the immature structures (legs, eyes, antennae, etc.) must also serve the adults, holometabolous insects have a larval stage and acquire a completely new body during the pupal stage. Start of larvae. The larva is a defining feature of Holometabola. There are two theories about how larva evolved. One is that holometabolous larvae and hemimetabolous nymphs are homologous life stages, the other theory is that the holometabolan larva is a protracted version of the hemimetabolous pronymph- that larvae are essentially free-living embryos. The pronymph is a stage between hatching and the first instar nymph in hemimetabolous insects. | |
310,000,000 YBN | 6366) Holometabolous Insects: Panorpida {PaNORPidu}, ancestor of all Mecoptera (scorpionflies), Siphonaptera (fleas), Diptera (true flies), Trichoptera {TriKoPTRu} (caddis flies), and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). | |
305,000,000 YBN | 242) Earliest frogs fossil, Prosalire. | |
305,000,000 YBN | 382) Amphibians: Anura {unRu} (Frogs and Toads) evolve. The order Anura, are tailless amphibians that include all frogs and toads. | |
305,000,000 YBN | 383) Amphibians: Salamanders evolve. | |
300,000,000 YBN | 162) | |
300,000,000 YBN | 387) Reptiles Testudines {TeSTUDinEZ}: Ancestor of Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins. Testudines is the order of all turtles, tortoises and terrapins. Testudines are reptiles, most are aquatic or semiaquatic, fresh water or marine, but lay eggs on land. They have webbed feet or flippers and their body is covered by a horny shell from which only the legs, head and neck, and tail protrude when needed. The upper shell is called the carapace and the undershell the plastron. Tortoises are any of various terrestrial turtles, especially one of the family Testudinidae, characteristically having thick clublike hind limbs and a high, rounded carapace. Terrapins are any of various North American aquatic turtles of the family Emydiolae, especially the genus Malaclemys, which includes the diamondback terrapin. There are inconsistencies in terminology. In the USA "turtle" is used broadly for all reptiles with a shell, "terrapin" applies to a large family, Emydidae, and "tortoise" refers to the slow moving terrestrial species (the land turtles) that enter water only to drink or soak. In Great Britain and Australia "tortoise" is applied generally to all members of the group except the marine species with paddle-shaped limbs which are called "turtles". DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes INFRAKINGDOM Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 PHYLUM Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates INFRAPHYLUM Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates SUPERCLASS Tetrapoda Goodrich, 1930 - tetrapods SERIES Amniota CLASS Sauropsida SUBCLASS Anapsida ORDER Testudines - turtles | |
300,000,000 YBN | 1310) Stramenopiles Golden algae (Chrysophyta {KriSoFiTu}). | |
299,000,000 YBN | 125) End of the Carboniferous (359.2-299 mybn), and start of the Permian (299-251 mybn) Period. | |
299,000,000 YBN | 6360) Holometabola: Coleoptera {KOlEoPTRu} (Beetles). The earliest fossil beetle, Adiphlebia lacoana. Coleoptera contains 350,000 named species and is the largest order of organisms and 40% of all insects. Well known beetles are: Ladybugs, Fireflies, Dung beetles, Japanese beetles, weevils, and scarabs. Some beetles have horns, in particular the Scarabaeoidea (scarab related families). The male usually has horns, females very rarely do and they are always small, which indicates that horns are the product of sexual selection, or intense competition among males for mating. In many Scarabaeoidea males fight to control access to breeding sites and to females. Some beetles secrete defensive fluids, and are bioluminescent (like the familiar Lampyridae more commonly called "lightning bugs" or "fireflies"). Among all bioluminescent insects the mechanism of light emission involves a luciferan in the presence of oxygen, the enzyme luciferase, and ATP. The reaction of these produces oxyluciferin, CO2 and light. | (Pennsylvanian deposit) Mazon Creek, Illinois, USA |
290,000,000 YBN | 239) Gymnosperms: Ginkgophyta (Ginkgos). | |
290,000,000 YBN | 6358) Holometabola: Hymenoptera (bees, ants, and wasps). The earliest fossil evidence of Hymenoptera is the stem gall of Pteridotorichnos stipitopteri in the Late Carboniferous. A gall is an abnormal swelling of plant tissue caused by insects, microorganisms, or external injury. But the earliest definitive Hymenoptera, recognized by the distinctive wing venation, are from the Triassic. The Hymenoptera are currently divided into two suborders: "Symphyta" (sawflies and wood wasps) and the Apocrita (true wasps or parasitic wasps) which includes the Aculeata (ants, bees, and other stinging wasps). In all members of the Hymenoptera order, females have two sets of chromosomes (are diploid), being the union of two gametes, but males are produced from unfertilized eggs and so have only a single copy of the genome (are haploid), although diploid males do sometimes occur. Hymenoptera are well known as parasitoids. Parasitoids, unlike parasites develop from nutrients extracted from a single host, and they kill the host as a direct result or indirect result (a parasite, while inflicting minimal to severe ill effects, does not kill its host). The host remains alive for the larger part of the of the parasitoid's period of feeding. Some larvae even change the behavior of their host to the benefit of the parasitoid. Some bees are cleptoparasitic, instead of the adult contructing and supplying her own nest, females steal into the nest of a host bee and deposit an egg into the brood cell before escaping. | |
290,000,000 YBN | 6367) Holometabolous Insects Antliophora (ancestor of Diptera: true flies and Mecopterids: scorpionflies and fleas). | |
287,000,000 YBN | 6308) Synapsid Therapsids evolve (Cynodonts). Therapsids evolve from Pelycosaurs and largely replace them for a time as the dominant terrestrial vertebrates. Therapsids appear in the late Permian and prosper during the early Triassic. The Therapsids are quadruperal and their feet have five digits, but their legs are more directly positioned under the weight of their body. This reflects a more efficient and active mode of locomotion. Teeth are differentiated into distinct types. Some herbivorous therapsids become specialized for rooting or grubbing, some for digging, some for browsing. The overall selection for more efficient terrestrial locomotion and feeding specializations results in greateer diversity within therapsids. There is some evidence that therapsids become endothermic in parallel with their archosaur (avian) contemporaries. One particularly successful group of therapsids are the cynodonts. Some are herbivores but more are carnivores. They arise in the late Permian and become dominant land carnivores in the early part of the Triassic, until largely replaced by the terrestrial sauropsids of the late Triassic. Cynodonts have teeth specialized for slicing together with muscular cheeck that keep the food between tooth rows that chew the food. The Cynodont limbs are direectly under the body, contributing to the ease and efficiency of ative terrestrial locomotion. In addition, extensive turbinals are likely present in the nose. These are thin, scrolled, and folded plates of bone that warm and humidify the incoming air (as well as hold the olfactory epithelium). These characteristics suggest that cynodonts had an endothermic metabolism. During their evolution the cynodonts decline in body size from the size of a large dog to slightly larger than a weasel. By the Triassic, only one group of cynodonts, the mammals, will remain and eventually prosper after the great dinosaur extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous. | |
280,000,000 YBN | 6365) Ancestor of Holometablous insects Neuropterida (Neuroptera: lacewings, Raphidioptera: snakeflies, and Megaloptera: alderflies and dobsonflies). | |
280,000,000 YBN | 6368) Holometabolous Insects Mecopterids (ancestor of Mecoptera: scorpionflies and Siphonaptera: fleas). | |
274,000,000 YBN | 307) Ancestor of all Protists: Phaeophyta {FEoFiTu} (Brown Algae). The Phaeophyta are a phylum (division) of the kingdom Protista consisting of those organisms commonly called brown algae. Many of the Earth's familiar seaweeds are members of Phaeophyta. There are approximately 1,500 species. Like the chrysophytes, brown algae derive their color from the presence, in the cell chloroplasts, of several brownish carotenoid pigments, including fucoxanthin, in addition to the photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll a and c. With only a few exceptions, brown algae are marine, growing in the colder oceans of the world, many in the tidal zone, where they are subjected to great stress from wave action; others grow in deep water. Among the brown algae are the largest of all algae, the giant kelps, which may reach a length of over 100 ft (30 m). Fucus (rockweed), Sargassum (gulfweed), and the simple filamentous Ectocarpus are other examples of brown algae. The cell wall of the brown algae consists of a cellulose differing chemically from that of plants. The outside is covered with a series of gelatinous pectic compounds, generically called algin; this substance, for which the large brown algae, or kelps, of the Pacific coast are harvested commercially, is used industrially as a stabilizer in emulsions and for other purposes. The normal food reserve of the brown algal cell is a soluble polysaccharide called laminarin; mannitol and oil also occur as storage products. The body, or thallus, of the larger brown algae may contain tissues differentiated for different functions, with stemlike, rootlike, and leaflike organs, the most complex structures of all algae. Some groups of brown algae have evolved an interesting type of alternation of generations, in which physiologically independent haploid gametophyte plants produce gametes, the fusion of which initiates the diploid sporophyte generation. The mature sporophyte plant produces, through meiosis, haploid spores, which develop into new gametophytes. The two generations, or phases, may be indistinguishable in size and form, or they may differ greatly. The genus Ectocarpus, for example, is found growing attached to larger algae. It has similar-looking gametophyte and sporophyte plants. In the kelps, however, the gametophyte is only a microscopic filament, in contrast to the occasionally tree-sized sporophyte. | |
270,000,000 YBN | 240) Gymnosperms: Pinophyta {PInoFiTu} (Conifers: includes Pine, Fir, Spruce, Redwood, Cedar, Juniper, Hemlock, Larch, and Cypress). The gymnosperms, are a division of seed plants characterized as vascular plants with roots, stems, and leaves, and with seeds that are not enclosed in an ovary but are borne on cone scales or exposed at the end of a stalk. | |
266,000,000 YBN | 308) Protist Stramenopiles: Diatoms. Diatoms are microscopic one-celled or colonial algae, having cell walls of silica consisting of two interlocking symmetrical valves. The silica shell often has intricate and beautiful sculpturing. Diatoms are usually yellowish or brownish, and are found in fresh and saltwater, in moist soil, and on the moist surface of plants. Diatoms carry chlorophylls a and c and the carotenoid fucoxanthin contained in plastids. They reproduce asexually by cell division. | |
260,000,000 YBN | 232) Earliest warm-blooded and hair growing animal. This is possibly a therocephalian reptile.. Both birds and mammals are endothermic (also called "warm blooded") as opposed to other vertebrates which are ectothermic (or "cold blooded) and cannot internally generate heat. Endothermy is the physiological maintenance, by a body, of a constant temperature independent of the external environmental temperature. Hair for insulation is correlated to endothermy. Endothermy allows birds and mammals to maintain a high and relatively constant body temperature, even at rest, during a wide range of external environmental conditions. Respiratory conchae (or turbinates) (small curved bones in the nasal passage, some which reduce respiratory water loss with rapid breathing), found in the primitive therocephalian Glanosuchus and in several cynodonts, are the first reliable morphological indicator of endothermy. Although the actual nasal turbinal bones are rarely preserved in fossils, their presence can be deduced from characteristic ridges on the walls of the nasal cavity. Ridges probably associated with respiratory turbinals first appear among advanced therapsids, the therocephalians and cynodonts. This suggests that the evolution of the higher oxygen consumption rates of mammals may begin as early as the Late Permian and develop in parallel in therocephalians and cynodonts, with full mammalian endothermy taking perhaps 40 to 50 million more years to develop. The earliest fossil that has hair is a Pterosaur fossil that is around 215 million years old, and some argue that Pterosaurs are endothermic (warm-blooded). The common ancestor of monotremes is 180 MYBN, and all monotremes are endothermic. | |
260,000,000 YBN | 364) Ray-finned fishes: Gars. | |
256,000,000 YBN | 6362) Holometabola: Diptera {DiPTRe} true flies, single pair of wings: mosquito, gnat, fruit fly, house fly). | |
255,000,000 YBN | 389) Reptiles: Tuataras {TUeToRoZ} evolve. The tuatara is a lizardlike reptile, and is the last survivor of the reptilian order Rhynchocephalia, which flourishes in the early Mesozoic era before the rise of the dinosaurs. Also called sphenodon, it is found on islands off the New Zealand coast and in Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, Wellington, New Zealand. The olive colored, yellow-speckled tuatara reaches a length of 60 cm (2 ft) or more. It is very lizardlike in external form, with a crest of spines down its neck and back. However, its internal anatomy, its scales, and the attachment of its teeth are different from those of lizards, and its body chemistry allows it to function at temperatures close to freezing. Like certain lizards, tuataras have a vestigial third eye (pineal eye) on top of their head, but this organ is probably not sensitive to light. Tuataras usually inhabit the breeding burrows of certain small petrels (sea birds). They feed on small animals, especially insects, and reproduce by laying eggs. Captive tuataras mature in about 20 years, and it appears that their life span may exceed a century by several decades. | (Islands of) New Zealand |
251,400,000 YBN | 102) End-Permian mass extinction. 82% of all genera are observed extinct. The Permian–Triassic extinction event is the Earth's most severe extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct It is the only known mass extinction of insects. The are 5 known major mass extinctions. Many organisms go extinct. Among invertebrates: all fusulinid forminifera, rugose and tabulate corals, trilobites, eurypterids, strophomenid brachiopods, and 5 orders of insects go extinct. Among vertebrates: two-thirds of amphibians, reptiles, and therapsids go extinct. | |
251,000,000 YBN | 54) End of the Paleozoic and start of the Mesozoic Era, and the end of the Permian (299-251 mybn) and start of the Triassic (251-201.6 mybn) period. | |
251,000,000 YBN | 452) | |
251,000,000 YBN | 6306) Oldest fossil amniote egg. | Texas (verify) |
250,000,000 YBN | 241) Fourth oldest living Plant Division "Gnetales". Gnetophyta - Gnetum, Ephedra, Welwitschia 80 species. | |
250,000,000 YBN | 368) Bowfin (Ray-finned) fishes evolve. Bowfins (Amiiformes) are a primitive bony freshwater fish of central and eastern North America, with a long spineless dorsal fin. | |
245,000,000 YBN | 392) Reptiles: Crocodilia {KroKoDiLEu} (Crocodiles, allegators, and caimans {KAmeNS}) evolve. | |
228,000,000 YBN | 412) Reptiles: Dinosaurs evolve. | (Ischigualasto Formation) Valley of the Moon, Ischigualasto Provinvial Park, northwestern Argestina |
228,000,000 YBN | 611) Dinosaurs divide into two major lines: Ornithischians {ORnitiSKEiNZ} (Bird-hipped dinosaurs) and Saurischians {SoriSKEiNZ} (Lizard-hipped dinosaurs). The Ornithischians will evolve into both bipedal and quadrupedal plant-eaters (herbavores), and the Saurischians will evolve into bipedal meat-eaters (carnivores) and quadrupedal plant-eaters. | |
228,000,000 YBN | 6282) Saurischian {SoriSKEiN} Dinosaurs split into two major lines: The Sauropodomorpha (SoroPiDimORFu} and the Therapoda {tiRoPiDu}. Sauropodomorphs are divided into prosauropods and sauropods, are mostly plant-eating, and include the large, long-necked dinosaurs like Apatosaurus. Theropod {tERePoD} dinosaurs are bipedal and carnivorous and include Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Velociraptor. All birds descend from a Therapod ancestor. | (Ischigualasto Formation) Valley of the Moon, Ischigualasto Provinvial Park, northwestern Argestina |
228,000,000 YBN | 6283) Earliest dinosaur fossil, the Theropod Eoraptor. This dinosaur is a cat-sized meat eater. | (Ischigualasto Formation) Valley of the Moon, Ischigualasto Provinvial Park, northwestern Argestina |
225,000,000 YBN | 126) | (Dockum Formation) Kalgary, Crosby County, Texas, USA |
225,000,000 YBN | 6370) Holometabolous Insect Order Tricoptera: Caddisflies. Caddisflies are closely related to the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). | |
220,000,000 YBN | 400) Earliest mammal fossil (Adelobasileus). This is a fingernail-sized skull found in Texas. | (Dockum Formation) Kalgary, Crosby County, Texas, USA |
220,000,000 YBN | 428) The first flying vertebrate (Pterosaur). Oldest Pterosaur fossils (Preondactylus and Eudimorphodon). Pterosaurs have hair, and some argue have endothermy (are warm-blooded) and actively fly (contracting their wing muscles to flap, as opposed to only glide). Bonde and Christiansen cite a report of a juvenile Eudimorphon ranzii with skin and 'hairy' impressions. However, Benton only cites the pterosaur fossils from the Upper Jurassic and that the details of pterosaur hair are currently disputed. | |
210,000,000 YBN | 317) Reptile Order: Squamata evolves (ancestor of lizards and snakes). | |
210,000,000 YBN | 369) | |
210,000,000 YBN | 390) Reptiles Iguania evolves: (iguanas, chameleons, and spiny lizards). | |
210,000,000 YBN | 391) Reptiles: Scleroglossa evolve (snakes, skinks, and geckos). | |
210,000,000 YBN | 413) | |
210,000,000 YBN | 6313) Earliest extant Teleosts: Bonytongues. Teleosts (Subdivision Teleostei) are a large group of fishes with bony skeletons, including most common fishes, different from cartilaginous fishes such as sharks and rays. Teleosts will grow to include (bonytongues, eels, herrings, anchovies, carp, minnows, piranha, salmon, trout, pike, perch, seahorse, cod). DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes INFRAKINGDOM Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 PHYLUM Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates INFRAPHYLUM Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates CLASS Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880 SUBCLASS Actinopterygii - ray-finned fishes INFRACLASS Cladistia INFRACLASS Actinopteri SUPERDIVISION Neopterygii DIVISION Halecostomi SUBDIVISION Teleostei | |
209,500,000 YBN | 489) Triconodonta (extinct mammals) evolve. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Triconodonta | |
201,600,000 YBN | 127) End of the Triassic (251-201.6 mybn), and start of the Jurassic (201.6-145.5 mybn) Period. | |
201,400,000 YBN | 228) | |
200,000,000 YBN | 370) | |
200,000,000 YBN | 6285) | |
200,000,000 YBN | 6372) Ornithischians Thyreophora {tIrEoFeru} evolve; ancestor of the armored ankylosaurs {ANKilOSORZ} and the plated stegosaurs {STeGeSORZ}. One of the most primitive Thyreophorans is Scutellosaurus which has rows of armored plates along its body and tail. | (Kayenta Formation) Arizona, USA |
195,000,000 YBN | 246) Sauropods {SoRuPoDZ} evolve; ancestor of the large, long-necked dinosaurs like Apatosaurus {uPaTuSORuS}, Brachiosaurus {BrAKEuSORuS}, and Diplodocus {DiPloDiKuS}. | western USA |
195,000,000 YBN | 6373) Ornithischians ornithopoda {ORnitoPiDu} evolve; the duck-billed dinosaurs, ancestor of the Hadrosaurs. One of the most primitive Ornithopods is Heterodontosaurus. | |
190,000,000 YBN | 358) Cartilaginous fishes: squalea {SKWAlEo} evolve, ancestor of all rays, skates, and sawfishes. | |
190,000,000 YBN | 359) Cartilaginous fishes: "Galea" {GAlEu} evolve, (ancestor of all sharks: includes great white, hammerhead, mako, tiger and nurse sharks). | |
190,000,000 YBN | 371) Teleosts: herrings and anchovies. | |
190,000,000 YBN | 6289) | Pangea |
190,000,000 YBN | 6347) Holometabola Lepidoptera {lePiDoPTRu} evolve (moths, butterflies, caterpillars). The Lepidoptera comprise the largest lineage of plant-feeding organisms. The plant eating beetles form the other largest group. Butterflies are only about 6% of all species the Lepidoptera, the rest being moths. Because unlike the day flying butterflies, moths are generally smaller, night flying insects, butterflies get all the attention. The Leptidoptera, among all Orders of insects, appears to have radiated most recently. | Dorset, England |
185,000,000 YBN | 194) Earliest diatom fossils. | |
180,000,000 YBN | 456) Biota Domain Eukaryota - eukaryotes Kingdom Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals Subkingdom Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians Branch Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes Infrakingdom Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 Phylum Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates Subphylum Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates Infraphylum Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates Superclass Tetrapoda Goodrich, 1930 - tetrapods Series Amniota Mammaliaformes Rowe, 1988 Class Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758 - mammals Subclass Prototheria Gill, 1872:vi Order Platypoda (Gill, 1872) McKenna in Stucky & McKenna in Benton, ed., 1993:740 Order Tachyglossa (Gill, 1872) McKenna in Stucky & McKenna in Benton, ed., 1993:740 | Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea |
170,000,000 YBN | 372) DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes INFRAKINGDOM Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 PHYLUM Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates INFRAPHYLUM Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates CLASS Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880 SUBCLASS Actinopterygii - ray-finned fishes INFRACLASS Cladistia INFRACLASS Actinopteri SUPERDIVISION Neopterygii DIVISION Halecostomi SUBDIVISION Teleostei | |
170,000,000 YBN | 373) DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes INFRAKINGDOM Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 PHYLUM Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates INFRAPHYLUM Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates CLASS Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880 SUBCLASS Actinopterygii - ray-finned fishes INFRACLASS Cladistia INFRACLASS Actinopteri SUPERDIVISION Neopterygii DIVISION Halecostomi SUBDIVISION Teleostei | |
165,000,000 YBN | 457) Ancestor of all Marsupials. This is the last common ancestor of Eutheria (includes Placental) and Metatheria (includes Marsupial) mammals. Marsupium means pouch in Latin. Marsupials are born as tiny embryos and crawl through their mother's fur into the pouch where they clamp their mouths to a nipple (teat). The other main group of mammals are called placentals because they feed their embryos with a placenta which allows the baby top be born much later. The pouch is like an external womb. The earliest known marsupial is Sinodelphys szalayi, which lived in China around 125 million years ago (mya). | China |
161,000,000 YBN | 6369) Holometabola Siphonaptera: fleas. The oldest flea fossils, which are much larger than modern species date to this time. | (Jiulongshan Formation) Daohugou, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia |
160,000,000 YBN | 163) | (Daxigou) Jianchang County, Liaoning Province, China |
150,000,000 YBN | 330) Stegosaurus, an armored, plant-eating Thyreophoran {tIRrEoFereN} dinosaur lives around this time. Stegosaurus has sharp spikes on its tail and large bony plates on its back. The plates may be used for display or for controlling its body temperature. | western USA |
150,000,000 YBN | 374) DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes INFRAKINGDOM Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 PHYLUM Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates INFRAPHYLUM Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates CLASS Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880 SUBCLASS Actinopterygii - ray-finned fishes INFRACLASS Cladistia INFRACLASS Actinopteri SUPERDIVISION Neopterygii DIVISION Halecostomi SUBDIVISION Teleostei | |
150,000,000 YBN | 393) | |
150,000,000 YBN | 394) Oldest bird (and feather) fossil, Archaeopteryx. The Archaeopteryx fossil is from the Solnhofen Limestone of the Upper Jurassic of Germany. John Ostrom describes the historical background of the Archaeopteryx fossils: "... Possibly no other zoological specimens, fossil or Recent, are considered so importa nt as are those of Archeopteryx lithographica (see Figs 1, 2 and 3). Certainly few other specimens have generated such widespread interest or provoked as much speculation and controversy. The reasons are several: these specimens are the oldest (Tithonian = Late Jurassic) known fossil bird remains; they are extremely rare, only five specimens (excluding the solitary feather) are known at present; several of these preserve remarkably detailed impressions of feathers and an extraordinary mixture of reptilian and avian characters; and most important of all, because of the last fact, out of all presently known fossil and living organisms, these specimens are widely recognized as constituting the best example of an organism perfectly intermediate between two higher taxonomic categories-representing an ideal transitional stage between ancestral and descendant stocks. Archaeopteryx may well be the most impressive fossil evidence of the fact of organic evolution. ... The first still-verifiable evidence of Jurassic birds is the imprint of a solitary feather in a small slab of these same Solnhofen limestones (Fig. 2A). This find was reported by von Meyer (1861a) in a letter to Professor H. Bronn, published in Bronn’s Neues Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie (p. 561). Less than two months later, von Meyer (1861b) reported the discovery in the same limestone strata of a partial skeleton associated with distinct impressions of feathers. This find, the now well-k nown London specimen (Fig. 1A), is currently in the British Museum (Natural History) in London. At first, some scholars questioned the authenticity of both specimens, but von Meyer (1862) established them as genuine.". Some scientists view Archaeopteryx as probably a flightless feathered dinosaur. | Solnhofen, Germany |
150,000,000 YBN | 6334) Probable fungi microfossils of "Tappania plana" with fused branches, a process found in higher fungi. | (Wynniatt Formation) Victoria Island, northwestern Canada |
150,000,000 YBN | 6374) Sauropods {SoRuPoDZ} are common; large, long-necked dinosaurs like Apatosaurus {uPaTuSORuS}, Brachiosaurus {BrAKEuSORuS}, and Diplodocus {DiPloDiKuS}. | western USA |
146,000,000 YBN | 490) Multituberculata (extinct major branch of mammals) evolve. | |
145,000,000 YBN | 245) The first flowering plant (angiosperm). Almost all grains, beans, nuts, fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices come from plants with flowers. Tea, coffee, chocolate, wine, beer, tequila, and cola all come from flowing plants. Much of our clothing comes from flowering plants too: cotton and linen are made from "fibers" of flowering plants, as are rope and burlap, and many commercial dyes are extracted from other flowering plants. Many drugs also come from flowering plants including: aspirin, digitalis, opium, cocaine, marijuana, and tobacco. Aside from primitive flowers like the Magnoliids, most later angiosperms can be divided into the more primitive Monocotyledons (Monocots), flowering plants that have a single cotyledon (seed leaf) in the embryo, and the more recent Dicotyledons (Dicots), which have two cotyledons in the embryo. The dicots contain two groups that account for two-thirds of all angiosperm species: the asterids, and the rosids. The earliest fossil evidence of angiosperms is pollen 130-140 MYO in Israel, Morocco, Libya, and possibly China. The earliest macrofossils are leaves and flowers around 120-130 MYO. Archaefructus, is an early angiosperm fossil that dates to around 125 MYO from northeastern China. Archaefrcutus does not have petals or sepals, but does have carpels and stamens which are attached to an elongated stem with the staminate (pollen-producing) flowers below, and pistillate (fruit-producing) flowers above. This ancient flower is similar in some ways to Trithuria, a genus of Nymphaeles (waterlilies). Estimates of angiosperm origins based on molecular divergence are typically far older than those estimates based on fossils. These rate estimates may be a result of using living species in a group where the basal branches of a lineage have been extensively pruned by extinction, which may be the case for the angiosperm tree. | Israel, Morocco, Libya, and possibly China |
145,000,000 YBN | 415) Oldest flower fossil, Archaefructus, in China, a submerged wetland plant. | (Yixian Formation) Liaoning Province, northeastern China |
144,000,000 YBN | 128) End of the Jurassic (201.6-145.5 mybn), and start of the Cretaceous (145.5-65.5 mybn) Period. | |
143,000,000 YBN | 6288) Earliest extant flowering plant (Angiosperm) "Amborella". | |
140,000,000 YBN | 247) The second most primitive living Angiosperms, the Water Lilies ("Nymphaeales"). 70 species. | |
138,000,000 YBN | 248) Angiosperm "Austrobaileyales". | |
136,000,000 YBN | 249) Angiosperm "Chloranthaceae". 70 living species. | |
136,000,000 YBN | 460) Enantiornithes {iNaNTEORNitEZ} evolve (early birds). | |
134,000,000 YBN | 250) Ancestor of all flowers: "Magnoliids" {maGnOlEiDZ} (nutmeg, avocado, sassafras, cinnamon, black and white pepper, camphor, bay (or laurel) leaves, magnolias.). There are 9,000 living species. | |
133,000,000 YBN | 253) Flowers Eudicots {YUDIKoTS} evolve (the largest lineage of flowers). Eudicots are also called "tricolpates" which refers to the structure of the pollen. The two main groups of the Eudicots are the "rosids" and the "asterids". | |
132,000,000 YBN | 462) | |
130,000,000 YBN | 375) Teleosts: Perch, seahorses, flying fish, pufferfish, barracuda. | |
130,000,000 YBN | 376) Teleosts: cod, anglerfish. | |
130,000,000 YBN | 6338) Feathered dinosaur microraptors fossils. | Northeastern China |
125,000,000 YBN | 395) | (Yixian Formation) Liaoning Province, northeastern China |
120,000,000 YBN | 463) Neornithes {nEORnitEZ} evolve (modern birds: the most recent common ancestor of all living birds). Neornithes is the subclass of Aves that contains all of the known birds other than those placed in the Archaeornithes. Neornithes includes more than 30 orders, both fossil and living, its members are characterized by a bony, keeled sternum with fully developed powers of flapping flight (secondarily lost in a number of groups); a short tail with fused vertebrae to which all tail feathers attach; a large fused pelvic girdle; and a large brain and eyes contained within a fused braincase. In addition Neornithes have a fully-separated four-chambered heart and typically exhibit complex social behaviors. | |
120,000,000 YBN | 6361) Bees. The earliest bee fossil is from the Late Cretaceous, but presumed nests that date to 95 MYO indicate that bees are older, perhaps as old as around 120 MYO. | |
119,000,000 YBN | 251) Ancestor of all Angiosperm "Ceratophyllaceae". Closest surviving relative of all eudicots. 6 living species. | |
112,000,000 YBN | 252) Flowers Monocotyledons (or "Monocots") evolve: Flowering plants that have a single cotyledon (or seed leaf) in the embryo. Monocots are the second largest lineage of flowers after the Eudicots (formally Dicotyledons) with 70,000 living species (20,000 species of orchids, and 15,000 species of grasses). The two main orders of Monocots are "Base Monocots" and "Commelinids". | |
112,000,000 YBN | 481) Earliest Monotreme fossil, Steropodon galmani, the earliest platypus-like species. Earliest Monotreme fossil, Steropodon galmani, the earliest platypus-like species. | Lightning Ridge in north central New South Wales, Australia |
110,000,000 YBN | 416) | Oklahoma, USA |
108,000,000 YBN | 254) Flowers: "Basal Eudicots" (buttercup, clematis, poppy (source of opium and morphine), macadamia, lotus, sycamore). | |
106,000,000 YBN | 267) Flowers "Core Eudicots" (carnation, cactus, caper, buckwheat, rhubarb, sundew, venus flytrap, old world pitcher plants, beet, quinoa, spinach, currant, sweet gum, peony, witch-hazel, mistletoe, grape plants.). | |
105,000,000 YBN | 417) Sauropod Argentinosaurus {oRJeNTiNuSORuS}, a long-neck (sauropod) titanosaur from South America, possibly the longest animal of all time, at an estimated 130 to 140 feet length. | |
105,000,000 YBN | 491) Ancestor of all placental mammal Afrotheres evolves (elephants, manatees, aardvarks). Afrotheres originate in Africa and are the earliest extant placental mammals. | Africa |
100,000,000 YBN | 164) | |
100,000,000 YBN | 418) | South America |
100,000,000 YBN | 464) | |
100,000,000 YBN | 465) Birds "Ratites" evolve (ostrich, emu, cassowary {KaSOwaRE}, kiwis). | |
100,000,000 YBN | 480) Kollikodon ritchiei, an extinct monotreme. | |
95,000,000 YBN | 419) The Therapod {tERePoD} Spinosaurus {SPINuSORuS}, perhaps the largest meat-eating dinosaur, estimated to have been 45 to 50 feet long. The only skeleton ever found was destroyed during World War 2. | |
95,000,000 YBN | 498) Mammals "Xenarthrans" {ZeNoRtreNZ} evolve (Sloths, Anteaters, Armadillos). | |
93,000,000 YBN | 256) Flowers: "Rosids" evolve (Basal Rosids include: geranium, pomegranate, myrtle, clove, guava, allspice, and eucalyptus). | |
93,000,000 YBN | 258) Flowers "Eurosid I" Order "Celastrales". | |
93,000,000 YBN | 261) Angiosperm Eudicot "Eurosids I" Order "Fabales" {FoBAlEZ}. Fabales include many beans (green, lima, kidney, pinto, navy, black, mung, fava, cow (or black-eyed), popping), pea, peanut, soy {used in tofu, miso, tempeh, and milk}, lentil, chick pea (or garbonzo) {used in falafel}, lupin, clover, alfalfa {used as sprouts}, cassia {Kasu}, jicama, Judas tree, tamarind {TaMuriND}, acacia {uKAsYu}, mesquite. | |
93,000,000 YBN | 265) Angiosperms "Base Monocots" evolve (vanilla, orchid, asparagus, onion, garlic, agave, aloe, lily). | |
93,000,000 YBN | 266) Monocots "Commelinids" {KomelIniDZ} evolve (palms, coconut, corn, rice, barley, oat, wheat, rye, sugarcane, bamboo, grass, pineapple, papyrus, turmeric {TRmRiK}, banana, ginger). | |
93,000,000 YBN | 268) Angiosperm Eudicot "Eurosids I" Order "Zygophyllales" evolves. | |
93,000,000 YBN | 274) Ancestor of flowers "Basal Asterids". Earliest surviving Order "Cornales" (dogwoods, tupelos, dove tree). | |
93,000,000 YBN | 275) Angiosperm "Basal Asterids" Order "Ericales" {AReKAlEZ} . Ericales includes kiwifruit (kiwi), Impatiens, ebony, persimmon, heather, crowberry, rhododendrons, azalias, cranberries, blueberries, lingonberry, bilberry, huckleberry, brazil nut, primrose, sapodilla, mamey sapote (sapota), chicle, balatá, canistel, new world pitcher plants {carniverous}, tea {Camellia sinensis} | |
93,000,000 YBN | 277) Angiosperm "Euasterids I" evolve, with earliest surviving order "Garryales". | |
93,000,000 YBN | 282) Angiosperm "Euasterids II" order "Aquifoliales" (includes holly). | |
93,000,000 YBN | 283) Angiosperm "Euasterids II" order "Apiales" {APEAlEZ} evolving now. Apiales includes dill, angelica, chervil {CRViL}, celery, caraway, cumin, sea holly, poison hemlock, coriander (or cilantro), carrot, lovage {LuViJ}, parsnip, anise {aNiS}, fennel, cicely {SiSelE}, parsley, ivy, ginseng. | |
93,000,000 YBN | 285) Angiosperms "Euasterids II" order "Asterales" {aSTRAlEZ} evolves. Asterales includes burdock, tarragon, daisy, marigold, safflower, chrysanthemum (mums), chickory, endive, artichoke, sunflower, sunroot (Jerusalem artichoke), lettuce, chamomile, black-eyed susan, salsify {SoLSiFE}, dandelion, and zinnia. | |
91,000,000 YBN | 259) Flowers: Eurosid I "Malpighiales" {maLPiGEAlEZ} evolves (includes gamboge {GaM BOJ}, mangosteen {mANGuSTEN}, coca {used in cocaine and drinks}, rubber tree, cassava (or manioc {maNEoK}) {used like a potato, and in tapioca}, castor oil, poinsettia, flax, acerola {aSorOlu} (barbados cherry), willow, poplar, aspen, and violet (or pansy). | |
91,000,000 YBN | 260) Angiosperm Eudicot "Eurosids I" Order "Oxalidales" (fly-catcher plant, wood sorrel family {leaves show "sleep movements"}, oca {edible tuber}). | |
90,000,000 YBN | 270) Angiosperm Eudicots "Eurosids II" evolves: the most primitive Order is "Brassicales" {BraSiKAlEZ}. Brassicales includes horseradish, rapeseed, mustard {plain, brown, black, indian, sarepta, asian}, rutabaga, kale, Chinese broccoli (kai-lan {KI laN}), cauliflower, collard greens, cabbage (white and red {used in coleslaw and sauerkraut}), Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi {KOLroBE}, broccoli, watercress, radish, wasabi, mignonette {miNYuNeT}, and papaya. | |
89,000,000 YBN | 262) Angiosperm "Eurosids I" Order "Rosales" {ROZAlEZ}. Rosales includes hemp (cannibis, marijuana) {used for rope, oil, recreational drug}, hackberry, hop {used in beer}, breadfruit, cempedak, jackfruit, marang, paper mulberry, fig, banyan, strawberry, rose, red raspberry, black raspberry, blackberry, cloudberry, loganberry, salmonberry, thimbleberry, serviceberry, chokeberry, quince, loquat, apple, crabapple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, apricot, almond, jujube, and elm. | |
89,000,000 YBN | 279) Flowers "Euasterids I" order "Gentianales" {JeNsinAlEZ} evolves. Gentianale s includes gentian, dogbane, carissa (Natal plum), oleander, logania, and coffee. | |
88,000,000 YBN | 284) Angiosperm "Euasterids II" order "Dipsacales". Dipsacales includes Elderberry, Honeysuckle, Teasel, Corn Salad. | |
86,000,000 YBN | 278) Angiosperm "Euasterids I" order "Solanales" {SOlanAlEZ} evolve. Solanales includes deadly nightshade or belladonna, capsicum (bell pepper, paprika, Jalapeño, Pimento), cayenne pepper {KI YeN}, datura, tomato, mandrake, tobacco, petunia, tomatillo, potato, eggplant, morning glory, sweet potato, and water spinach. | Americas |
85,000,000 YBN | 263) Angiosperm "Eurosids I" Order "Cucurbitales" (KYUKRBiTAlEZ} evolve. Cucurbitales includes watermelon, musk, cantaloupe, honeydew, casaba, cucumbers, gourds, pumpkins, squashes (acorn, buttercup, butternut, cushaw {Kuso}, hubbard, pattypan, spaghetti), zucchini, and begonia. | Americas |
85,000,000 YBN | 264) Angiosperm "Eurosids I" Order "Fagales" {FaGAlEZ} evolves. Fagales includes many flowers that produce edible nuts: Birch, Hazel {nut}, Filbert {nut}, Chestnut, Beech {nut}, Oak {used for wood, and cork}, Walnut, Pecan, Hickory, and Bayberry. | |
85,000,000 YBN | 466) Birds "Galliformes" {GaLliFORmEZ} evolve (Chicken, Turkey, Pheasant, Peacock, Quail). | |
85,000,000 YBN | 467) Birds "Anseriformes" {aNSRiFORmEZ} evolve (waterfowl: ducks, geese, swans). The "Anseriformes" are an order of birds, characterized by a broad, flat bill and webbed feet. | |
85,000,000 YBN | 499) Ancestor of all placental mammal "Laurasiatheres" evolves. This major line of mammals includes the Insectivora (shrews, moles, hedgehogs), Chiroptera (bats), Cetartiodactyla (camels, pigs, deer, sheep, hippos, whales), Perissodactyla (horses, rhinos), Carnivora (cats, dogs, bears, seals, walruses) and Pholidota (pangolins). Laurasiatheres originate in the old northern continent Laurasia. | Laurasia |
84,000,000 YBN | 454) The Rocky mountains start to form. | |
82,000,000 YBN | 271) Angiosperm "Eurosids II" Order "Malvales" {moLVAlEZ} evolve. Malvales includes okra, marsh mallow {malO}, kola nut, cotton, hibiscus, balsa, and cacao {KoKoU} (used in chocolate). | Americas |
82,000,000 YBN | 272) Angiosperm "Eurosids II" Order "Sapindales" {SaPiNDAlEZ} evolves. Sapindales includes maple, buckeye, horse chestnut, longan, lychee, rambutan, guarana, bael, langsat (or duku), mahogany, cashew, mango, pistachio, sumac, peppertree, poison-ivy, frankincense, and the citris trees: orange, lemon, grapefruit, lime, tangerine, pomelo, and kumquat}. | Americas |
82,000,000 YBN | 420) Hadrosaurs, Ornithopod {ORniTePoD} duck-billed dinosaurs. Duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs) are common. The Hadrosaurs Maiasaurs are examples of dinosaurs from which fossil nests, eggs, and baby dinosaurs have been found. | |
82,000,000 YBN | 500) Laurasiatheres "Insectivora" evolves (shrews, moles, hedgehogs). | |
81,000,000 YBN | 281) Angiosperms "Euasterids I" family "Boraginaceae" (includes forget-me-not). | |
80,000,000 YBN | 421) The Ornithiscian Ceratopsian dinosaurs evolve. Protoceratops, an early shield-headed (ceratopsian) dinosaur fossil. This is the first dinosaur discovered with fossil eggs. These eggs and nests were found in Mongolia in the 1920's. | Mongolia, China |
80,000,000 YBN | 422) Therapods {tERePoD} Dromaeosaurs {DrOmEoSORZ}: Raptor fossils. Raptors (dromaeosaurs) are Cretaceous dinosaurs, which have large, hook claws on their feet. Velociraptor is one example. The most famous Velociraptor is a skeleton preserved in combat with a Protoceratops from Mongolia, China. | |
80,000,000 YBN | 482) Marsupials "Didelphimorphia" evolve (New World opossums). | Americas |
80,000,000 YBN | 501) Laurasiatheres mammals "Megachiroptera" {KIroPTRu} (Old World fruit bats) and "Microchiroptera" (Echolocating Bats) evolve. | Laurasia |
78,000,000 YBN | 502) Laurasiatheres "Cetartiodactyla" {SiToRTEODaKTilu} evolve (ancestor of all Artiodactyla {oRTEODaKTiLu} also called "even-toed ungulates" {uNGYUlATS or uNGYUliTS}: camels, pigs, ruminants {includes deer, giraffe, cattle, sheep, and antelope}, hippos, and all Cetacea {SiTASEu or SiTAsEu}: Whales, and Dolphins). Hippos are the closest living relative to whales. Cetartiodactyla is an unranked taxonomic group, equivalent to a superorder, containing the orders Artiodactyla and Cetacea. It is proposed on the basis of molecular evidence suggesting a close evolutionary relationship between the two orders. The artiodactyla are an order comprising the even-toed ungulates (hoofed mammals). There are two main radiations: the predominantly omnivorous Bunodontia, including suoids (such as pigs, peccaries, and hippos); and the more herbivorous Selenodontia, including camels and ruminants (such as deer, giraffe, cattle, sheep, and antelope). Artiodactyla contains about 213 living species, making it the fifth most speciose order of mammals. First known from the early Eocene, artiodactyls have proliferated during the last 55 million years to reach great diversity (especially among the family Bovidae). Their radiation is often contrasted with that of the odd-toed ungulates, or Perissodactyla (horses, rhinos, and tapirs). Artiodactyls are also important for human economy and agriculture, comprising most of the domestic animals, providing milk, wool, and most of the meat supply. Ruminants are any of various hoofed, even-toed, usually horned mammals of the suborder Ruminantia, such as cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and giraffes, characteristically having a stomach divided into four compartments and chewing a cud consisting of regurgitated, partially digested food. Cetacea is an order or marine mammals that includes the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, characterized by a nearly hairless body, anterior limbs modified into broad flippers, vestigial posterior limbs, and a flat notched tail. | Laurasia |
77,000,000 YBN | 483) Marsupials "Paucituberculata" evolve (Shrew opossums). The Marsupial Order Paucituberculata contains 6 surviving species confined to Andes mountains in South America. | Andes Mountains, South America |
76,000,000 YBN | 503) Laurasiatheres order "Perissodactyla" {PeriSODaKTilu} evolve (also called "odd-toed ungulates") {uNGYUlATS or uNGYUliTS} (Horses, Tapirs {TAPRZ }, Rhinos). Perissodactyla is an order of herbivorous, odd-toed, hoofed mammals, including the living horses, zebras, asses, tapirs, rhinoceroses, and their extinct relatives. They are defined by a number of unique specializations, but the most diagnostic feature is their feet. Most perissodactyls have either one or three toes on each foot, and the axis of symmetry of the foot runs through the middle digit. | Laurasia |
75,000,000 YBN | 423) Ceratopsian dinosaurs are common (Monoclonius, Styrakosaurus, Triceratops). Triceratops, is the largest of its kind, reaching 30 feet in length. | |
75,000,000 YBN | 492) Afrotheres: Aardvark. | Africa |
75,000,000 YBN | 504) Laurasiatheres order "Carnivora" (Cats, Dogs, Bears, Weasels, Hyenas, Seals, Walruses). | Laurasia |
75,000,000 YBN | 505) | Laurasia |
74,000,000 YBN | 280) Angiosperm "Euasterids I" order "Lamiales" {lAmEAlEZ} evolves. Lamiales includes lavender, mint, peppermint, basil, marjoram {moRJ uruM}, oregano, perilla, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme, teak, sesame, corkscrew plants, bladderwort, snapdragon, olive, ash, lilac, and jasmine. | |
73,000,000 YBN | 484) Australian Marsupial Order Peramelemorphia evolves (Bandicoots and Bilbies {BiLBEZ}). | Australia |
70,000,000 YBN | 424) Two of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs known are common (both Therapods {tERePoD}): Tyrannosaurus rex is the top predator in North America and Giganotosaurus is in South America. | Americas |
70,000,000 YBN | 425) The Thyreophoran {tIRrEoFereNZ} ankylosaurs evolve (shield back and/or clubbed tail dinosaurs) and are the most heavily armored land-animals known. These plant-eating dinosaurs are low to the ground for optimal protection. Many have spikes that stick out from their bone-covered back. Ankylosaurus even has bony plates on its eyelids. | |
70,000,000 YBN | 426) Mosasaurs {mOSeSORZ}, marine reptiles evolve. | |
70,000,000 YBN | 469) Birds "Podicipediformes" {PoDiSiPeDeFORmEZ} (grebes {GreBS}). | |
70,000,000 YBN | 493) Afrotheres: Tenrecs and golden moles. | Africa |
70,000,000 YBN | 494) Afrotheres: Elephant Shrews. | Africa |
70,000,000 YBN | 507) Placental Mammal Order "Lagomorpha": Rabbits, Hares, and Pikas {PIKuZ}. Rabbits were once classified as rodents, because they also have very prominent gnawing teeth at the front, but were separated into their own order called "Lagomorpha". Lagomorphs and rodents are grouped together in a cohort named "Glires". | |
70,000,000 YBN | 516) Placental Mammals: Tree Shrews and Colugos {KolUGOZ}. | |
70,000,000 YBN | 1383) Theropod Giant bird-like dinosaur Gigantoraptor. | |
66,000,000 YBN | 120) Largest Pterosaur and largest flying animal ever known, Quetzalcoatlus {KeTZLKWoTLuS}. Quetzalcoatlus has a wing span of 40 ft. | |
65,500,000 YBN | 129) End of the Mesozoic and start of the Cenozoic Era, and the end of the Cretaceous (145.5-65.5 mybn), and start of the Tertiary (65.5-1.8 mybn) Period. | |
65,500,000 YBN | 397) End-Cretaceous mass extinction. 47% of all genera are observed extinct. Dinosaurs become extinct. Also called the K-T (Kretaceous-Tertiary) extinction. Huge amounts of lava erupted from India, and a comet or meteor collided with the Earth in what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. No large animals survived on land, in the air, or in the sea. Extinction of 60% of plant species, and all dinosaurs, mosasaurs, pterodactyls, plesiosaurs and pliosaurs. | |
65,000,000 YBN | 429) There is a rapid increase in new species of fossil mammals after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Most early Cenozoic mammal fossils are small. | |
65,000,000 YBN | 468) Birds "Gruiformes" {GrUiFORmEZ} evolve (cranes, rails, bustards). | |
65,000,000 YBN | 470) Birds "Strigiformes" {STriJiFORmEZ} evolve (owls). | |
65,000,000 YBN | 485) Australian marsupial order "Notoryctemorphia" evolve (Marsupial moles). | Australia |
65,000,000 YBN | 486) Australian Marsupial order "Dasyuromorphia" (Tasmanian Devil, Numbat). | Australia |
65,000,000 YBN | 487) Marsupial Order "Microbiotheria" evolves (Monita Del Monte). | |
65,000,000 YBN | 488) Australian Marsupial Order "Diprotodontia" {DIPrOTODoNsEu} evolve (Wombats, Kangeroos, Possums, Koalas). | Australia |
65,000,000 YBN | 508) Rodents evolve. Mammal Order "Rodentia". Rodent suborder: "Myomorpha" {MIemORFu} (rats, mice, gerbils, voles {VOLZ}, lemmings, hamsters). Rodents are an order of mammals characterized by a single pair of ever-growing upper and lower incisors, a maximum of five upper and four lower cheek teeth on each side, and free movement of the lower jaw in an anteroposterior direction. Rodents are the most diverse group of mammals on Earth, consisting of over 2000 species, more than 40% of the known species of mammals on Earth today. Rodents range in size from mice, weighing only a few grams, to the Central American capybara, which is up to 130 cm (4 ft) in length and weighs up to 79 kg (170 lb). Rodents have been found on every continent except Antarctica. Rodents include the semiaquatic swimming (beavers and muskrats), gliding ("flying" squirrels), burrowing (gophers and African mole rats), arboreal (dormice and tree squirrels), and hopping (kangaroo rats and jerboas). Nearly all rodents are herbivorous, with a few exceptions that are partially insectivorous to totally omnivorous, such as the domestic rat. The great adaptability and rapid evolution and diversity of rodents are mainly due to their short gestation periods (only 3 weeks in some mice) and rapid turnover of generations. The most diagnostic feature of the Rodentia is the presence of two pair of ever-growing incisors (one pair above and one below) at the front of the jaws. These teeth have enamel only on the front surface, which allows them to wear into a chisellike shape, giving rodents the ability to gnaw. | |
65,000,000 YBN | 509) Rodents: Beavers, Pocket gophers, Pocket mice and kangaroo rats evolve. | |
65,000,000 YBN | 807) Ancestor of camels and llamas splits from the Even-Toed Ungulates line (Cetardiodactyla). This is just after death of dinosaurs. Both these ancestors are still small and probably look like shrews. | |
64,000,000 YBN | 585) Birds Psittaciformes {SiTaS-iFORmEZ} (Parrots). | |
63,000,000 YBN | 510) Rodents: Springhares and Scaly-tailed Squirrels. | |
63,000,000 YBN | 587) Primates evolve, most likely in Africa or the Indian subcontinent. The order primates contains more than 300 species, including monkeys, apes, and humans. The primates are one of the most diverse orders of mammals on Earth. They include the lemurs (more than 70 species in six families), the lorises (three or more species in one subfamily), the tarsiers (six or more species in one family), the New World monkeys (almost 100 species in five families), the Old World monkeys (more than 100 species in one family), and the apes and humans (about 20 species in two families). The oldest known fossil remains of primates are about 60 million years old. Unlike most other mammalian orders, the primates cannot be defined by a diagnostic suite of specializations, but are characterized by a combination of primitive features and progressive trends. These include: 1) Increased dominance of vision over olfaction, with eyes more frontally directed, development of stereoscopic vision, and reduction in the length of the snout. 2) Eye sockets of the skull completely encircled by bone. 3) Loss of an incisor and premolar from each half of the upper and lower jaws with respect to primitive placental mammals. 4) Increased size and complexity of the brain, especially those centers involving vision, memory, and learning. 5) Development of grasping hands and feet, with a tendency to use the hands rather than the snout as the primary exploratory and manipulative organ. 6) Progressive elaboration of the placenta in conjunction with longer gestation period, small litter size (only one or two infants), and precocial young. 7) Increased period of infant dependency and more intensive parenting. | Africa or India |
62,000,000 YBN | 495) Afrotheres: Elephants. | Africa |
60,000,000 YBN | 430) In South America, the Andes mountains start to form. | |
60,000,000 YBN | 431) Earliest fossil rodent. | |
60,000,000 YBN | 432) The cat-like Laurasiatheres Creodonts {KrEuDoNTS} like Oxyaena are common. Creodonts are the dominant predators throughout the Eocene and Oligocene and occupy many of the same niches as the carnivores which eventually replace them. There are two families of Creodonts, Oxyaenidae and the more widespread Hyaenodontidae which includes Megistotherium one of the largest land predators to have ever lived. The last creodont, Dissopsalis carnifex, became extinct about 9 million years ago, giving the group a more than 50-million-year history. | |
60,000,000 YBN | 586) Earliest primate fossils. The earliest primate fossils belong to the primate order "Plesiadapiformes" and are found near the start of the Paleocene (~55 mybn). These include Purgatorius from Montana, Plesiadapis, and Dryomomys from Wyoming, and Altiatlasius which appears in Africa and is known from a handful of isolated upper and lower teeth from Morocco. During the early Cenozoic the Earth is much warmer and more densely populated with plants and trees, and there is a large diversity of different early primates, but the planet becomes cooler and drier in the Oligocene and the forests disappear and primates vanish from North America and Europe and become restricted to Southeast Asia and Africa. During the Oligocene, one group of primates, the New World Monkeys (Cebidae) manage to cross the South Atlantic Ocean and then radiate into great diversity. | Morocco, Africa, (Willwood Formation) Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming, USA), and Montana, USA |
60,000,000 YBN | 796) | |
60,000,000 YBN | 808) The ancestors of pigs splits from the line that leads to the Ruminants (cattle, goats, sheep, giraffes, bison, buffalo, deer, wildebeast, antelope), hippos, dolphins, and whales. | |
59,000,000 YBN | 496) Afrotheres: Hyraxes. | Africa |
59,000,000 YBN | 497) Afrotheres: Manatee and Dugong. | |
58,000,000 YBN | 511) Rodents: Dormice, Mountain Beaver, Squirrels and Marmots {moRmuTS}. | |
58,000,000 YBN | 524) Primates: Tarsiers {ToRSERZ}. | |
57,000,000 YBN | 433) Earliest hooved mammal fossil. Earliest hooved mammal fossil. | |
55,800,000 YBN | 588) Widespread appearance of primates. Cantius and Teilhardina are the earliest euprimates in North America, followed quickly by Steinius and others. Cantius and Teilhardina also appear in Europe with Donrussellia. | |
55,000,000 YBN | 435) Rhinoceros-like Placental mammals Uintatherium {YUiNTutEREuM} are the largest land animals at this time. | |
55,000,000 YBN | 436) Horses. Earliest fossil horse, Hyractotherium, about the size of a dog). | |
55,000,000 YBN | 512) | |
55,000,000 YBN | 809) Last common ancestor of Ruminants with Hippos, Dolphins and Whales. | |
54,970,000 YBN | 434) Earliest primate skull. From the Hunan Province, China. Other fossils from the same genus are found in Europe. The earliest euprimates can be distinguished as Cantius, Donrussellia and Teilhardina. | Hunan Province, China |
54,000,000 YBN | 810) Last common ancestor between hippos with dolphins and whales. | |
53,500,000 YBN | 812) Earliest fossils of marine mammal "Pakicetus". | |
52,500,000 YBN | 6179) Earliest bat fossils (Icaronycteris and Onychonycteris). | (Green River Formation) Wyoming |
51,000,000 YBN | 513) Rodents: Old World Porcupines. | |
50,000,000 YBN | 437) Elephants. Earliest elephant fossil, an unnamed fossil from Algeria. | Algeria, Africa |
50,000,000 YBN | 438) Himalayan mountains start to form as India collides with Eurasia. This will continue for millions of years. | Himalyia Mountains, India |
50,000,000 YBN | 518) Primates: Lorises {LORiSEZ}, Bushbabies, Pottos {PoTTOZ}. | |
50,000,000 YBN | 816) Earliest Ambulocetus (an early whale) fossil. | |
49,000,000 YBN | 439) The largest meat-eating land animals of the Paleocene and Eocene epochs were flightless birds, like Diatryma from America, and Gastornis from Europe. | |
49,000,000 YBN | 472) Birds "Caprimulgiformes" (nightjars, night hawks, potoos, oilbirds). | |
49,000,000 YBN | 474) Birds "Falconiformes" {FaLKeNiFORmEZ} (falcons, hawks, eagles, Old World vultures). | |
49,000,000 YBN | 514) | |
49,000,000 YBN | 515) Rodents: New World porcupines, guinea pigs, agoutis {uGUTEZ}, capybaras {KaPuBoRoZ}. | |
46,000,000 YBN | 817) Earliest Rodhocetus fossil (early whale). | |
45,000,000 YBN | 519) Primate: Aye-aye {I-I}. | |
40,000,000 YBN | 440) In Europe the Alpine mountains start to form. | Alpine mountains |
40,000,000 YBN | 441) | |
40,000,000 YBN | 525) Ancestor of all Primates "New World Monkeys" (Sakis, Spider, Howler and Squirrel monkeys, Capuchins {KaP YU CiNZ}, Tamarins). The ancestor of all New World monkeys probably originates in Africa, but all surviving descendants now live in the Americas, which suggests that a small group of New World monkeys got across the early Atlantic Ocean to South America, perhaps by rafting on fallen trees over a chain of islands. | Africa |
40,000,000 YBN | 815) Earliest Basilosaurus fossil (early whale). Basilosaurus was renamed "Zeuglodon" by Richard Owen because it is a mammal not a reptile (saurus=lizard). | |
37,000,000 YBN | 442) Oldest fossil of dog, similar to a weasel, Hesperocyon. | |
37,000,000 YBN | 471) Birds "Apodiformes" {oPoD-i-FORmEZ} (hummingbirds, swifts). | |
37,000,000 YBN | 473) | |
37,000,000 YBN | 475) Birds: Cuculiformes {KUKUliFORmEZ} evolve (cuckoos, roadrunners). | |
37,000,000 YBN | 476) Birds "Piciformes" {PESiFORmEZ} (woodpeckers, toucans). | |
35,000,000 YBN | 811) Last common ancestor of dolphins and whales. (Toothed and Baleen split.) | |
34,000,000 YBN | 813) | |
34,000,000 YBN | 814) Earliest Baleen {BulEN} whale fossils, Janjucetus and Llanocetus. | |
33,000,000 YBN | 560) Primates Aegyptopithecus evolves in East Africa. | |
30,000,000 YBN | 443) The largest land mammal ever known, the hornless Rhinoceros, Paraceratherium lives at this time. | India |
30,000,000 YBN | 520) Primates: True Lemurs. | |
28,000,000 YBN | 477) Birds "Passeriformes" {PaSRiFORmEZ} (perching songbirds) evolve. This order includes many common birds: crows, jays, sparrows, warblers, mockingbirds, robins, orioles, bluebirds, vireos {VEREOZ}, larks, finches. More than half of all species of bird are passerines. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines are one of the most spectacularly successful vertebrate orders: with around 5,400 species, they are roughly twice as diverse as the largest of the mammal orders, the Rodentia. | |
27,000,000 YBN | 521) | |
25,000,000 YBN | 444) Earliest cat fossil, "Proailurus". | |
25,000,000 YBN | 522) | |
25,000,000 YBN | 531) Ancestor of all Primates "Old World Monkeys" (Macaques, Baboons, Mandrills, Proboscis and Colobus {KoLiBeS} monkeys). This is also the last common ancestor of the Old World monkeys and the hominoids, the superfamily Hominoidea, which includes apes and humans. There are around 100 species of Old World Monkey. | (perhaps around Lake Victoria) Africa |
24,000,000 YBN | 662) The ancestor of all Hominoids (Gibbons and Hominids) loses its tail. This may be a genetic mutation or because a tail might be an obstacle for species like gibbons that swing from branch to branch as opposed to more ancient primates that leap from branches. | |
23,000,000 YBN | 478) Monotreme: Echidna. | Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea |
23,000,000 YBN | 479) Monotreme: Duck-Billed Platypus. | Australia and Tasmania |
22,000,000 YBN | 526) New World Monkeys: Sakis, Uakaris {WoKoREZ}, and Titis {TETEZ}. | |
22,000,000 YBN | 527) New World Monkeys: Howler, Spider and Woolly monkeys. | |
22,000,000 YBN | 528) New World Monkeys: Capuchin {KaPYUCiN} and Squirrel monkeys. | Americas |
22,000,000 YBN | 558) Afropithecus evolves in Africa. This tree-dwelling ape had some anatomical features in common with the better-known Proconsul, and it also seems to have been closely related to Sivapithecus as well. | |
22,000,000 YBN | 559) Hominoid Proconsul evolves in East Africa. | |
21,000,000 YBN | 529) New World Monkeys: Night (or Owl) monkeys. | |
21,000,000 YBN | 530) New World Monkeys: Tamarins {TaMariNZ} and Marmosets {moRmoSeTS}. | |
21,000,000 YBN | 556) Hominoid Kenyapithecus evolves in Africa. | |
20,000,000 YBN | 549) The ancestor of all Homonids may move (over land) from Africa into Eurasia. An alternative theory has this ancestor in Africa, with a large number of Africa to Eurasia migrations by later species. | |
18,000,000 YBN | 537) Primates: Gibbons. Gibbons are very sexual, and polygamous. There are 12 species of Gibbons. | South-East Asia |
16,000,000 YBN | 555) Hominoid Oreopithecus. | |
15,000,000 YBN | 553) Lufengpithecus evolves in China. | |
14,000,000 YBN | 542) Earliest extant Hominid: Orangutans. | South-East Asia |
13,000,000 YBN | 551) Dryopithecus evolves in Eurasia. | |
12,500,000 YBN | 552) Hominoid Sivapithecus, possible ancestor of modern orangutan. The animal was about the size of a chimpanzee but had the facial morphology of an orangutan; it ate soft fruit (detected in the toothwear pattern) and was probably mainly arboreal. | Petwar platein, Pakistan and India |
10,500,000 YBN | 538) Gibbons: Crested Gibbons. | South-East Asia |
10,000,000 YBN | 533) Old World Monkeys: Colobus {KoLiBeS} monkeys. | Africa |
10,000,000 YBN | 534) Old World Monkeys: Langurs {LoNGURZ} and Proboscis monkeys. | Asia |
10,000,000 YBN | 535) Old World Monkeys: Guenons {GenONZ}. | |
10,000,000 YBN | 543) Hominids: Gorillas evolve in Africa. The earliest possible Gorilla fossils, are some teeth found in Ethiopia and date to around 10 million years old and a jaw from Kenya that is around 9.8 million years old. | Africa |
9,000,000 YBN | 550) The ancestor of all Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and archaic humans may move over land from Eurasia back into Africa. Alternatively, this ancestor could have evolved in Africa if many earlier ancestors frequently migrated to Eurasia. | |
7,750,000 YBN | 539) Gibbons: Siamangs {SEumANGZ}. | South-East Asia |
6,000,000 YBN | 540) Gibbons: Hylobates {HIlOBATEZ}. | South-East Asia |
6,000,000 YBN | 541) Gibbons: Hoolocks {HUleKS}. | South-East Asia |
6,000,000 YBN | 544) Chimpanzees evolve. Last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. | Africa |
6,000,000 YBN | 565) Hominid fossils "Toumai" (Sahelanthropus), from Chad, central Africa Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Subfamily: Homininae Tribe: Hominini Subtribe: Hominina Genus: Sahelanthropus (Brunet et al, 2002) Species: S. tchadensis (Brunet et al, 2002) | Chad, Central Africa |
6,000,000 YBN | 566) Hominid fossils "Orrorin" in Kenya, east Africa. | Lukeino Formation, Kenya |
6,000,000 YBN | 1490) | Argentina |
5,000,000 YBN | 554) Hominid Gigantopithecus {JIGaNTOPitiKuS} evolves in China. | |
4,400,000 YBN | 546) Hominid: Ardipithecus. Earliest bipedal primate. Some theories to explain why bipedalism evolved are: 1) to carry food home, for later use or for others (a leopard uses its jaws) 2) using weapons is easier 3) walking may be more efficient in traveling long distances. 4) sexual selection Primates walking upright on two legs may signal that hominids have become the top of the food chain on land, which might be the result of the use of tools, since other land animals cannot defend themselves or attack others with tools. | Lukeino Formation, Tugen Hills, Kenya, Africa |
4,000,000 YBN | 547) Hominid: Australopithecus (x-STrA-lO-PitiKuS}. | Sterkfontein, South Africa |
3,700,000 YBN | 570) Hominid footprints in Laetoli {lITOlE}, thought to be made by Australopithicus Afarensis. Some analysts have noted that the smaller of the two clearest trails suggests that whoever left the prints was burdened on one side - perhaps a female carrying an infant on her hip. | Laetoli, Tanzania |
3,390,000 YBN | 269) Hominids use stones as tools. Earliest evidence of stone used as tool. | Dikika, Ethiopia |
3,180,000 YBN | 571) Australopithecus afarensis fossil, "Lucy". | |
3,000,000 YBN | 446) North and South America connect. | |
2,700,000 YBN | 564) Hominid: Paranthropus {Pa raN tru PuS}, a line of extinct early bipedal hominids. | Africa |
2,500,000 YBN | 455) Oldest formed stone tools. This begins the Paleolithic or "Stone Age". Other species have been observed to use tools, including Chimpanzees using sticks they sharpen with their teeth to rouse pray. | Gona, Ethiopia |
2,400,000 YBN | 827) | |
2,200,000 YBN | 447) Hominids: Homo Habilis evolve in Africa (earliest member of the genus "Homo"). This is when the human brain begins to get bigger. Homo habilis is thought to be the ancestor of Homo ergaster. As the habilis brain grows, habilis gains a larger memory for storing sensory information such as eye images, sounds, pain, etc. and to play back remembered images and sounds in thought. | (Kenya and Tanzania) Africa |
2,000,000 YBN | 545) Hominids: Bonobos {BunOBOZ}. | Africa |
1,800,000 YBN | 130) End of the Tertiary {TRsEARE} (65-1.8 mybn), and start of the Quaternary {KWoTRnARE or KWoTRNRE} (1.8 mybn-now) Period. | |
1,800,000 YBN | 563) Homo erectus {hOmO ireKTuS} evolves. Some people call Homo Erectus in Africa, "Homo Ergaster", and think that Ergaster leaves Africa and evolves into Homo erectus in Asia, and into Homo Neaderthalensis in Europe and western Asia. | Lake Turkana, East Africa |
1,700,000 YBN | 449) Homo erectus moves into Eurasia from Africa. Homo sapiens have been around for only 200,000 years, but Homo erectus lived for almost a million years before going extinct. | |
1,500,000 YBN | 583) Earliest evidence of use of fire, burned bones from Swartkrans cave in South Africa. This fire could have been made by Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) robustus and an early species of Homo, possibly Homo erectus. | (Swartkrans cave) Swartkrans, South Africa |
1,440,000 YBN | 448) Latest Homo Habilis fossil. This skull shows that Homo habilis and Homo erectus both were living at this time. | Kenya, Africa |
1,000,000 YBN | 589) Homo erectus evolves less body hair, except head hair, facial hair, airpit, chest and groin areas. This is thought to be driven by male sexual selection of less haired females, perhaps because less hair means less body lice and so is more desirable. No other surviving apes have taken this direction. Perhaps wearing furs and other clothes for heat may have eliminated the need for bodily hair. | |
1,000,000 YBN | 1479) | Madrid, Spain |
970,000 YBN | 200) Hominids wear clothing. That humans (Homo antecessor) wear clothing at this time is implied by the cold climate that occurred at the same time that stone tools found in the area were used. The earliest genetic evidence of humans wearing clothes, is based on the differences of the head and body louse and puts the change to around 80,000 years before now. | Happisburgh, Norfolk, UK |
790,000 YBN | 584) | Gesher Benot Ya`aqov, Israel |
400,000 YBN | 615) Oldest evidence of spear. | Schöningen, Germany. |
200,000 YBN | 548) Humans (Homo sapiens) evolve in Africa. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils (Omo I and II) are from Ethiopia. | Ethiopia, Africa |
200,000 YBN | 561) Genetic evidence that complex human language evolves in early Homo species. | |
200,000 YBN | 590) Humans language of thirty short sounds begins to develop. All words are single syllable. This is the beginning of the transition from the verbal language of chimps and monkeys, that will result in the "staccato" (short sound duration) language humans use now. Either the majority of the 30 basic sounds in human language (U, o, K, S, etc.) were learned before humans moved out of Africa, or after. That sapiens of Eurasia, Australia and America do not have unique base sounds is evidence that the 30 plus base sounds of all human language completely developed in Africa before the sapiens movement from Africa into Eurasia, Australia and the Americas. In addition, that the native humans of Eurasia, Australia and America have different words, is evidence that word of mouth, being not adequate to spread words, was not adequate to spread the base sounds shared by all humans, after their move out of Africa. It is difficult to determine when but probably early Homo sapiens in Africa evolve a larger vocabulary of sound combinations to label objects and activities than the other more primitive primates like the chimpanzees. These sounds eventually become shortened and more finely controlled, perhaps quicker communication being a selective advantage, and ultimately evolve to the 30 plus basic sounds used to construct words in all human languages. The vowel sounds may develop before any consonants. Perhaps the earliest vowels are: U (food), o (mama), O (no), E (eat) and perhaps i (big), e (bed), u (cup). (These sounds are in use by the first Sumerian writing.) For centuries early human language may have been vowels only until consonants attached to vowels are added and in regular use. The first consonants are probably (the so-called "stop consonants") T and D, then K and G, then perhaps B and P. But it may be impossible to know the order, and the number of years between the three sound families. Initially, this language may be very simple, one sound applying to many objects and situations. Some time near here, words made of more than one sound (compound words) evolves, then objects and actions might have compound sounds, although still one word. Clearly many mammals and birds have a vocabulary of remembered sounds, which are used to label other species, objects, and situations. Chimpanzees use sounds that sound similar to sounds humans make, for example the U (in food), and perhaps "E", although not sounded in short duration breaths. Perhaps the development of language is assisted by trading which requires object name translation, because these new sounds and words are remembered, accepted, and included into the language of both trading groups. Clearly some less common vowel sounds evolve later based on these main sounds, for example "i" (big), "u" (cup), "v" (food), "a" (cat), etc. Perhaps there are some base (letter) sounds that have been lost to the past. | |
190,000 YBN | 601) The "Stop" family of sounds, B, D, G, K, P and T are in use. The major sounds of language for any species can be cataloged and sorted into groups. Humans language has 30 or so base sounds which can be grouped into at least 4 major families, all of which probably originated at different times. The short duration, "stop" family of sounds (B,D,G,K,P,T) probably evolve the earliest of all consonent sounds in the language of sapiens. Initially, these sounds may have formed (naturally) before the long vowel sound (for example a "B" sound when opening the mouth to howl a vowel sound). This language may be simply single syllable consonant plus vowel words (for example "GO", "Po", etc.) with short durations. This is basically the form of language all humans use today, short duration (50 ms each) sounds from a family of only 30 sounds, combined together to form words used to describe objects and activities (nouns), movements and actions (verbs), and later a second word added to further describe objects (adjectives) and actions (adverbs). This "short duration" language, means communication must have been very routine and optimized, which implies that this happened through hunting or perhaps through trading where language is a selective advantage. | |
170,000 YBN | 600) The "Fricative" sound family is in use (the sounds S, Z, s, H, F, V). The "S" sounds may have been an imitation of snakes, and may have represented an early snake alarm signal to others. The sound "s" may be related to cause fear in others to signal to be quiet. | |
160,000 YBN | 591) Second oldest human (Homo sapiens) skull, like the oldest in Ethiopia, Africa. | Ethiopia, Africa |
150,000 YBN | 592) The sounds M, N, L, and R are in use. The M and N family are called "Nasals", and the L and R family are called "Liquids". | |
130,000 YBN | 450) Homo Neanderthalensis evolves in Europe and Western Asia. The oldest Neanderthal fossil is from Croatia. For decades, anthropologists treated Neanderthals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens, (Homo sapiens Neaderthalensis), but recent work suggests that they were a distinct species and did not interbreed with or give rise to Homo sapiens sapiens. The best evidence for this comes from the Skhul and Qafzeh caves in Israel, where layers bearing Neaderthals remains are interbedded and alternate with layers containing early modern humans. In addition, Neaderthals appear later than the earliest archaic Homo sapiens, so they can not be the ancestors of Homo sapiens. Recently Neaderthal DNA has been sequenced, and they are clearly not Homo sapiens, and are now named Homo Neaderthalensis. Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA has been compared to sapiens and a common ancestor of the two is estimated to be 500,000, long before the oldest sapien fossils in Africa, which supports the idea that sapiens did not evolve or interbreed with Neanderthals. | Europe and Western Asia |
120,000 YBN | 572) Start of Wurm glaciation (120,000-20,000 YBN), which connects a land bridge between Asia and America. | |
100,000 YBN [98000 BC] | 257) Theory of Gods. The explanation that many phenomena in the universe are controlled by objects with human and animal bodies that have supernatural powers is one of the earliest theories that tries to explain how the universe works. This theory will last for all of recorded history to the present time, over 5000 years. Although polytheism will fall in popularity to monotheism which is introduced around 1300 BCE by the Egyptian Pharoah Amenhotep IV. The theory of gods is recorded in the earliest recorded stories of history 4600 years before now. The theory that a god or gods controls the universe is perhaps the oldest theory that is still believed by some humans. Perhaps by this time Humans have created a word to mean "every thing" like "universe" or "world". | Africa |
100,000 YBN [98000 BC] | 6333) | (es-Skhul cave) Mount Carmel, Israel |
95,000 YBN [93000 BC] | 594) | |
92,000 YBN [90000 BC] | 597) Oldest Homo sapiens skull outside Africa, in Israel, the Jebel Qafzeh skull. | (Skhul Cave) Mount Carmel, Israel |
60,000 YBN [58000 BC] | 573) Earliest evidence of humans in Americas, from a rock shelter in Pedra Furada, Brazil. The evidence is controversial. Some people argue that the chipped stones are geoartifacts, but the artifact finders argue that the chips are too regular to be made from falling rocks. | |
53,300 YBN [51300 BC] | 557) Homo Erectus extinct. Most recent Homo Erectus fossil in Southeast Asia (Java). This shows that Homo erectus lived at the same time as Homo sapiens. These ages are 20,000 to 400,000 years younger than previous age estimates for these hominids and indicate that H. erectus may have survived on Java at least 250,000 years longer than on the Asian mainland, and perhaps 1 million years longer than in Africa. | Ngandong, Indonesia |
46,000 YBN [44000 BC] | 577) Earliest evidence of water ship. Sapiens from Southeast Asia reach Australia by water ship. Earliest sapians fossils Australia, "Mungo man". | |
43,000 YBN [41000 BC] | 1187) Earliest known mine: "Lion Cave" in Swaziland, Africa is in use. At this site, which by radiocarbon dating is 43,000 years old, paleolithic humans mined for the iron-containing mineral hematite, which they ground to produce the red pigment ochre. Sites of a similar age where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons and tools have been found in Hungary. | Swaziland, Africa |
40,800 YBN [01/01/38800 BC] | 1262) Earliest known human-made painting. In El Castillo Cave in Spain, one of several large red disks on the "Panel de las Manos", made by using a blowing technique, has a minimum age of 40.8 ky. This age is measured using uranium-series disequilibrium of calcite deposits overlying or underlying the cave art. This implies that depictions of the human hand are among the oldest art known from Europe. The cave art may have been created by the first anatomically modern humans in Europe or possibly by Neanderthals. | (The Panel de las Manos,) El Castillo Cave, Spain|Southern France |
40,000 YBN [38000 BC] | 598) Oldest Homo sapiens fossils in Europe from the Cro-Magnon site in France This time (40,000 YA) also marks the decline of Neaderthal populations until their extinction 10,000 years later. | |
40,000 YBN [38000 BC] | 604) Earliest evidence of oil lamp. | Southwest France |
40,000 YBN [38000 BC] | 5871) Oldest indisputable musical instrument, a flute made from the wing bone of a vulture. | Hohle Fels Cave, Germany |
39,000 YBN [37000 BC] | 599) Sapiens reach China. Earliest Homo sapiens fossil in China, from the Zhoukoudian Cave in China. | (Tianyuan Cave) Zhoukoudian, China |
38,000 YBN [36000 BC] | 574) | |
35,000 YBN [33000 BC] | 3943) | Hohle Fels Cave, Germany |
35,000 YBN [33000 BC] | 4191) | Russia |
32,000 YBN [30000 BC] | 602) Weaving and textiles. The earliest evidence of weaving are 32,000 year old flax fibers. Some of the flax fibers are spun, dyed, and knotted. Other early evidence of weaving is from textile and flexible basketry impressions on burnt clay from Pavlov in the Czech Republic which date to between 27,000-25,000 ybn (see image). The oldest woven cloth so far discovered is made from flax, dates to about 9000 ybn, and comes from Çayönü, Turkey. | Dzudzuana Cave, Georgia |
31,700 YBN [29700 BC] | 42) Humans raise dogs. (Dog domesticated). One theory supported by evidence is that dog anatomy changes abruptly from wolf anatomy as a result of domestication by humans. | Goyet cave, Belgium |
30,000 YBN [28000 BC] | 575) Mitochondrial DNA shows a sapiens migration to the Americas now. | |
29,000 YBN [27000 BC] | 6215) Earliest ceramic object, the Venus figurines. The Venus figurines are created around this time. The Venus of Dolní Věstonice is the oldest of these ceramic objects at 29,000 years old. This figurine, together with a few others from nearby locations, is the oldest known ceramic in the world, predating the earliest pottery of China (18,000) by 11,000 years. Some of the figurines appear to be wearing clothing. | Dolni Věstonice, Czechoslovakia |
28,000 YBN [26000 BC] | 451) Neanderthals extinct. Most recent Neanderthal fossil. Genetic evidence suggests interbreeding took place with Homo sapiens between roughly 80,000 and 50,000 years ago in the Middle East, resulting in 1–4% of the genome of people from Eurasia having been contributed by Neanderthals. | Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, Spain |
26,000 YBN [24000 BC] | 6224) Earliest "fired" clay (clay dried and hardened by fire). | Dolní Věstonice, Pavlov, Czech Republic |
23,000 YBN [21000 BC] | 6231) Earliest human-made structure. A stone wall. The oldest wall in Jericho, also a stone wall dates to 8,000 BCE. | (Theopetra Cave) Kalambaka, Greece |
20,000 YBN [18000 BC] | 576) Y Chromosome DNA shows a sapiens migration to the Americas now. | |
20,000 YBN [18000 BC] | 1291) | in the Peloponnese, in the southeastern Argolid, is a cave overlooking the Argolic Gulf opposite the Greek village of Koilada. |
19,000 YBN [17000 BC] | 6184) Cereal gathering. | Near East (Southwest Asia Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) |
18,000 YBN [16000 BC] | 603) Oldest evidence of pottery. The oldest known ceramic objects are the "Venus" figurines which date back to 29,000 years before present, 11,000 years earlier. | (Yuchanyan cave), Daoxian County, Hunan Province, China |
17,000 YBN [15000 BC] | 6225) Earliest rope, a 30 cm fragment of rope, only 7 or 8 mm in diameter. | Lascaux, France |
14,000 YBN [12000 BC] | 6227) Earliest known map. | Mezhirich, Ukraine |
13,000 YBN [11000 BC] | 578) Humans enter America. Oldest human bones in America. The earliest bones of a human in the Americas, a skull (Peñon woman) from Mexico and bones from "Arlington Springs" woman, in the California Channel Islands date to now. These three bones are discovered on the Channel Islands, on a ridge called Arlington, just off the California coastline. | Mexico City and Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island, California, USA |
13,000 YBN [11000 BC] | 579) | |
12,500 YBN [10500 BC] | 582) Human artifacts from Monte Verde, southern Chile. This date puts the possibility of walking over the Being Straight in doubt. | |
11,500 YBN [9500 BC] | 581) Spear Head from Clovis, New Mexico. | |
11,500 YBN [9500 BC] | 719) Earliest evidence of rice cultivation in China. | Yangtze (in Hubei and Hunan provinces), China |
11,130 YBN [9130 BC] | 1292) | =9130BCE |
11,000 YBN [9000 BC] | 606) Oldest city, Jericho. Jericho is located in the West bank, near the Jordan river (east of Mediterranean). Jericho is one of the earliest continuous settlements on Earth, starting from perhaps about 9000 bce. This city provides evidence of the first permanent settlements. | Jericho, (modern West Bank) Palestine |
11,000 YBN [9000 BC] | 608) Oldest saddle quern {KWRN}. A saddle quern consists simply of a flat stone bed and a rounded stone to be operated manually against it, to grind grain into flour. | Abu Hureyra, Syria |
11,000 YBN [9000 BC] | 617) Goats kept, fed, milked, and killed for food. | Euphrates river valley at Nevali Çori, Turkey (11,000 bp), and the Zagros Mountains of Iran at Ganj Dareh (10,000). |
11,000 YBN [9000 BC] | 1290) | Pangmapha district, Mae Hong Son Province, northwest Thailand |
10,700 YBN [8700 BC] | 829) Humans shape metal objects. Oldest copper (and metal) artifact, from Northern Iraq. This starts the "Copper Age" (Chalcolithic). This is a copper ear ring. Copper is the first metal shaped by humans. | Northern Iraq |
10,500 YBN [8500 BC] | 6315) Sheep raised for wool, skins, meat and dung (for fuel). | Northern Zagros to southeastern Anatolia|(Middle East) Eastern Mediterranean |
10,350 YBN [8350 BC] | 828) | |
10,000 YBN [8000 BC] | 205) Pigs raised and killed for food. | (Near East) Eastern Mediterranean and Island South East Asia|southeastern Anatolia |
10,000 YBN [8000 BC] | 614) Oldest evidence of bow and arrow. The earliest potential arrow heads date from about 64,000 ybn in the South African Sibudu Cave. The first actual bow fragments are the Stellmoor bows from northern Germany. | Stellmoor (near Hamburg), Germany |
10,000 YBN [8000 BC] | 1259) Clay tokens of various geometrical shapes are used for counting in Sumer. From the neolithic age (7000 BCE) on, stone tokens used to represent counted units, such as sheep or grain, are gradually replaced by tokens of baked clay. Clay has the advantage of being formed into any desired shape. Clay tokens are particularly popular in stoneless Babylonia. Large quantities of clay tokens found in various geometric shapes such as spheres, rhombuses, discs, and tetrahedrons are thought to represent different specific numerical values. These tokens may initially be kept in small bags of materials like cloth or leather. But after 4000 BCE, tokens will be kept inside clay bullas (spherical clay sealed containers used to protect the contents until broken). | eastern Iran, southern Turkey, Israel, Sumer (modern Iraq)|Babylonia|Syria, Sumer and Highland Iran |
10,000 YBN [8000 BC] | 6233) | Jericho (modern West Bank) |
10,000 YBN [8000 BC] | 6316) Cows raised for milk, meat and for plowing. | upper Euphrates Valley |
9,300 YBN [7300 BC] | 6185) Wheat grown. | southeastern Turkey and northern Syria (Nevali Cori, Turkey) |
9,240 YBN [7240 BC] | 1478) Oldest domesticated plants in the Americas. Squash grown in Peru. | Paiján, Peru |
9,000 YBN [7000 BC] | 273) Woven cloth. The oldest woven cloth is made from flax, comes from Çayönü, Turkey. Weaving apparently precedes spinning of yarn; woven fabrics probably originate from basket weaving. | Çayönü, Turkey |
9,000 YBN [7000 BC] | 1288) Mehrgarh, an Indus Valley neolithic city begins now. Mehrgarh is one of the most important Neolithic (7000 BCE to 3200 BCE) sites in archaeology. Mehrgarh lies on the "Kachi plain of Baluchistan, Pakistan, and is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in South Asia. | |
9,000 YBN [7000 BC] | 1289) | Iraq |
8,600 YBN [6600 BC] | 848) Symbols created on a tortoise shell from a neolithic grave in China may be the ancestors of Chinese writing. These symbols predate the earliest recorded writings from Mesopotamia by more than 2,000 years. The archaeologists say they bear similarities to written characters used thousands of years later during the Shang dynasty, which lasted from 1700-1100 BC. This creates a space of about 5,000 years between these symbols and the next oldest which may indicate that they are not related. | Jiahu, in central China's Henan Province |
8,410 YBN [6410 BC] | 580) | |
8,200 YBN [6200 BC] | 1295) | Catal Huyuk |
8,000 YBN [6000 BC] | 605) Oldest known boat, the Pesse canoe, a dug-out boat. | Netherlands |
8,000 YBN [6000 BC] | 607) Oldest flint sickle. A sickle has a semicircular blade and is used for cutting grain or tall grass. Oldest flint sickle. A sickle has a semicircular blade and is used for cutting grain or tall grass. | Palestine |
8,000 YBN [6000 BC] | 609) Einkorn (one-seeded wheat) grown. | |
8,000 YBN [6000 BC] | 610) Flax grown. The flax plant is the source of flaxseed for linseed oil and fiber for linen products. | |
8,000 YBN [6000 BC] | 612) Barley grown. | |
8,000 YBN [6000 BC] | 613) Millet grown. Millet is a grass grown for its grains and as hay to feed animals. | |
8,000 YBN [6000 BC] | 616) City "Catal Hüyük" {CaTL HvEK or KeToL HoYqK} in modern Turkey. | Çatal Hüyük, (modern:) Turkey |
8,000 YBN [6000 BC] | 6220) Earliest drum. Giant frame drums are used in the temples of ancient Sumer. Mesopotamian objects from about 3000 bce depict frame drums and small cylindrical drums played horizontally and vertically. Early Egyptian artifacts (c. 4000 bce) show a drum with skins stretched by a network of thongs. Mesopotamian art works show at least four types of drums: 1) shallow or frame drums of all sizes, 2) a small cylindrical drum held in a horizontal position, 3) a large drum played with foot, and 4) a small drum with one head, carried vertically on a belt and struck with both hands. | Moravia, Czeck Republic |
7,300 YBN [5300 BC] | 626) | south Iraq, shore of Persian Gulf |
7,000 YBN [5000 BC] | 618) City of Sumer (in Mesopotamia, modern southern Iraq). | Sumer. (Mesopotamia, modern southern Iraq) |
7,000 YBN [5000 BC] | 619) City of Ur (in Sumer). | |
7,000 YBN [5000 BC] | 620) | |
7,000 YBN [5000 BC] | 627) Oldest evidence of copper melting and casting. Moorey writes "Casting involves, at its simplest, pouring liquid metal into a suitably shaped mould of baked clay, stone, metal, or sand. The earliest moulds to survive in archaeological contexts are one-piece, of clay or stone. They remained usual for the manufacture of simple tools, flat weapons such as tanged arrowheads, bar-ingots...and jewellery. Simple jewellery moulds of stone are more common in excavations than their more complex relatives used for tools and weapons. ... Two-piece (bivalve) moulds, probably of baked clay at first, were introduced some time in the fourth millenium, if not before, with core pieces for sockets when required, as on axe, adze- and hammer0heads. ...It was probably common practice to cast the simple tools in open moulds and subsequently hammer them to the desired shape. ...". | Belovode, Eastern Serbia |
7,000 YBN [5000 BC] | 631) | |
7,000 YBN [5000 BC] | 727) Earliest Reed boats. | Kuwait |
7,000 YBN [5000 BC] | 1296) The city of Uruk is founded in southern Babylonia. Uruk will last until the 400s CE. | Uruk, southern Babylonia |
6,900 YBN [4900 BC] | 648) Oldest evidence of sail boat. | Mesopotamia |
6,500 YBN [01/01/4500 BC] | 1263) | Vinča, a suburb of Belgrade (Serbia) |
6,500 YBN [4500 BC] | 1293) | Nabta, Egypt |
6,250 YBN [4250 BC] | 720) Earliest evidence of Corn (maize) grown in Mexico. | Oaxaca, Mexico |
6,000 YBN [4000 BC] | 633) | |
6,000 YBN [4000 BC] | 1061) | Ukraine |
6,000 YBN [4000 BC] | 6232) Sun-dried mud brick and mud-brick house. Mud brick, dried in the sun, is one of the first building materials. Before sun-dried bricks, perhaps mud deposited by a river could be used to shape into huts or building units for protection from the weather. In the ancient city of Ur, in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), the first true arch of sun-baked brick is made about 4000 BCE. The arch itself has not survived, but a description of it includes the first known reference to mortars other than mud. A bitumen mixture is used to bind the bricks together. Burned brick can be produced simply by containing a fire with mud bricks. The early Ubaid period settlement is founded on marshy soil and may have been a camping place, because no walls exist at this level. A thick layer of reed matting is the earliest sign of occupation. Above that in later Ubaid levels, walls are found to have been built, first of pisé (Clay, earth, or gravel beaten down until it is solid and used as a building material for floors and walls) and then mud-brick. | Ur, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) |
5,800 YBN [3800 BC] | 6235) | Harran, Mesopotamia |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 621) Earliest plow (used to break up ground). Pictographs from Mesopotamia show a beam-ard, a simple machine that scratches a trench without turning the soil. | Mesopotamia |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 622) Irrigation (artificial supply of water to land to maintain or increase yields of food crops), in the "Middle east" (eastern part of Mediterranean). | Middle east (eastern part of Mediterranean) |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 625) Donkeys raised and used for transport. Perhaps the donkey also provides food in times of starvation. | |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 634) The Egyptian Calendar. The "years" of ancient Egyptian history consisted of 12 months of 30 days each and 5 additional ("epagomenal") days at the end. | |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 636) | |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 646) The earliest known wheel, a pottery wheel, in Mesopotamia. Sir Leonard Woolley who excavates Ur (in modern Iraq) between 1922 and 1934, writes "...Low down in this 'Uruk' stratum we found a remarkable object, a heavy disc of baked clay about 3 feet in diameter with a central pivot-hole and a small hole near the rim to take a handle; it was a pooter's wheel as used by the makers of the Uruk vases, the earliest known example of that invention whereby man passed from the age of pure handicraft into the age of machinery....". Moorey writes "There are no certain illustrations of potters' wheels from Mesopotamia and the material evidence is ... meagre... No certain example of a tournette - a slowly turning wheel- has yet been published from a prehistoric context, though their use has been assumed from the evidence of the vessels produced on them. Nissen...has postulated the emergence of a 'pivoted working surface (tournette)' towards the end of the Halaf period {ULSF: 5500 BC}, largely on the basis of changes in the type and layout of painted patterns on pottery at this time. By the end of the Ubaid period {ULSF: 4000BC}, he argued, a more sophisticated device had appeared to be fully exploited for the first time in the Uruk period: 'setting the wheel's axle in bearings and hence the creation of an actual potter's wheel. It is possible that plano-convex disks of gypsum from Tell Abada in the Hamrin, where there is other evidence for on-site pottery manufacture, may have been pivoted for pot-building on the upper flat surface...". Another similar pottery wheel dates back to the Protoliterate Period which is approximately 3500BC-2900BC. The piece was excavated at the site of Choga Mish (Iran) and is one of a few pieces to have survived the excavation due to the destruction of the dig house during the Iranian Revolution. | Mesopotamia (and a similar pottery wheel from Choga Mish, Iran) |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 1260) Writing (on clay tablets). First numbers. First stamp (or seal). The first writing begins as numbers on clay tablets and stamped seals. This system of writing on clay tablets will evolve into modern written language. Writing was first used to solve simple accounting problems; for example to count large numbers of sheep or bales of hay. Writing may have arisen out of the need for arithmetic and storage of information, but will grow to record and perpetuate stories, songs, and most of what we know about human history. | Sumer (Syria, Sumer, Highland Iran) |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 1285) Symbols on pottery from Harrapa an Indus Valley civilization. | Harrapa, Indus Valley |
5,500 YBN [3500 BC] | 6223) Sundial, earliest timekeeping device. The first device for indicating the time of day was probably the gnomon, dating from about 3500 bc. The gnomon is a vertical object and the length of it's shadow indicates the time of day. The earliest known sundial still preserved is an Egyptian shadow clock of green schist dating to the 8th century BCE. The hour-glass, which uses a fixed quantity of fine sand falling through a small hole, is also invented around this time.. | China and Chaldea |
5,490 YBN [3490 BC] | 702) Earliest cotton grown. | Northwestern Peru|Indus valley |
5,400 YBN [3400 BC] | 913) | |
5,310 YBN [3310 BC] | 704) Ox pulled vehicles with wheels in Krakow Poland. This is the earliest evidence for both animal pulled vehicles and wheeled vehicles. The earliest instance of a wheeled vehicle is from the TRB (Funnel Beaker) culture in Bronocice, in north-east Krakow Poland and is a pot incised decoration that has the repeated motif of a schematically rendered four-wheeled vehicle. Note the Y-junction with the yoke. Stuart and Piggot reject the claim that the first wheeled vehicle originated in Sumer, home of the earliest pottery wheel, writing: "...The calibrated range of date for phase III at Bronocice, to which the cup with the wagon representation belongs is c. 3530-3310 BC, but it would be improper to compare this date with that of 3200-3100 BC assigned to Uruk IVa, in which sledge-on-wheels pictographs appear. ...". | (TRB - Funnel Beaker culture) Bronocice, Krakow, Poland |
5,300 YBN [3300 BC] | 1261) Symbols of the Alphabet. Now along with numbers on clay tablets are symbols that represent the commodity (such as cows, sheep, and cereals). These symbols represent the earliest record of what will become the modern alphabet. First training and industry of scribes. This will ultimately evolve into the modern school system. Writing will be continuously taught eventually in all major civilizations (even through the Dark Ages) until now. These tablets are all economic records, used to keep a record of objects owned or traded, and contain no stories. Writing begins as a method for increasing the human memory to keep track of the many transactions of a city, and not for the purpose of recording or remembering stories. The symbol for ox ("gud" in Sumerian, later "aleph" in Egyptian) will become the letter "A" (alpha), the symbol for house, (/e/ in Sumerian and /bitum/ in Akkadian ) will become "B" (beta). These symbols are drawn with curved lines which will later be replaced by the easier and faster to draw straight lines and later the wedges of cuneiform. In Latin "Cuneus" means "wedge". Around 1200 symbols have been identified in these ancient texts, around 60 are numerals. This writing is evidence that most of the 30 or so basic sounds of humans language were already in use by the origin of writing. One text from this time is a "titles and professions", which is the most popular list, copies of these lists span over a thousand years. This list describes titles and professions probably arranged according to rank, starting with the symbol for king, and is evidence that the social order is already well defined in a strict hierarchy by the time writing is invented. This early writing shows that there is a standardized system of measures in place. Tablets describe quantities of bread, jars of beer, silver, barley, fish, cows, lambs, laborer-days, and specific measures of land. Among tablets found in the third millenium BCE (2000-2999 BCE) are long lists of names of trees, plants, animals (including insects and birds), countries, cities and villages, and of stones and minerals. These lists represent a familiarity with botany, zoology, geography and mineralology. Sumerian scholars also prepared mathematical tables and detailed mathematical problems with their solutions. From tablets dating to 2000 BCE, scribes who identify themselves all appear to be males indicating that few if any females are formally taught to be scribes. In addition the parents of the scribes are all high ranking wealthy people. | Sumer |
5,250 YBN [3250 BC] | 637) Scribes in Sumer (seeing that writing is smudged when writing in columns) change from writing in columns to writing left to right. Pictures are also turned 90 degrees. | |
5,200 YBN [3200 BC] | 650) Oldest artifact with cuneiform writing, at Uruk which is a large city at this time. These are clay and stone tablets that have names of humans (thought to be wage lists), lists of objects, plus receipts and memos. Pictures are not drawn with pointed reed, but drawn with (diagonally) cut reed-stem pressed in to the wet clay to make wedges. What were pictures (of oxen, etc.) are changed to be made of all single presses, not pictures drawn freehand. This writing contains about 600 unique symbols. | |
5,200 YBN [3200 BC] | 1266) Earliest writing in Egypt. a group ivory, bone and stone tags attached to jugs, bags and boxes containing linens and oils in the tomb of King Scorpian I in Egypt. Günter Dreyer, director of the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, found writing on a group ivory, bone and stone tags attached to jugs, bags and boxes containing linens and oils in the tomb of King Scorpian I in Egypt which date to around 3,400 to 3,200 BCE. The tags are thought to indicate the quantity or size (on number tags) and the origin location or institution of the commodities. | (Tomb U-j supposedly of King Scorpian, Royal Cemetery of:) Abydos (modern:) Umm el-Qa'ab |
5,100 YBN [3100 BC] | 638) | |
5,100 YBN [3100 BC] | 640) | |
5,100 YBN [3100 BC] | 641) The Narmer Palette, early Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. Narmer palette (tablet) carved with pictures showing unification of Egypt under king Narmer, who starts the first Egyptian Dynasty of history (Dynasty 1). The top of the palette has two faces of the cow-headed goddess Hathor. Between the Hathor heads is name of Narmer, a "n'r" fish and a "mr" chisel (this is the oldest egyptian writing). | |
5,100 YBN [3100 BC] | 642) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 628) Oldest evidence of bronze (copper mixed with tin) melted, and casted. Figurines of men and women from Tell Judaidah, Turkey, are the oldest examples of true bronze (combination of copper and tin) known. | Tell Judaidah, Turkey|Egypt |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 645) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 647) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 649) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 651) Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian languages all use cuneiform writing. | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 653) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 664) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 665) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 666) Hemp grown in China. | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 668) Silk making in China. | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 669) Evidence of the wheel in China. | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 670) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 671) Evidence of the arch in Egypt. | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 672) | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 673) | Egypt |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 675) Earliest silver objects, in Ur. | Ur |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 676) Melting wax in clay (cire-perdu) metal casting. | |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 1265) Written symbols combined to form words. In the proto-cuneiform Sumarian script, symbols are combined to form words based on their sound. Evidence of this is the sign /ti/, for "arrow" that is now also defined as the Sumarian word for "life" /til/ which starts with the same sound. After this phonetic abstraction, the introduction of multi-symbol words, names and words for which no symbols had existed can be created. For example, the symbol originally defined as the Summerian verb "bal" (to dig) can also be spelled with the syllabic signs "ba" + "al", while the Akkadian word for dig ("heru") sounds differently.(show image if possible) The vast majority of Sumerian language is made of one-syllable words. This suggests that all earlier spoken languages contained only single-syllable words. Sumerian contains syllabic symbols, where a symbol represents a consonent and a vowel together such as /Bo/ (ball), or /Bv/ (put), although some vowel sounds have one symbol and are true letters. This writing will later be fully alphabetic when the consonents are represented by one symbol and the vowel at the end dropped. Sumerian and the languages that follow in the 3000 year history of cuneiform, all have monophony (one sound has more than one symbol), and polyphony (many sounds may be represented by one symbol). | Jemdet Nasr |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 1268) | modern southwest Iran |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 6219) Earliest stringed musical instrument (lyre and harp). The lyre is first depicted in Sumerian art works around 3000 BC. Harps have the plane of the strings vertical, not parallel, to the soundboard. There are two main types, the "arched harp" in which the body is curved into an arch, and an "angular harp", in which the body and neck form an angle. Sumer has only arched harps, which originate from the bow. Arched harps are depicted on a stone slab from Khafage that dates to around 3000 BC. | Sumer (modern Iraq) |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 6222) Inclined plane (ramp). The inclined plane is thought to be older than any of the other basic machines, and is based on the concept that moving an object from a lower to higher elevation is easier when pushed up a flatter slope. | Egypt? |
5,000 YBN [3000 BC] | 6226) | Mesopotamia |
4,980 YBN [2980 BC] | 654) | Sakkara, Egypt |
4,925 YBN [2925 BC] | 643) Hieratic script, a cursive script of traditional Egyptian hieroglyphs replaces traditional hieroglyphs. Hieratic script was almost always written in ink with a reed pen on papyrus. The word 'hieratikos' means 'priestly' because by the Greco-Roman period this writing was used only by priest humans. | |
4,800 YBN [2800 BC] | 629) | |
4,800 YBN [2800 BC] | 1276) | Sumer, Uruk, Kish, |
4,750 YBN [2750 BC] | 320) Earliest metal saw. | Mesopotamia |
4,613 YBN [2613 BC] | 652) | |
4,600 YBN [01/01/2600 BC] | 1258) | Sumer |
4,600 YBN [2600 BC] | 1269) Enmebaragesi is the earliest ruler on the Sumerian king list whose name is attested directly from archaeological remains, two alabaster vase fragments with inscriptions about him found at Nippur - where he is said to have built the first temple according to the Sumerian Tummal chronicle. Enmebaragesi is also mentioned in a section of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which places Gilgamesh as a historical king of Uruk. | Kish, a city in Sumer, 80km south of modern Bagdad |
4,600 YBN [2600 BC] | 1271) The oldest known written story (or literature), the Sumerian flood story, the "Ziusudra epic" is known from a single fragmentary tablet, writing in Sumerian. The name Ziusudra means "found long life" or "life of long days". The first part tells the story of the creation of man, animals and the first cities, Eridu, Badtibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak. After a missing section in the tablet, the story describes how the gods send a flood to destroy mankind. The god Enki (lord of the underworld ocean of fresh water and Sumerian equivalent of Ea) warns Ziusudra of Shuruppak to build a large boat (the passage describing the directions for the boat is also lost). When the tablet resumes, it tells about a terrible storm that rages for seven days. Then (the god) Utu (|vTv| or |oTo| or |uTu|) (the sun) appears and Ziusudra opens a window, prostrates himself, and sacrifices an ox and a sheep. After another break the text resumes, the flood is apparently over, and Ziusudra is prostrating himself before An (|oN|) (the sky-god) and Enlil (the chief of the gods), who give him "breath eternal" and take him to live in Dilmun. The rest of the poem is lost. More than 80% of all known Sumerian literary compositions have been found at Nippur. The name Ziusudra also appears in the WB-62 version of the Sumerian king list as a king/chief of Shuruppak who reigned for 10 (shar) years. Ziusudra was preceded in this king list by his father SU.KUR.LAM who was also king of Shuruppak and ruled 8 (shar) years. On the next line of the King List are the sentences "The flood swept thereover. After the flood swept thereover, ... the kingship was in Kish." The city of Kish flourished in the Early Dynastic II period soon after an archaeologically attested river flood in Shuruppak that has been radio-carbon dated about 2900 BC. Polychrome pottery from below the flood deposit have be dated to the Jemdet Nasr period that immediately preceded the Early Dynastic I period. The importance of Ziusudra in the King List is that it links the flood mentioned in the Epics of Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Utnapishtim, etc to river flood sediments in Shuruppak, Uruk, and Kish that have been radio carbon dated as 2900 BCE. So scholars conclude that the flood hero was king of Shuruppak at the end of the Jemdet Nasr period (3100-2900) which ended with the river flood of 2900 BCE. Ziusudra being king of Shuruppak is supported in the Gilgamesh XI tablet by the reference to Utnapishtim as "man of Shuruppak" at line 23. A Sumerian document known as "The Instructions of Shuruppak" dated to around 2500 BCE, refers in a later version to Ziusudra indicating that Ziusudra may have become a venerable figure in the literary tradition by 2500 BCE. Scholars have found many similarities between the stories of Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Utnapishtim and Noah. At this time, the scribes learning in the tablet houses must be transferring their oral stories onto clay, in addition to studying, copying and imitating earlier texts. Works created in these years are almost all poetic in form, some extending to thousands of lines. These texts are mainly myths and epic tales in the form of narrative poems celebrating the adventures of Sumerian gods and heros, hymns to gods and kings, lamentations of Sumerian cities, wisdom compositions that include proverbs, fables, and essays. In the scribal schools, students attend school from sunrise to sunset, and teachers use a rod to inflict discipline. The Sumerians belief in a variety of gods and goddesses, so already, by the time of the invention of writing we see the theory of gods and goddesses. This inaccurate belief in a god theory will continue into present times. The Sumerians have around 50 gods and 50 goddesses so far counted. The view expressed is the traditional view that many of the gods have human form, many are related, and they control various objects such as the sky (the god Anu, also god of heaven which indicates belief in a heaven (but this may be Christian misinterpretation, do dead people go to sky/heaven in Sumerian myths?)), the earth (the goddess Ki, consort to Anu), the wind (the god Ishkur), the sun (the god Utu), the earth (the god Enki), grain (the goddess Ashnan), venus (the goddess Inanna), and many more. Many of the gods will be renamed as time continues, for example, the Sumerian goddess "Inanna", the first god known to be associated with the planet Venus, is named "Ishtar" by the Akkadians and Babylonians, "Isis" by the Egyptians, "Aphrodite" by the Greeks, "Turan" by the Etruscans, and "Venus" by the Romans. The Sumerians call Inanna the "Holy Virgin" and this may indicate an early example of the erroneous belief that a female that has not had sex is somehow more pure. It is possible that the Sumerian influence through their invention of writing is the origin of the idea of human-like gods controlling nature, but more likely this idea developed long before writing and spread through oral interaction only. Possibly the idea of human-like gods was originated even before humans left Africa. The beginning of writing creates the first memory of the past, where before writing, any events of history have to be passed on through talking which vastly reduces the number of events remembered by any generation of people. | Sumer |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 677) Bronze sickle. | |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 688) Seed drills in Babylonia. | |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 689) First animal and vegetable coloring dyes. | |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 691) Oldest evidence of skis used in Skandinavia. | |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 692) | |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 693) | |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 694) | |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 1052) | |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 1151) Oars mounted on the side of ships for steering are documented from the 3rd millennium BCE in Ancient Egypt in artwork, wooden models, and even remnants of actual boats. These will evolve into quarter rudders, which will be used until the end of the Middle Ages in Europe. | Egypt |
4,500 YBN [2500 BC] | 6230) Earliest dice and boardgame. There is a claim of earlier dice and boardgame from Iran (see image of dice - but there is no image of the actual board). | Ur, Mesopotamia |
4,450 YBN [2450 BC] | 708) Animal skin (leather) used for writing. After the use of leather, the refined forms of leather parchment and vellum (made from calf skins) are also used. | Egypt |
4,400 YBN [2400 BC] | 915) | |
4,400 YBN [2400 BC] | 1277) | Sumer, Lagash, Umma |
4,345 YBN [2345 BC] | 695) | |
4,345 YBN [2345 BC] | 800) Writing on Papyrus. Fibrous layers within the stem of the papyrus plant are removed and placed side by side. They are then crossed at right angles with another set of strips. The two layers form a sheet, which is then dampened and pressed. The gluelike sap of the plant acts as an adhesive to join the layers together. The sheet is finally hammered and dried in the sun. These sheets are then joined together with paste to form a roll. | Egypt |
4,300 YBN [2300 BC] | 667) Earliest evidence of glass making, glass beads. The first human-made glass beads and pendants are made around 4,300 years ago (2300 BC) in the area of modern Iraq and northern Syria (Mesopotamia), with the first strikingly colored (coreformed) vessels appearing there in the 16th/15th centuries BC. | Mesopotamia |
4,300 YBN [2300 BC] | 701) | |
4,234 YBN [2234 BC] | 632) | |
4,200 YBN [2200 BC] | 1294) | Lima, Peru |
4,181 YBN [2181 BC] | 696) | |
4,160 YBN [2160 BC] | 697) | |
4,134 YBN [2134 BC] | 698) | |
4,134 YBN [2134 BC] | 699) | |
4,130 YBN [2130 BC] | 6234) Earliest evidence of horn used as musical instrument. Several inscriptions of the Sumerian priest-king Gudea mention an instrument, si-im, alongside with the temple drums, a-lal and balag. As si (Akkadian qarnu) means 'horn,' and im 'wind,' there is little doubt that this was a blowing horn. One of the Carchemish reliefs, dating from about 1250 B.C. depicts a rather short and thick horn played together with a large frame drum which...corresponds either to the a-lal or to the balag. From Gudea's time on (c2130 BCE), the si is occasionally mentioned; some texts add the metal determinative and some refer to horns made of gold. ...". The oldest survivng animal horn is from around 2300 BC, from a deep bog in Visnum, Sweden. It is a cow horn, dated from the late Iron Age, and has five finger holes. (verify) A list of the presents offered by King Tushratta to King Amenophis IV of Egypt around 1400 BC contains a list of forty horns, all covered with gold and some studded with precious stones. Seventeen of them are called ox horns. The rest of the horns are probably not straight trumpets since straight trumpets are more often made of gold instead of covered with gold. The earliest specimen of a silver trumpet is from the tomb of Tutankhamen (1300s bce). | Lagash, Mesopotamia |
4,100 YBN [2100 BC] | 1279) The earliest Health science (medical) text, found in Nippur. There are more than 10 remedies listed on this clay tablet. Materials used are mostly from plants, such as cassia, myrtle, asafoetida, thyme, and from trees such as the willow, pear, fir, fig and date trees, but also include sodium chloride (salt), potassium nitrate (saltpeter), milk, snake skin, and turtle shell. For mixtures taken internally, beer, milk and or oil are used to make the "medicine" more palatable. In this, the oldest medical text, there are no references to any god, demon, magic spell or incantation. | Nippur |
4,100 YBN [2100 BC] | 6376) The first place value number system, a sexagesimal (base 60) number system. Fractional values such as 1/60 and 1/3600 are also in use. This sexagesimal, base 60, number system is still in use to measure time (60 seconds, 60 minutes), and angles (for example in astronomical and geographic coordinates). | Babylonia |
4,050 YBN [2050 BC] | 1278) The earliest recorded laws, the Ur-Nammu tablet. Ur-Nammu founded the Third Dynasty of Ur. The laws are written in Sumerian cuneiform and are damaged so only a few have been deciphered. One law involves a trial by water, another describes the return of a slave to their master. Other laws describe monetary penalties for violent crimes such as for cutting off a foot or nose. This tablet was found in Nippur. | Ur |
4,040 YBN [2040 BC] | 700) | |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 703) | China |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 705) Stonehenge built. | |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 706) Horse riding in Asian steppes. | |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 709) | |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 710) Shaduf (Shadoof), an irrigation tool. | |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 711) Spoked wheel. Toy-cart wheels made of clay with spokes painted on and in relief were made in the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley and Northwestern India. Spokes make the wheel lighter in weight. | |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 733) Oldest lock, found in ruins of the palace of Khorsabad near Nineveh. The lock is made of wood and uses a tumbler design, similar to modern locks. This kind of lock will be used widely in Egypt. | Nineveh |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 830) Shaped iron artifacts made from meteorites. Oldest iron artifacts, made of iron from meteorites, in Egypt. Some might argue this is the beginning of the Iron Age, but others would start the Iron Age only at smelting and casting of Iron. | Egpyt (and near East) |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 1273) | Ur |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 1275) The "School Days" essay dates to now. This is the story of a scribal student who is late for school and is caned for various offenses such as talking and because his copying is not good enough. So the student invites a teacher to his house for dinner. The teacher is brought from school, seated in the seat of honor and served dinner. The father of the student dresses the teacher in a new garment, gives him a gift, and puts a ring on his hand. After this the teacher praises the student. | Sumer |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 1283) | Nippur |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 1286) The earliest known versions of the Gilgamesh (or Gish-gi(n)-mash) story are written in Sumerian on clay tablets. | Nippur |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 5860) Earliest written musical composition. | Nippur, Babylonia (now Iraq) (verify) |
4,000 YBN [2000 BC] | 6236) Metal traded as money. The use of metal for money can be traced back to Babylonia more than 2000 years bc, but standardization in the form of coins does not occur systematically until the 7th century bc. Historians generally ascribe the first use of coined money to Croesus, king of Lydia, a state in Anatolia. The earliest coins are made of electrum, a natural mixture of gold and silver, and are bean-shaped ingots bearing a primitive punch mark certifying to either weight or fineness or both. | Babylonia |
3,842 YBN [1842 BC] | 712) First all phonetic language and alphabet. Proto-semitic alphabet made in turquoise mines probably by Semitic humans. This alphabet is thought to have replaced cuneiform, and may be root of all other alphabets. This first strictly phonetic alphabet is in use until 1797 BCE. Encyclopedia Britannica states that the evolution of the alphabet involves two important achievements. The first step is the invention of an all-consonant writing system. The second is the invention of characters for representing vowels which is made by Greek people between 800 and 700 bce. Around this time the Egyptians have a large-scale project to search for turquoise in the high mountains of southern Sinai at a site today called Serabit el-Khadem. In this mine an alphabetic script, is found with has far fewer signs than the Egyptian hieroglyphic system. In 1916, Sir Alan Gardiner, an English Egyptologist, notices that a group of four signs are frequently repeated in these inscriptions. Gardiner correctly identified the repetitive group as a series of four letters in an alphabetic script that represent a word in a Canaanite language: b-‘-l-t, vocalized as Baalat, "the Mistress". Gardiner suggests that Baalat was the Canaanite name for Hathor, the goddess of the turquoise mines. An important key to the decipherment is a unique bilingual inscription. It is inscribed on a small sphinx from the temple and features a short inscription in what appears to be parallel texts in Egyptian and in the new script. The Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription on the sphinx reads: "The beloved of Hathor, the mistress of turquoise." Each of the critical letters in the word Baalat is a picture—a house, an eye, an ox goad and a cross. Gardiner correctly recognizes that each pictograph has a single phonic value: The picture stands not for the depicted word but only for its initial sound. So the pictograph bêt, "house", represents only the initial consonant b. This principle is at the root of all of our alphabetic systems. Each sign in this script stands for one consonant in the language. (The representation of vowels happens later). The alphabet is invented in this way by Canaanites at Serabit in the Middle Bronze Age, in the middle of the 19th century B.C.E., probably during the reign of Amenemhet III of the XIIth Dynasty. | (Caanan modern:) Palestine|(turquoise mines ) Serabit el-Khadem, Sinai Peninsula |
3,800 YBN [1800 BC] | 713) | |
3,800 YBN [1800 BC] | 802) | |
3,800 YBN [1800 BC] | 803) | |
3,786 YBN [1786 BC] | 714) | |
3,700 YBN [1700 BC] | 715) | |
3,700 YBN [1700 BC] | 1280) | Nippur |
3,700 YBN [1700 BC] | 1281) | Nippur and Ur, Sumer |
3,650 YBN [1650 BC] | 716) | |
3,635 YBN [01/01/1635 BC] | 1272) A library of 3,000 clay tablets in a priest's house in Tell ed-Der dates to this time. | Tell ed-Der |
3,600 YBN [1600 BC] | 804) | |
3,595 YBN [01/01/1595 BC] | 1274) | Babylon |
3,595 YBN [1595 BC] | 6335) | Babylon |
3,551 YBN [1551 BC] | 717) | |
3,550 YBN [1550 BC] | 1282) | Sumer |
3,531 YBN [1531 BC] | 639) First planet recognized, Venus. Evidence of this comes from the so-called "Venus Tablet of Ammi-saduqa", which is known only from copies from the 600 BCE only. The Venus Tablet records astronomical observations placing Venus on the horizon just before sunrise on the date of the new moon for the 21 year reign of Ammi-saduqa. | Babylon |
3,500 YBN [1500 BC] | 624) Oven-baked mud brick (also called "burned brick"). A burned brick is a mud brick that been baked in an oven (kiln) at an elevated temperature to harden it, give it mechanical strength, and improve its resistance to moisture. | Ur, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) |
3,500 YBN [1500 BC] | 721) | |
3,500 YBN [1500 BC] | 722) | |
3,500 YBN [1500 BC] | 723) Earliest pulley. The oldest simple pulleys are used in Assyria. A pulley is a wheel that has a grooved rim for carrying a rope or other line and turning in a frame. The pulley wheel is also called a "sheave". One or more independently rotating pulleys can be used to gain mechanical advantage, especially for lifting weights. The shafts around which the pulleys turn may attach them to frames or blocks, and a combination of pulleys, blocks, and rope is called a block and tackle. The pulley is considered one of the five simple machines. | Nimroud, Assyria |
3,500 YBN [1500 BC] | 725) | |
3,500 YBN [1500 BC] | 1516) | India |
3,500 YBN [1500 BC] | 6228) Water clock (Clepsydra {KlePSiDru}). The science of telling the time of day (horology) began around 3500 BC with the invention of the gnomon and sundial, and the hour-glass. Around 1500 BC, the Egyptian clepsydra (water clock) used dripping water between two containers which were marked to indicate the time. In China, in the 100s CE, astronomer Zhang Heng built a celestial globe whose movement is regulated by clepsydra. In the 700s Yi Xing and Liang Lingzan added a mechanical clock. | Egypt |
3,500 YBN [1500 BC] | 6229) | Nippur, Mesopotamia |
3,358 YBN [1358 BC] | 2727) When Akhenaton dies, he will be succeeded briefly by Smenkhkare and then by a second son-in-law, Tutankhaton. Tutankhaton is forced to change his name to Tutankhamen, dropping the Aton and embracing Amon, to abandon Amarna and move back to Thebes, and to pay penance by giving the old gods new riches and privileges. A few years after the death of the young king, Tutankhamen, the army takes over the throne led by General Horemheb. Horemheb institutes counterreforms in order to restore the old system fully. As was done at the command of Akhenaten years before, the new kings attempt to erase all traces of the heretical religion. Akhenaten's name and images of the Aten sun disk are ordered removed from monuments and official king lists. Akhenaten's temples are dismantled and the stone reused. Amarna is left to crumble in the desert. Inscriptions refer to Akhenaten only as the heretic pharaoh of Akhetaten. There is an interesting similarity between "Aton" and "Satan" being 3 of 4 sounds/letters the same. It may be coincidence, but perhaps Aton was given a negative connotation to try to erase the history of the origin of Judaism, or remove suspicions of the monotheistic theorists as copying Amenhotep. If the name "Aton" is used, people will recognize the ancient deity Aton, however, by adding a letter, only a subtle reference or connotation to the ancient God, Aton remains. It is interesting also the way Amon is viewed against Aton as if rival gods with Amenhotep switching to place his belief in Aton. There is a claim that followers of Akhenaton's new monotheistic religion ended each prayer with the name of Amenhotep and that this is the origin of the use of the word "amen" at the end of Judean, Christian and Islamic prayers. What about the possible relation of the word "Aton" to the Greek word "atom"? | Amarna, Egypt |
3,310 YBN [1310 BC] | 728) | |
3,300 YBN [1300 BC] | 729) | |
3,300 YBN [1300 BC] | 914) | |
3,200 YBN [1200 BC] | 730) | |
3,200 YBN [1200 BC] | 731) | |
3,200 YBN [1200 BC] | 734) | |
3,200 YBN [1200 BC] | 735) | |
3,200 YBN [1200 BC] | 736) | |
3,200 YBN [1200 BC] | 737) | |
3,198 YBN [1198 BC] | 738) | |
3,180 YBN [1180 BC] | 805) | |
3,087 YBN [1087 BC] | 739) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 741) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 742) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 743) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 744) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 745) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 746) Complex pulleys. The lifting power of a pulley is multiplied by the number of strands acting directly upon the moving pulleys. | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 747) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 749) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 806) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 1048) | |
3,000 YBN [1000 BC] | 6237) Earliest lens, a plano-convex lens (one side plane the other convex) made from rock-crystal found in Nimrud, a magnifying and burning glass. Sir David Brewster described the lens writing: "This lens is plano-convex, and of a slightly oval form, its length being 1 6/10 inch, and its breadth l 4/10 inch. It is about 9/10ths of an inch thick, and a little thicker at one side than the other. Its plane surface is pretty even, though ill polished and scratched. Its convex surface has not been ground, or polished, on a spherical concave disc, but has been fashioned on a lapidary's wheel, or by some method equally rude. The convex side is tolerably well polished, and though uneven from the mode in which it has been ground, it gives a tolerably distinct focus, at the distance of 4 1/2 inches from the plane side. There are about twelve cavities in the lens, that have been opened during the process of grinding it: these cavities, doubtless contained either naphtha, or the same fluid which is discovered in (opazi quartz, and other minerals. As the lens does not show the polarised rays at great obliquities, its plane surface must be greatly inclined to the axis of the hexagonal prism of quartz from which it must have been taken. It is obvious, from the shape and rude cutting of the lens, that it could not have been intended as an ornament; we are entitled, therefore, to consider it as intended to be used as a lens, either for magnifying, or for concentrating the rays of the sun, which it does, however, very imperfectly.". Another, possibly 5th century BC, lens was found in a sacred cave on Mount Ida on Crete and is more powerful and of far better quality than the Nimrud lens. Aristophanes (c450-c388 bce), Greek playwright, in his play "Clouds", around 423 BCE, describes a crystal lens used for burning. Also, Roman writers Pliny and Seneca refer to a lens used by an engraver in Pompeii. | Nimrud, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) |
2,999 YBN [999 BC] | 1181) Calamine Brass is first made in this millenium {narrow time}, brass made with copper and clamine, a zinc ore (instead of zinc metal, because extracting zinc metal from ore will not be understood until around 1781). | |
2,945 YBN [945 BC] | 748) | |
2,922 YBN [922 BC] | 753) | |
2,910 YBN [910 BC] | 635) The oldest smelted iron artifacts are from Tell Hammeh (az-Zarqa), Jordan and date to around 2800-2700 years ago, but two charcoal samples from the same site date to 2930-2910 years before now. This is the start of the Iron Age, as iron becomes more popular because iron is more abundant. in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Egypt. It is possible, under certain conditions, to produce iron when smelting copper, and so it may be that iron produced before the late Bronze Age may have been produced in the process of smelting copper, or possibly lead. If iron oxide in any one of its three forms (haematite; limonite; magnetite) is accidentally or deliberately added to the furnace charge as a fluxing agent (a mineral added to the metals in a furnace to promote fusing or to prevent the formation of oxides), in smelting copper or lead, the iron will combine with the silica in the ore to form slag that will melt and eventually run off. In circumstances of high temperature and extreme reducing atmosphere, small bits of relatively pure iron could have been produced. | Tell Hammeh (az-Zarqa), Jordan |
2,900 YBN [900 BC] | 750) | |
2,850 YBN [850 BC] | 751) | Greece |
2,848 YBN [848 BC] | 752) | |
2,819 YBN [819 BC] | 754) | |
2,800 YBN [800 BC] | 718) | |
2,800 YBN [800 BC] | 818) Theta sound {t} sound invented, (for example in the words "theater", "fifth") and in use in Greece. Theta (Θ) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth. The theta sound survives only in Greek and later languages. | |
2,800 YBN [800 BC] | 1036) | |
2,800 YBN [800 BC] | 5862) | Mesopotamia |
2,785 YBN [785 BC] | 771) Babylonian astronomers can predict eclipses. The reason there are not two eclipses a month is because the orbit of the Moon around the Earth is tilted 5 degrees from the Earth's plane of rotation around the Sun. This means that the moon must be at or near the two points in its orbit that intersects the Earth's plane of rotation around the Sun when the Moon is between the Earth and Sun or behind them. This alignment occurs at least twice a year, and at most rarely 5 times a year. Usually, if an eclipse of the Sun occurs, an eclipse of the Moon precedes of follows it by 2 weeks, because the Sun, Earth and Moon are then in alignment with each other. | |
2,731 YBN [731 BC] | 6299) Lunar eclipses recorded. | Babylon |
2,728 YBN [728 BC] | 755) | |
2,722 YBN [722 BC] | 756) | |
2,716 YBN [716 BC] | 757) | |
2,715 YBN [715 BC] | 758) | |
2,700 YBN [700 BC] | 1062) | Assyria |
2,700 YBN [700 BC] | 1075) Consonant letters can represent more than one sound. Letter "C" sounded as "K" in addition to traditional "G" sound. Latin or Etruscan speaking people start using the letter "C" (Gamma), not only to represent it's traditional sound "G", but also for the sound "K", usually reserved for the letter "K" (Kappa). This will add confusion to how to pronounce a word, and violates a more simple, logical system where one letter equals only one sound. At this time Latin speaking people start replacing words with K with the letter "C". | Italy |
2,688 YBN [688 BC] | 916) | |
2,669 YBN [669 BC] | 1287) The "standard" version of the story of Gilgamesh: a wild-man Enkidu is tamed by having sex with a woman, Enkidu and Gilgamesh destroy Humbaba, the beast-like guardian of the forest, and a bull sent from Heaven, Enkidu is killed as a punishment by the Gods, and Gilgamesh visits him in the Underworld. | Nippur |
2,668 YBN [668 BC] | 917) | |
2,668 YBN [668 BC] | 1284) Clay tablet library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, an early systematically organized library from which 20,720 Assyrian tablets and fragments have been preserved. | Nineveh (Assyria) |
2,664 YBN [664 BC] | 759) | |
2,660 YBN [660 BC] | 644) In Egypt, the Demotic script replaces hieratic in most secular writing, but hieratic continued to be used by priests for several more centuries. The Demotic symbol set, is a short hand, very rapid, abbreviated form of hieratic, and looks like series of "agitated commas". The word "demotic" is from Greek meaning "of the people" or "popular". | |
2,651 YBN [651 BC] | 6337) All planets visible to the naked eye clearly distinguished from stars (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) in Babylonia. The position of these five planets compared to the stars is found in a series of baked clay tablet astronomical "diaries". The earliest datable tablet, from 651 BCE contains the names of all five planets. | Babylonia |
2,650 YBN [650 BC] | 1066) Evidence of the earliest aquaduct, a channel used to move water from one place to another, is in Assyria. This aquaduct is built of and carries water across a valley to the capital city, Nineveh. | Nineveh |
2,640 YBN [640 BC] | 760) | |
2,624 YBN [624 BC] | 761) | |
2,622 YBN [622 BC] | 763) | |
2,622 YBN [622 BC] | 826) Old Testament (The Torah, Hebrew Bible, The Ten Commandments, The Story of Genesis). The earliest record of the reading of a “Torah book” is provided by the narrative describing the reformation instituted by King Josiah of Judah in 622 BCE following the fortuitous discovery of a “book of the Torah” during the renovation of the Temple. | Judah|(Israel) |
2,621 YBN [621 BC] | 1519) | Athens, Greece |
2,609 YBN [609 BC] | 767) | |
2,609 YBN [609 BC] | 768) | |
2,605 YBN [605 BC] | 918) | |
2,600 YBN [600 BC] | 630) Metal coin money. Historians generally ascribe the first use of coined money to Croesus, king of Lydia, a state in Anatolia. The earliest coins are made of electrum, a natural mixture of gold and silver, and are crude, bean-shaped ingots bearing a primitive punch mark certifying to either weight or fineness or both. | Lydia, Anatolia |
2,600 YBN [600 BC] | 762) Thales (in Greek: Θαλης) is the first human of record to explain the universe with out using any gods in the explanation, claiming the universe originated as water. Thales explains that moon light is reflected sun light. Thales measures a pyramid by comparing the pyramid shadow with the shadow from a stick. | Miletus, Greece |
2,600 YBN [600 BC] | 765) | |
2,600 YBN [600 BC] | 2619) This concept of a Devil will grow to be included in the Christian religion, and coupled with the concept of a Hell will work as a powerful myth against science and free inquiry into the scientific nature of the universe. | |
2,590 YBN [590 BC] | 1518) At this time people in Greece have not yet begun to write history or biography. It will not be until the 400s BCE that accounts of the life of Solon and his works began to be put together. Before Solon's reforms, the Athenian state is administered by nine archons appointed or elected annually by the Areopagus on the basis of noble birth and wealth. The Areopagus is made of former archons and therefore has, in addition to the power of appointment, a large amount of influence. The nine archons take the oath of office while ceremonially standing on a stone in the agora, declaring their readiness to dedicate a golden statue if they should ever be found to have violated the laws. There is an assembly of Athenian citizens (the Ekklesia) but the lowest class (the Thetes) are not admitted and its deliberative procedures are controlled by the nobles. There is no method to control or punish an archon who violates a law unless the Areopagus decides to prosecute the archon. According to Aristotle, Solon creates a law to allow all citizens to be admitted into the Ekklesia and for a court (the Heliaia) to be formed from all the citizens. The Heliaia appears to have been the Ekklesia, or some representative portion of it, sitting as a jury. Ancient sources credit Solon with the creation of a Council of Four Hundred, drawn from the four Athenian income groups to serve as a steering committee for the enlarged Ekklesia. Solon broadens the financial and social qualifications required for election to public office. The Solonian constitution divides citizens into four political classes defined according to assessable property, a classification that might previously have served the state for military or taxation purposes only. The standard unit for this assessment is one medimnos (approximately 12 gallons) of corn. | Athens, Greece |
2,587 YBN [587 BC] | 769) | |
2,585 YBN [05/08/585 BC] | 770) | |
2,580 YBN [580 BC] | 764) Anaximander (Greek: Αναξίμανδρος) (Anaximandros) oNoKSEMoNDrOS or ANAKSEmANDrOS? (BCE 610-546), friend and student of Thales, describes an Earth-centered Universe theory, and a theory that humans evolved from fish, the first recorded theory of evolution in history.. Anaximander had a more abstract idea of the universe than Thales. Anaximander introduced the science of the ancient east to Greece, made use of the sundial (known for centuries in Egypt and Babylonia), was the first to draw a map of the entire known earth. Anaximander recognized that the stars appeared to orbit the pole star, and so viewed the sky as a complete sphere (not just a semisphere over the earth). This is the first evidence for the idea of spheres in astronomy. This would grow to contribute to the complicated and erroneus system of Ptolomy which will dominate science until Copernicus and Kepler. Anaximander thinks that the earth is curved to explain the change in position of the stars, thinking the earth to be a cylinder. The first papyrus by Anaximander is lost. | Miletus |
2,580 YBN [580 BC] | 1522) The bulk of her poetry, which is well-known and greatly admired throughout antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured. Because she writes love poems addressed to both women and men, Sappho has long been considered bisexual. The word "lesbian" derives from the name of the island of her birth, Lesbos. Her homoerotica should be placed in a 600s BCE Greece context. The poems of Alcaeus and later Pindar record similar romantic bonds between the members of a given circle Ancient sources state that Sappho produced nine volumes of poetry, but only a small proportion of her work survives. Papyrus fragments, such as those found in the ancient rubbish heaps of Oxyrhynchus, are an important source. One substantial fragment is preserved on a potsherd. The rest of what we know of Sappho comes through citations in other ancient writers, often made to illustrate grammar, vocabulary, or meter. There is a single complete poem, Fragment 1, Hymn to Aphrodite. The themes of Sappho's known writing are primarily concerned with her thiasos, the usual term (not actually found in any of Sappho's surviving writings) for the female community, with a religious and educational background, that meets under her leadership. In her poems, Sappho attacks other thiasoi directed by other women. The goal of the thiasos is the education of young women, especially for marriage. Aphrodite is the group's tutelary divinity and inspiration. Sappho is the intimate and servant of the goddess and her intermediary with the girls. In the ode to Aphrodite, the poet invokes the goddess to appear, as she has in the past, and to be her ally in persuading a girl she desires to love her. Frequent images in Sappho's poetry include flowers, bright garlands, naturalistic outdoor scenes, altars smoking with incense, perfumed unguents to sprinkle on the body and bathe the hair-that is, all the elements of Aphrodite's rituals. In the thiasos the girls are educated and initiated into grace and elegance for seduction and love. Singing, dancing, and poetry play a central role in this educational process and other cultural occasions. As is true for other female contemporary communities, including the Spartan, and for the corresponding masculine institutions, the practice of homoeroticism (allusions to same gender physical love and sexuality) within the thiasos plays a role in the context of initiation and education. In Sappho's poetry love is passion, an inescapable power that moves at the will of the goddess; it is desire and sensual emotion; it is nostalgia and memory of affections that are now distant, but shared by the community of the thiasos. There is a personal poetic dimension, which is also collective because all the girls of the group recognize themselves in it. An important part of Sappho's poetry is occupied by epithalamia, or nuptial songs. It is not known how her poems were published and circulated in her own lifetime and for the following three or four centuries. In the era of Alexandrian scholarship (3rd and 2nd centuries BC), what survives of her work will be collected and published in a standard edition of nine books of lyrical verse, divided according to metre. This edition will not endure beyond the early Middle Ages. By the 8th or 9th century CE Sappho wil be represented only by quotations in other authors. Only the ode to Aphrodite, 28 lines long, is complete. The next longest fragment is 16 lines long. Since 1898 these fragments have been greatly increased by papyrus finds, though, in the opinion of some scholars, nothing equal in quality to the two longer poems. | Lesbos |
2,575 YBN [575 BC] | 773) | |
2,550 YBN [550 BC] | 1035) | |
2,545 YBN [545 BC] | 919) | |
2,545 YBN [545 BC] | 920) Herodotus' invention will earn him the title "The Father of History" and the word he uses for his achievement, "historie", which previously had meant simply "inquiry", will pass into Latin and take its modern connotation of "history" or "story". This nickname will be given to him by Cicero (De legibus I,5) Herodotos writes that doctors are very specialized in Egypt. There are doctors for eyes, head, teeth, stomach, and for "invisible diseases", which may be disturbances of the "nervous system". or perhaps simply any disease without a clear cause (incl bacteria, virus). | |
2,540 YBN [540 BC] | 783) | Miletus |
2,540 YBN [540 BC] | 784) Xenophanes (~570 BC - ~480 BC), a Greek philosopher, poet, social and religious critic , learns from Pythagoras, but leaves Ionia for Southern Italy, (to a town named "Elea"). Xenophanes is less mystical than Pythagoras and writes about the school of Pythagoras. Xenophanes did not believe in transmigrartion of souls, or in the primitive Greek Gods, but instead in a monotheism rare to Greek people. Xenophanes finds seashells on mountain tops and reasons that the earth changes over time, so that mountains must have been in the sea and then rose, therefore Xenophanes is the first human in history to make a contribution to the science of Geology. Not until Hutton were any other contributions to Geology made. Our knowledge of his views comes from his surviving poetry, all of which are fragments passed down as quotations by later Greek writers. His poetry criticized and satirized a wide range of ideas, including the belief in the pantheon of human-like gods and the Greek people's continued support of athleticism. Xenophanes rejected the idea that the gods resembled humans in form. One famous passage ridiculed the idea by claiming that, if oxen were able to imagine gods, then those gods would be in the image of oxen. Because of his development of the concept of a "one god greatest among gods and men" that is abstract, universal, unchanging, immobile and always present, Xenophanes is often seen as one of the first monotheists. This shows that there was a large amount of tolerence of religious criticism, without any serious punishment. | Elea, Southern Italy |
2,538 YBN [538 BC] | 788) | |
2,530 YBN [530 BC] | 797) Eupalinus, Eupalinus of Megara (20 mi west of athens), a Greek architect, constructed for the tyrant Polycrates of Samos a tunnel to bring water to the city, passing the tunnel through a hill for half a mile, starting at both ends, meeting at the center and unaligned by only a few inches. | Samos, Greece |
2,529 YBN [529 BC] | 772) Pythagoras describes the earth as a sphere. "Pythagorean Theorem" (in a right triangle: the square of the lengths of the hypotenuse always equals the sum of the square of the length of the two other sides). Pythagoras is credited with being the first person to recognize that the morning star (Phosphorus) and evening star (Hesperus) are the same star, after this time, the star is called "Aphrodite" (this "star" is later recognized to be planet Venus). Pythagoras is the first to write that the orbit of the earth moon is not in the plane of the Earth equator but at an angle to that plane. Pythagoras is the first to teach that the Sun, Moon, and planets do not follow the motion of the stars, but have paths of their own. This changes the star system theory from the theory of Anaximander of a single heavenly crystalline sphere, to adding separate spheres for the planets. This theory of the star system will last until Kepler. Pythagoras moves from Samos to Croton in Southern Italy, to escape the harsh rule of Polycrates, and starts a school in Croton. Pythagoras experiments with a monochord, an instrument that has a single string is stretched over a sound box. The string is fixed at both ends and a moveable bridge alters the pitch. Pythagoras finds that strings of musical instruments make higher pitch sounds when made shorter, finding pitch related to length. Pythagoras finds, for example, twice the length equals 1 octave lower, a 3 to 2 ratio equals a fifth, a 4 to 3 ratio equals a fourth. Pythagoras finds that also increasing tension raises pitch. A Pythagorean named Hippasus is credited with the proof that the square root of 2 can not be expressed as a ratio of two numbers (is irrational). Pythagorian humans decide to keep secret "irrational numbers". Pythagoras mistakenly thinks that vibrations from the crystaline spheres rubbing together create a harmonious "Music of the Spheres", which will last for a long time. | Croton, Italy |
2,525 YBN [525 BC] | 820) | |
2,520 YBN [520 BC] | 785) This skepticism of religion appears to be widespread and higly tolerated in this time of history in Ionia. Hecataeus was one of the first classical writers to mention the Celtic people. Some have credited Hecataeus with a work entitled Ges Periodos ("Travels round the Earth" or "World Survey'), in two books each organized in the manner of a periplus, a point-to-point coastal survey. One on Europe, is essentially a periplus of the Mediterranean, describing each region in turn, reaching as far north as Scythia. The other book, on Asia, is arranged similarly to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea of which a version of the 1st century CE survives. Hecataeus described the countries and inhabitants of the known world, the account of Egypt being particularly comprehensive; the descriptive matter was accompanied by a map, based upon Anaximander"s map of the earth, which he corrected and enlarged. The work only survives in some 374 fragments, by far the majority being quoted in the geographical lexicon Ethnika compiled by Stephanus of Byzantium. The other known work of Hecataeus was the Genealogiai, a rationally systematized account of the traditions and mythology of the Greeks, a break with the epic myth-making tradition, which survives in a few fragments, just enough to show what we are missing. Hecataeus' work, especially the Genealogiai, shows a marked scepticism, opening with "Hecataeus of Miletus thus speaks: I write what I deem true; for the stories of the Greeks are manifold and seem to me ridiculous."1 Unlike his contemporary Xenophanes, he did not criticize the myths on their own terms; his disbelief rather stems from his broad exposure to the many contradictory mythologies he encountered in his travels. An anecdote from Herodotus (II, 143), of a visit to an Egyptian temple at Thebes, is illustrative. It recounts how the priests showed Herodotus a series of statues in the temple's inner sanctum, each one supposedly set up by the high priest of each generation. Hecataeus, says Herodotus, had seen the same spectacle, after mentioning that he traced his descent, through sixteen generations, from a god. The Egyptians compared his genealogy to their own, as recorded by the statues; since the generations of their high priests had numbered three hundred and forty-five, all entirely mortal, they refused to believe Hecataeus's claim of descent from a mythological figure. This encounter with the immemorial antiquity of Egypt has been identified as a crucial influence on Hecataeus's scepticism: the mythologized past of the Hellenes shrank into insignificant fancy next to the history of a civilization that was already ancient before Mycenae was built. | Miletus, Greece |
2,515 YBN [03/12/515 BC] | 821) | |
2,515 YBN [515 BC] | 1264) | Persia (Kermanshah Province of Iran) |
2,510 YBN [510 BC] | 786) Heraclitus (~540 BC Ephesus 30 mi north of Miletus, ~540 bc - ~475 bc) disagrees with Thales, Anaximander, and Pythagorus about the nature of the ultimate substance, thinking fire to be a fundamental element of the universe. Heraclitus claims that the nature of everything is change itself. A typically pessimistic view led to Herkleitos being called the "weeping philosopher". Only fragments of text by Heraclitus have been found. | Miletus, Greece |
2,510 YBN [510 BC] | 787) Parmenides (~540 BC Elea (now Velia), Italy - ??) a student of Ameinias, and pre-Socratic philosopher, follows in the tradition of the Ionian exiled Pythagorus and Xenophanes. Parmenides opposed the view of Heraclitus, claiming that one object can not turn in to other object fundamentally different. Parmenides argued that creation (something from nothing) and destruction (nothing from something) is impossible. Parmenides chose reason over senses, feeling senses to be untrustworthy. Parmenides founds school in Elea, the "Eliatic School" based on this philosophy of reason over senses. Zeno was the most recognized person educated in the school. Zeno, will use distrust of senses to describe a set of paradoxes. | |
2,508 YBN [508 BC] | 1517) | Athens, Greece |
2,500 YBN [500 BC] | 824) | |
2,500 YBN [500 BC] | 825) | |
2,500 YBN [500 BC] | 831) | |
2,499 YBN [499 BC] | 832) | |
2,490 YBN [490 BC] | 789) Hanno (BCE c530-???), Cathaginian (a branch of the Phoenicians) Navigator, sails 60 ships with 3000 people, down the coast of Africa in order to start new settlements. Much of what is learned about Hanno is from an 18 sentence travel-record, or "Periplus" of this journey, from Herodotus, and Pliny the Elder. Herodotus will express doubts about the accuracy of Hanno's story, because of a report that in the far south the sun at noon was in the nothern half of the sky, which Herodotus will think is impossible, but is in fact true for the southern hemisphere of earth. This is strong evidence, taken together with the Periplus of Hanno's journey that Hanno is the first Mediterranean human to sail over the equator into the Southern Hemisphere. Herodotus also declares that Hanno claimed to have circumnavigated Africa. | Carthage (modern: Tunis) |
2,490 YBN [490 BC] | 819) | |
2,470 YBN [470 BC] | 836) Anaxagoras views the Sun to be a mass of red-hot metal, that people live on the Moon, and thinks that the Universe is made of tiny bodies. The contemporary prevailing belief is that the Sun and the Moon are gods. Diogenes Laerteus confirms that this is the belief of the Egyptian people writing (translated from Greek): "...They (the Egyptians) say that the first principle is matter then that the four elements were formed out of matter and divided and that some animals were created and that the sun and moon are gods of whom the former is called Osiris and the latter Isis and they are symbolised under the names of beetles and dragons and hawks and other animals...". Anaxagoras (BCE c500-c428) introduces the Ionian science of Thales to Athens, saying that the universe is not made by a deity, but through the action of infinite "seeds", which will later develop into atomic theory under Leucippos. Anaxagoras accurately explains the phases of the earth moon, and both eclipses of moon and sun in terms of their movements. Anaxagoras teaches in Athens for 30 years, and the school formed by Anaxagoras starts the scholarly tradition that lasts for 1000 years. | Athens |
2,470 YBN [470 BC] | 840) | |
2,470 YBN [470 BC] | 907) | |
2,468 YBN [468 BC] | 837) | |
2,467 YBN [467 BC] | 1894) Particle (or wireless) communication. The optical telegraph (or semaphore) An optical telegraph is an apparatus for conveying information by using visual signals, for example, using towers with turnable blades or paddles, shutters, or hand-held flags etc. The Greek playwright, Aeschylus, describes in the play "Agamemnon" how news of the fall of Troy reaches the city of Argos (600 km away) in only a few hours by the use of fire signals. Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) gives a clear description of an optical telegraph (or semaphore) using telescopes to the Royal Society in 1684. Claude Chappe in France will develop one of the first practical optical telegraphs in 1794. | Greece (presumably) |
2,460 YBN [460 BC] | 835) | |
2,460 YBN [460 BC] | 841) Theory that all matter is made of atoms. Leukippos (Greek Λευκιππος ) (lEUKEPOS?) (BCE c490-???) is the first person to support an atomic theory. Leukippos theorizes that the universe is made of two different elements, which he calls "solid" and "empty", and that matter is composed entirely of an infinity of small indivisible particles called atoms, which are constantly in motion, and through their collisions and regroupings form various compounds. The most famous among Leucippus' lost works are titled "Megas Diakosmos" ("The Great Order of the Universe" or "The great world-system") and "Peri Nou" ("On mind"). The argument for indivisible atoms is said to have been a response to Zeno's argument about the absurdities that follow if magnitudes are divisible to infinity. Leukippos represents the final part of science and logic in Asia Minor before the destruction of the coastal cities by humans from Persia. Leukippos teaches Democritos. Leukippos is the first person to say that every event has a natural cause. | |
2,460 YBN [460 BC] | 842) | |
2,460 YBN [460 BC] | 1037) | |
2,458 YBN [458 BC] | 834) | |
2,454 YBN [454 BC] | 844) | |
2,451 YBN [451 BC] | 906) Protagoras (Greek: Πρωταγόρας) (c. 481-c. 420 BC) publishes an agnostic text. Diogenes describes it this way (translated from Greek): "...another of his treatises he begins in this way: "Concerning the Gods, I am not able to know to a certainty whether they exist or whether they do not. For there are many things which prevent one from knowing, especially the obscurity of the subject, and the shortness of the life of man.". And on account of this beginning of his treatise he was banished by the Athenians. And they burnt his books in the market-place, calling them in by the public crier, and compelling all who possessed them to surrender them.". | |
2,450 YBN [450 BC] | 843) | Croton, Italy |
2,450 YBN [450 BC] | 1033) | |
2,450 YBN [450 BC] | 1053) | |
2,450 YBN [450 BC] | 1112) | Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China |
2,438 YBN [438 BC] | 823) | |
2,434 YBN [434 BC] | 839) | |
2,432 YBN [432 BC] | 849) Metonic calendar: 12 years of 12 months, 7 years of 13 months. Greek astronomer Meton (c440BC Athens - ???) finds that 235 lunar months make around 19 years, so 12 years of 12 months and 7 years of 13 months will allow the lunar calendar to match the seasons. The Greek calendar will be based on the Metonic cycle until 46 BCE when the Julian calendar will be made by Julius Caesar with the help of Sosigenes. This calendar is also in use in Babylonia around the same time if not earlier. Greek astronomer Meton (~440BC Athens - ???) finds that 235 lunar months (moon rotations of earth) are close to 19 earth years, so if there are 12 years of 12 lunar months, and 7 years of 13 lunar months, every 19 years, the lunar calendar would match the seasons. This will come to be called the "Metonic cycle" (although probably recognized by astonomers in Babylonia before this time). The Greek calendar will be based on the Metonic cycle until 46 BCE when the Julian calendar will be made by Julius Caesar with the help of Sosigenes. This cycle can be used to predict eclipses, forms the basis of the Greek and Jewish calendars, and is used to determine the date for Easter each year. | Athens, Greece (presumably) |
2,431 YBN [431 BC] | 1372) | Sri Lanka |
2,430 YBN [430 BC] | 838) | Athens, Greece |
2,430 YBN [430 BC] | 845) | Abdera, Thrace |
2,430 YBN [430 BC] | 847) There is much uncertainty, but Hippocrates was born of a family in a hereditary guild of magicians on the Isle of Cos, described to be descended from Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine. Hippocrates visits Egypt early in life, there studies medical works credited to Imhotep. Some people claim that he was a student of Democritus. Hippocrates teaches in Athens (and other places), before opening his own school of health in Cos. Humans that graduate with a "medical" degree must still repeat the oath credited to Hippocrates (although repeating oaths is stupid, and few if any actually people actually follow this advice of do no harm, in particular in psychiatric hospitals). | Cos |
2,430 YBN [430 BC] | 910) | |
2,424 YBN [424 BC] | 1138) Although in the comedy "Clouds", Aristophanes paints Ionian science in a bad light through a portrayal of Socrates encouraging young people to beat their parents. But perhaps even then, people paid for such a message to be read during a play (now newspapers, magazines, television and movies accept money for such messages), and money for propaganda, a very old (albeit secretive) system, may have influence Aristophanes even then. | Athens, Greece |
2,409 YBN [409 BC] | 852) | |
2,408 YBN [408 BC] | 5877) | Athens, Greece (or perhaps Macedon) |
2,404 YBN [404 BC] | 855) | |
2,399 YBN [399 BC] | 846) | Athens, Greece |
2,390 YBN [390 BC] | 909) | |
2,387 YBN [387 BC] | 851) Plato's Academy. Plato (Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "wide, broad-shouldered") (c427BC Athens - 347 BC Athens) founds a school in western Athens on a piece of land once owned by a legendary Greek human named "Academus", and so this school comes to be called "The Academy", and this word will eventually generally apply to any school. The Academy will be a center for science and education for 900 years until 529 CE. Plato is an Athethian aristocrat (of the ruling class or nobility) whose original name is "Aristocles", but he gets the nick name "Platon" (meaning "broad") because of his broad shoulders. (Cicero also was a nick name). Plato is in the "war service" (tph military?) and is interested in politics, but rejects Athenian democracy. In this year, Plato returned to Athens. (on the way to Athens, Plato is supposed to have been captured by pirates and held for ransom). The Academy has shrine to the muses (mouseion) and is viewed as a religious organisation by the government. Plato stayed at the Academy for the rest of his life, except for 2 years in the 360s, when he visited Syracuse, the main city of Greek Sicily, to tutor the new king Dionysius II. Dionysius II appeared brutal, and Plato returned safely to Athens. Plato is supposed to have died in his sleep at the age of 80 after attending a wedding feast of a student. Writing credited to Plato are consistently popular and are of a series of dialogues between Socrates and others. Most of what is known about Socrates is from these texts. Like Socrates, Plato was mainly interested in moral philosophy and hated natural philosophy (science). To Plato, knowledge had no practical purpose. Plato liked mathematics, perhaps because the perfection of math, the loftiest form of pure thought, was different from the reality of the universe (viewed as "gross" and imperfect). Above the main doorway to the academy were the words in Greek: "Let no one ignorent of mathematics enter here." Plato did think that math could be applied to the universe. The planets, he thought, exhibited perfect geometric form. This is in Timaeus. He describes the 5 and only 5 perfect solids, those objects with equal faces, lines and angles. (4 sided tetrahedron, six sided hexahedron (or cube), 8 sided octahedron, 12 sided dodecahedron, and 20 sided icosahedron. 4 of the 5 represented the 4 elements, while the dodecahdron represented the whole universe. These solids were first discovered by the Pythagoreans. Plato thought the planets were spheres and moved in circles along the crystalline spheres that held them in place. The idea that the universe must reflect the perfection of abstract mathematics was most popular until Kepler, even though compromises with reality had to be made constantly, beginning after the death of Plato with Eudoxus and Callippus. In Timaeus, Plato invented a moralistic story of a completely fictional land called "Atlantis". This legend has had unending popularity and has persisted to now. One Aegean island exploded vocanically in 1400 BC and this may have given rise to this story. The views of Plato had a strong influence on Christian people until the 1200s when Aristotle gained more popularity. Carl Sagan states that: "Plato and his followers separated the earth from the "heavens" (the rest of the universe), Plato taught contempt for the real world and disdain for the practical application of science. Plato served tyrants, and taught the separation of the body from the mind, a natural enough idea in a slave society." and that "{Plato} preferred the perfection of these mathematical abstractions to the imperfections of everyday life. He believed that ideas were far more real than the natural world. He advised the astronomers not to waste their time observing the stars and planets. It was better, he believed, to just think about them. Plato expressed hostility to observation and experiment. He taught contempt for the real world and disdain for the practical application of scientific knowledge. Plato's followers succeeded in extinguishing the light of science and experiment that had been kindled by Democritus and the other Ionians. Plato's unease with the world as revealed by the senses was to dominate and stifle Western philosophy. Even as late as 1600, Johannes Kepler was still struggling to interpret the structure of the Cosmos in terms of Pythagorean solids and Platonic perfections." I am not sure that we should fully blame Pythagoras and Plato for the collapse of science, as much as we should the tradition of religion that came long before them. But clearly the support of these incorrect views by a majority of later intellectuals shows large scale bad judgement. The popularity of Plato is a mystery since Plato did not make one contribution to science. Sagan says that this popularity is because the views of Plato justify a corrupt social order, where I think that this popularity was simply a mistaken belief. In addition the Academy served as a center for science and education until 529 CE. In "The Republic", one of the earliest and most influential books on political theory, Plato presents a plan for the ideal society and government. Plato disliked Athenian democracy. It was the leaders of the Athenian democracy that had sentenced his teacher to die for seeking truth and wisdom. Plato preferred Sparta's model of government. In Sparta, the needs of the state (country) were put above the individual. Serving the government was more important than achieving personal goals. Plato believed that too much personal freedom led to disorder and chaos. Athens was a primary example of this disorder. " Plato wanted only the most intelligent and best-educated citizens to participate in government. He divided people into three classes: workers to produce life's necessities, soldiers to defend the people, and specially trained leaders to govern the state (country). The specially trained leaders would be an elite class that included both men and women. The wisest of all would be a philosopher-king with ultimate authority. The philosopher-king would be well educated to make decisions for the good of all the people." "Rather than being remembered for a specific model of the Universe it was his views on its nature, put forward in his dialogue Timaeus, that were to so strongly influence subsequent generations. To Plato the Universe was perfect and unchanging. Stars were eternal and divine, embedded in an outer sphere. All heavenly motions were circular or spherical as the sphere was the perfect shape. Such was his influence that the concept of circular paths was not challenged until Kepler, after many years of painstaking calculations, discovered the elliptical orbits of planets nearly 2,000 years later." | Athens, Greece |
2,384 YBN [384 BC] | 860) | |
2,378 YBN [378 BC] | 854) | |
2,378 YBN [378 BC] | 861) | |
2,372 YBN [372 BC] | 1038) Diogenes "the Cynic", is a Greek philosopher, born in Sinope (in modern day Sinop, Turkey) about 412 BCE (according to other sources 399 BCE), and died in 323 BCE at Corinth. Diogenes lives with no possessions in a tub belonging to the temple of Cybele. At the Isthmian Games he lectured to large audiences, who turned to him from his one-time teacher Antisthenes. When Plato gave Socrates's definition of man as "featherless bipeds" and was much praised for the definition, Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into Plato's school, and said, "This is Plato's man." After this incident, "with broad flat nails" was added to Plato's definition. The ideas of Diogenes of Sinope, as well as most of the other Cynics, arrive indirectly. No writings of Diogenes survive even though he is reported to have authored a number of books. Happiness, for Diogenes, was to be found in radical autonomy. For Diogenes and the other Cynics the best way to achieve this autonomy was to minimize one's dependence upon things and people. The ascetic lifestyle that Diogenes pursued--which involved sleeping out of doors in cold weather and eating whatever he could obtain--was an expression of this ideal, which also prepared the Cynic for anything that might happen. Nevertheless, it seems that Diogenes was not against pleasure (as his masturbation implies): when reproved for walking out of a brothel (where apparently he had been enjoying, apparently for free, the services offered) he replied that he should be reproved for walking in rather than walking out. Diogenes maintained that all the artificial growths of society were incompatible with happiness and that morality implies a return to the simplicity of nature. So great was his austerity and simplicity that the Stoics would later claim him to be a sage or "sophos", a perfect man. In his words, "Man has complicated every simple gift of the gods." | |
2,370 YBN [370 BC] | 883) | |
2,366 YBN [366 BC] | 858) | |
2,357 YBN [357 BC] | 856) | |
2,347 YBN [347 BC] | 853) | |
2,342 YBN [342 BC] | 857) | |
2,341 YBN [341 BC] | 867) | |
2,340 YBN [340 BC] | 801) | |
2,336 YBN [336 BC] | 868) | |
2,335 YBN [335 BC] | 859) During the thirteen years (335 BCE-322 BCE) which Aristotle spends as teacher of the Lyceum, he composes most of his writings. Imitating Plato, Aristotle writes "Dialogues" in which his doctrines were expounded in somewhat popular language. He also composes the several treatises on sciences, logic, metaphysics, and ethics, in which the language is more technical than in the Dialogues. These writings succeeded in bringing together the works of his predecessors in Greek philosophy, and how he pursued, either personally or through others, his investigations in the realm of natural phenomena. Pliny will claim that Alexander placed under Aristotle's orders all the hunters, fishermen, and fowlers of the royal kingdom and all the overseers of the royal forests, lakes, ponds and cattle-ranges, and Aristotle's works on zoology make this statement believable. Aristotle was fully informed about the doctrines of his predecessors, and Strabo will assert that he was the first to accumulate a great library. During the last years of Aristotle's life the relations between him and Alexander became very strained, owing to the disgrace and punishment of Callisthenes, whom Aristotle had recommended to Alexander. Nevertheless, Aristotle continued to be regarded at Athens as a friend of Alexander and a representative of Macedonia. Consequently, when Alexander's death became known in Athens, and the outbreak occurred which led to the Lamian war, Aristotle shared in the general unpopularity of the Macedonians. The charge of impiety, which had been brought against Anaxagoras and Socrates, was now brought against Aristotle. He left the city, saying, "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy" (Vita Marciana 41). He took up residence at his country house at Chalcis, in Euboea, and there he died the following year, 322 BC. His death was due to a disease, reportedly 'of the stomach', from which he had long suffered. Aristotle's legacy also had a profound influence on Islamic thought and philosophy during the middle ages. Muslim thinkers such as Avicenna, Farabi, and Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi were a few of the major proponents of the Aristotelian school of thought during the Golden Age of Islam. Though we know that Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises (Cicero described his literary style as "a river of gold"), the originals have been lost in time. All that we have now are the literary notes of his pupils, which are often difficult to read (the Nicomachean Ethics is a good example). It is now believed that we have about one fifth of his original works. Aristotle underestimated the importance of his written work for humanity. He thus never published his books, only his dialogues. The story of the original manuscripts of his treatises is described by Strabo in his Geography and Plutarch in his "Parallel Lives, Sulla": The manuscripts were left from Aristotle to Theophrastus, from Theophrastus to Neleus of Scepsis, from Neleus to his heirs. Their descendants sold them to Apellicon of Teos. When Sulla occupied Athens in 86 BC, he carried off the library of Appellicon to Rome, where they were first published in 60 BC from the grammarian Tyrranion of Amisus and then by philosopher Andronicus of Rhodes. Aristotle did not like the idea of atoms that Democritos had thought about. If matter was made up of tiny particles there must be spaces between them, spaces that would have nothing in them - a vacuum. Aristotle's refusal to accept the possibility that a vacuum could exist came from his ideas about forces. He said that non-living objects could have "natural" or "forced" motion. The natural motion of earth and water was downwards because they had "gravity" while air and fire always rose because they had "levity". An object was given forced motion when it was thrown into the air and Aristotle concluded that the speed of an object depended on the force acting on it - no force, no speed. Arostotle writes "History of Animals". Though we know that Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises (Cicero described his literary style as "a river of gold"), the originals have been lost in time. All that we have now are the literary notes of his pupils, which are often difficult to read (the Nicomachean Ethics is a good example). It is now believed that we have about one fifth of his original works. Aristotle underestimates the importance of his written work for humanity. He thus never publishes his books, only his dialogues. The story of the original manuscripts of his treatises is described by Strabo in his "Geography" and Plutarch in his "Parallel Lives, Sulla": The manuscripts were left from Aristotle to Theophrastos, from Theophrastos to Neleus of Scepsis, from Neleus to his heirs. One of Neleus' descendents (it is unknown who), digs up the buried scrolls and sells them for a large sum in gold to a bibliophile, Apellicon of Teos. Apellicon of Teos makes a 'botched up' edition titled the 'Lost Texts of Aristotle'. When Sulla occupies Athens in 86 BCE, he will carry off the library of Appellicon to Rome. The grammarian Tyrannion of Amisus in Rome, friend of Atticus and Cicero, obtains the scrolls on loan, gives up on making his own compiled edition and entrusts the project to Andronicus of Rhodes, who subdivides the treatises into books. The originals are returned to Sulla's library. This edition of the texts of Aristotle will be published in 60 BCE. Faustus is the son of the Emperor Sulla, and Pompey's son-in-law. The cultural elite go to Faustus' house to consult these precious texts of Aristotle. Cicero writes a letter to Atticus about the delight of Faustus' library. To pay off debts, Faustus sells the scrolls of Aristotle, and they have never been located since. Much of this story comes from Strabo who was presumably a pupil of Tyrannion of Amisus. | Athens, Greece |
2,332 YBN [332 BC] | 880) | |
2,332 YBN [332 BC] | 921) It is possible that the Museum (Mouseion) of Alexandria is built starting now, and much of the city was constructed by the time Ptolemy arrives to rule 9 years later in 323 BCE. | |
2,327 YBN [327 BC] | 875) | |
2,325 YBN [325 BC] | 865) | |
2,325 YBN [325 BC] | 887) Pytheas PitEoS (Πυθέας) (BCE 380-310) sails to Great Britain and "Thule" (probably Norway or Iceland). Pytheas is the first person to explain tides as happening because of the influence of the moon. Only 2000 years later will Newton explain the attraction of the Moon. Pytheas is also the first person to show that the North star is not exactly at the pole and makes a small circle in a day. The written history of Britain begins with Pytheas. | Massalia (now: Marseille France) |
2,323 YBN [06/10/323 BC] | 876) | |
2,323 YBN [323 BC] | 862) After Aristotle moves to Chalcis, Aristotle choses Theofrastos (Theophrastus) (Greek: Θεόφραστος) (tEOFrASTOS?) (BCE c372-287) to preside over the Peripatetic school, which he does for thirty-five years. The Lyceum maintains it's highest quality under Theophrastos. Theophrastos describes over 500 species of plants and is the founder of botony, the study of plants. Theophrastus is charged with asebeia (atheism) but acquitted by a jury in Athens. | Athens |
2,323 YBN [323 BC] | 863) The charge of impiety, which had been brought against Anaxagoras and Socrates, was now brought against Aristotle. He leaves Athens saying, "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy" (Vita Marciana 41). He takes up residence at his country house at Chalcis, where his mother had lived, in Euboea, and there he dies the following year, 322 BC. His death was due to a disease, reportedly 'of the stomach', from which he had long suffered. After the death of Alexander, the anti-Macedonian party accuses Aristotle of impiety. With the example of Socrates behind him, Aristotle escapes to Chalcis in Euboea, where he dies in the same year. | Athens |
2,323 YBN [323 BC] | 864) | |
2,323 YBN [323 BC] | 877) | |
2,322 YBN [03/07/322 BC] | 879) | |
2,320 YBN [320 BC] | 866) | |
2,317 YBN [317 BC] | 899) | |
2,316 YBN [316 BC] | 908) | |
2,311 YBN [311 BC] | 885) "Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then He is not omnipotent. Is He able but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?" Admiting of females and slaves shocks and interests the scholarly people of the time. After the official approval of Christianity by Constantine, Epicureanism was repressed. Epicurus' theory that the gods were unconcerned with human affairs had always clashed strongly with the Judeo-Christian God, and the philosophies were essentially irreconcilable. For example, the word for a heretic in the Talmudic literature is "Apikouros". Lactantius criticizes Epicurus at several points throughout his Divine Institutes. The school endured a long period of obscurity and decline. However, there was a resurgance of atomism among scientists in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and in the late 20th Century, the school was revived. | |
2,310 YBN [310 BC] | 869) Kidinnu (BCE 340-???), head of the Astronomical school in Sippar (Babylonia), understands the precession of equinoxes (a wobbling in the orientation of Earth's axis with a cycle of almost 26,000 years). Hipparchus will make use of the precession of the equinoxes as documented by Kidinnu. Kidinnu makes a complicated method of expressing movement of the moon and planets, differing from the view that these objects must move at a constant velocity. | (Astronomical School) Sippar, Babylonia |
2,310 YBN [310 BC] | 871) | |
2,310 YBN [310 BC] | 911) | |
2,307 YBN [307 BC] | 901) | |
2,305 YBN [305 BC] | 884) Pre-Christian Greek humans did not object to human dissection, thinking a "soul" most important, and a dead body just a group of flesh. In Egypt, human dissection is a serious impiety. He is particularly interested in the brain. Sev eral of our sources speak of Herophilus and Erasistratus undertaking not merely dissections, but also vivisections (dissections on living bodies), on human subjects. The Christian writer Tertullian (ca. 155-230) describes Herophilus as that butcher who cut up innumerable corpses in order to investigate nature and who hated mankind for the sake of knowledge" ("On the Soul", chap. 10). However, Tertullian was totally opposed to the scientific investigations of pagan researchers and did everything he could to defame them and their work. Pli ny and Rufus both refer in general terms to the practice of human dissection without specifying who first undertook this. Another first century CE source, the Roman medical writer Celsus, both identifies the men concerned and reports the arguments that were used to justify this practice and that of vivisection. In the introduction (23 ff.) of his work "On Medicine" Celsus writes as follows concerning the group of doctors known as the Dogmatists: "Moreover since pains and various kinds of diseases arise in the internal parts, they hold that no one who is ignorant about those parts themselves can apply remedies to them. Therefore it is necessary to cut open the bodies of dead men and to examine their viscera and intestines. Herophilus and Erasistratus proceeded in by far the best way, they cut open living men-criminals they obtained out of prison from the kings-and they observed, while their subjects still breathed, parts that nature had previously hidden, their position, colour, shape, size, arrangement, hardness, softness, smoothness, points of contact, and finally the processes and recesses of each and whether any part is inserted into another or receives the part of another into itself." The Dogmatists wrote of the advantages of vivisection over dissection and defended this viewpoint against the charge of inhumanity by claiming that the good outweighed the evil: nor is it cruel, as most people state, to seek remedies for multitudes of innocent men of all future ages by means of the sacrifice of only a small number of criminals." Unlike Tertullian, Celsus cannot be accused of malicious distortion. He himself disagrees with the Dogmatists. 'To cut open the bodies of living men,' he says later in his introduction (74 f), "is both cruel and superfluous: to cut open the bodies of the dead is necessary for medical students. For they ought to know the position and arrangement of parts-which the dead body exhibits better than a wounded living subject. As for the rest, which can only be learnt from the living, experience itself will demonstrate it rather more slowly, but much more mildly, in the course of treating the wounded." The tone of his whole account is restrained and we have no good grounds for rejecting it. No one can doubt that religious and moral considerations inhibited the opening of the human body, whether dead or alive, in antiquity. But that is not to say that such inhibitions could never, under any circumstances, be overcome. The situation at Alexandria in the third century BCE was clearly an exceptional one in the particular combination of ambitious scientists and patrons of science that existed there at that time. For all the ancients' respect for the dead, corpses were desecrated often enough by people other than scientists. Moreover, when we reflect that the ancients regularly tortured slaves in public in the law courts in order to extract evidence from them, and that Galen, for example, records cases where new poisons were tried out on convicts to test their effects, it is not too difficult to believe that the Ptolemies permitted vivisection to be practised on condemned criminals. Before Herofilos, doctors were called Asclepiadae, in the sense that they were spiritual descendants of the Greek God of healing, Asclepius. Much of this new health research is done in Alexandria and rival capital Antioch. Herofilos and his students are interested in direct knowledge and precise terminology. Galen (129-200 CE),will praise Herofilos in relation to the ovarian arteries and veins observed by Herofilos in the womb, writing "I have not seen this myself in other animals except occasionally in monkeys. But I do not disbelieve that Herofilos observed them in women; for he was efficient in other aspects of his art and his knowledge of facts acquired through anatomy was exceedingly precise, and most of his observations were made not, as is the case with most of us, on brute beasts but on human beings themselves." Some of Herofilos' pupils form their own schools. One such student is Callimachus. According to Polybius around 150 BCE, the medical profession is dominated by two schools, the Herophileans and the Callimacheans. Another pupil of Herofilos, Philinus of Cos, will form a rival school, refered to as the Empiricists, who differed from Herofilos in disregarding anatomy and physiology, focusing mainly on therapeutics, claiming that a disease must be treated experimentally. They based their school on experiment and past history of success. | |
2,305 YBN [305 BC] | 934) | |
2,300 YBN [300 BC] | 927) While in Egypt Hekataeos of Abdura writes that priests teach children two kinds of writing, sacred (hieratic) and the more common (demotic), in addition to geometry and arithmetic. Hecataeus writes "they (Egyptians) have preserved to this day the record concerning each of the stars over an incredible number of years...they have also observed with great interest the motions, ... orbits and stoppings of the planets". | Egypt |
2,300 YBN [300 BC] | 1166) This tomb is constructed to look like a temple (it looks similar to Dendera). The outside is decorated in typical Late Period style, while the outer court is decorated in a Greek-style. | Egypt |
2,297 YBN [297 BC] | 900) | |
2,297 YBN [297 BC] | 902) Museum of Alexandria. Ptolemy I Soter (Πτολεμαίου Σωτήρα) starts construction of the Soma, in Alexandria, a mausoleum where Alexander and subsequent kings will be stored after death, the famous Lighthouse of Pharos, the research center known as the Mouseion (a temple to the Muses, a "Mousaeion" (Μουσείον also Μουσείου, Museum: in actuality a University and Library ) and the Royal Library (which may have been a separate building near the Mousaeion or may have been inside the Mousaeion), in the Royal Palaces area. The Mousaeion will house the smartest scientists of this time. This research center will also include a zoo. Some of these monuments will take more time to build than 2 decades and will be completed under the reign of Ptolemy II. | |
2,297 YBN [297 BC] | 925) | |
2,295 YBN [295 BC] | 878) Euclid may have run a school of mathematics in Alexandria. Pappus of Alexandria (fl. c320 CE) will write that the Greek mathematician Apollonius learned geometry from the students of Euclid in Alexandria. Eukleidis is a Greek mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy I (323 BC283 BC), and is often considered to be the "father of geometry". His most popular work, Elements, is the most successful textbook in the history of mathematics. Within it, the properties of geometrical objects are deduced from a small set of axioms, thereby founding the axiomatic method of mathematics. Although best-known for its geometric results, the Elements also includes various results in number theory, such as the connection between perfect numbers and Mersenne primes. Euclid also wrote works on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, and possibly quadric surfaces. Neither the year nor place of his birth have been established, nor the circumstances of his death. Although many of the results in Elements originated with earlier mathematicians, one of Euclid's accomplishments was to present them in a single, logically coherent framework. In addition to providing some missing proofs, Euclid's text also includes sections on number theory and three-dimensional geometry. In particular, Euclid's proof of the infinitude of prime numbers is in Book IX, Proposition 20. The geometrical system described in Elements was long known simply as the only "geometry". Today, however, it is often referred to as Euclidean geometry to distinguish it from other so-called non-Euclidean geometries which will be found in the 1800s CE. These new geometries will grow out of more than 2000 years of investigation into Euclid's fifth postulate, one of the most-studied axioms in all of mathematics, known as the "parallel postulate", the postulate that no two angles in a triangle can be equal or greater than 2 90 degree angles. This postulate will be shown to only be true for flat surfaces and not for the surface of a sphere or hyperboloid. One story about Euclid is from Stobaeus and relates that one of Euclid's students, when he had learned the first proposition, asked his teacher, "But what is the good of this and what shall I get by learning these things?", to which Euclid calls a slave and says, "Give this fellow a penny, since he must make gain from what he learns. " | |
2,295 YBN [295 BC] | 926) | |
2,290 YBN [290 BC] | 903) | (Book probably funded by and stored in the Museum of Alexandria) Alexandria, Egypt |
2,288 YBN [03/07/288 BC] | 881) | |
2,288 YBN [288 BC] | 873) | |
2,288 YBN [288 BC] | 905) | |
2,287 YBN [287 BC] | 872) | (Lyceum) Athens, Greece |
2,287 YBN [287 BC] | 924) | |
2,285 YBN [285 BC] | 1028) Ktesibios (Ctesibius) (TeSiBEOS) (Greek Κτησίβιος), (fl. 285 - 222 BCE) starts the engineering tradition in Alexandria. Ktesibius invents several devices using compressed air: a water organ, in which air is forced through the organ pipes by the weight of water, and an air-powered catapult. | Alexandria, Egpyt |
2,283 YBN [283 BC] | 928) | |
2,283 YBN [283 BC] | 929) | |
2,281 YBN [281 BC] | 904) | |
2,281 YBN [281 BC] | 935) | |
2,280 YBN [06/10/280 BC] | 922) | |
2,280 YBN [280 BC] | 1199) | Athens, Greece |
2,275 YBN [275 BC] | 888) | Heliopolis, Egypt |
2,275 YBN [275 BC] | 897) | |
2,275 YBN [275 BC] | 930) | |
2,274 YBN [274 BC] | 886) Erasistratus, is born on the island of Chios in ancient Greece, to a family with a history of doctors. His father and brother are doctors, and his mother is the sister of a doctor. He studies health science in Athens and then, around 280 B.C., enrolls in the University of Cos, a center of the medical school of Praxagoras. Erisistratos then moves to Asia and is court physician for Seleucus I, who controls a major portion of what had been the Persian Empire. Erasistratus then moves to Alexandria, where he teaches and is a practicing doctor, continuing the work of Herophilus. In his later years, he retires from being a practice doctor and joins the Alexandrian museum, where he devotes himself to research. Although Erasistratus writes extensively in a number of health-related fields, none of his works survive. He is best known for his observations based on his numerous dissections of human cadavers (and rumored, his vivisections of criminals, a practice allowed by the Ptolemy rulers). Erasistratus accurately describes the structure of the brain, including the cavities and membranes, and makes a distinction between its cerebrum and cerebellum (larger and smaller parts). He views the brain, not the heart, as the seat of intelligence. By comparing the brains of humans and other animals, Erasistratus correctly concludes that a greater number of brain convolutions results in greater intelligence. He also accurately describes the structure and function of the gastric (stomach) muscles, and observes the difference between motor and sensory nerves. Erasistratus promotes hygiene, diet, and exercise in health care. In Alexandria, the view at the time is that the nerves carry "nervous spirit", arteries "animal spirit", and the veins blood, however Erasistratos takes a step backwards from Herofilos in mistakenly thinking that arteries do not carry blood. He thinks air is carried from lungs to heart and changed in to the "animal spirit" that is carried in the arteries. He is best known for curing Antiochos, Seleucus's son. Erasistratus said that Antiochos was in love with his stepmother, and that that was what was ailing him, so he let them marry. | Alexandria, Egpyt |
2,270 YBN [270 BC] | 932) | |
2,265 YBN [265 BC] | 931) Pliny the Elder will record in the 1st century CE that Hermippus (Greek: Ἕρμιππος) of Smyrna, a student of Callimachus writes a commentary on the versus of Zoroaster now. This implies that these stories have been translated from Iranian to Greek. | |
2,260 YBN [260 BC] | 663) Lever. The earliest remaining writings regarding levers date from the 3rd century BC and were provided by Archimedes. "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth with a lever" is a remark of Archimedes who formally stated the correct mathematical principle of levers (quoted by Pappus of Alexandria). It is assumed that in ancient Egypt, constructors used the lever to move and uplift obelisks weighting more than 100 tons. | Mesopotamia |
2,260 YBN [260 BC] | 822) Screw. Archimedes (Greek: Αρχιμήδης ) (287-212 BCE) is usually credited with with the concept of the spiral screw. A spiral screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder. The spiral is called a "thread", and the distance between adjacent edges is called the "pitch" of the screw. The pitch is equal to the distance that the screw advances in one turn in a solid medium. Although Archimedes is credited with inventing the screw in the 3rd century BC, his screw is not the fastener kind of screw, but actually is two other screw-type devices. One is a kind of water pump, still used today for large-volume, low-lift, industrial applications, the device is now called the inclined screw conveyor or "Archimedes screw". The second is the "endless screw", which is the same as the worm of a worm and gear set, one of the five ancient devices for raising heavy weights. | Syracuse, Sicily |
2,260 YBN [260 BC] | 882) Aristarchos understands that the Earth rotates around the Sun each year and that the earth rotates around its own axis once a day. In 450 BC, Philolaus had theorized that the earth moves through space. Aristarchus’s only extant work is "On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon". Aristarchus finds that as observed during a lunar eclipse, the diameter of Earth’s shadow is twice the diameter of the Moon. Aristarchos uses the observation that, at the time when the Moon appears half-lit (quarter Moon), the angular distance between the Moon and the Sun is 87 degrees, to determine that the Sun is between 18 and 20 times farther away from Earth than the Moon is. (The actual ratio is about 390.). The Greek philosopher Cleanthes, the Stoic, declares in his "Against Aristarchus" that Aristarchus should be indicted for impiety "for putting into motion the hearth of the universe". Aristarchus’s work on the motion of Earth has not survived, but his ideas are known from references by the Greek mathematician Archimedes, the Greek biographer Plutarch, and the Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus. In his manuscript of "Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs" (1543), Copernicus will cite Aristarchus as an ancient authority who supported the motion of Earth, but later crosses out the reference. | (Mousion of Alexandria) Alexandria, Egpyt |
2,260 YBN [260 BC] | 941) | |
2,257 YBN [257 BC] | 891) Archimedes calculates the oldest known example of a geometric series with the ratio 1/4 (see image). He proves that the ratio of a circle's perimeter to its diameter is the same as the ratio of the circle's area to the square of the radius. He does not call this ratio π but gives a procedure to approximate it to arbitrary accuracy and gave an approximation of it as between 3 + 10/71 (approximately 3.1408) and 3 + 1/7 (approximately 3.1429). He proves that the area enclosed by a parabola and a straight line is 4/3 the area of a triangle with equal base and height. (see image) Archimedes is the first to identify the concept of center of gravity, and he found the centers of gravity of various geometric figures, assuming uniform density in their interiors, including triangles, paraboloids, and hemispheres. Asimov calls Archimedes the greatest in science and math before Newton. Archimedes is a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher born in the seaport colony of Syracuse, Sicily. It's possible that in a long duration seige that even the burning of a landed ship from a roof might be of value. Cicero writes that the Roman consul Marcellus brought two devices back to Rome from the sacked city of Syracuse. One device mapped the sky on a sphere and the other predicted the motions of the sun and the moon and the planets (i.e., an orrery). He credits Thales and Eudoxus for constructing these devices. For some time this was assumed to be a legend of doubtful nature, but the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism has changed the view of this issue, and it is indeed probable that Archimedes possessed and constructed such devices. Pappus of Alexandria writes that Archimedes had written a practical book on the construction of such spheres entitled On Sphere-Making. Archimedes' works were not widely recognized, even in antiquity. He and his contemporaries probably constitute the peak of Greek mathematical rigour. During the Middle Ages the mathematicians who could understand Archimedes' work were few and far between. Many of his works were lost when the library of Alexandria was burnt (twice) and survived only in Latin or Arabic translations. As a result, his mechanical method was lost until around 1900, after the arithmetization of analysis had been carried out successfully. We can only speculate about the effect that the "method" would have had on the development of calculus had it been known in the 16th and 17th centuries. Archimedes requests that his tombstone include a cylinder circumscribing a sphere, accompanied by the inscription of his amazing theorem that the sphere is exactly two-thirds of the circumscribing cylinder in both surface area and volume. Writings by Archimedes * On the Equilibrium of Planes (2 volumes) This scroll explains the law of the lever and uses it to calculate the areas and centers of gravity of various geometric figures. * On Spirals In this scroll, Archimedes defines what is now called Archimedes' spiral. This is the first mechanical curve (i.e., traced by a moving point) ever considered by a Greek mathematician. * On the Sphere and The Cylinder In this scroll Archimedes obtains the result he was most proud of: that the area and volume of a sphere are in the same relationship to the area and volume of the circumscribed straight cylinder. * On Conoids and Spheroids In this scroll Archimedes calculates the areas and volumes of sections of cones, spheres and paraboloids. * On Floating Bodies (2 volumes) In the first part of this scroll, Archimedes spells out the law of equilibrium of fluids, and proves that water around a center of gravity will adopt a spherical form. This is probably an attempt at explaining the observation made by Greek astronomers that the Earth is round. Note that his fluids are not self-gravitating: he assumes the existence of a point towards which all things fall and derives the spherical shape. One is led to wonder what he would have done had he struck upon the idea of universal gravitation. In the second part, a veritable tour-de-force, he calculates the equilibrium positions of sections of paraboloids. This was probably an idealization of the shapes of ships' hulls. Some of his sections float with the base under water and the summit above water, which is reminiscent of the way icebergs float, although Archimedes probably was not thinking of this application. * The Quadrature of the Parabola In this scroll, Archimedes calculates the area of a segment of a parabola (the figure delimited by a parabola and a secant line not necessarily perpendicular to the axis). The final answer is obtained by triangulating the area and summing the geometric series with ratio 1/4. * Stomachion This is a Greek puzzle similar to Tangram. In this scroll, Archimedes calculates the areas of the various pieces. This may be the first reference we have to this game. Recent discoveries indicate that Archimedes was attempting to determine how many ways the strips of paper could be assembled into the shape of a square. This is possibly the first use of combinatorics to solve a problem. * Archimedes' Cattle Problem Archimedes wrote a letter to the scholars in the Library of Alexandria, who apparently had downplayed the importance of Archimedes' works. In these letters, he dares them to count the numbers of cattle in the Herd of the Sun by solving a number of simultaneous Diophantine equations, some of them quadratic (in the more complicated version). This problem is one of the famous problems solved with the aid of a computer. The solution is a very large number, approximately 7.760271 × 10206544 (See the external links to the Cattle Problem.) * The Sand Reckoner In this scroll, Archimedes counts the number of grains of sand fitting inside the universe. This book mentions Aristarchus of Samos' theory of the solar system (concluding that "this is impossible"), contemporary ideas about the size of the Earth and the distance between various celestial bodies. From the introductory letter we also learn that Archimedes' father was an astronomer. * "The Method" In this work, which was unknown in the Middle Ages, but the importance of which was realised after its discovery, Archimedes pioneered the use of infinitesimals, showing how breaking up a figure in an infinite number of infinitely small parts could be used to determine its area or volume. Archimedes did probably consider these methods not mathematically precise, and he used these methods to find at least some of the areas or volumes he sought, and then used the more traditional method of exhaustion to prove them. Some details can be found at how Archimedes used infinitesimals. What an interesting group of people and interesting time it must have been for the people at the university in Alexandria, perhaps unknown to them, to be with the smartest and most interesting humans on earth like Aristarchos, Archimedes, Eritosthenes, etc.). All people eat together at the university which must have made for some very enlightened conversations. Archimedes' father is an astronomer. Archimedes learns in Alexandria, and decides to move back to Syracuse (which is rare for most people in Alexandria) perhaps because he is related to the King of Syracuse Hieron II. Archimedes is independently wealthy and does not depend on the wealth of royal people in Egypt. Archimedes is asked by Hieron if a crown from a gold smith was really all gold, or if the crown had silver mixed in. Archimedes is told that he cannot damage the crown in the determination. Archimedes can not think of how to solve the problem until one time he steps in a bath and notes that the water overflows. Archimedes realizes that the amount of water that falls out is equal to the volume of his body. If put in water, Archimedes could measure the volume of the crown, then measure the weight of the crown, and compare this weight with an equal volume of pure gold. The crown and the piece of gold with the same volume should weight the same. If the crown weighes more than the pure gold with the same volume, then the crown is not pure gold. Archimedes, excited by this realization, ran naked through the streets of Syracuse (although people were not as disturbed by nudity then) yelling "eureka! eureka!" (or 'Heureka'; Greek ηὕρηκα; I have found it). The crown is partly silver and the goldsmith is executed. Archimedes makes use of levers (Strato was aware of the idea). Archimedes is told to have said "give me a place to stand and I can move the world". Hieron is supposed to have challanged Archimedes, and Archimedes said to have lifted a ship from a harbor on to shore. | |
2,250 YBN [250 BC] | 893) | |
2,250 YBN [250 BC] | 894) | |
2,246 YBN [246 BC] | 898) Eratosthenes of Cyrene (Kurinaios) (Ἐρατοσθένης) (BCE 276-196) is the first person to accurately calculate the size of the earth. On the day of summer solstace, the longest day of the year, the Sun is directly over head in Syene (now Aswan) in southern Egypt, but at the same time in Alexandria, the Sun is a few degrees from the (perpendicular or) zenith in Alexandria. The difference is because the surface of the earth is curved and not flat. Erastosthenes is aware that Syene and Alexandria are almost on the same line of longitude (or meridian) and also knows the distance between Syene and Alexandria (Erastothenes hired a human to pace out the distance between Alexandria and Syene ), and uses this distance and the angle of the Sun to calculate the diameter of the planet earth. This result is in units of measurement of space called "stadia". Eratosthenes calculates a distance between Alexandria and Syene as 5,000 stadia, and calculates that the angle of the Sun (in Alexandria at noon on the longest day of the year) is 1/50th the circumference of a circle. This puts the circumference Eratosthenes measures at at 40,000 km (25,000 miles) which is accurate (the current estimate is 40,075.02 km). This number is larger than most humans can accept and so the smaller estimate of Poseidonius is accepted. From this large number compared to the "known" earth, Eratosthenes thought the various seas formed a single interconnected ocean. Eratosthenes teaches that Africa might be circumnavigated, and that India can be reached by sailing westwards from Spain. Eratosthenes makes the "Sieve of Eratosthenes", a system for determining prime numbers. Eratosthenes makes a map of the "known" earth which is better than any before. In astronomy, Eratosthenes measures the angle of the earth's axis with the plane the sun appears to move in, and gets an accurate value. This value is called the "obliquity of ecliptic". Eratosthenes makes a star map of 675 stars. Eratosthenes denounces those who divide mankind into two groups, Greeks and non-Greeks and advocates the Stoic moral principles of virtue and vice as a criterion for the division of men. Eratosthenes is a friend of Archimedes. | Alexandria, Egypt |
2,246 YBN [246 BC] | 933) | |
2,246 YBN [246 BC] | 936) | |
2,245 YBN [245 BC] | 896) | |
2,240 YBN [240 BC] | 923) The Serapeion is a massive raised acropolis of buildings. The Serapeum is away from the main library in the south west corner of Alexandria, the Egyptian quarter of Rhakotis. The Serapeum is called the "daughter library". In the bilingual foundation plaques, the name Serapis is rendered in the Egyptian form of Osor-Hapi (the Egyptian name is Osorapis). Two obelisks (a thin 4 sided monument becoming thinner up to the top with a pyramidal top), are said to have stood there as well as two red granite sphinxes which are still at the site. A black granite Apis bull (an egyptian god) now in the Alexandria museum was also in the Serapeum. This shows how the vision of the Ptolemies was to combine the Egyptian and Greek populations. Ptolemy 3 creates a temple of Serapis in the South-West part of Alexandria, some distance from the royal quarters. : The excavations by Alan Rowe and others in 1943-1944 will find foundation plaques that clearly bear the name of Ptolemy 3 Euergetes, even though medieval writers will attribute the Serapeum to Ptolemy 2 At the southern end are two long corridors opening into small rooms, and in particular a row of 19 uniform rooms, each about 3 by 4 meters. The excavators theorize that these rooms were used to shelve the scrolls of the Serapeum library, and that the scrolls were consulted in the corridors. One source has the Serapeum started under Ptolemy I Soter but finished under Ptolemy 3 as the foundation plaques excavated in 1942 indicate. In the east end is a huge statue of the god Serapeus (who looks like Zeus), made of wood and covered with ivory and gold, the outstretched arms nearly reach the two side-walls. In the left hand is a sceptre and under the right hand was an image of Cerberus, with a triple head of lion, dog and wolf, with a python coiled around he three heads. An east window behind the statue is arranged so that the first rays of the rising sun light up the features of the god. Under the plateau are underground passages and storerooms. Aphthonios (a Greek sophist and rhetorician living in the second half of the 4th century CE), in his "Progymnasmata", an introductory book on different kinds of rhetoric (fable, narration, comparison, etc.), gives a sample for the style of writing titled "Description" that describes the Sarapeion. Aphthonios writes: "Description: the temple in Alexandria, together with the acropolis Citadels are established for the common security of cities - for they are the highest points of cities. They are not walled round with buildings, so much as they wall round the cities. The centre of Athens held the Athenian acropolis; but the citadel which Alexander established for his own city is in fact what he named it, and it is more accurate to call this an acropolis than that on which the Athenians pride themselves. For it is somewhat as this discourse shall describe. A hill juts out of the ground, rising to a great height, and called an acropolis on both accounts, both because it is raised up on high and because it is placed in the high-point of the city. There are two roads to it, of dissimilar nature. One is a road, the other a way of access. The roads have different names according to their nature. Here it is possible to approach on foot and the road is shared also with those who approach on a wagon; there flights of steps have been cut and there is no passage for wagons. For flight after flight leads higher and higher, not stopping until the hundredth step; for the limit of their number is one which produces a perfect measure. After the steps is a gateway, shut in with grilled gates of moderate size. And four massive columns rise up, bringing four roads to one entrance. On the columns rises a building with many columns of moderate size in front, not of one colour, but they are fixed to the edifice as an ornament. The building's roof is domed, and round the dome is set a great image of the universe. As one enters the acropolis itself a single space is marked out by four sides; the plan of the arrangement is that of a hollow rectangle. There is a court in the centre, surrounded by a colonnade. Other colonnades succeed the court, colonnades divided by equal columns, and their length could not be exceeded. Each colonnade ends in another at right angles, and a double column divides each colonnade, ending the one and starting the other. Chambers are built within the colonnades. Some are repositories for the books, open to those who are diligent in philosophy and stirring up the whole city to mastery of wisdom. Others are established in honour of the ancient gods. The colonnades are roofed, and the roof is made of gold, and the capitals {tops} of the columns are made of bronze overlaid with gold. The decoration of the court is not single. For different parts are differently decorated, and one has the exploits of Perseus. In the middle there rises a column of great height, making the place conspicuous (someone on his way does not know where he is going, unless he uses the pillar as a sign of the direction) and makes the acropolis stand out by land and sea. The beginnings of the universe stand round the capital of the column. Before one comes to the middle of the court there is set an edifice with many entrances, which are named after the ancient gods; and two stone obelisks rise up, and a fountain better than that of the Peisistratids. And the marvel had an incredible number of builders. As one was not sufficient for the making, builders of the whole acropolis were appointed to the number of twelve {by the dozen}. As one comes down from the acropolis, here is a flat place resembling a race-course, which is what the place is called; and here there is another of similar shape, but not equal in size. The beauty is unspeakable. If anything has been omitted, it has been bracketed by amazement; what it was not possible to describe has been omitted." | Alexandria, Egypt |
2,240 YBN [240 BC] | 1325) Chinese people possibly ob served Halley's comet as early as 2467 BCE. | China |
2,235 YBN [235 BC] | 890) | |
2,235 YBN [235 BC] | 895) | |
2,230 YBN [230 BC] | 1034) The letter "G" is added to the Latin alphabet in Rome. Before this the letter "C" could be either the "K" or "G" sound, now the letter "G" will have the "G" sound and the letter "C" will only have the "K" sound. A more logical system would be to not add any letter "G", and to use the letter "C" only as "G", "K" for all "K" sounds, but this simple one letter equals one sound only system is not recognized. This confusion about how to pronounce the letter "C" will continue for thousands of years, persisting even today. Later the letter "C" will also take on an "S" and "CH" sound and "G" will take on the "J" sound, adding to a simple and unnecessary confusion. | |
2,230 YBN [230 BC] | 1373) Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt and contemporary of Ashoka, is recorded by Pliny the Elder as sending an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra in India: "But {India} has been treated of by several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose: all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources of these nations." | Hindustan |
2,212 YBN [212 BC] | 892) | |
2,208 YBN [208 BC] | 1051) | |
2,205 YBN [205 BC] | 937) | |
2,204 YBN [204 BC] | 938) | |
2,204 YBN [204 BC] | 939) | |
2,200 YBN [200 BC] | 1063) | India |
2,196 YBN [196 BC] | 1267) | Egypt |
2,191 YBN [191 BC] | 940) | |
2,189 YBN [189 BC] | 948) | |
2,186 YBN [186 BC] | 1117) The Suàn shù shū is an ancient Chinese collection of writings on mathematics approximately 7000 characters in length, written on 190 bamboo strips, recovered from a tomb that appears to have been closed in 186 B.C. This anonymous collection is not a single coherent book, but is made up of approximately 69 independent sections of text, which appear to have been assembled from a variety of sources. Problems treated range from elementary calculations with fractions to applications of the Rule of False Position and finding the volumes of various solid shapes. | Zhangjiashan, Hubei Provience, China |
2,175 YBN [175 BC] | 949) | |
2,173 YBN [173 BC] | 955) | |
2,164 YBN [09/??/164 BC] | 1324) | Babylonia |
2,160 YBN [160 BC] | 1029) Pliny will claim, in his "Natural History", that Hipparchos compiled his catalog of stars so that future astronomers can detect changes in positions and the possible appearance of novae. Lucio Russo writes that Edmund Halley, "probably without realizing that he was completing an experiment ... started two thousand years earlier" will be the first to notice this difference in 1718. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries coins were made in his honour in Bithynia that bear his name and show him with a globe; this confirms the tradition that he was born there. Hipparchus is believed to have died on the island of Rhodes, where he spent most of his later life--Ptolemy attributes observations to him from Rhodes in the period from 141 BC to 127 BC. Hipparchus is recognized as the originator and father of scientific astronomy. He is believed to be the greatest Greek astronomical observer, and many regard him as the greatest astronomer of ancient times, although Cicero gave preferences to Aristarchus of Samos. Some put in this place also Ptolemy of Alexandria. Hipparchus' writings had been mostly superseded by those of Ptolemy, so later copyists have not preserved them for posterity. Earlier Greek astronomers and mathematicians were influenced by Babylonian astronomy to a limited extent, for instance the period relations of the Metonic cycle and Saros cycle may have come from Babylonian sources. Hipparchus seems to have been the first to exploit Babylonian astronomical knowledge and techniques systematically. He was the first Greek known to divide the circle in 360 degrees of 60 arc minutes (Eratosthenes before him used a simpler sexagesimal system dividing a circle into 60 parts). He also used the Babylonian unit pechus ("cubit") of about 2° or 2½°. Hipparchus also studied the motion of the Moon and confirmed the accurate values for some periods of its motion that Chaldean astronomers had obtained before him. The traditional value (from Babylonian System B) for the mean synodic month is 29 days;31,50,8,20 (sexagesimal) = 29.5305941... d. Expressed as 29 days + 12 hours + 793/1080 hours this value has been used later in the Hebrew calendar (possibly from Babylonian sources). The Chaldeans also knew that 251 synodic months = 269 anomalistic months. Hipparchus extended this period by a factor of 17, because after that interval the Moon also would have a similar latitude, and it is close to an integer number of years (345). Therefore, eclipses would reappear under almost identical circumstances. The period is 126007 days 1 hour (rounded). Hipparchus could confirm his computations by comparing eclipses from his own time (presumably 27 January 141 BCE and 26 November 139 BCE according to {Toomer 1980}), with eclipses from Babylonian records 345 years earlier (Almagest IV.2; {Jones 2001}). Before Hipparchus, Meton, Euctemon, and their pupils at Athens had made a solstice observation (i.e., timed the moment of the summer solstice) on June 27, 432 BC (proleptic Julian calendar). Aristarchus of Samos is said to have done so in 280 BC, and Hipparchus also had an observation by Archimedes. Hipparchus himself observed the summer solstice in 135 BC, but he found observations of the moment of equinox more accurate, and he made many during his lifetime. Ptolemy gives an extensive discussion of Hipparchus' work on the length of the year in the Almagest III.1, and quotes many observations that Hipparchus made or used, spanning 162 BCE to 128 BCE. At the end of his career, Hipparchus wrote a book called Peri eniausíou megéthous ("On the Length of the Year") about his results. Before Hipparchus the Chaldean astronomers knew that the lengths of the seasons are not equal. Hipparchus made equinox and solstice observations, and according to Ptolemy (Almagest III.4) determined that spring (from spring equinox to summer solstice) lasted 94 + 1/2 days, and summer (from summer solstice to autumn equinox) 92 + 1/2 days. This is an unexpected result given a premise of the Sun moving around the Earth in a circle at uniform speed. Hipparchus' solution was to place the Earth not at the center of the Sun's motion, but at some distance from the center. This model described the apparent motion of the Sun fairly well (of course today we know that the planets like the Earth move in ellipses around the Sun, but this was not discovered until Johannes Kepler published his first two laws of planetary motion in 1609). It's not clear if Hipparchos or Ptolemy found these values. Hipparchus also undertook to find the distances and sizes of the Sun and the Moon. He published his results in a work of two books called Peri megethoon kai 'apostèmátoon ("On Sizes and Distances") by Pappus in his commentary on the Almagest V.11; Theon of Smyrna (2nd century) mentions the work with the addition "of the Sun and Moon". Hipparchus measured the apparent diameters of the Sun and Moon with his diopter. Like others before and after him, he found that the Moon's size varies as it moves on its (eccentric) orbit, but he found no perceptible variation in the apparent diameter of the Sun. He found that at the mean distance of the Moon, the Sun and Moon had the same apparent diameter Like others before and after him, he also noticed that the Moon has a noticeable parallax, i.e., that it appears displaced from its calculated position (compared to the Sun or stars), and the difference is greater when closer to the horizon. He knew that this is because the Moon circles the center of the Earth, but the observer is at the surface - Moon, Earth and observer form a triangle with a sharp angle that changes all the time. From the size of this parallax, the distance of the Moon as measured in Earth radii can be determined. For the Sun however, there was no observable parallax (we now know that it is about 8.8", more than ten times smaller than the resolution of the unaided eye). In the first book, Hipparchus assumes that the parallax of the Sun is 0, as if it is at infinite distance. He then analyzed a solar eclipse, presumably that of 14 March 190 BC. Alexandria and Nicaea are on the same meridian. Alexandria is at about 31° North, and the region of the Hellespont at about 41° North; authors like Strabo and Ptolemy had fairly decent values for these geographical positions, and presumably Hipparchus knew them too. So Hipparchus could draw a triangle formed by the two places and the Moon, and from simple geometry was able to establish a distance of the Moon, expressed in Earth radii. Because the eclipse occurred in the morning, the Moon was not in the meridian, and as a consequence the distance found by Hipparchus was a lower limit. In any case, according to Pappus, Hipparchus found that the least distance is 71 (from this eclipse), and the greatest 81 Earth radii. In the second book, Hipparchus starts from the opposite extreme assumption: he assigns a (minimum) distance to the Sun of 470 Earth radii. This would correspond to a parallax of 7', which is apparently the greatest parallax that Hipparchus thought would not be noticed (for comparison: the typical resolution of the human eye is about 2'. In this case, the shadow of the Earth is a cone rather than a cylinder as under the first assumption. Hipparchus observed (at lunar eclipses) that at the mean distance of the Moon, the diameter of the shadow cone (of the earth) is 2+½ lunar diameters. That apparent diameter is, as he had observed, 360/650 degrees (of the sky). With these values and simple geometry, Hipparchus could determine the mean distance; because it was computed for a minimum distance of the Sun, it is the maximum average distance possible for the Moon. With his value for the eccentricity of the orbit, he could compute the least and greatest distances of the Moon too. According to Pappus, he found a least distance of 62, a mean of 67+1/3, and consequently a greatest distance of 72+2/3 Earth radii. With this method, as the parallax of the Sun decreases (i.e., its distance increases), the minimum limit for the mean distance is 59 Earth radii - exactly the mean distance that Ptolemy will later derive. Hipparchus therefore had the problematic result that his minimum distance (from book 1) was greater than his maximum mean distance (from book 2). He was intellectually honest about this discrepancy, and probably realized that especially the first method is very sensitive to the accuracy of the observations and parameters (in fact, modern calculations show that the size of the solar eclipse at Alexandria must have been closer to 9/10 than to the reported 4/5). Ptolemy later measured the lunar parallax directly (Almagest V.13) (presumable against the position of a star?), and used the second method of Hipparchus' with lunar eclipses to compute the distance of the Sun (Almagest V.15). He will criticize Hipparchus for making contradictory assumptions, and obtaining conflicting results (Almagest V.11): but apparently he will fail to understand Hipparchus' strategy to establish limits consistent with the observations, rather than a single value for the distance. Hipparchos' results are the best until his time: the actual mean distance of the Moon is 60.3 Earth radii, within his limits from book 2. Pliny (Naturalis Historia II.X) tells us that Hipparchus demonstrated that lunar eclipses can occur five months apart, and solar eclipses seven months (instead of the usual six months); and the Sun can be hidden twice in thirty days, but as seen by different nations. Ptolemy discussed this a century later at length in Almagest VI.6. The geometry, and the limits of the positions of Sun and Moon when a solar or lunar eclipse is possible, are explained in Almagest VI.5. Hipparchus apparently made similar calculations. The result that two solar eclipses can occur one month apart is important, because this can not be based on observations: one is visible on the northern and the other on the southern hemisphere - as Pliny indicates -, and the latter was inaccessible to the Greek. Prediction of a solar eclipse, i.e., exactly when and where it will be visible, requires a solid lunar theory and proper treatment of the lunar parallax. Hipparchus must have been the first to be able to do this. A rigorous treatment requires spherical trigonometry, but Hipparchus may have made do with planar approximations. He may have discussed these things in Peri tes kata platos meniaias tes selenes kineseoos ("On the monthly motion of the Moon in latitude"), a work mentioned in the Suda. Hipparchus is credited with the invention or improvement of several astronomical instruments, which were used for a long time for naked-eye observations. According to Synesius of Ptolemais (4th century) he made the first astrolabion: this may have been an armillary sphere (which Ptolemy however says he constructed, in Almagest V.1); or the predecessor of the planar instrument called astrolabe (also mentioned by Theon of Alexandria). With an astrolabe Hipparchus was the first to be able to measure the geographical latitude and time by observing stars. Previously this was done at daytime by measuring the shadow cast by a gnomon, or with the portable instrument known as scaphion. Ptolemy mentions (Almagest V.14) that he used a similar instrument as Hipparchus, called dioptra, to measure the apparent diameter of the Sun and Moon. Pappus of Alexandria described it (in his commentary on the Almagest of that chapter), as did Proclus (Hypotyposis IV). It was a 4-foot rod with a scale, a sighting hole at one end, and a wedge that could be moved along the rod to exactly obscure the disk of Sun or Moon. Hipparchus also observed solar equinoxes, which may be done with an equatorial ring: its shadow falls on itself when the Sun is on the equator (i.e., in one of the equinoctial points on the ecliptic), but the shadow falls above or below the opposite side of the ring when the Sun is south or north of the equator. Ptolemy quotes (in Almagest III.1 (H195)) a description by Hipparchus of an equatorial ring in Alexandria; a little further he describes two such instruments present in Alexandria in his own time. Contributions to geography: Hipparchus applied his knowledge of spherical angles to the problem of denoting locations on the Earth's surface. Before him a grid system had been used by Dicaearchus of Messana, but Hipparchus was the first to apply mathematical rigor to the determination of the latitude and longitude of places on the Earth. Hipparchus wrote a critique in three books on the work of the geographer Eratosthenes of Cyrene (3rd century BC), called Pròs tèn 'Eratosthénous geografían ("Against the Geography of Eratosthenes"). It is known to us from Strabo of Amaseia, who in his turn criticised Hipparchus in his own Geografia. Hipparchus apparently made many detailed corrections to the locations and distances mentioned by Eratosthenes. It seems he did not introduce many improvements in methods, but he did propose a means to determine the geographical longitudes of different cities at lunar eclipses (Strabo Geografia 7). A lunar eclipse is visible simultaneously on half of the Earth, and the difference in longitude between places can be computed from the difference in local time when the eclipse is observed. His approach would give accurate results if it were correctly carried out but the limitations of timekeeping accuracy in his era made this method impractical. Previously, Eudoxus of Cnidus in the 4th century B.C. had described the stars and constellations in two books called Phaenomena and Entropon. Aratus wrote a poem called Phaenomena or Arateia based on Eudoxus' work. Hipparchus wrote a commentary on the Arateia - his only preserved work - which contains many stellar positions and times for rising, culmination, and setting of the constellations, and these are likely to have been based on his own measurements. Hipparchus made his measurements with an equatorial armillary sphere, and obtained the positions of maybe about 850 stars. It is disputed which coordinate system he used. Ptolemy's catalogue in the Almagest, which is derived from Hipparchus' catalogue, is given in ecliptic coordinates. Hipparchus' original catalogue has not been preserved today. However, an analysis of an ancient statue of Atlas (the so-called Farnese Atlas) published in 2005 shows stars at positions that appear to have been determined using Hipparchus' data.. As with most of his work, Hipparchus star catalogue has been adopted and expanded by Ptolemy. It has been strongly disputed how much of the star catalogue in the Almagest is due to Hipparchus, and how much is original work by Ptolemy. Statistical analysis (e.g. by Bradly Schaeffer, and others) shows that the classical star catalogue has a complex origin. Ptolemy has even been accused of fraud for stating that he re-measured all stars: many of his positions are wrong and it appears that in most cases he used Hipparchus' data and precessed them to his own epoch three centuries later, but using an erroneous (too small) precession constant. In any case the work started by Hipparchus has had a lasting heritage, and has been worked on much later by Al Sufi (964), and by Ulugh Beg as late as 1437. It was superseded only by more accurate observations after invention of the telescope. Hipparchus (is the first?) ranks stars in six magnitude classes according to their brightness: he assignes the value of one to the twenty brightest stars, to weaker ones a value of two, and so forth to the stars with a class of six, which can be barely seen with the naked eye. A similar system is still used today (perhaps a system based on number of photons received/second will be next). Hipparchus is perhaps most famous for having discovered the precession of the equinoxes. His two books on precession, On the Displacement of the Solsticial and Equinoctial Points and On the Length of the Year, are both mentioned in the Almagest of Claudius Ptolemy. According to Ptolemy, Hipparchus measured the longitude of Spica and other bright stars. Comparing his measurements with data from his predecessors, Timocharis and Aristillus, he realized that Spica had moved 2° relative to the autumnal equinox. He also compared the lengths of the tropical year (the time it takes the Sun to return to an equinox) and the sidereal year (the time it takes the Sun to return to a fixed star), and found a slight discrepancy. Hipparchus concluded that the equinoxes were moving ("precessing") through the zodiac, and that the rate of precession was not less than 1° in a century. Ptolemy followed up on Hipparchus' work in the 2nd century AD. He confirmed that precession affected the entire sphere of fixed stars (Hipparchus had speculated that only the stars near the zodiac were affected), and concluded that 1° in 100 years was the correct rate of precession. The modern value is 1° in 72 years. As far as is known, Hipparchus never wrote about astrology, i.e. the application of astronomy to the (fraudulent albeit nonviolent and legal) practice of divination. | |
2,150 YBN [150 BC] | 1039) Seleukos lives in Babylonia and is probably called "Chaldean" or "Babylonian", but was probably part Greek, and lives during the same time as Hipparchos. Strabo will explain that Seleukos understood the yearly changes of the tides from season to season, revealing the fact that tides show a maximum change in height with each consecutive high tide (diurnal inequality) during the solstice, and minimum change of height difference of consecutive high tides during the equinox. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that the earth is tilted to the sun, during the solstice, but is not tilted to the sun during the equinox {add image}, although this could be explained with a tilted sun in an earth-centered theory. This phenomenon will not be understood again until G. H. Darwin in 1898. Plutarch writes: Was {Timaeus} giving the earth motion ..., and should the earth ... be understood to have been designed not as confined and fixed but as turning and revolving about, in the way expounded later by Aristarchos and Seleukos, the former assuming this as a hypothesis and the latter proclaiming it?" Aetius will write, "Seleucus the mathematician (also one of those who think the earth moves) says that the moon's revolution counteracts the whirlpool motion of the earth". | Seleucia (on the Tigris River), Babylon |
2,145 YBN [145 BC] | 950) | |
2,145 YBN [145 BC] | 951) | |
2,143 YBN [143 BC] | 1337) Shishi, in Chinese means "Stone House", which refers to how the school was originally built. | Chengdu, China |
2,140 YBN [140 BC] | 1070) The invention of paper. The earliest paper artifact (although without writing) is made of hemp fibers and comes from a tomb in China. Before this bamboo and silk are written on in China. The method of making paper by pouring wood pulp mixed in water into a flat mold and drying the sediment will take over 1000 years to be understood in Europe, although it will reach India in the 600s CE. Paper is considered one of the most important inventions in history, since it enables China to develop its civilization much faster than with earlier writing materials (primarily bamboo), and it does the same with Europe when it is introduced in the 12th century or the 13th century. | Xian, China |
2,134 YBN [01/01/134 BC] | 1041) | |
2,127 YBN [127 BC] | 943) | |
2,120 YBN [120 BC] | 942) | |
2,105 YBN [01/01/105 BC] | 1042) Poseidonios is a Greek Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian, and teacher. He is acclaimed as the greatest polymath of his age. None of his vast body of work can be read in its entirety today as it exists only in fragments. Like Pytheas, Poseidonios thinks that the moon causes the tides, and goes west to the Atlantic ocean to study tides. Poseidonios uses Canopus in place of the sun in order to calculate the size of the earth, but his measurement is too small (as described by Strabo the only source for this data). Ptolemy will accept this lower number, instead of accurate calculation made by Eratosthenes, and this will be the accepted value of the Earth's circumference for the next 1,500 years, and may influence Christopher Columbus that the earth can be circumnavigated. Poseidonius supports the pseudoscience of astrology. He attempted to measure the distance and size of the Sun. In about 90 BCE Posidonius estimated the astronomical unit to be a0/rE = 9893, which was still too small by half. In measuring the size of the Sun, however, he reached a figure larger and more accurate than those proposed by other Greek astronomers and Aristarchus of Samos. Posidonius also calculated the size and distance of the Moon. Posidonius constructed an orrery, possibly similar to the Antikythera mechanism. Posidonius's orrery, according to Cicero, exhibited the diurnal motions of the sun, moon, and the five known planets. | |
2,100 YBN [100 BC] | 952) | |
2,100 YBN [100 BC] | 1064) | Central Asia |
2,100 YBN [100 BC] | 1374) | Rome |
2,080 YBN [80 BC] | 870) | |
2,080 YBN [80 BC] | 1046) | |
2,076 YBN [76 BC] | 1047) | |
2,075 YBN [75 BC] | 1116) Negative numbers. The first use of negative numbers is in the Chinese mathematics book "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art" (Jiuˇ zhāng suàn shù). Negative numbers are in red and positive numbers in black. The Nine Chapters is a Chinese counterpart to Euclid’s Elements, which dominates Western mathematics in the same way the Nine Chapters is the basis of ancient Chinese mathematics for nearly two millennia. Euclid’s text is uses an axiomatic method while The Nine Chapters, is a much more down-to-Earth handbook for the solution of practical problems. | China |
2,070 YBN [70 BC] | 953) | |
2,060 YBN [60 BC] | 958) | |
2,060 YBN [60 BC] | 959) | |
2,056 YBN [56 BC] | 1045) Lucretius (BCE c95-c55) describes light and heat as being made of tiny atoms that move very fast. Lucretius {LYUKREsEuS}, Titus Lucretius Carus, Roman poet and philosopher, writes "De Natura Rerum" (On the Nature of things) which describes a mechanical Epikourean view of universe in a (longer than average) poem. Influenced by Democritus, Lucretius supports the idea that all things are made of atoms including souls and even Gods. Like Epikouros, Lucretius thinks that the Gods are not concerned with the lives of humans, and death is not to be feared. In addition Lucretius thinks that there is no after life, only peaceful nothingness. Lucretius is the first to divide human history in to the stone age, bronze age, and iron age. Lucretius is the boldest person of this time to speak out against religion, superstition and mysticism. In "De rerum natura" Lucretius writes (translated from Latin): "...the velocity with which these images travel is enormous: light things made of fine atoms often travel very swiftly, as sunlight; it is natural then that these images should do the same; of which too there is a constant succession one following on the other like light or heat from the sun. ...". | Rome, Italy |
2,055 YBN [08/??/55 BC] | 1057) | |
2,050 YBN [50 BC] | 1050) | |
2,048 YBN [48 BC] | 956) A fire set by soldiers for Julius Caesar may have burned only some storehouses of books, or may have partially or completely burned the Royal Library too, but in any event, the Royal Mouseion (which possibly housed the Royal Library) and Sarapeion survived undamaged. | |
2,045 YBN [45 BC] | 954) | |
2,045 YBN [45 BC] | 1056) | |
2,045 YBN [45 BC] | 1523) | Rome, Italy |
2,041 YBN [41 BC] | 957) | |
2,040 YBN [40 BC] | 1058) Earliest waterwheel and elevator (vertical lift). In the first century BC Roman engineer Vitruvius writes "De architectura", known today as "The Ten Books of Architecture", a treatise in Latin on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus. It is the only surviving major book on architecture from classical antiquity. In a section of "De architectura" that describes machines rarely used, Vitruvius describes the undershot water wheel. Vitruvius also describes the first geared vertical wheel for which there is good evidence. This mill is also of major significance because it is the first application of gearing which uses something besides muscle power. This mill has an undershot wheel which, unlike the breast or overshot wheels, does not make use of the weight of falling water. An "overshot" waterwheel uses water from above to move the wheel by filling buckets on the wheel, while an "undershot" waterwheel uses the force of the water passing below to spin a paddle wheel. A "breast" waterwheel uses the wheel horizontally. Vitruvius {ViTrUVEuS} describes lifting platforms that use pulleys and capstans (apparatus used for hoisting weights, consisting of a vertical spool-shaped cylinder that is rotated manually or by machine and around which a cable is wound), or windlasses (hauling or lifting machines consisting of a horizontal cylinder turned by a crank or a motor so that a line attached to the load is wound around the cylinder), operated by human, animal, or water power. | Rome |
2,033 YBN [08/01/33 BC] | 961) | |
2,033 YBN [08/01/33 BC] | 962) | |
2,033 YBN [33 BC] | 1059) Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia, which is in modern Amasya, Turkey, within Pontus; which had recently become part of the Roman Empire. He studies under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome. He is philosophically a Stoic and politically a proponent of Roman imperialism. Later he will make extensive travels to Egypt and Ethiopia, among others. It is not known when his Geography is written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts at around 7 CE, others around 18 CE. Mention is given to the death in 23 CE of Juba, king of Maurousia. Strabo's History is nearly completely lost. Although Strabo quotes it himself, and other classical authors mention that it existed, the only surviving document is a fragment of papyrus now in possession of the University of Milan (renumbered {Papyrus} 46). Impressed by the size of the unmapped parts of earth, Strabo suggests that there are other continents. Strabo wrongly accepts Homer's geographic descriptions over the more accurate data of Herodotus. Strabo writes about the Mouseion in Alexandria in addition to the original papyri of Aristotle's writing. Strabo's conversion from a sphere to plane in inaccurate. Strabo's "Geography" is an important source for information about the Mouseion of Alexandria. In book 17, Strabo writes: "The Museum is also a part of the royal palaces; it has a public walk, an Exedra {a semi-circular room} with seats, and a large house, in which is the common mess-hall of the men of learning who share the Museum. This group of men not only hold property in common, but also have a priest in charge of the Museum, who formerly was appointed by the kings, but is now appointed by Caesar." | Amasya, Pontus {on the coast of Turkey} |
2,031 YBN [09/02/31 BC] | 967) | Actium, Greece |
2,030 YBN [08/01/30 BC] | 960) | |
2,030 YBN [08/01/30 BC] | 963) | |
2,030 YBN [30 BC] | 3060) The chief teacher of Varro is L. Aelius Stilo, the first systematic student, critic and teacher of Latin (language) and literature, and of the antiquities of Rome and Italy. Varro also studies at Athens, especially under the philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon, whose aim it is to lead back the Academic school from the scepticism of Arcesilaus and Carneades to the tenets of the early Platonists, as he understands them. In 59 Varro wrote a political pamphlet entitled "Trikaranos" ("The Three-Headed") on the coalition of Pompey, Julius Caesar, and Crassus. Varro serves under Pompey in the civil war. When he returns to Rome after the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BCE, Caesar, the victor, pardons Varro and commissions Varro to establish a public library of Greek and Latin literature. Varro then dedicates the second part of his "Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum" ("Antiquities of Human and Divine Things") to Julius Caesar. After Julius Caesar is murdered in 44 BCE, under the second triumvirate, Mark Antony puts Varro's name on the list of those considered to be enemies of the state. Although his books are burned, his villa plundered, and his library destroyed, Varro escapes death through the intervention of Octavian (later Augustus). Thereafter, Varro spends his remaining years in seclusion, reading and writing. Varro's distinct literary works are numbered at 74 and the number of separate "books" at about 620. Varro writes on a wide variety of subjects, including law, astronomy, geography, education, and literary history, as well as satires, poems, orations, and letters. The only complete work to survive is the "Res rustica" ("Farm Topics"), which contains instruction for plant and animal farming. Varro dedicates his "De lingua Latina" ("On the Latin Language") to Cicero. This work contains 25 books, of which only parts of books v to x are known, in addition to other fragments. Of Varro's "Saturae Menippeae", 90 of the 150 books and nearly 600 fragments still exist. These satires are humorous medleys in mixed prose and verse in the manner of the 200s BCE cynic philosopher Menippus of Gadara. According to biography, these writings try to make serious logical discussion palatable to the uneducated reader by blending it with humorous treatment of contemporary society. Two themes run through the satires. One is the absurdity of much of Greek philosophy; the other, the contemporary preoccupation with material luxury, in contrast to the old days, when the Romans were thrifty and self-denying. Varro wrote "Portraits" which contains brief biographical essays on some 700 famous Greeks and Romans, with likenesses of each. Of the 25 books of De lingua Latina, books 5-10 survive, although even they are incomplete. After an introduction (book 1), the work is divided into etymology (history of language) (2-7), inflection (8-13), and syntax (14-25). Cicero's praises Varro writing "When we were foreigners and wanderers - strangers, as it were, in our own land - your books led us home and made it possible for us at length to learn who we were as Romans and where we lived.". Varro creates a chronology, although the chronology of Livy is viewed as more accurate. The Romans call their years after the two supreme magistrates, the consuls. With a list of magistrates, all past events can be dated. | Rome, Italy |
2,027 YBN [01/06/27 BC] | 1524) | Rome, Italy |
2,027 YBN [27 BC] | 1065) | Rome |
2,019 YBN [19 BC] | 1067) | Pont Du Gard, France |
2,010 YBN [08/01/10 BC] | 964) | |
2,010 YBN [08/01/10 BC] | 965) | |
2,008 YBN [8 BC] | 1071) | Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Gansu province, China |
2,000 YBN [1960/0 AD] | 5737) | (University of California Medical Center) Los Angeles, California, USA |
FUTURE | ||
2,000 YBN [0 AD] | 6298) Artificial muscle wing flapping plane. | |
1,991 YBN [9 AD] | 1055) | |
1,980 YBN [08/01/20 AD] | 966) | |
1,980 YBN [20 AD] | 912) This Celsus is different from the Celsus of the 2nd Century CE who will write "The True Word", a book critical of Christianity. His only extant work, the De Medicina, is the only surviving section of a much larger encyclopedia, and is a primary source on diet, pharmacy and surgery and related fields. The lost portions of his encyclopedia likely included volumes on agriculture, law, rhetoric, and military arts. Celsus' De Medicina is one of the best sources on Alexandrian medical knowledge. In "Of Medicine", Celsus describes the preparation of numerous ancient medicinal remedies including the preparation of opioids. In addition, he describes many 1st century Roman surgical procedures which include treatment for bladder stones, tonsillectormy, and the setting of fractures. Celsus is the first to discuss heart attacks. Celsus writes on dentistry and describes the use of a dental mirror. He describes a "cataract", a condition where the lens of the eye grows opaque, in addition to a procedure for removing the clouding. Asimov claims that Celsus is the first to write about insanity (although I think there must be somebody before this), which is an abstract label and is the source of many human rights abuse and much pseudoscience. Celsu s probably copied much of his writings from the writings of Hippocrates. Celsus expresses his (in my view, mistaken) belief in the ethicalness of experimentation on humans, writing in "De Medicina": "It is not cruel to inflict on a few criminals sufferings which may benefit multitudes of innocent people through all centuries." Celsus' work was rediscovered by Pope Nicholas V and published in 1478. His work became famous for its elegant Latin style. | Gallia Narbonensis, southern France |
1,980 YBN [20 AD] | 1390) Some people question the actual existence of a person named Jesus, explaining the similarities with stories of past martyrs born on December 25 and executed such as Mithra. The earliest images of Jesus show Jesus without a beard. | Galilee |
1,965 YBN [35 AD] | 1049) | |
1,960 YBN [40 AD] | 944) | |
1,959 YBN [41 AD] | 968) | |
1,957 YBN [43 AD] | 1076) | Tingentera, Southern Spain |
1,950 YBN [50 AD] | 1068) | China |
1,950 YBN [50 AD] | 1078) Steam engine. Heron of Alexandria (Greek: Ήρων ο Αλεξανδρεύς) (CE c10-c70), a Greek engineer in Alexandria, makes the first recorded steam engine. Heron invents an aeopile, which is a hollow metal sphere that rotates from the power of steam jets that escape through open tubes on each side of the sphere. The potential of the steam engine will not be understood until the late 1600s. Heron describes the lever, pulley, wheel, inclined plane, screw, and wedge. Understands and uses syphons, syringes and gears. Hero uses gears to change the wheel rotations of a chariot to the rotations of a pointer that indicate the number of wheel rotations, which is the first odometer (meter that indicates distance traveled). Hero writes a book on air, which shows that air is a substance and will not enter a container already filled with air, unless air is allowed to escape and be replaced. Hero also reasons that because air can be compressed, air must be made of particles separated by space. | Alexandria, Egypt |
1,950 YBN [50 AD] | 1097) | Alexandria, Egypt |
1,948 YBN [52 AD] | 1079) | Novum Comun, Italy |
1,938 YBN [62 AD] | 945) | |
1,938 YBN [62 AD] | 1080) Hero of Alexandria writes about a lunar eclipse (the shadow of the earth on the moon) this year. | |
1,934 YBN [66 AD] | 1327) | Judea |
1,930 YBN [70 AD] | 1081) A year after Vespasian is made emperor, Vespasian makes Pliny the Elder, who is a friend of Vespasian's, procurator in Gallia Narbonensis (the Roman representative of part of Gaul). | Gaul |
1,927 YBN [73 AD] | 1082) Pliny is made procurator of Hispania Tarraconensis (Governor of a part of Spain). During his stay in Spain he became familiar with the agriculture and the mines of the country, in addition to visiting Africa (vii.37) | Spain |
1,925 YBN [75 AD] | 1270) | Sumer/Babylon |
1,923 YBN [77 AD] | 1083) Encyclopedia. Pliny the Elder's "Historia naturalis" ("Natural History"). Pliny the Elder, ("Gaius Plinius Cecilius Secundus") (PlinE) (CE 23-79) completes his major work titled "Natural History" in 37 volumes. "Natural History" is made from copying text of 500 other earlier people and contains astronomy, geology and zoology. Pliny shows wisdom in rejecting the idea of immortality. In addition to "Natural History", Pliny writes a "History of his Times" in thirty-one books, which has yet to be found. Historia naturalis serves as a major source for other encyclopaedias for at least the next 1,500 years. Even today it is still an important record for details of Roman sculpture and painting. | Spain? |
1,921 YBN [79 AD] | 1084) Pliny the Elder is killed at age 56, by poisonous gas when he goes ashore to investigate the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. | near Mount Vesuvius, Italy |
1,920 YBN [80 AD] | 1077) These descriptions are accurate and free from superstition. | Tingentera, Southern Spain |
1,919 YBN [81 AD] | 969) | |
1,917 YBN [83 AD] | 766) Magnetic compass. The first reference to a magnetic compass is from 83 CE, and describes a "south-controlling spoon" which is thrown on the ground and comes to rest pointing to the south. Another early reference to a specific magnetic direction finder device is recorded in a Song Dynasty book dated to 1040-44. There is a description of an iron "south-pointing fish" floating in a bowl of water, aligning itself to the south. The device is recommended as a means of orientation "in the obscurity of the night". The Chinese developed both the floating needle and pivoting needle compass. In 1187, English writer Alexander Neckam (1157-1217) describes a "pointer carried on board {a ship} which enables a course to be followed even when the Polar star is hidden by clouds.". The "gyrocompass" is invented in 1905 in the United States by Elmer Ambrose Sperry (1860-1930). The gyrocompass uses the angular momentum of a gyroscope with the force produced by the Earth's rotation to maintain a north-south orientation of the spin axis, therefore providing a stable directional reference. | China (more specific) |
1,903 YBN [97 AD] | 1085) A valuable edition of the De aquis (text and translation) has been published by C. Herschel (Boston, Mass., 1899). It contains numerous illustrations; maps of the routes of the ancient aqueducts and the city of Rome in the time of Frontinus; a photographic reproduction of the only manuscript (the Monscassinensis); several explanatory chapters, and a concise bibliography, in which special reference is made to P. de Tissot, Etude sur Ia condition des agrimensores (1879). There is a complete edition of the works by A. Dederich (1855), and an English translation of the Strategemata by R. Scott (1816); more recent editions include that of both the Aqueducts and the Strategemata in the Loeb Classical Library (1925). | Rome, Italy |
1,900 YBN [100 AD] | 5861) | (now Aidin, Turkey) (verify) |
1,900 YBN [100 AD] | 5872) | (Villa of Cicero) Pompeii, Italy |
1,895 YBN [105 AD] | 1086) Tsai Lun (TSI lUN) (c.50 CE Kueiyang, Kweichow - c.118 CE) is thought by many to have invented paper from matter like tree bark, hemp, silk and fishing net, but artifacts of paper have been found that date to before Lun by more than 100 years. Tsai Lun is a eunuch person, usually a male that is castrated (testicles are removed) viewed as a safer (less aggressive) servant for royal people. | Kueiyang, Kweichow?, China |
1,880 YBN [01/01/120 AD] | 1040) | |
1,878 YBN [122 AD] | 1103) Hadrian's Wall is constructed in Britain. Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Hadriani) is a stone and turf fortification built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian (CE 76-138) across the width of Great Britain to prevent military raids by the tribes of Scotland to the north, to improve economic stability and provide peaceful conditions in the Roman province of Britannia to the south, to define the frontier of the Empire physically, and to separate the unruly Selgovae tribe in the north from the Brigantes in the south and discourage them from uniting. The wall is sometimes thought to serve as a border between Scotland and England, however for most of its length the wall follows a line well south of the modern border, and neither the Scoti tribe nor the English lived in Britain at the time of the wall's construction. | Britain |
1,870 YBN [130 AD] | 970) Earth-centered universe of Ptolomy. Ptolomy's "Almagest" describes an Earth-centered universe. Claudius Ptolemaeus (Klaudios Ptolemaios) (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος) (CE c100-c170) writes a 13-volume "The Great Treatise", later named "Almagest", systematizes Alexandrian knowledge of astronomy and catalogs a thousand stars. Ptolemy creates a mathematical system of epicycles to explain the apparent motions of the stars and planets based on the incorrect earth-centered theory. This view dominates Europe until the 1500s. | (some traditions place at) Alexandria |
1,851 YBN [149 AD] | 1088) Galen was born in Pergamum (modern-day Bergama, Turkey), the son of Nicon, a wealthy architect. His interests were diverse - agriculture, architecture, astronomy, astrology, philosophy - until he finally focuses on medicine. By the age of twenty he had become a therapeutes ("attendant" or "associate") of the god Asclepius in the local temple for four years. It is after his father's death in 148 or 149, that he goes abroad to study in Smyrna, Corinth and Alexandria. | Pergamum, Turkey |
1,850 YBN [12/27/150 AD] | 1109) Hegesippus (c.110 - c.180), is a Christian chronicler of the early Church who writes against heresies. His works are lost, save some passages quoted by Eusebius, who tells us that he wrote Hypomnemata (Memoirs) in five books, in the simplest style concerning the tradition of the Apostolic preaching. Hegesippus was also known to Jerome. His work was written to refute the new heresies of the Gnostics and of Marcion. He appealed principally to tradition as embodied in the teaching which had been handed down through the succession of bishops, thus providing much information about the earliest bishops that otherwise would have been lost. Eusebius says that Hegesippus was a convert from Judaism, for he quoted from the Hebrew, was acquainted with the Gospel of the Hebrews and with a Syriac Gospel, and he also cited unwritten traditions of the Jews. He seems to have lived in some part of the East, possibly Palestine, in the time of Pope Anicetus (155-166 A.D.) he travelled to Corinth and Rome, collecting on the spot the teachings of the various churches which he visited, and ascertaining their uniformity with Rome, according to this excerpt: "And the Church of the Corinthians remained in the true word until Primus was bishop in Corinth; I made their acquaintance in my journey to Rome, and remained with the Corinthians many days, in which we were refreshed with the true word. And when I was in Rome, I made a succession up to Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleuterus. And in each succession and in each city all is according to the ordinances of the law and the Prophets and the Lord" (quoted in Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. IV, 22). With great ingenuity J.B. Lightfoot, in Clement of Rome (London, 1890), has found traces of this list of popes in Epiphanius of Cyprus, Haer., xxvii, 6, which extends from St Peter to Anicetus in the poem of Pseudo-Tertullian against Marcion. Eusebius quotes from Hegesippus a long and perhaps legendary account of the death of James the Just, "the brother of the Lord", also the story of the election of his successor Simeon, and the summoning of the descendants of Jude to Rome by Domitian. A list of heresies against which Hegesippus wrote is also cited. Dr. Lawlor has argued (Hermathena, XI, 26, 1900, p. 10) that all these passages cited by Eusebius were connected in the original, and were in the fifth book of Hegesippus. He has also argued (Journal of Theological Studies, April, 1907, VIII, 436) the likelihood that Eusebius got from Hegesippus the statement that John was exiled to Patmos by Domitian. Hegesippus mentioned the letter of Clement to the Corinthians, apparently in connection with the persecution of Domitian. It is very likely that the dating of heretics according to papal reigns in Irenaeus and Epiphanius -- e.g., that Marcion of Sinope's disciple Cerdon and Valentinus came to Rome under Anicetus -- was derived from Hegesippus, and the same may be true of the assertion that Hermas, author of The Shepherd of Hermas, was the brother of Pope Pius (as the Liberian Catalogue, the poem against Marcion, and the Muratorian fragment all state). The Church History of Hegesippus appears in an inventory of books in the Abbey of Corbie; the inventory is of uncertain date, often called 12th century. Zahn has shown that the work of Hegesippus was still extant in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in three Eastern libraries. (Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, II (1877-8), 288, and in Theologisches Litteraturblatt (1893), 495) The Catholic Encyclopedia writes: "We must lament the loss of other portions of the Memoirs which were known to exist in the seventeenth century."{1 Cath. Encyc. 1908 edition} | |
1,850 YBN [150 AD] | 972) | |
1,850 YBN [150 AD] | 973) | |
1,850 YBN [150 AD] | 1087) | Alexandria, Egypt |
1,843 YBN [157 AD] | 1090) | Pergamum, Turkey |
1,838 YBN [162 AD] | 971) Galen is the first person to use a pulse in solving a problem. Galen also argues that the mind is in the brain, not in the heart as Aristotle claimed. Galen does not recognize blood circulation and wrongly thinks that venous and arterial systems are separate. Galen recpgnizes that blood must get from one half of the heart to the other half, and theorizes that there are tiny holes too small to see in the thick muscular wall separating the two halves. This view will not change until, 1500 years later, with William Harvey's work in the 17th century. Since most of his knowledge of anatomy is based on dissection of pigs, dogs, and Barbary apes, he also presumes wrongly that "rete mirabile", a blood vessel plexus of ungulates (hooved animal and whales), also existed in the human body. He also resists the idea of tourniquets to stop bleeding and tragically vigorously spreads the inaccurate opinion of blood letting as a treatment. Galen's authority will dominate health science all the way to the 16th century. With the rise of Christianity, people will not experiment and studies of physiology and anatomy will stop. Blood letting becomes a standard medical procedure. Vesalius (1514-1564), more than 1300 years later, will present the first serious challenge to the dominance of Galen's views. Galen is attracted to Alexandria because of the reputation of the health profession there. Galen will be the last great physician of this time. Galen writes numerous works. Interestingly, those who practice healing through science and the temple priests who practice the pseudoscience of religious healing both coexist together in the Serapeum. Galen will be court physician under emperor Marcus Aurelius for some time. According to Isaac Asimov, Galen's best work is in anatomy. Dissection of humans is viewed as bad in Rome and Galen could only dissect other species, including dogs, goats, pigs, and monkeys. Galen is describes anatomy in meticulous detail. Galen writes that muscles work in groups. Galen cuts the spinal cord of many species at various levels and writes on the resulting paralysis (loss of movement of the body part). Galen uses the three fluid theory of Erasistratus. Galen regards wounds as "windows into the body". Galen performed many audacious operations that were not again used for almost two millennia, including brain and eye surgery. To perform cataract surgery, Galen would insert a long needle-like instrument into the eye behind the lens. He would then pull it back slightly and remove the cataract. The slightest slip could cause permanent blindness. Galen had set the standard for modern medicine in many different ways. In Rome, Galen writes extensively, lectures and publicly demonstrates his knowledge of anatomy. Galen gains a reputation as an experienced physician and his practice had a widespread clientèle. One of them is the consul Flavius Boethius who introduces him to the Imperial court where Galen becomes a court physician to Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Later he will also treat Lucius Verus, Commodus and Septimius Severus. Reputedly, he speaks mostly Greek, which in the field of medicine is a more highly respected language than Latin at the time. Galen spends the rest of his life in the Imperial court, writing and experimenting. He performs vivisections of numerous animals to study the function of the kidneys and the spinal cord. Galen transmitted Hippocratic medicine all the way to the Renaissance. His "On the Elements According to Hippocrates" describes the philosopher's inaccurate system of four bodily humours, blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm, which were mystically identified with the four classical elements, and in turn with the seasons. He created his own theories from those principles, and much of Galen's work can be seen as building on the Hippocratic theories of the body, rather than being new. Galen mainly ignores the Latin writings of Celsus, but accepts the ancient works of Asclepiades. Amongst Galen's own major works is a seventeen-volume "On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Human Body". Like Pliny, Galen wrongly thinks that everything in the universe is made by a God for some purpose. He also writes about philosophy and philology (the study of words and language), as well as extensively writing on anatomy. His collected works total twenty-two volumes, and he writes a line a day for most of his life. Galen's own theories, in accord with Plato's, emphasizes purposeful creation by a single Creator ( "Nature", in Greek "phusis") - a major reason why later Christian and Muslim scholars will be able to accept his views and will preserve his writings. His fundamental principle of life was pneuma (air, or breath) that later writers will connect with the erronius ancient idea of a "soul". These writings on philosophy are a product of Galen's well rounded education, and throughout his life Galen is keen to emphasise the philosophical element to medicine. Galen maintained the inaccurate opinions that "Pneuma physicon" (animal spirit) in the brain is responsible for movement, perception, and senses, that "Pneuma zoticon" (vital spirit) in the heart controls blood and body temperature, and that "Natural spirit" in the liver handled nutrition and metabolism. However, he correctly rejects the Pneumatic theory that air passes through the veins rather than blood. Galen expands his knowledge partly by experimenting with live animals (in a way that is clearly painful to the animal and which I vote against, although science was advanced by such experimentation). One of his methods is to publicly dissect a living pig, cutting its nerve bundles one at a time. Eventually he cuts a laryngeal nerve (now also known as Galen's Nerve) and the pig stops squealing. He also ties the ureters of living animals, swelling the kidneys, therefore showing that urine comes from the kidneys, and severes spinal cords to demonstrate paralysis. In addition to working with pigs, Galen also experiments with barbary apes and goats, but emphasizes that he practises on pigs due to the fact that, in some respects, they are anatomically similar to humans. Public dissections are also a highly valuable way of disputing and disproving the biological theories of others, and are one of the main methods of academic medical learning in Rome. It is quite common for large numbers of medical students to attend these public gatherings, which will sometimes turn into debates where learning is increased. Galen's books will be the standard book of healing through science until Vesalius. It is very possible that Galen excelled in part from use of the Pergamum public library, a library second only to that of Alexandria.{check in Galen writings} Galen, through his works, will transmit the Greek knowledge of healing into the future. | |
1,838 YBN [162 AD] | 1089) Galen (Greek: Γαληνός) (c.130 CE Pergamum {now Bergama, Turkey} - c.200 CE probably Sicily), moves to Rome. | Pergamum, Turkey |
1,827 YBN [03/31/173 AD] | 974) | |
1,823 YBN [177 AD] | 1030) According to Origen, Celsus was the author of an anti-Christian work titled The True Word. This work is lost, but we have Origen's account of it in his writings. Celsus, as a Platonist philosopher, argues for monotheism against what he sees as the Christians' dualism (of Deity and Devil) writing "If one accepts that all of nature, and everything in the universe, operates according to the will of God, and that nothing works contrary to his purposes, then one must also accept that the angels and daimones, hereos - all things in the universe - are subject to the will of the one God who rules over all." According to Elaine Pagels, many Pagans in this time tend toward monotheism, however believe in a unity of all the gods and daimones in one divine source. Celsus writes that the Christians deviate from monotheism in their "blasphemous" belief in the devil. Of all the "impious errors" the Christians make, Christians show their greatest ignorance in "making up a being opposed to God, and calling him 'devil,' or, in the Hebrew language, 'Satan."' According to Celsus, all such ideas are nothing but human inventions, and that "it is blasphemy...to say that the greatest God...has an adversary who constrains his capacity to do good." Celsus expresses anger that the Christians who claim to worship one God, "impiously divide the kingdom of God, creating a rebellion in it, as if there were opposing factions within the divine, including on e that is hostile to God!" Celsus accuses Christians of "inventing a rebellion" in heaven to justify rebellion here on earth. The concept of a devil or "Satan" originated in the 500s BCE in Hebrew writings. The earliest known reference to a Satan appears in the Hebrew Bible in the book of Numbers and in Job as one of God's obedient servants, a messenger, or angel that obstructs human activity. Celsus writes his only work of record "True Discourse" (or, "True Reason") against Christianity in approximately 178 CE. Celsus divides the work into two sections, the first in which objections are explained from a fictional Jewish person and the other in which Celsus speaks as the Pagan philosopher that he is. Celsus ridicules Christians because they advocate blind faith instead of reason. Around 60 years after it is first published, the book written by Celsus will inspire a rebuttle written by Origen titled "Contra Celsum", which is the only source for Celsus' book, who will be later condemned along with other critics of Christianity such as Porphyry. | |
1,820 YBN [03/31/180 AD] | 975) | |
1,800 YBN [200 AD] | 976) | |
1,800 YBN [200 AD] | 979) | |
1,800 YBN [200 AD] | 1073) Earliest "press-on" printing. Chinese people put ink to Buddhist text inscribed on marble pillars and apply damp paper to the inscriptions to make a copy of the text onto the paper. Also around this time, religious seals are used to transfer pictures and texts of prayers to paper using ink. Ink of a good consistency for printing is developed in the 300s or 400s, and around the 500s use of a wood block for printing will appear. Movable type will not be invented until around the years 1041-48. | China |
1,800 YBN [200 AD] | 1093) The Coptic language is invented. Coptic is the Egyptian language, written with in alphabet almost identical to the Greek alphabet, and will be a valuable resource in translating the Egyptian language for later scholars because Egyptian written with hieroglyphs, hieratic and demotic symbols contain no vowels, but in Coptic vowels are included. Coptic will be the last script used for the Egyptian language. | Egypt |
1,798 YBN [202 AD] | 1027) | |
1,797 YBN [03/07/203 AD] | 977) | |
1,797 YBN [03/07/203 AD] | 978) | |
1,785 YBN [215 AD] | 980) | |
1,768 YBN [232 AD] | 981) | |
1,755 YBN [245 AD] | 982) | |
1,750 YBN [250 AD] | 1091) 1/6x+1/12x+1/7x+5+x/2+4=x .1667x+0.083x+.1429x+.5x+9=x .8926x+9=x x=84 So he grows a beard at 21, gets married at 33, has a son at 38 who lives for 42 years, and dies 4 years before Diofantos dies at age 84. | |
1,738 YBN [262 AD] | 1031) (reduce and check is exact from wiki) Porphyry (c.232-c. 304 AD) was a Neoplatonist philosopher. He was born Malchus ("king") in Tyre, but his teacher in Athens, Cassius Longinus, gave him the name Porphyrius (clad in purple), a punning allusion to the color of the imperial robes. Under Longinus he studied grammar and rhetoric. In 262 he went to Rome, attracted by the reputation of Plotinus, and for six years devoted himself to the study of Neoplatonism. Having injured his health by overwork, he went to live in Sicily for five years. On his return to Rome, he lectured on philosophy and completed an edition of the writings of Plotinus (who had died in the meantime) to gether with a biogrpahy of his teacher. Iamblichus is mentioned in ancient Neoplatonic writings as his pupis, but this most likely means only that he was the dominant figure in the next generation of philosophers. The two men differed publicly on the issue of theurgy. In his later years, he married Marcella, a widow with seven children and an enthusiastic student of philosophy. Little more is known of his life, and the date of his death is uncertain. Porphyry is best known for his contributions to philosophy. Apart from writing the Aids to the Study of the Intelligibles, a basic summary of Neoplatonism, he is especially appreciated for his Introduction to Categories (Introductio in Praedicamenta), a commentary on Aristotle's Categories. The Introduction describes how qualities attributed to things may be classified, breaking down the philosophical concept of substance as a relationship genus/species. As Porphyry's most influential contribution to philosophy, the Introduction to Categories incorporated Aristotle's logic into Neoplatonism, in particular the doctrine of the categories interpreted in terms of entities (in later philosophy, "universal"). Boethius' Isagoge, a Latin translation of the Introduction, became a standard medieval textbook in the schools and universities which set the stage for medieval philosophical-theological developments of logic and the problem of universals. In medieval textbooks, the all-important Arbor porphyriana ("Porphyrian Tree") illustrates his logical classification of substance. To this day, taxonomists benefit from Porphyry's Tree in classifying everything from plants to animals to insects to whales. Porphyry is also known as a violent opponent of Christianity and defender of Paganism; of his Adversus Christianos (Against the Christians) in 15 books, only fragments remain. He famously said, "The Gods have proclaimed Christ to have been most pious, but the Christians are a confused and vicious sect." Counter-treatises were written by Eusebius of Caesarea, Apollinarius (or Apollinaris) of Laodicea, Methodius of Olympus, and Macarius of Magnesia, but all these are lost. Porphyry's identification of the Book of Daniel as the work of a writer in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, is given by Jerome. There is no proof of the assertion of Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, and Augustine, that Porphyry was once a Christian. Porphyry was also opposed to the theurgy of his disciple Iamblichus. Much of Iamblichus' mysteries is dedicated to the defense of mystic theurgic divine possession against the critiques of Porphyry. Porphyry was, like Pythagoras, known as an advocate of vegetarianism on spiritual or ethical grounds. These two philosophers are perhaps the most famous vegetarians of classical antiquity. He wrote the De Abstinentia (On Abstinence) and also a De Non Necandis ad Epulandum Animantibus (roughly On the Impropriety of Killing Living Beings for Food) in support of abstinence from animal flesh, and is cited with approval in vegetarian literature up to the present day. Porphyry also wrote widely on astrology, religion, philosophy, and musical theory; and produced a biography of his teacher, Plotinus. Another book of his on the life of Pythagoras, named Vita Pythagorae or Life of Pythagoras, is not to be confused with the book of the same name by Iamblichus. In "On Abstinence from Animal Food", Porfurios advocates rights for the other species, saying "he who forbids men to feed on animals, and thinks it is unjust, will also say that it is not just to kill them, and deprive them of life". In this work, Porfurios also argues against sacrificing animals, writing: "Pythagoreans themselves did not spare animals when they sacrificed to the gods. ... I intend to oppose these opinions, and those of the multitude". | |
1,735 YBN [265 AD] | 983) | |
1,733 YBN [267 AD] | 984) | |
1,728 YBN [272 AD] | 985) After the occupation of Alexandria by Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, Emperor Aurelian attacks in the royal quarter result in so much destruction that members of the Mouseion either flee the country or take refuge in the Serapeum. Ammianus Marcellinus records: "But Alexandria itself was extended, not gradually, like other cities, but at its very beginning, to great dimensions, and for a long time was exhausted with internal disputes, until finally, after many years, when Aurelian was emperor, the civic quarrels escalated into deadly strife. Its walls were torn down and it lost the greater part of the area which was called the Brucheion, and which had long been the dwelling place of its most distinguished men." Possibly scrolls are transfered to the Serapeum, Kaisareion or Claudianum annexes. Epiphanius will write about the Brucheion a few years after Ammianus, that where the library had once been, "there is now a desert" (Patrologia Graeca, 43, 252) | |
1,716 YBN [284 AD] | 988) | |
1,710 YBN [290 AD] | 1092) | Panopolis {now Akhmim}, Egypt |
1,703 YBN [297 AD] | 986) | |
1,697 YBN [303 AD] | 987) | |
1,695 YBN [12/27/305 AD] | 1108) Eusebius of Caesarea (c.275 - May 30, 339) (often called Eusebius Pamphili, "Eusebius {the friend} of Pamphilus") was a bishop of Caesarea in Palestine and is often referred to as the father of church history because of his work in recording the history of the early Christian church. An earlier history by Hegesippus that he referred to has not survived. The two greatest historical works of Eusebius are his Chronicle and his Church History. The former (Greek, Pantodape historia, "Universal History") is divided into two parts. The first part (Greek, Chronographia, "Annals") purports to give an epitome of universal history from the sources, arranged according to nations. The second part (Greek, Chronikoi kanones, "Chronological Canons") attempts to furnish a synchronism of the historical material in parallel columns, the equivalent of a parallel timeline. In his Church History or Ecclesiastical History (Historia Ecclesiastica), Eusebius attempted according to his own declaration (I.i.1) to present the history of the Church from the apostles to his own time, with special regard to the following points: (1) the successions of bishops in the principal sees; (2) the history of Christian teachers; (3) the history of heresies; (4) the history of the Jews; (5) the relations to the heathen; (6) the martyrdoms. He grouped his material according to the reigns of the emperors, presenting it as he found it in his sources. The contents are as follows: * Book i: detailed introduction on Jesus Christ * Book ii: The history of the apostolic time to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus * Book iii: The following time to Trajan * Books iv and v: the second century * Book vi: The time from Septimius Severus to Decius * Book vii: extends to the outbreak of the persecution under Diocletian * Book viii: more of this persecution * Book ix: history to Constantine's victory over Maxentius in the West and over Maximinus in the East * Book x: The reëstablishment of the churches and the rebellion and conquest of Licinius. Eusebius wrote other minor historical works, a "Life of Constantine" (Vita Constantini) which is a eulogy. To the class of apologetic and dogmatic works belong: (1) the Apology for Origen, the first five books of which, according to the definite statement of Photius, were written by Pamphilus in prison, with the assistance of Eusebius. Eusebius added the sixth book after the death of Pamphilus. We possess only a Latin translation of the first book, made by Rufinus; (2) a treatise against Hierocles (a Roman governor and Neoplatonic philosopher), in which Eusebius combated the former's glorification of Apollonius of Tyana in a work entitled "A Truth-loving Discourse" (Greek, Philalethes logos); (3) Praeparatio evangelica ('Preparation for the Gospel'), commonly known by its Latin title, which attempts to prove the excellence of Christianity over every pagan religion and philosophy. The Praeparatio consists of fifteen books which have been completely preserved. Eusebius considered it an introduction to Christianity for pagans. But its value for many later readers is more because Eusebius studded this work with so many fascinating and lively fragments from historians and philosophers which are nowhere else preserved. Here alone is preserved a summary of the writings of the Phoenician priest Sanchuniathon of which the accuracy has been shown by the mythological accounts found on the Ugaritic tables, here alone is the account from Diodorus Siculus's sixth book of Euhemerus' wondrous voyage to the island of Panchaea where Euhemerus purports to have found his true history of the gods, and here almost alone is preserved writings of the neo-Platonist philosopher Atticus along with so much else. (4) Demonstratio evangelica ('Proof of the Gospel') is closely connected to the Praeparatio and comprised originally twenty books of which ten have been completely preserved as well as a fragment of the fifteenth. Here Eusebius treats of the person of Jesus Christ. The work was probably finished before 311; (5) another work which originated in the time of the persecution, entitled "Prophetic Extracts" (Eklogai prophetikai). It discusses in four books the Messianic texts of Scripture. The work is merely the surviving portion (books 6-9) of the General elementary introduction to the Christian faith, now lost. (6) the treatise "On Divine Manifestation" (Peri theophaneias), dating from a much later time. It treats of the incarnation of the Divine Logos, and its contents are in many cases identical with the Demonstratio evangelica. Only fragments are preserved; (7) the polemical treatise "Against Marcellus," dating from about 337; (8) a supplement to the last-named work, entitled "On the Theology of the Church," in which he defended the Nicene doctrine of the Logos against the party of Athanasius. A number of writings, belonging in this category, have been entirely lost. A more comprehensive work of an exegetical nature, preserved only in fragments, is entitled "On the Differences of the Gospels" and was written for the purpose of harmonizing the contradictions in the reports of the different Evangelists. Eusebius follows closely in the footsteps of Origen. No point of this doctrine is original with Eusebius, all is traceable to his teacher Origen. Eusebius echos the racist anti-Jewish views associated with the early Christian people. Eusebius mystically blames the calamities which befell the Jewish nation on the Jewish people's role in the death of Jesus: "that from that time seditions and wars and mischievous plots followed each other in quick succession, and never ceased in the city and in all Judea until finally the siege of Vespasian overwhelmed them. Thus the divine vengeance overtook the Jews for the crimes which they dared to commit against Christ." (Hist. Eccles. II.6: The Misfortunes which overwhelmed the Jews after their Presumption against Christ) | |
1,695 YBN [305 AD] | 989) | |
1,685 YBN [315 AD] | 1004) | |
1,681 YBN [319 AD] | 946) | |
1,680 YBN [320 AD] | 1094) In geometry, there are several theorems that are known by the generic name Pappus's Theorem, attributing them to Pappus of Alexandria. They include: * Pappus's centroid theorem, * the Pappus chain, * Pappus's harmonic theorem, and * Pappus's hexagon theorem In his "Synogogue", Pappus gives no indication of the date of the authors whose treatises he makes use of, or of the time at which he himself writes. If we had no other information than can be derived from his work, we should only know that he was later than Claudius Ptolemy (c90-c168) whom he often quotes. Suidas states that he was of the same age as Theon of Alexandria, (father of Hypatia) who will write commentaries on Ptolemy's great work, the "Syntaxis mathematica", and will flourish in the reign of Theodosius I (A.D. 372-395). Suidas says also that Pappus wrote a commentary upon the same work of Ptolemy. But it seems unbelievable that two contemporaries should have at the same time and in the same style composed commentaries upon one and the same work, and yet neither should have been mentioned by the other, whether as friend or opponent. It is more probable that Pappus's commentary was written long before Theon's, and is largely included into the work by Theon, and that Suidas, through failure to disconnect the two commentaries, assigned a like date to both. There is a chronological table by Theon of Alexandria which, when being copied (in a 10th-century manuscript), has had inserted next to the name of Diocletian (who ruled 284 CE-305 CE) "at that time wrote Pappus". Similar insertions give the dates for Ptolemy, Hipparchus and other mathematical astronomers. Rome shows that it can be deduced from Pappus's commentary on the Almagest that Pappos observes the eclipse of the sun in Alexandria which takes place on 18 October 320. This fixes clearly the date of 320 for Pappus's commentary on Ptolemy's Almagest. Pappos is born and appears to have lived in Alexandria all his life. He dedicates works to Hermodorus, Pandrosion and Megethion but other than knowing that Hermodorus is Pappus's son, nothing is known about these other men. Pappus refers to a friend who is also a philosopher, named Hierius, who encourages Pappus to study certain mathematical problems. A reference to Pappos in Proclus's writings says that he headed a school in Alexandria. | Alexandria, Egypt |
1,679 YBN [321 AD] | 4060) | Constantanople |
1,675 YBN [07/??/325 AD] | 947) | |
1,669 YBN [331 AD] | 1375) | Constantanople |
1,660 YBN [340 AD] | 990) | |
1,660 YBN [340 AD] | 991) | |
1,643 YBN [357 AD] | 995) | |
1,638 YBN [362 AD] | 1032) | |
1,637 YBN [06/26/363 AD] | 1044) | |
1,637 YBN [363 AD] | 1010) | |
1,636 YBN [364 AD] | 993) | |
1,636 YBN [364 AD] | 996) | |
1,634 YBN [366 AD] | 1100) | Alexandria, Egypt |
1,630 YBN [370 AD] | 1376) | Cappadocia |
1,626 YBN [374 AD] | 5863) (Saint) Ambrose (CE 339-397), Bishop of Milan, attempts to codify the growing repertory of chants. This body of Milanese church music, therefore, comes to be called "Ambrosian chant". Ambrose also composes hymns, notably "Aeterne rerum Conditor" ("Framer of the earth and sky") and "Deus Creator omnium" ("Maker of all things, God most high"). As an example of the early anti-Jewish views of the followers of Jesus (who ironically was Jewish if he existed at all), in 388 Ambrose criticizes the emperor Theodosius for having punished a bishop who had burnt a Jewish synagogue. | Milan, Italy |
1,625 YBN [375 AD] | 992) | |
1,625 YBN [375 AD] | 994) | |
1,620 YBN [380 AD] | 999) | |
1,614 YBN [386 AD] | 997) | |
1,613 YBN [387 AD] | 874) The illogical and racist anti-Jewish anger felt by many early Christian fathers is shown clearly in the writing of "Saint" John Chrysostom (Greek Ιωάννης ο Χρυσόστομος) (347-407), bishop of Constantinople, who writes "The Jews sacrifice their children to Satan" | Constantinople, |
1,611 YBN [389 AD] | 1001) | |
1,610 YBN [390 AD] | 1000) By now a circle of friends and students around Hypatia is firmly established. | |
1,609 YBN [391 AD] | 1002) | |
1,609 YBN [391 AD] | 1003) Library in Alexandria (The Serapeion) destroyed. The library in the Temple to Serapis (the Serapeion) in Alexandria is violently destroyed by Christian people and the temple is converted to a Christian church. Historian Socrates Scholasticus writes 'At the request of Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, the Emperor issued an order at this time for the demolition of the heathen temples in that city...' and that 'Theophilus threw down the temple of Serapis ...The temples were overthrown, and the bronze statues melted down to make domestic vessels.'. Historian Eunapius (Ευνάπιος) (CE 346-c414) wrote that 'they wrought havoc with the Serapeum and made war on its statues....The foundations alone were not removed owing to the difficulty in moving such huge blocks of stone.' Historian Theodoret, writes, 'The sanctuaries of the idols were uprooted from their foundations.' Historian Sozomen (c400-c450) describes the Christians as having uninterruptedly occupied the Serapeum from its capture by Theophilus to his own time. Historian Rufinus (who dies in 410 CE) writes that the exterior range of buildings round the edge of the plateau are practically uninjured, though void of its former pagan occupiers, but that the great temple of Serapis and the colonnades around it are levelled to the ground.". Much of the Serapeum lasts as late as the 12th century. | Alexandria, Egypt |
1,606 YBN [08/24/394 AD] | 1095) | island of Philae, near Aswan |
1,600 YBN [400 AD] | 1005) | |
1,600 YBN [400 AD] | 1072) | Vishnupadagiri, India |
1,600 YBN [400 AD] | 1118) | Bakhshali, Pakistan |
1,600 YBN [400 AD] | 1329) | Mesoamerica |
1,598 YBN [402 AD] | 998) Last known contemporarily written reference to the Mouseion in Alexandria. Synesios (Synesius) (c370-413 CE), who studies under Hypatia, describes the pictures of philosophers in the Mouseion. There is no later reference to the Mouseion's existence in the fifth century. This is in Chapter 6 of "A Eulogy of Baldness", Synesios writes: "You may look at the pictures in the Museum, I mean those of Diogenes and Socrates, and whomever you please of those who in their age were wise, and your survey would be an inspection of bald heads." This is evidence that the Mouseion survived intact after the destruction of the Sarapeion in 391. Since Synesios is thought to have died around 414, and there are no other references after Synesios, it is possible that the Mouseion was destroyed a short time before or after the murder of Hypatia. | |
1,588 YBN [10/15/412 AD] | 1006) | |
1,588 YBN [10/17/412 AD] | 1007) | |
1,588 YBN [412 AD] | 1008) | |
1,585 YBN [03/??/415 AD] | 1009) Hypatia (Greek: Υπατία and Ὑπατίας) (c360 - 415), a popular female philosopher, mathematician and astronomer in Alexandria is murdered by Christian people. Many people cite this as the end of ancient science. Clearly, the seed of science survived, as science grows now, in the time we live in. Socrates of Scholasticus, a Christian historian alive at the time of the murder of Hypatia writes (translated from Greek): "Of Hypatia the Female Philosopher. There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel ashamed in coming to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more. Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes (the Roman Prefect or Governor of Egypt at the time ), it was slanderously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the Bishop. Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles {the words are οστράκοις ανείλον, oyster shells, but this word was applied to brick ceiling tiles}. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them. This affair brought disgrace not only upon Cyril, but also upon the whole Alexandrian church. And surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort. This happened in the month of March during Lent, in the fourth year of Cyril's episcopate, under the tenth consulate of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius." | (steps of a church called The Caesarium ) Alexandria, Egypt |
1,584 YBN [416 AD] | 1011) Museum in Alexandria closed. Paulus Orosius describes the temples in Alexandria as having empty bookshelves, the contents emptied "by men of our time". Adding this together with the Suda reference to Theon being a member, and the last reference to the Mouseion from Synesios in 409 with no mention of any destruction before his death in 414, and no mention of any public library in Alexandria by people writing in the 5th and 6th century, it appears probable that the Mouseion (including any remaining library) may have been completely and permanently destroyed by 415 or 416. | |
1,577 YBN [423 AD] | 1012) | |
1,569 YBN [431 AD] | 1139) The Council of Ephesus sentences Porfurios' (and other) books against Christianity to be burned (but does not mention the emperor Julian's anti-christian writings). This is the first of 3 major book burnings that will remove any and all writings that criticize the Christian religion. The result will be very effective, leaving the only surviving works so far found to be rebuttles of these works by Christian writers. | Ephesus, (Asia Minor, modern:) Turkey |
1,561 YBN [439 AD] | 1013) | |
1,552 YBN [448 AD] | 1043) Theodosius II (April, 401 - July 28, 450), Eastern Roman Emperor (408-450) orders all non-Christian books burned. In fighting the ancient Hellenic tradition, or "Paganism" as it would be later called, the Christian people destroy much of the science learned and recorded in books stored in temples to the traditional Greek Gods. No remains have ever been found from the books critical of the Christian religion written by Kelsos, Porfurios and others, although some of these writings are preserved in rebuttles by Christian writers that have survived. With this law, the anti-Christian writings of Porfurios will be condemned but those of Julian are ignored. | |
1,550 YBN [450 AD] | 1096) Proclus is born 410 or 411 CE (his birth year is deduced from a horoscope cast by a disciple, Marinus, and hence is to a degree uncertain) in Constantinople to a family of high social status in Lycia- his father Particius is a high legal official, very important in the Byzantine Empire's court system- and raised in Xanthus, he studies rhetoric, philosophy and mathematics in Alexandria, Egypt, with the intent of pursuing a judicial position like his father. Proklos comes back to Constantinople part-way through his studies when his rector, his principal instructor (one Leonas) has business there, and is a successful praticing lawyer for a period. Actually experiencing the practice of law makes Proclus realize that he truly prefers philosophy, so he returns to Alexandria, and begins studying the works of Aristotle under Olympiodorus the Elder (he also began studying mathematics during this period as well with a teacher named Heron {not Hero of Alexandria}). Eventually, this gifted student became dissatisfied with the level of philosophical instruction available in Alexandria, and went to Athens, the preeminent philosophical center of the day, in 431 to study at the Neoplatonic successor of the famous Academy founded 800 years before by Plato (in 387 BCE); there he is taught by Plutarch of Athens and Syrianus; he succeeds Plutarch as head of the Academy, and is in turn succeeded on his death by Syrianus. He dies around aged 73, and is buried near Mount Lycabettus in a tomb. He lives in Athens as an unmarried vegetarian bachelor, prosperous and generous to his friends, until the end of his life, except for a voluntary one year exile, which is designed to lessen the pressure put on him by his political-philosophical activity, little appreciated by the Christian rulers; he spends the exile travelling and being initiated into various mystery cults as befitted his universalist approach to religion, trying to become "a priest of the entire universe." In addition to his commentaries, Proclus writes two major systematic works. "The Elements of Theology" is a singular work in the history of ancient philosophy. It consists of 211 propositions, each followed by a proof, beginning from the existence of the One (the first principle of all things) and ending with the descent of individual souls into the material world. The Platonic Theology is a systematisation of material from Platonic dialogues, showing from them the characteristics of the divine orders, the part of the universe which is closest to the One. Three small works have also survived, only in Latin translation: "Ten doubts concerning providence"; "On providence and fate"; and "On the existence of evils". He also wrote a number of minor works. Just as a brief summary of Proklos' views, and Neoplatonism, which is very abstract and have no relation to actual science but simply for context: There are three basic concepts in Neoplatonism: 1) "The One" (to Hen) is the first principle in Neoplatonism. It is the principle which produces all Being. This idea of "The One" is compared by many to be similar to the idea of a God, and may be related to the popularity of the monotheism of Christianity. 2) "Intellect" (Nous), is the principle which is produced below the level of the One. 3) "Soul" (Psuche) is produced by Intellect, and so is the third principle in the Neoplatonic system. It is a mind, like Intellect, but it does not grasp all of its own content as once. By far the greatest transmission of Procline ideas will be through the Pseudo-Dionysius. This 5th century Christian Greek author wrote under the pseudonym Dionysius the Areopagite, the figure converted (from Paganism) by St. Paul in Athens. Because of this fiction, his writings were taken to have almost apostolic authority. He is an original thinker, and Christian rather than Pagan, but in his writings can be found a great number of Procline metaphysical principles. Another important source for Procline influence on the Middle Ages is Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, which has a number of Proclus principles and motifs. | Athens, Greece |
1,524 YBN [09/04/476 AD] | 1098) | Rome, Italy |
1,520 YBN [480 AD] | 1113) Isidore of Alexandria is a Greek philosopher and one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He lives in Athens and Alexandria toward the end of the 5th century CE. Isidore becomes head of the school in Athens in succession to Marinus, who followed Proclus. Isidore is known mainly for teaching Damaskios the last head of the Academy. | Athens, Greece |
1,511 YBN [489 AD] | 1384) | Gundishapur, Khuzestan (southwest of Iran, not far from the Karun river.) |
1,501 YBN [499 AD] | 1309) Aryabhata (Devanāgarī: आर्यभट) (CE 476-550), Indian astronomer and mathematician, writes in his "Aryabhatiya" (c499), that the apparent westward motion of the stars is due to the spherical Earth’s rotation about its axis. Aryabhata also correctly explains the luminosity of the Moon and planets to reflected sunlight. In the 600s the astronomer Brahmagupta will severely criticize the view of Aryabhata I that the Earth is a spinning sphere, a view that will widely disseminated by Brahmagupta’s contemporary and rival Bhaskara I. | Kusumapura (modern Patna), India |
1,500 YBN [500 AD] | 1101) | Scandinavia |
1,500 YBN [500 AD] | 1102) | China |
1,500 YBN [500 AD] | 1105) | Rome |
1,480 YBN [01/01/520 AD] | 1099) Boethius' birth date is unknown, generally placed around 480 CE, the same year of birth as St. Benedict. Boethius was born to a patrician family which had been Christian for about a century. His father's line included two popes and both parents count Roman emperors among their ancestors. Boethius was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included the emperor Olybrius and many consuls. His father Fl. Manlius Boethius held that position in 487 after Odoacer deposed the last Western Roman Emperor. Boethius holds the same position in 510 in the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. It is unknown where Boethius received his formidable education in Greek. Boethius may have studied in Athens, and perhaps Alexandria. Since a Boethius is recorded as proctor of the school in Alexandria circa AD 470, perhaps the younger Boethius received some grounding in the classics from his father or a close relative. In any case, his accomplishment in Greek, though traditional for his class, was remarkable given the reduced knowledge which accompanies the end of the empire in this time. As a result of his increasingly rare education and experience, Boethius enters the service of Theodoric the Great, who commissions the young Boethius to perform many roles. | Italy |
1,472 YBN [528 AD] | 1377) | Constantanople |
1,471 YBN [529 AD] | 1014) Roman Emperor Justinian (CE 483-565) closes the schools of Alexandria and Athens (including Plato's Academy). The head of the Academy, Damascus and 6 other philosophers seek asylum in Persia. Justinian also decrees that all anti-Christian books are to be burned in this year {exact date}. None of the 'True Doctrine" of Kelsos in the second century, the 15 books of Porfurios' "Against the Christians" in the third century, and Julian's "Against the Galileans" of the fourth century have ever been found, however some of their writing remains in rebuttles by Christian writers, for example Origen's "Against Kelsos" quotes Kelsos, Macarius Magnes may possibly preserve some of Porfurios' writing for which even 3 major Christian rebuttles have never been found, and Kurillos (Cyril) of Alexandria's "Pro Christiana Religione" reveals some of Julian's writings. | Athens, Greece (and Alexandria,Egypt) |
1,471 YBN [529 AD] | 1378) As often happens with early Christian institutions, the monastery iwas constructed on top of an older pagan site, a temple of Apollo that crowned the hill, enclosed by a fortifying wall above the small town of Cassino, still largely pagan at the time and recently devastated by the Goths. Benedict's first act is to smash the sculpture of Apollo and destroy the altar. Benedict rededicats the site to John the Baptist. | Monte Cassino, Italy |
1,471 YBN [529 AD] | 1423) | Byzantium |
1,470 YBN [530 AD] | 1426) | Alexandria, Egypt |
1,467 YBN [533 AD] | 1015) | |
1,463 YBN [12/27/537 AD] | 1106) Nothing remains of the first church that was built on the same site during the 300s. Following the destruction of the first church, a second was built by Constantius, the son of Constantine the Great, but was burned down during the Nika riots of 532, before being rebuilt by Justinian. Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture. Of great artistic value is its decorated interior with mosaics and marble pillars and coverings. The temple itself is so richly and artistically decorated that Justinian proclaimed "Solomon, I have surpassed thee!" (Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών). Justinian himself oversees the completion of the greatest cathedral ever built up to that time, and it will remain the largest cathedral for 1,000 years until the completion of the cathedral in Seville. The name comes from the Greek name Αγία Σοφία, a contraction of Ναός της Αγίας του Θεού Σοφίας (Church of the Holy Wisdom of God). The Eastern Orthodox church will be converted to a mosque in 1453, and then converted into a museum in 1935, the Ayasofya Museum, in Istanbul, Turkey. | Constantinople |
1,460 YBN [540 AD] | 1107) The writings of Procopius are the primary source of information for the rule of the emperor Justinian. Procopius was the author of a history in eight books of the wars fought by Justinian I, a panegyric (a formal public speech delivered in high praise of a person or thing) on Justinian's public works throughout the empire, and a book known as the Secret History (Greek: Anekdota) that claims to report the scandals that Procopius could not include in his published history. The first seven books of his History of Justinian's Wars, which were published as a unit, seem to have been largely completed by 545. The Secret History will be discovered centuries later in the Vatican Library and published in 1623, but its existence is already known from the Suda, which refers to it as the Anekdota ("the unpublished composition"). The Secret History covers the same years as the seven books of the History of Justinian's Wars and appears to have been written after they were published. Current consensus generally dates it to 550, or maybe as late as 562. The De Aedificiis tells us nothing further about Belisarius but it takes a sharply different attitude towards Justinian. He is presented as an idealised Christian emperor who built churches for the glory of God and defenses for the safety of his subjects and who showed particular concern for the water supply. Theodora, who was dead when this panegyric was written, is mentioned only briefly but Procopius' praise of her beauty is fulsome. The panegyric is likely written at Justinian's request, however, and so it is doubtful if its sentiments are sincere. Procopius belongs to the school of late antique secular historians who continue the traditions of the Second Sophistic; they write in Attic Greek, their models are Herodotus and especially Thucydides, and their subject matter is secular history. They avoid vocabulary unknown to Attic Greek and insert an explanation when they have to use contemporary words. Thus Procopius explains to his readers that ekklesia, meaning a Christian church, is the equivalent of a temple or shrine and that monks are "the most temperate of Christians...whom men are accustomed to call monks." (Wars 2.9.14; 1.7.22) In classical Athens, monks were unknown and an ekklesia was the assembly of Athenian citizens which passed the laws. The secular historians dismiss the history of the Christian church, which they leave to ecclesiastical history-a genre that was founded by Eusebius of Caesarea. However, Averil Cameron has argued convincingly that Procopius' works reflect the tensions between the classical and Christian models of history in 6th century Byzantium. Procopius indicates (Secret History 26.18) that he plans to write an ecclesiastical history himself and, if he had, he would probably have followed the rules of that genre. But, as far as we know, the ecclesiastical history remained unwritten. | Constantinople |
1,458 YBN [542 AD] | 1381) | Lyon, France |
1,411 YBN [589 AD] | 1328) | China |
1,400 YBN [600 AD] | 1110) Viking ships use a keel and a mast for a sail. In this sense a keel refers to a fin that projects from the bottom of a ship that helps to keep the ship balanced (Confusingly the word "keel" may also refer to a structural beam that serves as the foundation of a ship). | |
1,400 YBN [600 AD] | 1111) Earliest known windmill. This windmill uses a vertical shaft and horizontal sails to grind grain. | Persia (Iran) |
1,400 YBN [600 AD] | 5864) Charlemagne, king of the Franks (CE 768–814), will impose Gregorian chant on his kingdom, where another liturgical tradition—the Gallican chant—is in common use. During the 700s and 800s, a process of assimilation takes place between Gallican and Gregorian chants; and the chant in this evolved form is the what has reached us in present times. | Rome, Italy |
1,396 YBN [604 AD] | 1104) | Korea |
1,387 YBN [613 AD] | 1391) | Mecca, Arabia (modern Saudi Arabia) |
1,367 YBN [633 AD] | 1114) Isidore was born in Cartagena, Spain, to Severianus and Theodora, part of an influential family who were instrumental in the political-religious maneuvering that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism. Isidore receives his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, which was the first of its kind in Spain, the trivium (a theory of education which teaches the three subjects grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and quadrivium (a secondary more advanced education of the four subjects: arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy) were taught by a body of learned men, among whom was the archbishop, Leander. Isidore applies himself with such diligence that he learns Latin, Greek and Hebrew in a short time. Shockingly the quadrivium is considered preparatory work for the serious study of philosophy and theology, which are highly abstract and largely fraudulent in my opinion. Whether Isidore ever embraced monastic life or not is not known, but though he may never have been affiliated with any of the religious orders, he esteems them highly, on his elevation to the episcopate (to bishop) he immediately constitutes himself protector of the monks and in 619 he pronounces anathema (denouncement and excommunication) against any ecclesiastic who should in any way disturb the monasteries. On the death of Leander, Isidore succeeded to the See (the jurisdiction of a bishop) of Seville. His long incumbency in this office is spent in a period of disintegration and transition. The ancient institutions and classic learning of the Roman Empire are fast disappearing. In Spain a new civilization is beginning to evolve itself from the blending racial elements that made up its population. For almost two centuries the Goths had been in full control of Spain, and their uneducated manners and contempt of learning threaten greatly to put back the progress of civilization in Spain. Isidore supports the intolerant single-minded view of Christianity and works to end Arianism, the new heresy of Acephales, and all other interpretations of Christianity. Isidore presides over the Second Council of Seville, begun 13 November 619, in the reign of Sisebut. The bishops of Gaul and Narbonne attend, as well as the Spanish prelates. In the Council's Acts the nature of Christ is fully set forth, countering Arian conceptions. At the Fourth National Council of Toledo, begun 5 December 633, all the bishops of Spain are in attendance. St. Isidore, though far advanced in years, presides over its deliberations, and is the originator of most of its enactments. The position and deference granted to the king is remarkable. The church is free and independent, yet bound in solemn allegiance to the acknowledged king: nothing is said of allegiance to the bishop of Rome. | Seville, Spain |
1,360 YBN [640 AD] | 1119) | Egypt |
1,360 YBN [640 AD] | 1120) Theophanes records that Greek fire was invented around 670 in Constantinople by Kallinikos (Callinicus), an architect from Heliopolis in Syria (now Baalbek, Lebanon). This is the first reported use of a flame throwing weapon. | Constantinople |
1,358 YBN [642 AD] | 1016) | |
1,358 YBN [642 AD] | 1017) | |
1,340 YBN [660 AD] | 1380) The hospital still resides on the Île de la Cité, its original location, and is now recognized for extensive support for charities and for the exceptional quality of doctors and surgeons who have been residents at the facility. | Paris, France |
1,320 YBN [680 AD] | 1018) | |
1,315 YBN [685 AD] | 1019) | |
1,287 YBN [713 AD] | 1123) Bede's writings are classed as scientific, historical and theological, reflecting the range of his writings from music and metrics to Scripture commentaries. Bede quotes Pliny the Elder, Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Horace and other classical writers, but with some disapproval. He knows some Greek, but no Hebrew. Bede writes in Latin. The most important and best known of his works is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, giving in five books and 400 pages the history of England, ecclesiastical and political, from the time of Caesar to the date of its completion (731). The first twenty-one chapters, treating of the period before the mission of Augustine of Canterbury, are compiled from earlier writers such as Orosius, Gildas, Prosper of Aquitaine, the letters of Pope Gregory I and others, with the insertion of legends and traditions. After 596, documentary sources, which Bede took pains to obtain throughout England and from Rome, are used, as well as oral testimony, which he employed with critical consideration of its value. He cites his references and is very concerned about the sources of all his sources, which creates an important historical chain. The Historia, like other historical writing from this period cannot be expected to have the same degree of objectivity as modern historical writings. It was indeed a form of literature, a mixture of fact, legend and literature. For example, Bede took liberties by making up fictional quotations from people who were not his contemporaries. In Historia Ecclesiastica (I.2), he creates a method of referring to years prior to the Christian era (anno Domini), which the monk Dionysius Exiguus created in 525. He uses "ante incarnationis dominicae tempus" (before the time of the incarnation of the Lord). This and similar Latin terms are roughly equivalent to the English before Christ. The noted historian of science, George Sarton, called the eighth century "The Age of Bede;" clearly Bede must be considered as an important scientific figure, even though his actual scientific contributions are minimal. He writes several major works: a work "On the Nature of Things", modeled in part after the work of the same title by Isidore of Seville; a work "On Time", providing an introduction to the principles of computing the correct time for Easter; and a longer work on the same subject; "On the Reckoning of Time", which will become the cornerstone of clerical scientific education during the so-called Carolingian renaissance of the ninth century. He also writes several shorter letters and essays discussing specific aspects of computus and a treatise on grammar and on figures of speech for his pupils. "The Reckoning of Time" includes an introduction to the traditional ancient and medieval view of the cosmos, including an explanation of how the spherical earth influences the changing length of daylight, of how the seasonal motion of the Sun and Moon influences the changing appearance of the New Moon at evening twilight, and a quantitative relation between the changes of the Tides at a given place and the daily motion of the moon. (Wallis 2004, pp. 82-85, 307-312). Since the focus of his book is calculation, Bede gives instructions for computing the date of Easter and the related time of the Easter Full Moon, for calculating the motion of the Sun and Moon through the zodiac, and for many other calculations related to the calendar. For calendric purposes, Bede makes a new calculation of the age of the world since the Creation and begins the practice of dividing the Christian era into BC and AD. Due to his innovations in computing the age of the world, he is accused of heresy at the table of Bishop Wilfred, his chronology being contrary to accepted calculations. Once informed of the accusations of these "lewd rustics," Bede refutes them in his Letter to Plegwin (Wallis 2004, pp. xxx, 405-415). | Jarrow, Durham |
1,277 YBN [723 AD] | 1795) | ?, China |
1,249 YBN [751 AD] | 1253) Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan (Arabic: جابر بن حيان) (CE c721-c815), with Latinised name Geber, is the first of the important Arab alchemists and introduces the experimental method into alchemy. Jabir is credited with being the first to prepare and identify sulfuric and other acids. Jabir gives accurate descriptions of valuable chemical experiments. Jabir describes ammonium chloride, shows how to prepare white lead, prepares weak nitric acid, and distills vinegar to get strong acetic acid. Jabir also works with dyes and metals, and experiments with methods for refining metals. Jabir writes numerous works on alchemy, although many people will later use his name. | Kufa, (now Iraq) |
1,240 YBN [760 AD] | 1020) | |
1,230 YBN [770 AD] | 1060) Earliest wood block Printed book. Diamond Sūtra. | China |
1,230 YBN [770 AD] | 1074) Wood-cut Printing. Possibly around the 500s CE, carved wood block appears as a substitute to pressing paper onto marble pillars and seals covered with ink. First, all of the text is written in ink on a sheet of fine paper, then the written side of the sheet is applied to the smooth surface of a block of wood, coated with a rice paste that retains the ink of the text. Next, an engraver cuts away the uninked areas so that the text stands out in relief and in reverse. To make a print, the wood block is then inked with a paintbrush, a sheet of paper spread on it, and the back of the sheet rubbed with a brush. Only one side of the sheet can be printed. The oldest known printed works are made by this technique. In Japan about 764–770, Buddhist incantations ordered by Empress Shōtoku are printed using this technique, and in China in 868, the first known book, the Diamond Sūtra is printed using wood blocks. | Japan |
1,219 YBN [781 AD] | 1254) Lower case letters. Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus (Alcuin) (oLKWiN) (c.732-May 19, 804) a scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, England, accepts an invitation from Charlesmagne to be head of education for Charlemagne's kingdom which is most of Western Europe. In the Palace School of Charlemagne, Alcuin will revolutionize the educational standards of the Palace School, introducing Charlemagne to the liberal arts and creates an atmosphere of scholarship and learning. In Aachen, Alcuin designs a method of writing "Carolingian minuscule" to fit as much text on the expensive parchment. This symbol set is the ancestor of lower-case letters. All writing before this is done in capital (or majuscule) letters. In my opinion, while possibly saving space on paper, lower case has complicated language, and the most simple and logical representation of sound with symbols is a single "one-letter-for-one-sound" phonetic alphabet that can be used for all human languages. | Aachen, in north-west Germany, or York, England |
1,211 YBN [01/01/789 AD] | 1256) | Aachen, in north-west Germany |
1,204 YBN [01/01/796 AD] | 1255) Alcuin establishes a school in Tours where scribes are trained to carefully copy manuscripts. The new Carolingian miniscule alphabet letters created by Alcuin will spread from text copied here and ultimately develop into the miniscule (or lower case) letters used today. | Tours, France |
1,200 YBN [800 AD] | 1126) The first paddle-boat is invented in China. | China |
1,200 YBN [800 AD] | 1128) Paper making reaches Bagdad, 700 years after being invented in China. | Bagdad |
1,200 YBN [800 AD] | 6221) Earliest bow for stringed instrument. Plucking of stringed instruments goes back at least 5000 years, but using a bow to play a stringed instrument is a more recent invention, dating to around the 800s CE. | River Oxus (modern) Turkmenistan (Central Asia) |
1,185 YBN [815 AD] | 1021) "Bayt al-Hikma" (House of Wisdom). Caliph al-Mamun founds the "Bayt al-Hikma" (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad, Iraq. (Some people argue that al-Mamun's father al-Rashid founded the Bayt al-Hikma). A library and observatory are joined to this house. In the House of Wisdom, many works will be translated from Greek, Persian and Indian into Arabic. Many original works will be created here too. The House of Wisdom recruits and supports the most talented scholars. | Baghdad |
1,180 YBN [820 AD] | 1127) "Oseberg ship", a viking ship dates to here. This ship is a clinker-built ship made of oak. | Tønsberg, Vestfold county, Norway |
1,175 YBN [825 AD] | 1257) Hindu-Arabic numerals (1 through 9), and decimal point notation. Al-Khwārizmī (Arabic: محمد بن موسى الخوارزمي) (oLKWoriZmE), as a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, writes a book on elementary algebra, "al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr waʾl-muqābala" ("The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing"). When this book is translated into Latin in the 1100s, the word for transposition "al-jabr" will come to represent the science started by Diofantos (Latin: Diophantus), "Algebra". Algebra is the branch of mathematics that involves solving equations by using methods such as transposition and cancellation. | (House of Wisdom) Bagdad, Iraq |
1,171 YBN [829 AD] | 1299) | Sinjar in Mesopotamia, west of Mosul |
1,167 YBN [833 AD] | 1298) Al-Khwārizmī writes a third major work, his Kitāb ṣūrat al-arḍ ("The Image of the Earth"; translated as "Geography"), which presents the coordinates of localities in the known world based, ultimately, on those in the Geography of Ptolemy (fl. CE 127–145) but with improved values for the length of the Mediterranean Sea and the location of cities in Asia and Africa. Al-Khwārizmī also assists in the construction of a world map for al-Maʾmūn and participates in a project to determine the circumference of the Earth by measuring the length of a degree of a meridian through the plain of Sinjār in Iraq. Al-Khwarizmi overestimates the circumference of earth as (40,000 miles, actual is 25,000 miles).(units) Al-Khwārizmī also compiles a set of astronomical tables (Zīj), based on a variety of Hindu and Greek sources. This work includes a table of sines, evidently for a circle of radius 150 units. | Bagdad, Iraq |
1,159 YBN [841 AD] | 1304) Al-Kindi grew up in Kufa where his father was governor, and Kufa had become a center of the sciences. Al-Kindi becomes especially interested in the philosophical sciences after going to Baghdad. By this time a major movement of translation (from Greek) into Arabic had begun (in Baghdad). al-Kindi's full name is: Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi Many Arabic names follow a similarf pattern. "Abu Yusuf", abu is "father of" and Yusef is Joseph, so al-Kindi had a child named Yusef. Ya'qub is the person's first name, in this case "Jacob". "ibn Ishaq", "ibn" is "son of", "Ishaq" is "Isaac", so al-Kindi's father's name is Ishaq. Finally, the last name is where they are from or a profession associated with their family, "al-Kindi" is from the tribe of Kindah. | Baghdad, Iraq |
1,150 YBN [850 AD] | 1144) Gunpowder. The earliest Chinese records of gunpowder indicate that it was a byproduct of Taoist alchemical efforts to develop an elixir of immortality. A book dating from c. 850 CE called "Classified Essentials of the Mysterious Tao of the True Origin of Things" warns of one elixir: "Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down.". The earliest gunpowder, black powder is a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal. | China |
1,150 YBN [850 AD] | 1332) Hunayn ibn Ishaq is appointed by Caliph al-Mutawakkil to the post of chief physician to the court, a position that ibn Ishaq will hold for the rest of his life. Hunayn travels to Syria, Palestine, and Egypt to get ancient Greek manuscripts. From his translators' school in Baghdad, Ibn Ishaq and his students will transmit Arabic and (more frequently) Syriac versions of classical Greek texts throughout the Arabic population. Ibn Ishaq means "son of Isaac". | Baghdad, Iraq |
1,150 YBN [850 AD] | 1333) As a young man, Al-Mutawakkil held no political or military positions of importance but took a keen interest in religious debates that had far-reaching political importance. | Samarra (near Baghdad), Iraq |
1,141 YBN [859 AD] | 1336) University and mosque of Al Qaraouine in Fès, Morocco. The oldest University on Earth, however only Muslims are admitted into the mosque. | Fes, Morocco |
1,124 YBN [876 AD] | 1115) The number zero. The Babylonians appear to have developed a placeholder symbol that functioned as a zero by the 3rd century BC, but its precise meaning and use is still uncertain. There is no doubt that the symbol for the number zero is invented in India, but exactly how and for what purpose is unclear. The oldest symbol "0" in India that can be assigned a definite date, is inscribed on a temple in Gwalior. | Gwalior, India |
1,124 YBN [876 AD] | 1300) Thabit is a scion of a prominent family settled in Harran (now in Turkey), a city noted as the seat of a Hellenized Semitic astronomical cult, the Sabians, of which Thabit was a member. By calling themselves Sabians, after a group mentioned in the Qur'an, the cult members established themselves as "People of the Book" and therefore were freed from the requirement of conversion to Islam. The Sabians of Harran, are a sect of Hermetists, often confused with the Mandaeans. As star-worshippers, Sabians show a great interest in astronomy, astrology, magic, and mathematics. This religious cult is centered around the symbolism of the planets, and is very interested in the Pythagorean mathematical and mystical tradition. This sect lives will near the main center of the Caliphate until 1258, when the Mongols will destroy their last shrine. During Muslim rule, they are a protected minority, and around the time of al-Mutawakkil's reign their town will become a center for philosophical, esoteric, and medical learning. They are joined by the descendants of pagan Greek scholars who, having been persecuted in Europe, settled in lands that became part of the Abbasid caliphate. In this time the Muslims are greatly interested in Greek culture and science, collecting and translating many ancient Greek works in the fields of philosophy and mathematics. Although they later became Arabic speakers, in pre-Islamic times, it was common for Sabians to speak Greek. Some sources describe Thabit as a money changer in Harran, the sources give two different accounts of his life. Thabit and his pupils live in the midst of the most intellectually vibrant, and probably the largest, city of this time, Baghdad. Ibn Qurra occupies himself with mathematics, astronomy, astrology, magic, mechanics, medicine, and philosophy. His native language is Syriac, which is the eastern dialect of Aramaic (a semitic language) from Edessa, and Thabit knows Greek well. Only a few of Thabit's works are preserved in their original form. Through the influence of the mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa ibn Shakir (father of the three famous Banu Musa mathematician brothers), late in his life Thabit ibn Qurrah will become court astronomer for the 'Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tadid (reigns 892-902) and become the Caliph's personal friend. Several of Thabit ibn Qurrah's works will be translated into Latin and Hebrew and will prove to be influential in the Latin West. A son, Sinan ibn Thabit, will become a renowned physician and director of a hospital in Baghdad, and a grandson, Ibrahim ibn Sinan, will win fame as an important mathematician. | Bagdad, Iraq |
1,122 YBN [878 AD] | 1301) Alfred creates a legal Code, reconciling the long established laws of the Christian kingdoms of Kent, Mercia and Wessex. These formed Alfred"s "Deemings" or Book of "Dooms" (Book of Laws). The Doom Book, Code of Alfred or Legal Code of Aelfred the Great, was the code of laws (dooms, laws, or judgments) compiled by Alfred the Great from three prior Saxon codes, to which he prefixed the Ten Commandments of Moses, and incorporated rules of life from the Mosaic Code and the Christian code of ethics. The title "Doom book" (originally dom-boc or dom-boke) comes from dōm (pronounced "doom") which is the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "judgment", or "law". Apart from the lost Handboc or Encheiridion, which seems to have been only a commonplace book kept by the king, the earliest work to be translated is the "Dialogues" of Gregory, a book that is very popular in the Middle Ages. In this case the translation is made by Alfred's great friend Werferth, Bishop of Worcester, the king providing a foreword. The next work to be undertaken is Gregory's "Pastoral Care", especially for the benefit of the parish clergy. In this translation Alfred keeps very close to his original; but the introduction Alfred writes for this book is one of the most interesting documents of the reign, or indeed of English history. The next two works translated are historical, the "Universal History" of Orosius and Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People". Probably Orosius was first. In the Orosius translation, by omissions and additions, Alfred so changes the original as to produce an almost new work; however in the Bede translation the author's text closely follows the original with no additions being made, though most of the documents and some other less interesting matters are omitted. One of the most interesting translations by Alfred is his translation of "The Consolation of Philosophy" of Boethius, the most popular philosophical handbook of the Middle Ages. Here again Alfred deals very freely with his original copy. Many of the additions to the text can be traced to the glosses and commentaries Alfred uses and not to Alfred himself. In the Boethius translation is an often quoted sentence: "My will was to live worthily as long as I lived, and after my life to leave to them that should come after, my memory in good works." This book has only survived in two manuscripts. In one of these the writing is prose, in the other a combination of prose and alliterating verse. The latter manuscript was severely damaged in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the authorship of the verse has been much disputed; but likely it also is by Alfred. In fact, he writes in the prelude that he first created a prose work and then used it as the basis for his poem, the Lays of Boethius, his crowning literary achievement. Alfred spends a great deal of time working on these books, and explains that he gradually wrote through the many stressful times of his reign to refresh his mind. The last of Alfred's works is one to which he gave the name "Blostman", i.e., "Blooms" or "Anthology". The first half is based mainly on the Soliloquies of St Augustine of Hippo, the remainder is drawn from various sources, and contains much that is Alfred's own and highly characteristic of him. The last words of it may be quoted; they form a fitting epitaph for the noblest of English kings. "Therefore he seems to me a very foolish man, and truly wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear." | Wessex (871-899), a Saxon kingdom in southwestern England. |
1,112 YBN [888 AD] | 1305) Arab astronomer, Al-Battani refines existing values for the length of the year and of the seasons, for the annual precession of the equinoxes, and for the inclination of the ecliptic. The inclination of the ecliptic is the angle made between the plane the earth rotates the sun in (the celestial equator) and the plane the Earth rotates itself in. The ecliptic is a circle in the celestial sphere that is the apparent path of the Sun among the constellations in the course of a year. The ecliptic intersects the plane of the celestial equator at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. This improved value for the length of the year will be used 700 years later in the Gregorian reform of the Julian Calendar. | ar-Raqqa, Syria |
1,110 YBN [890 AD] | 1129) The Gokstad ship is a late 9th century clinker-built Viking ship found in a ship burial beneath a burial mound at Gokstad farm in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. Dendrochronolgical (tree ring) dating suggests that the ship was built of timber that was felled around 890 CE. | Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway |
1,110 YBN [890 AD] | 1302) | Wessex (871-899), a Saxon kingdom in southwestern England. |
1,100 YBN [900 AD] | 1379) Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, or the "Salerno Book of Health" from this school will be first printed in 1484. This school shows that the people of Italy are very early in the development of universities, education and women's rights. | Salerno, Italy |
1,100 YBN [900 AD] | 5865) Polyphonic works are called "Organum" (plural: Organa). The earliest written form of polyphonic music is found in the treatise "Musica enchiriadis" (c. 900; "Musical Handbook"), in which organum consists of two melodic lines moving simultaneously note against note. The planchant melody is called the "vox principalis" (principal voice), and the additional voice is called the "vox organalis" (the organal, or added, voice). In the simplest parallel organum, a single organal voice runs a fourth or fifth below the principal voice. Other examples include four voices, with the principal voice doubled an octave down and the organal voice doubled an octave up. In some instances, the two voices start in unison, then move to wider intervals. At this early stage, there are no rhythmic signs beyond the words of the chant in the "Musica Enchiriadis", but the pitches are indicated precisely through the daseian signs in the margin at left. Adapted from grammatical accent marks in ancient Greek, each of these corresponds to a specific pitch. | northern part of the West Frankish empire|Possibly written in what is now Eastern France |
1,096 YBN [904 AD] | 1145) | China |
1,095 YBN [905 AD] | 1303) Plaster used to hold broken bones in place. Al-Razi {oL-rAZE} rejects Islam and other religions. Al-Razi {oL-rAZE} (full name Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakarīya al-Rāzi Latin: Rhazes), a Persian physician and chemist, is the first to prepare "plaster of paris" and describes how it can be used to hold broken bones in place, to identify and distinguish between smallpox and measles, is the first of record to divide all substances into animal, vegetable and mineral, accepts the atom theory, dismisses miracles and mysticism, thinks religion harmful and the cause of hatred and wars. Al-Razi openly criticizes religions including the new rising religion of Islam describing the Koran as (translated) "...a work which recounts ancient myths, and which at the same time is full of contradictions and does not contain any useful information or explanation.". | Rayy (near Tehran, Iran) |
1,090 YBN [910 AD] | 1407) Al-Farabi studies music theory and composes music. Some of al-Farabi's compositions have survived in the rites of the Sufi brotherhoods, in particular those in Anatolia. Al-Farabi is a practicing Sufi. Al-Farabi had great influence on science and philosophy for several centuries, and was widely regarded to be second only to Aristotle in knowledge (alluded to by his title of "the Second Teacher"). His work, aimed at synthesis of philosophy and Sufism, paved the way for Ibn Sina's work. The major part of al-Farabi's writings are directed to the problem of the correct ordering of the state. Al-Farabi's views are similar to Plato's "Republic" in the elitist undemocratic belief that, just as God rules the universe, so should the philosopher, as the most perfect kind of man, rule the state; al-Farabi therefore relates the political upheavals of his time to the separation of the philosopher from government. | Baghdad, Iraq |
1,080 YBN [920 AD] | 6183) Norwegian explorers reach North America. In 1961 (verify) Helge Ingstad, finds in Northern Newfoundland a site that establishes the presence of European settlers in North America prior to Columbus. For seven successive summers expeditions excavate this site under the leadership of Anne Stine Ingstad, a trained archaeologist. They excavate seven house sites, a smithy, and four "boat sheds," as well as some open-air hearths and a charcoal kiln. All of the walls were built of turf, now largely decomposed, and nearly all of the rooms were equipped with simple hearths. The artifacts collected number in the hundreds, but most of them are small iron objects (rivets and nails), slag and bog-ore, stone implements, charcoal, and brittle-burned stones; there are two unquestionably Norse pieces of handicraft, a soapstone spindle whorl, and a ring-headed pin of bronze (thought to be a belt pin). Bones were found of a pig, a whale, and a seal. | L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland |
1,064 YBN [936 AD] | 1408) Al-Mas'udi is known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". | Baghdad, Iraq |
1,040 YBN [960 AD] | 6186) Earliest evidence of rockets. These are gun-powder rockets probably in hollow bamboo tubes. Fire-arrow technology is described in the "Complete Compendium of Military Classics" (960 CE), which provides evidence that Emperor Tseng Kung-Liang had a group of rocketeers equipped to make and fire powder rockets in combat. Certainly by the year 1045 CE, the use of gunpowder and rockets forms an integral aspect of Chinese military tactics. | China |
1,036 YBN [964 AD] | 1502) | Isfahan (Eşfahān), Persia (modern Iran) |
1,030 YBN [970 AD] | 1338) The mosque is built in two years from 969 CE, the year in which its foundation is laid. Studies will begin in Al-Azhar in Ramadan by October 975 CE, when Chief Justice Abul Hasan Ali ibn Al-No'man starts teaching the book "Al-Ikhtisar", on the Shiite Jurisprudence. Al-Azhar University is the leading institution for Sunni learning in the Islamic world. | Cairo, Egypt |
1,025 YBN [975 AD] | 1839) | ?, India (presumably) |
1,024 YBN [976 AD] | 1307) | |
1,021 YBN [979 AD] | 1410) | Cordova, Spain |
1,019 YBN [981 AD] | 1385) The Al-Adudi hospital is named after Emir 'Adud al-Daula. The hospital will be destroyed in 1258 by the Mongol invasion. | Baghdad, Iraq |
1,018 YBN [982 AD] | 1130) Norse people from Iceland reach Greenland, which they find uninhabited. They establish three settlements near the very southwestern tip of the island, where they will live for about 450 years. | Greenland |
1,015 YBN [985 AD] | 1306) In 999 Gerbert will become the first French Pope as Sylvester II. In a letter of 984, Gerbert asks Lupitus of Barcelona for a translation of an Arabic astronomical treatise. Gerbert may have been the author of a description of the astrolabe that will be edited by Hermannus Contractus around 50 years later. | Auvergne, France |
1,000 YBN [1000 AD] | 1022) The "Suda", one of the first encyclopedias is compiled, credited to a person named Suidas. Suda, or Suidas, breaks with tradition by adopting alphabetical order for its contents. There is evidence that the Suda is compiled in the latter part of the 900s. Passages referring to Michael Psellus (end of 11th century) are considered later interpolations. The lexicon is arranged alphabetically with some slight deviations; letters and combinations of letters having the same sound being placed together. The Suda is both a dictionary and encyclopedia. The Suda includes numerous quotations from ancient writers; the scholiasts (commentary on the margin of a manuscript) on Aristophanes, Homer, Sophocles and Thucydides are also used often. The biographical notices, the author explains, are condensed from the "Onomatologion" or "Pinax" of Hesychius of Miletus; other sources were the excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the chronicle of Georgius Monachus, the biographies of Diogenes Laertius and the works of Athenaeus and Philostratus. Most of the Suda was lost during the crusader sacking of Constantinople and the Ottoman pillage of the city in 1453. The lexicon is arranged, not quite alphabetically, but according to a system (formerly common in many lagnauges) called antistoichia; namely the letters follow phonetically, in order of sound (in the pronunciation of Suida's time, which is the same as modern Greek, and serves as a key to the authentic pronunciation of each letter, letter group and word). Most of the Alexandrian librarians are listed with more details in the Suda. | |
1,000 YBN [1000 AD] | 1054) Paper money. The first use of paper money occurred in China more than 1,000 years ago. Initially paper money represents promises to pay specified amounts of metal coin money (gold and silver) for which carrying in large quantities is inconvenient and a risk for loss or theft. These promises are initially issued by individuals or companies as banknotes or as the transferable book entries that come to be called deposits. Although deposits and banknotes begin as claims to gold or silver on deposit at a bank or with a merchant, this later changes. Knowing that everyone will not claim their balance at once, bankers and merchants start to issue more claims to the gold and silver than the amount they actually hold. In periods of distress, however, when borrowers did not repay their loans or in case of overissue, the banks could fail. So gradually, governments assume a supervisory role. Later paper money—promises to pay in gold or silver are replaced by Governments with "fiat" paper money— notes that are legal tender but are not promises to pay something else like gold or silver. | China |
1,000 YBN [1000 AD] | 1131) Watermills are widely used in Europe at this time. | Europe |
1,000 YBN [1000 AD] | 1132) Motte-and-bailey castles are constructed. Many were built in Britain and France in the 11th and 12th centuries, especially in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066. The motte is a raised earth mound, like a small hill, usually assembled and topped with a wooden or stone structure known as a keep. The earth for the mound would be taken from a ditch, dug around the motte or around the whole castle. The outer surface of the mound could be covered with clay or strengthened with wooden supports. The bailey is an enclosed courtyard, typically surrounded by a wooden fence and overlooked by the motte. A castle could have more than one bailey, sometimes an inner and an outer. | Europe |
990 YBN [1010 AD] | 1311) Ibn Sina is an infant prodigy that can recite the Quran and many Persian poems at age 10. Ibn Sina wrongly believes that transmutation (changing of atoms from one kind to the other) to be impossible (although only achieved in the 1900s in particle physics by Rutherford, Fermi and others). Ibn Sina turnes his attention to health at age 16, and achieves full status as a physician at age 18, Ibn Sina writes that "Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like mathematics and metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I became an excellent doctor and began to treat patients, using approved remedies." The youthful physician's popularity spreads quickly, and he treats many patients without asking for payment. In Hamadan, Ibn Sina is even raised to the office of vizier (a high ranking advisor to an Arab monarch such as a Caliph, Amir, Malik (king) or Sultan) in Hamadan. Ibn Sin'a book ØÙ٠ت ٠شرÙÙÙ (hikmat-al-mashriqqiyya, in Latin "Philosophia Orientalis"), which Roger Bacon will mention, is now lost. According to Averroes this book is pantheistic in tone. Ibn Sina is, like all his countrymen, ample in the enumeration of symptoms, and is said to be inferior to Ali in practical medicine and surgery. Ibn Sina introduces into medical theory the four causes of the Peripatetic system. The Canon will still be used as a textbook in the universities of Leuven and Montpellier up to around the year 1650. In the museum at Bukhara, there are displays showing many of Ibn Sina's writings, surgical instruments from the period and paintings of patients undergoing treatment. Ibn Sina was interested in the effect of the mind on the body, and writes a great deal on psychology, likely influencing Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Bajjah. Some of Ibn Sina's books are dictated from horseback while accompanying a ruler to some battle. Ibn Sina writes extensively on the subjects of philosophy, logic, ethics, metaphysics and other disciplines. Most of his works were written in Arabic, and some are written in the Persian language. Of linguistic significance even to this day are a few books that Ibn Sina writes in nearly pure Persian language (particularly the Danishnamah-yi 'Ala', Philosophy for Ala' ad-Dawla'). Avicenna's commentaries on Aristotle often correct the philosopher, encouraging a lively debate in the spirit of ijtihad, (a technical term of Islamic law that describes the process of making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the legal sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah). | Hamadan, Iran |
975 YBN [1025 AD] | 5868) The system of Arezzo consists in the construction by thirds of a system of four lines, or staff, and the use of letters as clefs. The red F-line and the yellow C-line were already in use, but Guido adds a black line between the F and the C and another black line above the C. The neumes (notational signs used in the Middle Ages that represented specific kinds of melodic motion and manners of performance) can now be placed on the lines and spaces between and a definite pitch relationship established. With this system it is no longer necessary to learn melodies by memory, and Guido declares that his system reduces the 10 years normally required to become an ecclesiastical singer to one year. A well-developed "solmization" (a system of designating musical notes by syllable names) exists in the music of India, using the syllables ṣa, ṛi, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni; and similar systems occur in, for example, Chinese, Southeast Asian, and ancient Greek music. The system that predominates in European music is introduced by the Italian monk, Guido of Arezzo, who derives it from the Latin hymn, "Ut queant laxis". During the half century after Guido’s death (CE 1050-1100), developments occur more rapidly as the plainsong chant becomes the lower rather than the upper voice. Then the organal part, vox organalis is freed. The peak of this freedom is reached in the organums of the monastery of Saint-Martial in Limoges, France, where the plainsong part is reduced to the role of sustaining each tone while the organal part performs in free melismata (groups of notes sung to a single syllable), either improvised or composed. This new style is called organum purum. | (Cathedral school) Arezzo, Italy |
970 YBN [1030 AD] | 1409) Al-Biruni (full name: Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni) (CE 973-c1051), a Persian scholar, writes about the movement of the Earth relative to the Sun, and that all astronomical appearances can be explained if the Earth rotates each day, and notes "the attraction of all things towards the centre of the earth". | Ghazna, Afghanistan |
962 YBN [1038 AD] | 1308) Pin-hole camera (or camera obscura). Ibn al-Haytham {iBN oL HIteM} (Full Name: Abu 'Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham) (Arabic and Persian: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم) (Latinized: Alhazen (oLHoZeN)) (CE c965-1039), builds the first recorded pin-hole camera (camera obscura). Ibn al-Haytham's optical work "Ṣūrat al-kusūf" ("On the Shape of the Eclipse") includes a discussion of the camera obscura). Al-Haytham is the first of record to understand that light comes from the Sun and reflects off objects into the eyes contradicting the theory of Euclid and Ptolemy that rays of light emit from the eye. Al-Haytham constructs parabolic mirrors (now used in telescopes to better focus light than a spherical mirror). Al-Haytham studies the focusing of light. Like Ptolemy, al-Haytham thinks that the atmosphere has a finite height, and estimates this height as 10 miles. (actual units) Al-Haytham's "Optics" will have a major influence not only on 13th-century thinkers such as Roger Bacon but also on later scientists such as the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who after 600 years will be the first to improve on the science of optics.. | Cairo, Egypt |
959 YBN [1041 AD] | 1124) The first known movable-type system for printing using ceramic materials was created in China around 1040 AD by Pi Sheng (990–1051). As described by a contemporary account of Shen Kua (1031–1095): "During the reign of Chhing-li {1041-48} Pi Sheng, a man of unofficial position, made moveable type. His method was as follows: he took sticky clay and cut in it characters as thin as the edge of a coin. Each character formed, as it were, a single type. He baked them in the fire to make them hard. He had previously prepared an iron plate and he had covered his plate with a mixture of pine resin, wax, and paper ashes. When he wished to print, he took an iron frame and set it on the iron plate. In this he placed the types, set close together. When the frame was full, the whole made one solid block of type. He then placed it near the fire to warm it. When the paste {at the back} was slightly melted, he took a smooth board and pressed it over the surface, so that the block of type became as even as a whetstone. If one were to print only two or three copies, this method would be neither simple not easy. But for printing hundreds or thousands of copies, it was marvelously quick. As a rule he kept two formes going. While the impression was being made from the one forme, the type was being put in place on the other. When the printing of the one forme was finished, the other was then ready. In this way the two formed alternated and the printing was done with great rapidity. For each character there were several types, and for certain common characters there were twenty or more types each, in order to be prepared for the repetition of characters on the same page. When the characters were not in use, he had them arranged with paper labels, one label for words of each rhyme-group, and kept them in wooden cases. If any rare characters appeared that had not been prepared in advance, it was cut as needed and baked with a fire of straw. In a moment it was finished. The reason why he did not use wood is because the tissue of wood is sometimes coarse and sometimes fine, and wood also absorbs moisture, so that the forme when set up would be uneven. Also the wood would have stuck in the paste and could not readily have been pulled out. So it was better to use burnt earthenware. When the printing was finished, the forme was again brought near the fire to allow the paste to melt, and then cleansed with the hand, so that the types fell off of themselves and were not in the least soiled. When Pi Sheng died, his font of type passed into the possession of my nephews, and up to this time it has been kept as a precious possession.". In about 1313 a magistrate named Wang Chen will have a craftsman carve more than 60,000 characters on movable wooden blocks so that a treatise on the history of technology can be published. Chen is also credited with the invention of horizontal compartmented cases that revolve around a vertical axis to allow easier handling of the type. But Wang Chen’s innovation, like that of Pi Sheng, is not followed up in China. However, in Korea, typography is extensively developed under the stimulus of King Htai Tjong, who, in 1403, orders the first set of 100,000 pieces of type to be cast in bronze. Nine other fonts followed from then to 1516; two of them were made in 1420 and 1434, before Europe discovers typography. Johannes Gutenberg is generally credited in 1435 with the earliest printing press in Europe. One explanation for the fact that printing develops in Europe in the 1400s instead of in the Far East, even though the principle of printing was known in the Orient long before is that European writing is based on an alphabet made of a limited number of symbols. This simplifies the problems involved in developing techniques for the use of movable type. However, Chinese handwriting, has some 80,000 symbols, which is not as well fitted to typography. The development of printing gives impetus to the growth and accumulation of knowledge, for example from Diderot’s encyclopaedia to the many publications currently printed throughout the Earth. | China |
959 YBN [1041 AD] | 1136) Krak des Chevaliers ("fortress of the knights") is built. | east of Tripoli in the Homs Gap |
936 YBN [1064 AD] | 1313) Khayyam means "tentmaker". Khayyam is funded by the Vizier of the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arsian and then his successor Malik Shah. | Persia, Iran (presumably) |
934 YBN [1066 AD] | 1326) Having first seen it as a young boy in 989, Eilmer of Malmesbury declares: "You've come, have you?...You've c-ome, you source of tears to many mothers, you evil. I hate you! It is long since I saw you; but as I see you now you are much more terrible, for I see you brandishing the downfall of my country. I hate you!". | England and New Mexico |
932 YBN [1068 AD] | 1840) | ?, India (presumably) |
930 YBN [1070 AD] | 1314) | |
927 YBN [1073 AD] | 1316) | |
923 YBN [1077 AD] | 1315) | |
921 YBN [03/15/1079 AD] | 1317) Sultan Jalal al-Din Malekshah Saljuqi (1072-92) puts Omar Kyayyam's corrected calendar into effect. | |
919 YBN [1081 AD] | 1312) Al-Zarqali (Latin: Arzachel) (Spanish and Italian: Azarquiel), (In Arabic أبو أسحاق ابراهيم بن يحيى الزرقالي ),(full name: Abū Isḥāqibrāhīm Ibn Yaḥyā Al-Naqqāsh) (CE ?-1100), describes the orbit of Mercury as being oval instead of circular. In Al-Zarqali's text "Tratado de la lamina de los siete planetas" ("Treatise on the sheets of the seven planets") contains one of the most debated passages in medieval astronomy. In the graphic representation included in the Castilian translation ordered by Alfonso X (The Wise) the orbit of Mercury is not circular. On this basis it has been alleged that al–ZarqāĪi anticipated Kepler in stating that orbits–the orbit of Mercury in this case–are elliptical. Although the Arabic text merely states that an orbit is baydi ("oval"). Al-Zarqali also invents the apparatus called the azafea (Arabic: al-safiha), which is widely used by navigators until the 1500s. Al-Zarqali is also credited with the explicit proof of the motion of the aphelion (of the earth or apogee of the sun) with respect to the fixed stars. Working in an observatory in Toledo, Al-Zarqali edits the famous "Tables of Toledo" (Toledan Zij) {Zij?}, a compilation of astronomical data which are among the most accurate of the Islamic period. These tables are composed with the help of several other Muslim and Jewish scientists and will be widely used by both Latin and Muslim astronomers in later centuries. | Toledo (in Castile, now) Spain |
914 YBN [1086 AD] | 1135) | China |
912 YBN [1088 AD] | 1163) | China |
912 YBN [1088 AD] | 1339) The University of Bologna (Italian: Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is founded, and is one of the oldest and most famous universities in Europe. | Bologna, Italy |
905 YBN [1095 AD] | 1137) | Jerusalem |
901 YBN [1099 AD] | 1382) This order has survived through the centuries as the St. John's Ambulance Corps. | Jerusalem |
900 YBN [1100 AD] | 1023) | |
900 YBN [1100 AD] | 1142) Post mill windmills are built in Europe. Post mills are the earliest type of windmill and have the fan connected to a single post which can be turned in the direction of the wind. | Europe |
900 YBN [1100 AD] | 1521) The "Charter of Liberties" is issued upon the ascension of King Henry I to the throne in 1100. It binds the king to certain laws regarding the treatment of church officials and nobles. The document addressea certain abuses of royal power by his predecessor, his brother William Rufus, specifically the over-taxation of the barons. Henry Beauclerc (meaning: Good Scholar) is the youngest and considered to be the ablest of William I the Conqueror's sons. | London, England |
900 YBN [1100 AD] | 1841) | ?, China (presumably) |
900 YBN [1100 AD] | 5883) | Provence, France (Southern France) |
894 YBN [1106 AD] | 1411) in 1085, al-Ghazali was invited to go to the court of Nizam al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of the Seljuq sultans. The vizier was so impressed by al-Ghazali's scholarship that in 1091 he appointed him chief professor in the Nizamiyah college in Baghdad. While lecturing to more than 300 students, al-Ghazali was also mastering and criticizing the Neoplatonist philosophies of al-Farabi and Avicenna (Ibn Sina). He passed through a spiritual crisis that rendered him physically incapable of lecturing for a time. In November 1095 he abandoned his career and left Baghdad on the pretext of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Making arrangements for his family, he disposed of his wealth and adopted the life of a poor Sufi, or mystic. After some time in Damascus and Jerusalem, with a visit to Mecca in November 1096, al-Ghazali settled in Tus, where Sufi disciples joined him in a virtually monastic communal life. In 1106 he was persuaded to return to teaching at the Nizamiyah college at Nishapur. | Nishapur, Iran |
880 YBN [1120 AD] | 1141) First papermill (factory dedicating to making paper) in Europe. | in Spain, at Xavia (modern Valencia), Europe |
880 YBN [1120 AD] | 1318) Abelard wanders from school to school at Paris, Melun, Corbeil, and elsewhere. In 1113 or 1114 he goes north to Laon to study theology under Anselm of Laon, the leading biblical scholar of the day. He quickly developed a strong contempt for Anselm's teaching, which he finds vacuous, and returns to Paris. Abelard teaches openly (publicly?) in Paris but is also given as a private pupil, the young Héloïse, niece of one of the clergy of the cathedral of Paris, Canon Fulbert. Abelard and Héloïse fall in love and have a son whom they called Astrolabe. They then marry secretly. To escape her uncle's wrath Héloïse withdraws into the convent of Argenteuil outside Paris. Heloise's uncle Fulbert, the powerful canon of Notre Dame, finds out about their relationship and hires people to castrate Abelard in 1121 (at the age of 42). I have found no record of any identity or arrest of anybody for this vicious first degree assault and battery. In shame Ableard embraces the monastic life, becoming a monk at the royal abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris and makes the unwilling Héloïse become a nun at Argenteuil. Abelard will write "Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian". In the early 1130s Pierre and Héloïse will compose a collection of their own love letters and religious correspondence. Later in life Pierre Abelard will write an autobiography "Historia Calamitatum" in Latin. This book is in the form of a letter, and is clearly influenced by Augustine of Hippo's "Confessions". The "Historia" is exceptionally readable, and presents a remarkably honest self-portrait of a man who could be arrogant and often felt persecuted. It provides a clear and fascinating picture of intellectual life in Paris before the formalization of the University, of the intellectual excitement of the period, of monastic life, and of his affair with Heloise, one of history's most famous love stories. | (the royal abbey of Saint-Denis near) Paris, France |
874 YBN [1126 AD] | 1155) | Artois, France |
870 YBN [1130 AD] | 1140) | France |
870 YBN [1130 AD] | 1322) Adelard is the tutor of future King Henry II. During a period of seven years Adelard travels through Greece, Asia Minor, and North Africa. Adelard learns arabic. | Bath, England |
868 YBN [1132 AD] | 1146) First cannon and gun. In Buddhist caves of Western China, a temple in Ta-tsu in Szechuan Province shows the earliest depiction of a gun. One relief depicts a small demon with two horns showing flames and a ball being shot from a handheld cannon. A second relief shows a devil holding a grenade. | Ta-tsu, Szechuan Province, China |
865 YBN [1135 AD] | 1321) | (Mont-Sainte-Geneviève outside) Paris, France |
864 YBN [1136 AD] | 1143) The Basilica of Saint Denis. This is considered to be the first major structure built in the gothic style. Construction of the church began in 1136 by the Abbot Suger (1081-1155), but the major construction will not be complete until the end of the 13th century. All but three of the monarchs of France from the 10th century until 1789 have their remains here. | Paris France |
860 YBN [1140 AD] | 1320) | Sens, France |
856 YBN [1144 AD] | 1148) A boy is found dead in England and all Jewish people are blamed. In many cities, Jewish humans are sentenced to death for child sacrificing. | England |
850 YBN [1150 AD] | 1152) Cog-built ships are built in Europe. Cog-built vessels (Cogs). They are characterized by flush-laid flat bottom at midships but gradually shifted to overlapped strakes near the posts. They have full lapstrake planking covering the sides. | Europe |
850 YBN [1150 AD] | 5866) A more elaborate form of organum (polyphonic or "many-voiced" style) evolves at the abbeys of Santiago de Compostela, Spain (c. 1137), and Saint-Martial of Limoges, France (c. 1150), in which a highly florid melody (duplum) is added above the plainchant "tenor". | Santiago de Compostela, Spain and Saint-Martial of Limoges, France |
850 YBN [1150 AD] | 5882) | (convent) Rupertsberg, Germany |
850 YBN [1150 AD] | 6239) | Europe |
846 YBN [1154 AD] | 1323) | Toledo, Spain |
834 YBN [1166 AD] | 1330) After the death of the philosopher Ibn Tufayl, Averro's succeeded him as personal physician to the caliphs Abu Ya'qub Yusuf in 1182 and his son Abu Yusuf Ya'qub in 1184. | Cordova, Spain |
833 YBN [1167 AD] | 1340) | Oxford, England (now: United Kingdom) |
830 YBN [1170 AD] | 1319) University of Paris. The University of Paris is founded around this time growing out of the cathedral schools of Notre-Dame. The university was originally divided into four faculties: three “superior,” theology, canon law, and medicine; and one “inferior,” arts. In the faculty of arts, the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) were taught together with general scientific, literary, and general culture. Each faculty was headed by a dean, and the dean of the faculty of arts had by the 14th century become the head of the collective university under the title of rector. Many colleges were built to accommodate the students. The most celebrated was the Sorbonne, founded by the theologian Robert de Sorbon about 1257. | Paris, France |
830 YBN [1170 AD] | 5867) | (Notre Dame Cathedral) Paris, France |
825 YBN [1175 AD] | 1149) Arabic copy of Ptolomy "Almagest" is translated to Latin. | |
825 YBN [1175 AD] | 1341) | Modena and Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy |
824 YBN [1176 AD] | 1334) Maimonides' earliest work, composed in Arabic at the age of 16, is the "Millot ha-Higgayon" ("Treatise on Logical Terminology"), a study of various technical terms that were employed in logic and metaphysics. Another early work, also in Arabic, is the "Essay on the Calendar" (Hebrew title: "Ma'amar ha'ibur"). Maimon's Greek name is Moses Maimonides, which literally means, "Moses, son of Maimon". When the Almohads (Arabic: al-Muwahhidun, "the Unitarians"), who are a fanatically Islamic people, capture Córdoba in 1148, Jewish people are forced to submnit to Islam or leave the city. The Maimon family dresses in Islamic clothes but secretly practices Judaism in their house. In Fez, Morroco Moses studies at the University of Al Karaouine. During this time Maimonides' writes his first major work, begun at the age of 23 and completed at age 33, his commentary on the Mishna, "Kitab al-Siraj", written in Arabic. The Mishna is a summary of decisions in Jewish law that dates from earliest times to the 3rd century (CE). While living in Fez, in 1165, Rabbi Judah ibn Shoshan, with whom Moses had studied, was arrested as a Jewish person practicing Judism, was found guilty and then executed. After this the Maimon family moves to Palestine briefly and then to Egypt. In Egypt, unlike other nations under Islam, Jewish people are free to practice Judaism openly, but any Jewish human who had once accepted Islam might be put to death if they go back to Judaism. Moses himself is at one time accused of being a reconverted Muslim, but is able to prove that he had never actually accepted Islam. In Egypt, Maimonides is influenced by Arabic writers such as Ibn Rushd and Al-Ghazali. After his commentary on the Mishna, Maimon spends ten years writing "Mishne Torah" ("The Torah Reviewed"), the code of Jewish law written in a clear Hebrew style. This code offers a brilliant systematization of all Jewish law and doctrine. Maimon also writes two minor works on Jewish law: the "Sefer ha-mitzwot" (Book of Precepts), a digest of law for average people, written in Arabic; and the "Hilkhot ha-Yerushalmi" ("Laws of Jerusalem"), a digest of the laws in the Palestinian Talmud, written in Hebrew. After practicing as a physician, Miamon's popularity grows. Maimon is the physician to Saladin (who opposes Richard the Lion-Heart in the 3rd crusade). Maimon rejects Richard the Lion-Heart's invitation to live in England choosing Egypt (which Asimov described as the more civilized at this time). In 1233, Rabbi Solomon, a religious zelot of Montpellier, in southern France, gets church authorities to burn "The Guide for the Perplexed" as a dangerously heretical book. Maimonides will come to be recognized as a (wise) Jewish philosopher. Maimonides' philosophic work, when translated into Latin, will influence medieval Scholastic writers, and even later people, such as Benedict de Spinoza and G.W. Leibniz. Maimonides' health writings are part of the hisory of health science. | |
820 YBN [1180 AD] | 1150) Stern-mounted rudder used in europe. The oldest known depiction of a stern-mounted rudder can be found on church carvings that date to around 1180. As the size of ships and the height of the freeboards increased (a vessel's side between waterline and gunwale), quarter-rudders became less satisfactory and were replaced in Europe by the more sturdy stern-mounted rudders with pintle (pin or bolt) and gudgeon (circular metal fitting attached to a rudder so that the rudder can rotate) attachment from the 12th century. | |
820 YBN [1180 AD] | 1335) In 1213 Neckam will become the Abbot of Circencester. | |
820 YBN [1180 AD] | 5869) | (Notre Dame Cathedral) Paris, France |
816 YBN [11/??/1184 AD] | 1153) Start of the Inquisition. The Inquisition starts when Pope Lucius III holds a synod at Verona, Italy, creating the shockingly brutal law that burning is to be the official punishment for heresy. Pope Lucius II starts the medieval Inquisition to repress and punish people for heresy (heretics). At the Synod of Verona in 1184, Pope Lucius III, in agreement with the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, initiates the "Inquisition", by declaring the excommunication of heretics and their protectors. This requires bishops to make a judicial inquiry or inquisition, for heresy in their dioceses. After ecclesiastical trial, heretics who refuse to recant are to be transferred to civil authorities for punishment—usually death by burning. The Inquisition will brutally try to enforce belief in religion and slow progress in science for centuries, murdering many thousands of people, in particular science and truth loving people, before ending. The Inquisition lasts until the 1800s. | Verona, Italy |
805 YBN [1195 AD] | 1331) | Lucena, Spain |
798 YBN [1202 AD] | 1393) Little is known about the life of Fibonacci. Leonardo's father, Guglielmo, a Pisan merchant, was appointed consul over the community of Pisan merchants in the North African port of Bugia (now Bejaïa, Algeria) and Leonardo was sent to study calculation with an Arab master. Leonardo later went to Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily, and Provence, where he studied different numerical systems and methods of calculation. The first seven chapters of "Liber Abaci" explain the principle of place value, how the position of a figure determines whether it is a unit, 10, 100, etc., and demonstrating the use of the numerals in arithmetical operations. The techniques are then applied to practical problems such as profit margin, barter, money changing, conversion of weights and measures, partnerships, and interest. Most of the work is devoted to speculative mathematics-proportion (represented by such popular medieval techniques as the Rule of Three and the Rule of Five, which are rule-of-thumb methods of finding proportions), the Rule of False Position (a method by which a problem is worked out by a false assumption, then corrected by proportion), extraction of roots, and the properties of numbers, concluding with some geometry and algebra. French-born mathematician Albert Girard will represent this series with a formula in 1634: un + 2 = un + 1 + un, in which u represents the term and the subscript its rank in the sequence. The mathematician Robert Simson at the University of Glasgow in 1753 will note that the as the numbers increase, the ratio between succeeding numbers approaches the number a, the golden ratio, 1.6180. The golden ratio is defined as the ratio that results when a line is divided so that the whole line has the same ratio to the larger segment as the larger segment has to the smaller segment. Expressed algebraically, normalising the larger part to unit length, it is the positive solution of the equation:
In the 1800s scientists will find Fibonacci-type sequences in nature; for example, in the spirals of sunflower heads, in pine cones, in the regular descent (genealogy) of the male bee, in the related logarithmic (equiangular) spiral in snail shells, in the arrangement of leaf buds on a stem, and in animal horns. Asimov describes Fibonacci as the first great Western mathematician after the end of Greek science. Fibonacci will be presented to Holy Roman Emperor Federick II in 1225, because Fibonacci is recognized for learning. For several years Leonardo corresponded with Frederick II and his scholars, exchanging problems with them. | Pisa, Italy (guess based on:) |
791 YBN [1209 AD] | 1342) Cambridge and Oxford will have a long history of competition with each other. | Cambridge, England |
788 YBN [1212 AD] | 1343) | Valladolid province of the autonomous region of Castile-Leon,in northern Spain. |
785 YBN [06/15/1215 AD] | 1520) The anti-Jewish religious and racist prejudice of Christian people in this time is evident in clause 11, "And if anyone dies indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have her dower and pay nothing of that debt..." In addition, the reality of slavory is evident in clause 27, "If any free man dies without leaving a will, his chattels shall be distributed by his nearest kinsfolk and friends under the supervision of the church...". However, some rights are gained by women, for example clause 8, "No widow shall be forced to marry so long as she wishes to live without a husband..." | Runnymede, England |
785 YBN [1215 AD] | 1154) | |
782 YBN [1218 AD] | 1344) | Salamanca, west of Madrid, Spain |
780 YBN [1220 AD] | 1345) | Montpellier in the Languedoc-Roussillon région of the south of France. |
780 YBN [1220 AD] | 1394) | Pisa, Italy (guess) |
780 YBN [1220 AD] | 3134) The minute larval insects fasten in myriads on the young shoots, and, inserting their long proboscides into the bark, draw their nutriment from the sap of the plant. The insects begin at once to exude the resinous secretion over their entire bodies; this forms in effect a cocoon. A continuous hard resinous layer regularly honeycombed with small cavities is deposited over and around the twig. From this living tomb the female insects, which form the great bulk of the group, never escape. After their impregnation, which takes place on the liberation of the males, about three months from their first appearance, the females develop into a singular amorphous organism consisting in its main features of a large smooth shining crimson-colored sac - the ovary - with a beak stuck into the bark, and a few papillary (pipillae are small nipplelike projections) processes projected above the resinous surface. The red fluid in the ovary is the substance which forms the lac dye of commerce. To obtain the largest amount of both resin and dye-stuff it is necessary to gather the twigs with their living inhabitants in or near June and November. Lac encrusting the twigs as gathered is known in commerce as "stick lac"; the resin crushed to small fragments and washed in hot water to free it from coloring matter is "seed lac"; and this, when melted, strained through thick canvas, and spread out into thin layers, is known as "shellac", and is the form in which the resin is usually brought to European markets. Shellac varies in color from a dark amber to an almost pure black. | Spain |
778 YBN [1222 AD] | 1346) | Padua, Italy |
776 YBN [06/05/1224 AD] | 1347) | Naples, Italy |
775 YBN [1225 AD] | 1395) "Liber quadratorum" is devoted entirely to Diophantine equations of the second degree (equations that contain squares). The "Liber quadratorum" is considered Leonardo's masterpiece. "Liber quadratorum" is a systematically arranged collection of theorems, many invented by Fibonacci, who used his own proofs to work out general solutions. Although the "Liber abaci" will be more influential and of wider scope, "Liber quadratorum" alone ranks Leonardo as the major contributor to number theory between Diophantus and the 1600s French mathematician Pierre de Fermat. | Pisa, Italy (guess) |
773 YBN [1227 AD] | 1400) Scot is a believer in and writes works on astrology. | Sicily |
772 YBN [1228 AD] | 1392) Theory that all matter is made of light published by Robert Grosseteste (GrOSTeST), (CE c1175-1253) In "De Luce", Grossteste writes "Lux est ergo prima forma corporalis.", "Light is therefore the first corporeal (material) form". Grossetest brings in scholars from the Byzantine Empire to translate works from the original Greek. Interested in optics, Grosseteste performs experiments with mirrors and lenses using al-Haytham's (Alhazen's) writings as a guide. In "De Iride" ("On the rainbow") Grosseteste writes: "This part of optics, when well understood, shows us how we may make things a very long distance off appear as if placed very close, and large near things appear very small, and how we may make small things placed at a distance appear any size we want, so that it may be possible for us to read the smallest letters at incredible distances, or to count sand, or seed, or any sort or minute objects." Gresseteste's work in optics will be continued by his student Roger Bacon. In "De Luce" Grosseteste reveals his awareness of atomic theory writing: "It is my opinion that this was the meaning of the theory of those philosophers who held that everything is composed of atoms, and said that bodies are composed of surfaces, and surfaces of lines, and lines of points." Grossetest introduces Aristotle to Europe. | Lincoln, England (where de luce is written) |
771 YBN [1229 AD] | 1348) | Toulouse, France |
770 YBN [1230 AD] | 1158) Pope Gregory IX authorizes the killing of witches. | Rome, Italy |
767 YBN [1233 AD] | 1396) Albertus was the eldest son of a wealthy German lord. After his early schooling, he went to the University of Padua, where he studied the liberal arts. He joined the Dominican order at Padua in 1223. He continued his studies at Padua and Bologna and in Germany and then taught theology at several convents throughout Germany, lastly at Cologne. Because of his learning, Albertus is suspected of wizardry. Albertus is called "the Bishop with the Boots" and the "Ape of Aristotle". Albertus is the bishop of Regensburg from 1260-1262. In the summer of 1248, Albertus will be sent to Cologne to organize the first Dominican studium generale ("general house of studies") in Germany. Albertus will preside over this house until 1254 and devote himself to a full schedule of studying, teaching, and writing. During this period Albertus' main disciple will be Thomas Aquinas, who will return to Paris in 1252. The two men maintain a close relationship even though doctrinal differences exist. In 1277 he traveled to Paris to uphold the recently condemned good name and writings of Thomas Aquinas, who had died a few years before, and to defend certain Aristotelian doctrines that both he and Thomas held to be true. Albertus, like most humans in this time have many flaws including, most likely believing in a diety, believing most of the lies of the Christian religion, believing astrology, and that stones have occult properties (in "De mineralibus"). | Paris, France |
766 YBN [1234 AD] | 1125) | Korea |
766 YBN [1234 AD] | 1399) Although of German descent, Frederick prefers to live in Sicily. At age fourteen Frederick marries a twenty-five-year-old widow named Constance, the daughter of the king of Aragon. Both seem to have been happy with the arrangement, and Constance bears Frederick a son, Henry. Instead of killing the Saracens of Sicily, Frederick allows them to settle on the mainland and build mosques. Frederick also enlists them in his Christian army and even into his personal bodyguards. As Muslim soldiers, they have the advantage of immunity from papal excommunication. For these reasons, among others, Frederick II will be listed as a representative member of the sixth region of Dante's Inferno, The Heretics who are burned in tombs. Frederick writes poetry and is a patron of the Sicilian School of poetry. Frederick's royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, sees the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The school and its poetry will be well known to Dante and his peers and will have a significant influence on the literary form of what was eventually to become the modern Italian language. Pope Gregory IX, excommunicates Frederick II for failing to carry out a crusade to Jerusalem. Frederick obtained Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth from the Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt nonviolently through negociation. | Sicily |
760 YBN [1240 AD] | 1349) | Siena, Tuscany, Italy |
758 YBN [1242 AD] | 1403) | Oxford, England |
757 YBN [1243 AD] | 1156) Jewish humans are burned at the stake by Christian humans for "host nailing", that is the Jewish humans are accused of hammering nails through the "host" or wafer given to Christian people to eat during a Christian service as a symbol of Jesus. | ? |
752 YBN [1248 AD] | 1397) | Cologne |
748 YBN [05/15/1252 AD] | 1157) Pope Innocent IV authorizes torture. "Ad exstirpanda" is the the opening line designating a papal bull (a public letter in legal form) issued on May 15, 1252, by Pope Innocent IV, which will be confirmed by Pope Alexander IV in 1259, and by Pope Clement IV in 1265. This papl bull explicitly authorizes the use of torture for eliciting confessions from heretics during the Inquisition and explicitly condones the practice of executing relapsed heretics by burning them alive. The bull gives to the State a portion of the property to be confiscated from convicted heretics. The State in return assumes the burden of carrying out the penalty. | Rome, Italy |
748 YBN [1252 AD] | 1416) The Tables of Toledo are the most accurate compilation of astronomical/astrological data (ephemeris) ever seen in Europe at this time. The Tables were partly the work of Al-Zarqali, known to the West as Arzachel, a mathematician and astronomer/astrologer who flourished in Cordoba in the 1000s. Gerard of Cremona (1114â"1187) edited the Tables of Toledo for Latin readers. The tables will not be widely known until a Latin version is prepared in Paris in the 1320s. Copies will rapidly spread throughout Europe, and for more than two centuries the Alfonsine Tables will be the best astronomical tables available. First printed in 1483, the Alfonsine Tables will be an important source of information for the young Nicolaus Copernicus before his own work superseded them in the 1550s. Alfonso X commissioned or co-authored numerous works during his reign. These works included Cantigas d'escarnio e maldicer, General Estoria and the Libro de los juegos ("Book of Games"). | Castile, Spain |
745 YBN [1255 AD] | 1159) In England, 18 Jewish people are tortured and hanged for sacrificing children. | England |
741 YBN [1259 AD] | 1412) | in Maragheh (now in Azerbaijan) |
739 YBN [1261 AD] | 1842) | ?, China (presumably) |
737 YBN [1263 AD] | 1417) Alderotti is physician to Pope Honorius IV. Alderotti studies in Bologna (which, according to Asimov has one of the best health schools (medical school) in western Europe) and in lectures there in 1260. Dante mentions him in The Divine Comedy as a Hippocratist, or follower of Hippocrates. | Bologna, Italy |
735 YBN [01/20/1265 AD] | 1525) Simon de Montfort and most of his followers will be killed a few months later on Aug. 4, 1265, by Edward I, Kind Henry III's son and future king of England. | Rome, Italy |
735 YBN [1265 AD] | 1418) Aquinas was sent to the University of Naples, recently founded by the emperor, where he first encountered the scientific and philosophical works that were being translated from Greek and Arabic. In this setting Thomas decided to join the Friars Preachers, or Dominicans, a new religious order founded 30 years earlier, which departed from the traditional paternalistic form of government for monks to the more democratic form of the mendicant friars (religious orders whose poverty made it necessary for them to beg alms) and from the monastic life of prayer and manual labour to a more active life of preaching and teaching. In 1245 Aquinas studied at the University of Paris, the most prestigious and turbulent university of the time. Aquinas went to Paris to the convent of Saint-Jacques, the great university centre of the Dominicans, and there studied under Albertus Magnus, a tremendous scholar with a wide range of intellectual interests. The logic of Aquinas's position regarding faith and reason requires that the fundamental consistency of nature be recognized. In the universe or nature there are laws that describe its operation. Recognizing this fact permits the construction of a science according to a logos (ârational structureâ). Opponents under the influence of Augustine's doctrines assert the necessity and power of grace for a nature polluted by sin. This new view therefore upsets them. This idea that the universe is controlled by laws of nature leaves the question of where a diety might be located and involved. For many modern people a diety is everywhere influencing everything either obeying or disobeying the laws of nature, for others a diety is only responsible for the creation of the universe, for some there are many dieties, and of course some people reject the theory that any gods exist. In January 1274 Thomas Aquinas is be personally summoned by Gregory X to the second Council of Lyons, which is an attempt to repair the schism between the Latin and Greek churches. On his way Aquinas is stricken by illness; he stops at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova, where he died on March 7. In 1277 the masters of Paris, the highest theological jurisdiction in the church, condemn a series of 219 propositions; 12 of these propositions are theses of Aquinas. This is the most serious condemnation possible in the Middle Ages and its repercussions are felt in the development of science for several centuries. Thomas Aquinas will be canonized a saint in 1323. Aquinas' philosophical treatistes are: "De ente et essentia" (before 1256; On Being and Essence, 1949); "Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem" (1256; An Apology for the Religious Orders, 1902); "De regno" (De regimine principum) "ad regem Cypri" (1266; On Kingship, 1949); "De perfectione vitae spiritualis" (1269â"70); "De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas" (1270; The Unicity of the Intellect, 1946); "De aeternitate mundi contra murmurantes" (1270â"72); "De substantiis separatis, seu de angelorum natura" (undated; Treatise on Separate Substances, 1959). | Paris, France |
733 YBN [1267 AD] | 1401) Bacon was born into a wealthy family. His parents are employed by King Henry III. Bacon was well-versed in the classics and enjoyed the advantages of an early training in geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy. Bacon studied and later became a Master at Oxford, lecturing on Aristotle. Sometime between 1237 and 1245, Bacon starts to lecture at the University of Paris, the center of intellectual life in Europe at this time. Bacon obtains a Master of arts degree, at the university of Paris by 1241 and resigns in 1247 to devote himself to research. This new interest in science and experiment is probably caused by his return to Oxford and the influence there of the great scholar Robert Grosseteste, a leader in introducing Greek learning to the West, and Grosseteste's student Adam de Marisco, and Thomas Wallensis, the bishop of St. David's. Around 1256 Bacon becomes a Friar in the Franciscan Order. As a Franciscan Friar, Bacon no longer holds a teaching post and after 1260, his activities are further restricted by a Franciscan statute forbidding Friars from publishing books or pamphlets without specific approval. Bacon circumvents this restriction through his acquaintance with Cardinal Guy le Gros de Foulques, who becomes Pope Clement IV in 1265. The new Pope issues a mandate ordering Bacon to write him concerning the place of philosophy within theology. As a result Bacon sends the Pope his "Opus maius", which presents Bacon's views on how the philosophy of Aristotle and the new science can be incorporated into a new Theology. Besides the "Opus maius" Bacon also sends his "Opus minus", "De multiplicatione specierum", and, perhaps, other works on alchemy and astrology. | Oxford, England |
732 YBN [1268 AD] | 1147) | China |
731 YBN [08/08/1269 AD] | 1420) Peregrinus is a friend of Roger Bacon. Peregrinus is an engineer in army of Louis IX. Peregrinus thinks that the compass needle points to the celestial sphere, the outermost spheres in Ptolemy's erroneous system. People initially did not connect magnetism and electricity, giving each word a different suffix instead of the same: "magnetity" or "electrism". Peter's magnetic experiments and instruments in his letter apparently date to a time period twenty years earlier, judging by references in several works of Bacon. The name Peregrinus ("pilgrim") suggests that Peregrinus may have also been a crusader. Peregrinus' disciple, Roger Bacon, pays the highest tribute to Peregrinus as an experimenter and technician in his "Opus tertium" and other works (in which Peter is called "Petrus de Maharncuria Picardus"). According to Bacon, Peregrinus is a recluse who devotes himself to the study of nature, is able to work metals, invents armour and provides assistance more valuable to Louis IX of France than the king's entire army. "De magnete" will became a very popular work from the Middle Ages onwards. In 1326, Thomas Bradwardine will quote it in his "Tractatus de proportionibus". Scholars at Oxford University will make frequent use of it. The first edition of the letter will be issued at Augsburg, in 1558, by Achilles Gasser. William Gilbert will acknowledge his debt to Peter of Maricourt and incorporates this 1200s scientist's experiments on magnetism into his own treatise, called "De magnete". Here we see the major centers for the earliest European scientific progress are Italy, France and England as the transition from the Arab nations leading in science happens. | Lucera, Italy |
730 YBN [12/??/1270 AD] | 1405) This Condemnation represents a clear and official censorship of free speech, and free thought in addition to the censorship of scientific and other writings. | Paris, France |
725 YBN [1275 AD] | 1419) Villanova can speak Arabic and Greek. Villanova is given a castle and a professorship at the University of Montpellier in France as a result of treating royal people. Villanova is probably of Catalan origin, and studied chemistry, medicine, physics, and also Arabic philosophy. After having lived at the court of Aragon, he goes to Paris, where he gains a considerable reputation; but angers the ecclesiastics and is forced to move, which he does to Sicily. About 1313 he was summoned to Avignon by Pope Clement V, who was ill, but Villanova dies on the voyage. | Paris, France |
723 YBN [1277 AD] | 1398) Albertus Magnus (Albert the great) (1193-1280) In 1277 he travels to Paris to uphold the recently condemned good name and writings of Thomas Aquinas, who had died a few years before, and to defend certain Aristotelian doctrines that both he and Thomas held to be true. | Paris, France |
723 YBN [1277 AD] | 1404) | Oxford, England |
723 YBN [1277 AD] | 1406) | Paris, France |
720 YBN [1280 AD] | 5873) | Cologne, Germany |
720 YBN [1280 AD] | 6238) | Florence, Italy |
719 YBN [1281 AD] | 1413) | Maragha, Iran |
716 YBN [1284 AD] | 5884) The most famous of the secular plays "Jau de Robin et de Marion" is written around this time by Adam de le Halle (CE c1250-c1306), the last and greatest of the trouveres, a poet, musician and innovator of the earliest French secular theatre. "Jeu de Robin et de Marion" ("A game of Robin and of Marion") is a dramatization of the pastoral theme of a knight’s wooing of a pretty shepherdess, with dances and peasants’ dialogue. | Picardy, France |
715 YBN [1285 AD] | 1160) In Munich, 180 Jewish people are burned {to death} after being accused of bleeding a Christian child to death. | Munich |
710 YBN [1290 AD] | 1350) | Coimbra, Portugal |
703 YBN [1297 AD] | 1422) D'Abano studied a long time at Paris, where he was promoted to the degrees of Doctor in philosophy and physics. D'Abano's fees as a physician are reported to be very high. D'Abano meets Marco Polo. D'Abano believes in astrology and is suspected of magical practices, in particular by competing physicians. After his death, D'Abano is found guilty and his body is ordered to be exhumed and burned, but a friend secretly removes it, and the Inquisition has to content itself with the public proclamation of its sentence and the burning of Abano in effigy as a bundle of straw representing his person publicly burnt at Padua. There is a long history of the shockingly brutal execution by fire. There are reports of Roman authorities murdering Christian martyrs by burning, and the Roman Emperor Justinian orders death by fire as a punishment for heresy against Christianity. The burning the D'Abano in effigy is an early report of the increased efforts to stop the advance of freethinking being nutured in the Universities in Europe from the reading of ancient Greek and Arabic texts. | Padua, Italy |
702 YBN [05/15/1298 AD] | 1161) In Nuremberg 628 Jewish humans are killed (including scholar Mordecai ben Hillel) because of a rumor of host nailing. | Nuremberg |
702 YBN [1298 AD] | 1162) The Tower Mill windmill is invented in Europe. A Tower Mill is a type of windmill which consists of a brick or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. | Nuremberg |
702 YBN [1298 AD] | 1421) Although he knew little or no Chinese, he did speak some of the many languages then used in East Asia- most probably Turkish (in its Coman dialect) as spoken among the Mongols, Arabized Persian, Uighur (Uygur), and perhaps Mongol. He was noticed very favourably by Kublai, who took great delight in hearing of strange countries and repeatedly sent him on fact-finding missions to distant parts of the empire. According to Marco's travel account, the Polos ask several times for permission to return to Europe but the Khan will not agree to their departure. Sometime around 1292, a Mongol princess is to be sent to Persia to become the consort of Arghun Khan, and the Polos offer to accompany her. Marco writes that Kublai had been unwilling to let them go but finally granted permission. They are eager to leave, in part, because Kublai is nearly 80, and his death (and the consequent change in regime) might be dangerous for a small group of isolated foreigners. The Polos also wanted to see their native Venice and their families again. The princess, with some 600 courtiers and sailors, and the Polos board 14 ships, which leave the port of Quanzhou and sail southward. On the island of Sumatra ("Lesser Giaua") Polo is impressed by the fact that the North Star appears to have dipped below the horizon. The fleet follows the west coast of India and finally anchored at Hormuz. The expedition then proceeds to Khorasan, handing over the princess not to Arghun, who had died, but to his son Mahmud Ghazan. The Polos then depart for Europe and eventually returned to Venice. Soon after his return to Venice, Polo is taken prisoner by the Genoese, rivals of the Venetians at sea, during a battle in the Mediterranean. He was then imprisoned in Genoa. In prison, Marco Polo dictates his adventures to a prisoner from Pisa, Rustichello, who writes the story in Franco-Italian, a composite tongue fashionable during the 1200 and 1300s. The original title of the book is "Divisament dou monde" ("Description of the World"). Polo is soon freed and returns to Venice. "Il milione" is an instant success, "In a few months it spread throughout Italy," Giovanni Battista Ramusio, the 16th-century Italian geographer will write. There are around 140 different manuscript versions of the text, in three manuscript groups, in a dozen different languages and dialects. | Genoa, Italy |
700 YBN [1300 AD] | 1121) Earliest mechanical clock. Time keeping began around 3500 BC with the invention of the gnomon and sundial, and the hourglass. The first mechanical clocks in Europe work based on a simple principle. A weight is suspended from a cord wrapped many times around a driving shaft. As the weight descends the shaft turns and the movement is transmitted to the hands, or in many cases just a single hour hand. To regulate the movement so that the hands rotate at a fixed rate, using an escapement which consists of a pair of oscillating vanes mounted on a vertical spindle carrying a protruding pallet that engages with the teeth of a crown wheel. Some regulation of the rate of oscillation of the vanes is possible through a series of sliding weights on each arm. One of the oldest surviving examples of this kind of clock is that from Salisbury Cathedral, which dates to 1386, but does not have its original escapement. These are weigh-driven clocks. Spring driven clocks do not appear until the middle of the 1400s.In the 1600s Christiaan Huygens will invent the pendulum escapement (1657) for weight-driven clocks and the balance spring (1675) for spring-driven clocks. Only then will putting a minute hand on a clock be useful. The first publicly known battery electric clock is invented in 1840. This clock is driven by a spring and pendulum and uses an electrical impulse to operate a number of dials. Not until 1906 is the first self-contained battery-driven clock invented and made public. | Europe |
700 YBN [1300 AD] | 5874) | Florence, Italy |
697 YBN [1303 AD] | 1351) | Coimbra, Portugal |
692 YBN [09/08/1308 AD] | 1352) | Perugia, Italy |
690 YBN [10/24/1310 AD] | 356) | London, England |
690 YBN [10/24/1310 AD] | 656) | London, England |
690 YBN [10/24/1310 AD] | 657) | London, England (presumably) |
690 YBN [1310 AD] | 357) | London, England (presumably) |
690 YBN [1310 AD] | 1424) False Geber probably lives in Spain. (Arab person?). False-Jabir wrongly assumes that all metals are composed of sulfur and mercury and gives detailed descriptions of metallic properties in those terms. False-Jabir also explains the use of an elixir in transmuting base metals into gold. | Spain |
690 YBN [1310 AD] | 4540) | London, England (presumably) |
688 YBN [1312 AD] | 363) | London, England (presumably) |
688 YBN [1312 AD] | 4539) | London, England (presumably) |
684 YBN [1316 AD] | 1428) De' Luzzi registered at the College of Medicine of the University of Bologna in 1290 and also is known to have studied in the College of Philosophy. De' Luzzi lectures while actively practicing health and surgery. De' Luzzi studies at the health (medical) school in Bologna under Alderotti, graduates in 1290 and starts teaching there in 1306. The first such recorded anatomical exploration occurred for legal reasons at Bologna in 1302, but it is generally believed that academic dissections had been performed previously. In any event, Mondino reports that in January 1315 he conducted such a procedure on the body of a woman, giving him the opportunity to examine and study human uterine anatomy. Asimov writes that the 1300s are a turning point between a focus on religion and the afterlife to an interest in humans and the earth, which is called "humanism" and is the beginning of the Renaissance. | Bologna, Italy |
683 YBN [1317 AD] | 1427) Ockham is opposed to Thomas Acquinas' view that logic and religion can coexist, arguing that religion is a matter of faith. Ockham studies at Oxford and lectures there from 1315-1319. Ockham was young when he entered the Franciscan order. At the University of Oxford Ockham apparently between 1317 and 1319 lectures on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, a 1100s theologian whose work was the official textbook of theology in the universities until the 1500s. Ockham's lectures are also set down in written commentaries, of which the commentary on Book I of the Sentences (a commentary known as "Ordinatio") was actually written by Ockham himself. Ockham's opinions aroused strong opposition from members of the theological faculty of Oxford and Ockham left the university without obtaining his master's degree in theology. Ockham therefore remains, academically speaking, an undergraduate, known as an "inceptor" ("beginner") in Oxonian language or, to use a Parisian equivalent, a "baccalaureus formatus". In 1327 The Franciscan General Michael of Cesena is summoned to Avignon to answer charges of heresy, and asks Ockham to review arguments surrounding Apostolic poverty. The Franciscan order believed that Jesus and his apostles owned no personal property, and survived by begging and accepting the gifts of others. This clashes directly with the beliefs of Pope John XXII. On May 26, 1328, the Franciscan General Michael of Cesena flees from Avignon accompanied by Bonagratia and William Ockham. The three Franciscans stay in Pisa under the protection of Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian, who had been excommunicated in 1324 and proclaimed by John XXII to have forfeited all rights to the empire. Because of this Ockham is excommunicated. In Munich in 1330 and thereafter Ockham writes fervently against the papacy in defense of the strict Franciscan notion of poverty. | Oxford, England |
680 YBN [1320 AD] | 5870) | (Royal Court) Paris, France (verify) |
675 YBN [1325 AD] | 5887) | (Abbey of) Robertsbridge, Sussex, UK |
673 YBN [1327 AD] | 1164) Wallingford studies at Oxford University for 6 years and becomes a monk at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire before 9 years further study at Oxford. In 1326, he becomes the abbot of St Albans. Wallingford's design of an astronomical clock is described in "Tractatus Horologii Astronomici", in 1327. The clock will be completed in 1356 about 20 years after his death by William of Walsham, but will be apparently destroyed during Henry VIII's reformation and dissolution of St Albans Abbey in 1539. Richard also designs and constructs a calculation device known as an equatorium, which he calls an Albion. This can be used for astronomical calculations such as lunar, solar and planetary longitudes and can predict eclipses. This is described in "Tractatus Albionis". He publishes other works on trigonometry, celestial coordinates, astrology and various religious works. He suffers from what is then thought to be leprosy (though it may be syphilis, scrofula or tuberculosis) apparently contracted when he goes to have his position confirmed by the Pope at Avignon. He dies at St Albans. | Hertfordshire, England |
673 YBN [1327 AD] | 1353) | Timbuktu, Mali, West Africa |
665 YBN [1335 AD] | 1354) Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal, often considered to be the Father of Neurosciences, will be taught at the University of Zaragosa. | Zaragosa, Spain |
665 YBN [1335 AD] | 1425) After studies in philosophy at the University of Paris under William of Ockham, Buridan is appointed professor of philosophy there. Buridan serves as university rector in 1328 and in 1340, the year in which he condemns Ockham's views, an act that is sometimes called the first seed of theological skepticism. Buridan's own works will be condemned and placed on the Index of Forbidden Books from 1474 to 1481 by partisans of Ockham. In addition to commentaries on Aristotle's "Organon", "Physics", "De anima", "Metaphysics", and "Economics", Buridan's works include "Summula de dialecta" (1487) and "Consequentie" (1493). Buridan remains a secular cleric, rather than joining a religious order. | Paris, France |
664 YBN [1336 AD] | 1355) | Camerino, Italy |
657 YBN [09/03/1343 AD] | 1356) Galileo Galilei, will be born and study in Pisa, becoming professor of Mathematics at the Pisan Studium in 1589. | Pisa, Italy |
652 YBN [04/07/1348 AD] | 1357) | Prague, Czech Republic (EU) |
652 YBN [1348 AD] | 1169) Christian people, unaware of the true cause of the bubonic plague, accuse Jewish people of poisoning the wells, and thousands of innocent Jewish people are killed. For example, in Speyer, Germany Jewish bodies are piled into huge wine casks and sent floating down the Rhine. In Basal, Switzerland, 600 Jewish people are burned for well poisoning. Bubonic plague is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis. | Speyer, Germany and Basal, Switzerland |
650 YBN [1350 AD] | 1165) Giovanni Dondi dell'Orologio builds an astronomical clock in Padua. Dondi's clock is a seven-sided construction showing the positions of the known planets as well. Both these clocks, and others like them, are probably less accurate than their designers wanted: the gear ratios may be exquisitely calculated, but the realities of friction and limitations of manufacture would prevent them from being accurate and reliable. | Padua, Italy |
650 YBN [1350 AD] | 1168) | Mediterranean |
650 YBN [1350 AD] | 5886) | France |
648 YBN [1352 AD] | 1402) | Italy |
645 YBN [1355 AD] | 1980) | Paris, France |
640 YBN [1360 AD] | 1977) The fact that Oresme attends the royally sponsored and subsidized College of Navarre, an institution for students too poor to pay their expenses while studying at the University of Paris, makes it probable that Oresme comes from a peasant family. Oresme studies arts in Paris (before 1342), together with Jean Buridan (the so-called founder of the French school of natural philosophy), Albert of Saxony and perhaps Marsilius of Inghen, and there receives the Magister Artium. A recently discovered papal letter of provision granting Oresme an expectation of a benefice establishes that he was already a regent master in arts by 1342. This early dating of Oresme's arts degree places him at Paris during the crisis over William of Ockham's natural philosophy. Oresme is a determined opponent of astrology, which he criticizes on religious and scientific grounds. | Paris, France (presumably) |
639 YBN [1361 AD] | 1358) | Pavia, Itlay |
636 YBN [1364 AD] | 1359) Nicolaus Copernicus will attend this university. | |
636 YBN [1364 AD] | 5885) Guillaume de Machaut (CE c1300-1377), one of the leading French composers of the Ars Nova musical style of the 1300s, composes "La Messe De Notre Dame", one of the earliest masses, and best known composition of the age. | (Gothic cathedral) Rheims, France |
635 YBN [03/12/1365 AD] | 1360) | Vienna, Austria |
633 YBN [03/12/1367 AD] | 1361) | Pécs, Hungary |
630 YBN [1370 AD] | 1978) | Paris, France (presumably) |
623 YBN [1377 AD] | 1213) The Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, which was built in 1247 originally as a priory (or monastary) for those in the "order of the Star of Bethlehem", starts imprisoning people thought to be mentally ill this year in 1377, and is the earth's first psychiatric hospital. The word "bedlam" meaning a scene of uproar or confusion, will derive from Bethlem. In some way this begins the separation of the legal and the psychiatric prison systems. This duality will result in those jailed in psychiatric hospitals being subjected to physical restraint, torture, violent and nonviolent people being mixed together indiscriminately, unprotected by the writ of habeus corpus, the right to trial, to finite sentence and other legal guarantees granted to people jailed in the legal prison system. The origin of this dual system is from the belief in unusual (even many times lawful) behavior requiring treatment, belief in many of the abstract erroneous theories of psychology, in addition to the power of tradition behind the belief in the punishment those with unorthodox views or behavior (even as is many times the case, when those unorthodox views, for example belief in the heliocentric system or atheism, are the more accurate and healthy although unpopular). In addition, psychiatric hospitals will come to serve as a primative (albeit brutal and unconsensual) social program, where a bed and food are provided for people without a room of their own (so called "homeless people"). This hospital-prison will become infamous for it's brutal treatment of those imprisoned there. In the 1700s people will pay a penny to see the inmates and are permitted to bring long sticks to poke the inmates with. Prisoners are "treated" with bleedings, and nausia inducing substances (like mercury) because the pain replaces the focus of the "insane" thoughts. Mustard powders are put on the shaved head of prisoners causing blisters to cause pain and discomfort, and also fear in the prisoners. | London, England |
623 YBN [1377 AD] | 1979) | Paris, France (presumably) |
621 YBN [1379 AD] | 1414) Khaldun writes an autobiography. | the castle Qal'at ibn Salamah, near what is now the town of Frenda, Algeria |
614 YBN [1386 AD] | 1362) | Heidelberg, Germany |
609 YBN [03/04/1391 AD] | 1363) | Ferrara, Italy |
603 YBN [1397 AD] | 5897) | Padua, Italy |
602 YBN [03/04/1398 AD] | 1364) | (Myeongnyun-dong, Jongno-gu in central) Seoul and Suwon, South Korea |
600 YBN [1400 AD] | 1024) | |
600 YBN [1400 AD] | 1170) Although the carrack represents the state of the art in later medieval shipbuilding, there were purposes for which it is not appropriate. Initially carracks are used for exploration by the Portuguese venturing out along the west African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. But large, full-rigged ships can not always be sailed with the precision necessary for inshore surveying in unknown waters. The explorers soon come to prefer smaller carracks of around 100 tons, or the light three-masted Mediterranean lateen-rigged vessels known as caravels. Because of its smaller size the caravel is able to explore up river in shallow coastal waters. With the lateen sails (triangular sails) affixed it is able to go speedily over shallow water and take deep wind, while with the square Atlantic-type sails attached, the caravel is very fast. Its economy, speed, agility, and power makes the caravel esteemed as the best sailing vessel of this time. It generally carried two or three masts with lateen sails, while later types will have four masts. Christopher Columbus will set out on his famous expedition in 1492 with the Santa Maria, a small carrack which will serve as the mother ship, and the Pinta and the Niña which are caravels. | Speyer, Germany and Basal, Switzerland |
600 YBN [1400 AD] | 5878) | (St. Jerome) England (verify) |
600 YBN [1400 AD] | 5891) Johannes Ciconia (CE c1370-1412) composes music. | Padua, Italy (guess) |
590 YBN [1410 AD] | 1365) | St. Andrews, Scotland |
583 YBN [1417 AD] | 1172) A single manuscript with a poem, "De Rerum Natura" (On the Nature of Things), by Lucretius (c94 BCE- c49 BCE) is found. This is the only surviving copy so far from from Lucretius' writings. | ? |
580 YBN [1420 AD] | 1429) Henry is the younger son of King John I of Portugal, and great grandson of Edward III of England. Henry's designed a strategy where Christian Europe would outflank Islam by establishing contact with Africa south of the Sahara and with Asia. This strategy will not be brought to fulfillment until after his death. In 1420, at the age of 26, Henry is made grand master of the Order of Christ, the supreme order sponsored by the pope, which had replaced the crusading order of the Templars in Portugal. While this did not oblige him to take religious vows, it did oblige him to dedicate himself to a chaste and ascetic life. Henry did not always refrain from worldly pleasures; as a young man he had fathered a daughter without marriage (so-called illegitimate). The funds made available through the order largely finance Henry's enterprise of discovery, which also seeks to convert Pagans to Christianity, and for this reason all of Henry's ships have a red cross on their sails. From Italy Henry's older brother Prince Pedro brings home to Portugal, in 1428, a copy of Marco Polo's travels that he had translated for Prince Henry's benefit. The voyages were made in very small ships, mostly the caravel, a light and maneuverable vessel that used the lateen sail of the Arabs. Most of the voyages sent out by Henry consisted of one or two ships that navigated by following the coast, stopping at night to tie up along some shore. One of his immediate aims was to find an African gold supply to strengthen the Portuguese economy and to make the voyages pay for themselves. Nuno Tristão and Antão Gonçalves reach Cape Blanco in 1441. The Portuguese sight the Bay of Arguin in 1443 and build an important fort there around the year 1448. Dinis Dias soon comes across the Senegal River and rounds the peninsula of Cap-Vert in 1444. By this stage the explorers have passed the southern boundary of the desert, and from then on Henry had one of his wishes fulfilled: the Portuguese had circumvented the Muslim land-based trade routes across the western Sahara Desert, and slaves and gold begin arriving in Portugal. By 1452, the influx of gold permits the minting of Portugal's first gold cruzado coins. A cruzado is equal to 400 reis at the time. From 1444 to 1446, as many as forty vessels sail from Lagos on Henry's behalf, and the first private mercantile expeditions begin. This return of slaves and gold silences the growing criticism that Henry was wasting money on a profitless enterprise. Afonso V, the King of Protugal, gives Henry the sole right to send ships to visit and trade with the Guinea coast of Africa. Henry's investment in exploration was so large that, despite his great revenues, Henry will die heavily in debt. Henry remains single to the end of his life. The surname Navigator will be applied to the Prince by the English, though seldom by Portuguese writers. Henry himself never embarks on voyages of discovery, but funded navigators, and for this Henry is regarded as the initiator of the great age of discovery and the European thrust towards world domination. Henry the Navigator is one of the first few humans to have the actual day of their birth and death recorded and therefore remembered. | Lagos, Portugal |
580 YBN [1420 AD] | 1430) Ulugh Beg is the grandson of the Mongol warrier Tamerlane, the last of the barbarian conquerers, succeeds to throne (of?) in 1447 Beg is the only important scientist of the Mongol people. Beg is killed by his son in 1449, and Ulugh's observatory will be destroyed by 1500, its remains will be found in 1908. The name "Ulugh Beg" is a nick-name loosely translated as "Great Ruler". | Samarkand, Uzbekistan |
580 YBN [1420 AD] | 5888) John Dunstable (CE 1385-1453) composes music that represents the transition between late medieval and early Renaissance music. Dunstable’s influence on European music is seen in his flowing, gently asymmetrical rhythms and, above all, in his harmonies. Dunstable represents a culmination of the English tradition of full, sonorous harmonies based on the third and sixth that persists through the 1300s alongside the more stark and dissonant style of music on the European continent. | England (and possibly France) |
576 YBN [1424 AD] | 1431) | Samarkand, Uzbekistan |
575 YBN [1425 AD] | 1366) | Leuven, Belgium |
574 YBN [1426 AD] | 1173) A copy of the medical part of the 8 books of an encyclopedia describing past Greek learning written in Latin by Celsus (25 BCE - 50 CE) is found. | ? |
570 YBN [1430 AD] | 5889) Guillaume Dufay (CE c1400—1474) French composer, creates church and secular music at this time. | (Cambrai cathedral) Cambrai, France (guess) |
570 YBN [1430 AD] | 5890) Gilles Binchois (CE c1400—1460) French composer, creates church and secular music at this time. | (Chapel of Philip III the Good) Burgundy, France (guess) |
565 YBN [1435 AD] | 1435) Gutenberg will die in debt and unmarried. When younger Guttenberg had acquired skill in metalwork. Exiled from Mainz in the course of a bitter struggle between the guilds of that city and the patricians, Gutenberg moves to Strassburg (now Strasbourg, France) probably between 1428 and 1430. Records put his presence there from 1434 to 1444. Gutenberg is involved in such crafts as gem cutting, and also teaches crafts to a number of pupils. In March 1434, a letter by him indicates that Guttenberg was living in Strasbourg, where he had some relatives on his mother's side. He also appears to have been a goldsmith member enrolled in the Strasbourg militia. In 1437, there is evidence that he was instructing a wealthy tradesman on polishing gems, but where he had acquired this knowledge is unknown. In 1436/37 Gutenberg's name also comes up in court in connection with a broken promise of marriage to a woman from Strasbourg, Ennelin. Whether the marriage actually took place is not recorded. In 1438 a five-year contract is drawn up between Gutenberg and three other men: Hans Riffe, Andreas Dritzehn, and Andreas Heilmann. When Andreas Dritzehn dies at Christmas 1438, his heirs, trying to circumvent the terms of the contract, began a lawsuit against Gutenberg in which they demanded to be made partners. They lose the suit, but the trial reveals that Gutenberg is working on a new invention. Witnesses testify that a carpenter named Conrad Saspach had advanced sums to Andreas Dritzehn for the building of a wooden press, and Hans Dünne, a goldsmith, declared that he had sold to Gutenberg, as early as 1436, 100 guilders' worth of printing materials. Gutenberg, apparently well along the way to completing his invention, wants to keep secret the nature of the enterprise. In October 1448 Gutenberg is back in Mainz to borrow more money, which he receives from a relative. By 1450 Gutenberg's printing experiments must have reached a considerable degree of refinement, because Gutenberg is able to persuade Johann Fust, a wealthy financier, to lend him 800 guilders, a very large amount for which the tools and equipment for printing are to act as securities. Two years later Fust makes another investment of 800 guilders for a partnership in the enterprise. Fust and Gutenberg have a disagreement, Fust, apparently, wants a safe and quick return on his investment, while Gutenberg wants perfection instead of a quick return. On November 6. 1455, the Helmaspergersches Notariatsinstrument (the Helmasperger notarial instrument) records that Fust won a suit against Guttenberg. This record is now in the library of the University of Göttingen. Gutenberg was ordered to pay Fust the total sum of the two loans and compound interest (probably totaling 2,020 guilders). The traditional belief is that this settlement ruined Gutenberg, but more recent examination suggests that the decision favored Gutenberg, allowing him to operate a printing shop through the 1450s and maybe into the 1460s. The record of trial refers to the printing of books (werck der bucher), that probably refer to the Forty-two-Line Bible That Gutenberg had probably already printed by then. The sale of the Forty-two-Line Bible alone is estimated to have produced many times over the sum owed Fust by Gutenberg, and there is no other explanation as to why the books are not counted among Gutenberg's property at the trial, except that Gutenberg sold the books. After winning his suit, Fust gains control of the type (each page is kept together with the blocks?) for the Bible and for Gutenberg's second masterpiece, a Psalter (Psalms), and at least some of Gutenberg's other printing equipment. Fust continues to print, using Gutenberg's materials, with the assistance of Peter Schöffer, Fust's son-in-law, who had been Gutenberg's most skilled employee and a witness against Gutenberg in the 1455 trial. The first printed book in Europe to bear the name of its printer is a very nicely designed "Psalter" completed in Mainz on August 14, 1457, which lists Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer. In January 1465 the archbishop of Mainz will pension Gutenberg, giving Gutenberg an annual measure of grain, wine, and clothing and exempting Gutenberg from certain taxes, so in his last years, Gutenberg was probably not destitute. | Strassburg (now Strasbourg, France) |
565 YBN [1435 AD] | 1440) Alberti is a musician and organist, writes trajedies in Latin, and is a mathematician. Alberti designs some notable churches in Mantua and Romini. Alberti is educated in law at the University of Bologna. Alberti writes in both Latin and the vernacular. In Florence Alberti is friends with the sculptor Donatello, cosmographer Paolo Toscanelli and the architect Brunelleschi. Some time between 1435 and 1444. Alberti writes "Libri della famiglia" ("Book on the Family")-which discusses education, marriage, household management, and money-in the Tuscan dialect. The work is not printed until 1843. Like Erasmus decades later, Alberti stresses the need for a reform in education. He notes that "the care of very young children is women's work, for nurses or the mother," and that at the earliest possible age children should be taught the alphabet. With great hopes, he gave the work to his family to read, but in his autobiography Alberti confesses that "he could hardly avoid feeling rage, when he saw some of his relatives openly ridiculing the work." Alberti writes a short autobiography around 1438 in Latin and in the third person, (many but not all scholars consider this work to be an autobiography) in which he makes unlikely claims such as being capable of "standing with his feet together, and springing over a man's head." The autobiography survives thanks to a 1700s transcription by Antonio Muratori. Alberti also claims that he "excelled in all bodily exercises; could, with feet tied, leap over a standing man; could in the great cathedral, throw a coin far up to ring against the vault; amused himself by taming wild horses and climbing mountains." This may be explained in part because many in the Renaissance promote themselves in various ways. Alberti writes "Momus", between 1443 and 1450, which is a misogynist (anti-women) comedy about the Olympian gods. Jupiter has been identified in some sources as Pope Eugenius IV and Pope Nicholas V. Alberti borrows many of its characters from Lucian, one of his favorite Greek writers. The name of its hero, Momus, refers to the Greek word for blame or criticism. After being expelled from heaven, Momus, the god of mockery, is eventually castrated. Jupiter and the other gods come down to earth also, but they return to heaven after Jupiter breaks his nose in a great storm. Towards the end of his life, Alberti writes "De iciarchia" ("On the Man of Excellence and Ruler of His Family") which represents in full flower the public-spirited Humanism" | Florence, Italy |
563 YBN [1437 AD] | 1432) | Samarkand, Uzbekistan |
560 YBN [02/12/1440 AD] | 1437) Nicholas of Cusa (Nicholas Krebs) (CE 1401-1464) describes space as infinite in size and that other stars may be inhabited. The relevant translated text from "De Docta Ignorantia" Book 2 is: "And so, {the universe is} unbounded; for it is not the case that anything actually greater than it, in relation to which it would be bounded, is positable." Cusa suggests that stars may be distant Suns when he states that the Earth would look like a star from a distance. Cusa writes: "Hence, if someone were outside the region of fire, then through the medium of the fire our earth, which is on the circumference of {this} region, would appear to be a bright star-just as to us, who are on the circumference of the region of the sun, the sun appears to be very bright." On life of other stars: "Therefore, the inhabitants of other stars-of whatever sort these inhabitants might be-bear no comparative relationship to the inhabitants of the Earth." On the motion of the earth Cusa writes: "It has already become evident to us that the earth is indeed moved, even though we do not perceive this to be the case. For we apprehend motion only through a certain comparison with something fixed. For example, if someone did not know that a body of water was flowing and did not see the shore while he was on a ship in the middle of the water, how would he recognize that the ship was being moved?...". On the Sun being larger than the Earth: "And although the Earth is smaller than the Sun-as we know from the Earth's shadow and from eclipses-we do not know to what extent the region of the Sun is larger or smaller than the region of the Earth" Cusa also compares planets to stars (a good case can be made that planets are very dim stars), and that the planets move writting: "Therefore, consider carefully the fact that just as in the eighth sphere the stars are {moved} around conjectural poles, so the earth, the moon, and the planets-as stars-are moved at a distance and with a difference around a pole {which} we conjecture to be where the center is believed to be. Hence, although the earth-as star-is nearer to the central pole, nevertheless it is moved and, in its motion, does not describe a minimum circle, as was indicated." Instead of Cusa getting in trouble, he is appointed cardinal in 1448, Giordano Bruno will be murdered for sharing many of these same views in only 152 years. Cusa builds spectacles (glasses) with concave lenses where earlier glasses used the easier to make convex lenses that served only the far-sighted (those who cannot see close objects), these glasses serve the near-sighted (who cannot see far objects). Cusa advocates the counting of pulse as a diagnostic aid in healing. | Cusa, Germany |
557 YBN [1443 AD] | 1438) Bessarion writes a treatise directed against George of Trebizond, a vigorous Aristotelian who had written a polemic against Plato, which was entitled "In Calumniatorem Platonis" ("Against the Slanderer of Plato"). Bessarion, though a Platonist, is not so thoroughgoing in his admiration of Plato as Gemistus Pletho is, and strives instead to reconcile the two philosophies. Pope Eugenius IV makes Bessarion a cardinal in 1439. | Rome, Italy |
550 YBN [1450 AD] | 1171) | ? |
550 YBN [1450 AD] | 1798) | southern Germany, or northern Italy |
548 YBN [1452 AD] | 1441) | Florence, Italy |
547 YBN [05/29/1453 AD] | 1439) | Constantanople |
546 YBN [1454 AD] | 1436) The Guttenberg Bible is sometimes referred to as the Mazarin Bible because the first copy described by bibliographers was located in the Paris library of Cardinal Mazarin. | Mainz, Germany |
540 YBN [1460 AD] | 1367) | Basel, Switzerland |
538 YBN [1462 AD] | 1443) Königsberg means "King's Mountain," which is what the Latinized version of his name, Joannes de Regio monte or Regiomontanus, also means. In 1475 Regiomontanus is summoned to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to help reform the Julian calendar, but Regiomontanus dies in Rome of the plague before completing the project, and it will wait another century to be corrected. Regiomontanus is admitted to the University of Leipzig at age 11, has a Bachelor's Degree at 1452, but university regulations force him to wait until he turns 21 to receive his master's degree. Regiomontanus is teaching in 1457. Regiomontanus lectures on Virgil and Cicero. Regiomontanus eventually collaborates with his teacher, the mathematician-astronomer Georg von Peuerbach, on various astronomical and astrological projects, including observations of eclipses and comets, the manufacture of astronomical instruments, and the casting of horoscopes for the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Regiomontanus is conservative in outlook and writes at length arguing how earth cannot move, citing how birds would be blown away, clouds left behind, building would tumble. Regiomontanus strongly believes in astrology, and publishes a book in astrology. | Rome, Italy |
530 YBN [1470 AD] | 5899) | (thought to be:) southern Germany (verify) |
528 YBN [1472 AD] | 1442) Peurbach studies art at the University of Vienna, moves to Italy, which Asimov describes as an intellectual center at this time and there studies under Nicholas of Cusa before becoming professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Vienna in 1453. Peurbach is appointed astrologer to King Ladislas V of Hungary and later to Emperor Frederick III. | Vienna, Austria |
528 YBN [1472 AD] | 1444) | Nuremberg, (Franconia, now) Germany |
528 YBN [1472 AD] | 1461) Leonardo's parents were unmarried at the time of his birth. Leonardo grows up on his father's family's estate, where he was treated as a "legitimate" son and receives the usual elementary education of that day: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Leonardo does not seriously study Latin, the key language of traditional learning, until much later, when he acquires a working knowledge of it on his own. He also does not apply himself to higher mathematics-advanced geometry and arithmetic-until he is 30 years old, when he begins to study it with diligent tenacity. Leonardo's artistic inclinations must have appeared early. When Leonardo is about 15, his father, apprentices Leonardo to artist Andrea del Verrocchio. In Verrocchio's renowned workshop Leonardo receives a multifaceted training that includes painting, sculpture and technical-mechanical arts. Leonardo also works in the next-door workshop of artist Antonio Pollaiuolo. In 1472 Leonardo is accepted into the painters' guild of Florence, but he remains in his teacher's workshop for five more years, after which time he works independently in Florence until 1481. Many of the surviving pen and pencil drawings from this period, including many technical sketches (for example of pumps, military weapons, etc) are evidence of Leonardo's interest in and knowledge of technical matters very early in his career. In 1482 Leonardo moved to Milan to work in the service of Duke Ludovico Sforza rejecting two projects offered to him in Florence. Leonardo spends 17 years in Milan, until Ludovico's fall from power in 1499. Leonardo is listed in the register of the royal household as "pictor et ingeniarius ducalis" ("painter and engineer of the duke"). Da Vinci is highly esteemed and is constantly kept busy as a painter and sculptor and as a designer of court festivals. Da Vince is also frequently consulted as a technical adviser in the fields of architecture, fortifications, and military matters, and he serves as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer. Leonardo keeps a series of journals in which he writes almost daily, as well as separate notes and sheets of observations, comments and plans which were left to various pupils and were later bound. Many of the journals have survived to illustrate Leonardo's studies, discoveries and inventions. Da Vinci write backwards in mirror-script in voluminous notebooks, which can be easily read with a mirror as his contemporaries testify. Leonardo is left handed so writing backwards is more easily done. Leonardo's notebooks add up to thousands of closely written pages abundantly illustrated with sketches-the most voluminous literary legacy any painter has ever left behind. Da Vinci paints famous realistic-appearing paintings such as "Mona Lisa", and "The Last Supper". Da Vinci knows neither Greek or Latin. The funders of Da Vinci include Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, Louis XII of France, Giulio de Medici, brother of Pope Leo X, and Francis I of France. | Florence, Italy |
527 YBN [1473 AD] | 1462) Leonardo da Vinci (VENcE) (CE 1452-1519) draws a study of a Tuscan landscape. This is Da Vinci's earliest dated drawing. The drawing is of the valley of the Arno River, where Da Vinci lives. | Florence, Italy |
527 YBN [1473 AD] | 5894) Johannes Tinctoris (CE 1436–1511), publishes "Terminorum musicae diffinitorium" ("Dictionary of Musical Terms, Naples, 1473), which is the earliest printed dictionary of musical terms. | Naples, Italy (presumably) |
526 YBN [1474 AD] | 1433) Toscanelli observes comets and painstakingly calculates their orbits. Among these will be Halley's comet in 1456. Toscanelli is the son of the physician Dominic Toscanelli. Educated in mathematics at the University of Padua, Toscanelli leaves in 1424 with the title of a doctor of medicine. Toscanelli is a friend of Nicholaus of Cusa. | Florence, Italy |
526 YBN [1474 AD] | 1434) | Florence, Italy |
525 YBN [1475 AD] | 1174) Jewish humans in parts of Europe have to wear pointed hats as an identifying badge. The humans in the Catholic church force all Jewish humans to wear these pointed hats, as shown in an image carved into wood (a German woodcut) {get image}. These Jewish people were burned, charged with sacrificing Christian children. | Europe |
523 YBN [1477 AD] | 1368) Carl Linnaeus, and Anders Celsius will be professors at Uppsala. | Uppsala, Sweden |
522 YBN [1478 AD] | 1175) Pope Sixtus IV (Pope 1471 to 1484) authorizes Ferdinandand Isabella to revive the Inquisition to hunt "secret Jews" and Muslim people (at least 2000 humans are eventually killed by the Inquisition). Sixtus IV issues a bull this year that established an Inquisitor in Seville, under political pressure from Ferdinand of Aragon, who threatened to withhold military support from his kingdom of Sicily if he did not.(verify) He founds the Sistine Chapel where the team of artists he brings together introduce the Early Renaissance to Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age (Michelangelo's frescoes will be added in a later phase). | Spain |
521 YBN [1479 AD] | 1369) Almost all educational institutes in Denmark are free for citizens to attend. Major contributors to science that will graduate from the University of Coperhagen include: Tycho Brahe, Ole Rømer, Hans Christian Ørsted, and Niels Bohr among others. | Copenhagen, Denmark |
520 YBN [1480 AD] | 1463) | Florence, Italy |
520 YBN [1480 AD] | 5892) Josquin des Prez (CE c1450-1521) composes music. Des Prez makes use of the technique of "pervading imitation", in which a series of musical ideas are stated imitatively in all voices throughout an entire work, or section of a work. The first music printer, Ottaviano Petrucci, devoted an entire volume to Josquin's works, an honor given to no other composer. According to the Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia Josquin is the greatest composer of the high Renaissance. | (cathedral of) Milan, Italy (presumably) |
520 YBN [1480 AD] | 5893) Jean de Ockeghem (CE c1410-1497) composes sacred and secular music, and is one of the great masters of the Franco-Flemish style that dominates European music of the Renaissance. Ockeghem makes use of the musical "canon" and "counterpoint" techniques. Canon is in the strict sense, technique in which polyphony is derived from a single line that is imitated at fixed or (less often) variable intervals of pitch and time, for example in the song "Three Blind Mice" and "Frère Jacques". Starting with the 1500s, the term "canon" is used for the work itself. Counterpoint in music is defined as melodic material that is added above or below an existing melody, and the technique of combining two or more melodic lines in such a way that they establish a harmonic relationship while retaining their linear individuality and also the use of contrasting elements in a work of art. | (chapel of Charles VII) Blois, France (guess) |
516 YBN [05/01/1484 AD] | 1449) Columbus is the eldest son of Domenico Colombo, a Genoese wool worker and merchant, and Susanna Fontanarossa, his wife. His career as a seaman begins effectively in the Portuguese merchant marine. After surviving a shipwreck off Cape St. Vincent at the southwestern point of Portugal in 1476, he bases himself in Lisbon, together with his brother Bartholomew. Both are employed as chart makers, but Columbus is principally a seagoing entrepreneur. In 1477 he sails to Iceland and Ireland with the merchant marine, and in 1478 he buys sugar in Madeira as an agent for the Genoese firm of Centurioni. In 1479 he meets and married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, a member of an impoverished noble Portuguese family. Their son, Diego, is born in 1480. Between 1482 and 1485 Columbus trades along the Guinea and Gold coasts of tropical West Africa and made at least one voyage to the Portuguese fortress of São Jorge da Mina there, gaining knowledge of Portuguese navigation and the Atlantic wind systems along the way. Felipa dies in 1485, and Columbus takes as his mistress Beatriz Enríquez de Harana of Córdoba, by whom he has his second son, Ferdinand. Columbus always writes in Spanish, or Spanish-influenced Latin. | Portugal |
515 YBN [1485 AD] | 1464) | Milan, Italy |
515 YBN [1485 AD] | 1471) Leonardo da Vinci (VENcE) (CE 1452-1519), draws the "Virtuvian Man". | Milan, Italy |
513 YBN [1487 AD] | 1465) | Milan, Italy |
513 YBN [1487 AD] | 1466) | Milan, Italy |
513 YBN [1487 AD] | 1468) | Milan, Italy |
512 YBN [1488 AD] | 1467) | Milan, Italy |
510 YBN [1490 AD] | 5895) Bartolomeo Tromboncino (CE c1470-c1535) and Marchetto Cara (C1470-1525) compose music in the style called "frottola". For most of the 1400s, French chanson dominates the music performed in Italy until around 1480 when native composers set their texts into their own language again, in a style known as "frottola". Frottola poetry tends to be more lighthearted than the courtly love of chanson texts. Musically, frottola avoids imitation and counterpoint in contrast to contemporary chansons. Frottole are characterized by chordal textures and lively, dance-like rhythms. Frottole can be performed entirely by instruments, or by any combination of voices and instruments. Frottole are arranged for solo voice and lute, or for keyboard alone and are in popular demand at the time. | Mantua, Italy |
510 YBN [1490 AD] | 5901) Arnolt Schlick (CE c1460-c1521), German organist and composer, composes instrumental music for lute. Schlick's "Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten" (1511) is the first German treatise on organ building and organ playing. Some of Schlick's organ pieces are published in his "Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang" (1512), the first printed German organ tablatures. | Germany |
509 YBN [1491 AD] | 1176) In Spain Jewish humans tortured by the Holy Inquisition were made to "confess" to killing a child in a town called "La Guardia". | Spain |
509 YBN [1491 AD] | 1484) In 1486, planning to defend 900 theses he had drawn from diverse Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin writers, Pico invites scholars from all of Europe to Rome for a public disputation. For the occasion he composes his celebrated "Oration on the Dignity of Man" (1486). A papal commission, however, denounces 13 of the theses as heretical, and the assembly is prohibited by Pope Innocent VIII. Despite his ensuing "Apologia" for the theses, Pico thinks it prudent to flee to France but is arrested there. After a brief imprisonment he settles in Florence, where he became associated with the Platonic Academy, under the protection of the Florentine prince Lorenzo de' Medici. Except for short trips to Ferrara, Pico spends the rest of his life there. Pico is absolved from the charge of heresy by Pope Alexander VI in 1492. "Disputations..." will not be published until after Mirandola's death. | (written:) Fiesole, Italy;(published:) Bologna, Italy |
508 YBN [01/??/1492 AD] | 1451) The emperor of Cathay, whom Europeans referred to as the Great Khan of the Golden Horde-was himself held to be interested in Christianity, and Columbus carefully carries a letter of friendship addressed to him by the Spanish monarchs. In the letter that prefaces his journal of the first voyage, Columbus explains his excitement about his journey, and reveals a racist and vicious religious fervor (in a war against the "infidels", basically all those not in the cult of Jesus) typical of people in this time: "...and Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians took thought to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said parts of India, to see those princes and peoples and lands and the manner which should be used to bring about their conversion to our holy faith, and ordained that I should not go by land to the eastward, by which way it was the custom to go, but by way of the west, by which down to this day we do not know certainly that anyone has passed; therefore, having driven out all the Jews from your realms and lordships in the same month of January, Your Highnesses commanded me that, with a sufficient fleet, I should go to the said parts of India, and for this accorded me great rewards and ennobled me so that from that time henceforth I might style myself "Don" and be high admiral of the Ocean Sea and viceroy and perpetual Governor of the islands and continent which I should discover and that my eldest son should succeed to the same position, and so on from generation to generation forever." | |
508 YBN [08/03/1492 AD] | 1452) | Palos, Spain |
508 YBN [09/13/1492 AD] | 1453) | Atlantic Ocean |
508 YBN [10/12/1492 AD] | 1450) Humans from Europe reach the Americas by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher Columbus (CE 1451-1506) lands on a small island (probably San Salvador) in America. In America Columbus explores, finds a new race of people, new plants, and many other new phenomena. Vikings such as Leif Eriksson had visited North America five centuries earlier. In the next 10 years Columbus will makes 3 journeys to the "Indies". Because of this mistaken belief that Columbus had reached India, the Carribean will be called the West Indies even up to the present time. That Native American people are sometimes still referred to as "Indians" shows that this mistaken view of America being India is still uncorrected. Beyond planting the royal banner, Columbus spends little time on San Salvador, being anxious to press on to what he thinks will be Cipango (Japan). | (probably) San Salvador |
508 YBN [10/28/1492 AD] | 1454) | |
508 YBN [12/05/1492 AD] | 1455) | Haiti |
508 YBN [1492 AD] | 1177) Jewish people are expelled from Spain for "racial purification". | Spain |
507 YBN [01/16/1493 AD] | 1456) | Haiti |
507 YBN [02/26/1493 AD] | 1457) | Azores |
507 YBN [02/26/1493 AD] | 1458) | Azores |
507 YBN [03/15/1493 AD] | 1459) On his fourth and final voyage to America, Columbus, stranded with his crew on the island of Jamaica, correctly predicts an eclipse of the Moon from his astronomical tables, which frightens and tricks the local peoples into providing food for them. | Palos, Spain |
506 YBN [06/07/1494 AD] | 1460) | Tordesillas (now in Valladolid province, Spain) |
506 YBN [1494 AD] | 1445) Pacioli becomes a Franciscan Friar around 1470. Pacioli teaches math at universities at Perugia, Naples and Rome. Pacioli meets Leonardo da Vinci at the court of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. In exchange for lessons in math, Leonardo illustrates one of Pacioli's books. | Venice, Italy |
505 YBN [1495 AD] | 1470) Leonardo da Vinci (VENcE) (CE 1452-1519), paints "the Last Supper". | Milan, Italy |
504 YBN [1496 AD] | 1446) | Bologna, Italy |
504 YBN [1496 AD] | 1448) Two versions of the original manuscript have survived, one in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, the other in the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire in Geneva. | Milan, Italy |
500 YBN [1500 AD] | 1480) Albrecht Dürer, age 28, paints his self portrait. This strikingly realistic painting is an early representation of the realism that will evolve in Renaissance era paintings. | Nuremberg, Germany |
498 YBN [1502 AD] | 1493) | |
497 YBN [1503 AD] | 1469) Leonardo da Vinci (VENcE) (CE 1452-1519), paints the Mona Lisa. | Milan, Italy |
496 YBN [1504 AD] | 1474) Vespucci meets Columbus towards the end of Columbus' life and the two are friendly to each other. Perhaps had Columbus recognized that he had landed on a new continent America would be called "Columbia", or "North and South Christica". | |
493 YBN [1507 AD] | 1473) | Milan, Italy |
493 YBN [1507 AD] | 1476) The wall map will be lost for a long time, but a copy is found in a castle at Wolfegg in southern Germany by Joseph Fischer in 1901. This is the only known copy of the map. Some hold that the "Cosmographiae" was written by Matthias Ringmann instead, or that it was a joint effort. | Saint-Dié, Lorraine, France |
491 YBN [1509 AD] | 1447) | Bologna?,Italy |
491 YBN [1509 AD] | 5903) Hans Sachs (CE 1494-1576), German poet and Meistersinger, composes music and plays around this time. Wagner makes Sachs a leading character in his opera "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" (1868) uses Sachs. | Germany |
490 YBN [1510 AD] | 1472) | Milan, Italy |
489 YBN [1511 AD] | 1513) In 1516 Erasmus will have "Novum instrumentum" printed in Basel, which is a heavily annotated edition of the New Testament placing texts in Greek and revised Latin side by side. Erasmus is therefore, the first editor of the New Testament. Erasmus dedicates "In Praise of Folly" to his friend, Thomas More, author of the famous and controversial book "Utopia". This work will influence the French satirist Rabelais. Erasmus studies at the University of Paris and teaches for some time at Cambridge University. | written: London, Netherlands |
488 YBN [1512 AD] | 1481) Copernicus studies math and painting at Cracow (Asimov writes that Cracow is the intellectual center of Poland at this time and will be for many years after). Copernicus studies health (medicine) and canon law in Italy for 10 years. After reading Regiomontanus Copernicus becomes interested in Astronomy. In 1497 Copernicus' uncle is ordained Bishop of Warmia, and Copernicus is named a canon at Frombork Cathedral. In 1505 Copernicus returns to Poland where he serves as canon under his uncle at the cathedral at Frombork (Frauenberg, in German), but never becomes a priest and never marries. Copernicus serves as his uncle's doctor. | Frombork, Poland |
487 YBN [09/25/1513 AD] | 1485) In 1500, Balboa, sails to South America. Balboa settles in Hispaniola in 1502, where he resides for several years as a planter and pig farmer. In 1509, wanting to escape his creditors in Santo Domingo, Balboa sets sail as a stowaway. In December 1511 King Ferdinand II sends orders that name Balboa interim governor and captain general of Darién. The Spaniards are told by Native Americans that to the south lay a sea and a province infinitely rich in gold, a reference to the Pacific and perhaps to the Inca Empire. The Native people tell the Spainards that the conquest of that land would require 1,000 men. Balboa quickly sends messengers to Spain to request reinforcements. The news creates much excitement in Spain, and a large expedition is promptly organized. But Balboa is not given command because charges brought against Balboa by his enemies had turned King Ferdinand II against him, and, as commander of the armada and governor of Darién, the King sends out the elderly, powerful nobleman Pedro Arias Dávila (usually called Pedrarias). The expedition, numbering 2,000 persons, leaves Spain in April 1514. In his own explorations Balboa manages to collect a great deal of gold, much of it from the ornaments worn by the native women, and the rest obtained by violence. At the end of 1512 and the first months of 1513, Balboa arrives in a region dominated by the cacique Careta, whom he easily defeats and then befriends. Careta is baptized and becomes one of Balboa's chief allies; Careta ensures the survival of the settlers by promising to supply the Spaniards with food. Balboa then proceeds on his journey, arriving in the lands of Careta's neighbour and rival, cacique Ponca, who flees to the mountains with his people, leaving his village open to the plundering of the Spaniards and Careta's men. Days later, the expedition arrives in the lands of cacique Comagre, fertile but reportedly dangerous terrain. However, Balboa is received peacefully and even invited to a feast in his honor; Comagre, like Careta, is then baptized. It is in Comagre's lands that Balboa first hears of "the other sea". It starts with a squabble among the Spaniards, unsatisfied by the meagre amounts of gold they are being allotted. Comagre's eldest son, Panquiaco, angered by the Spaniards' avarice, knocks over the scales used to measure gold and exclaims: "If you are so hungry for gold that you leave your lands to cause strife in those of others, I shall show you a province where you can quell this hunger". Panquiaco tells them about a kingdom to the south, where people are so rich that they eat and drink from plates and goblets made of gold, but that the conquerors will need at least a thousand men to defeat the tribes living inland and those on the coast of "the other sea". How the native speaking people and Spanish speaking people communicate is a very interesting puzzle, since neither had any experience at all with the others language. Individual people must have had to spend months translating and learning nouns and verbs before any detailed talk can happen. The announcement of balboa finding the "South Sea," restores Balboa to royal favor and Balboa is named "adelantado" (governor) of the Mar del Sur and of the provinces of Panamá and Coiba. Pedrarias, the head of the Spanish expedition summons Balboa home on the pretext that Pedrarias wishes to discuss matters of common concern. Upon returning Balboa is seized and charged with rebellion, high treason, and mistreatment of Indians, among other misdeeds. After a farcical trial presided over by Gaspar de Espinosa, Pedrarias' chief justice, Balboa is found guilty, condemned to death, and beheaded with four alleged accomplices in January 1519. | a peak in Darién, Panama |
486 YBN [1514 AD] | 1178) Anthony Fitzherbert (1470 - 1538), an English judge, writes the first systematic attempt to provide a summary of English law, known as La Graunde Abridgement in 1514, and among others "The Boke of Husbandire", a book on agriculture. | England |
485 YBN [1515 AD] | 1486) Schöner is ordained a Roman Catholic priest, but later abandons priesthood and becomes a Lutheran. Schöner is a professor of mathematics at the University of Nuremberg. In 1540, Rheticus will dedicate the first report "Narratio prima" (an introduction to Copernicus' "De Revolutionibus") to Schöner. | Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany |
485 YBN [1515 AD] | 3222) | |
484 YBN [1516 AD] | 1515) Thomas More may get the idea for "Utopia" when he and Erasmus jointly translate some of Lucian's works from Greek into Latin. Among these dialogues, is the story of Menippus, the Greek playwright, descending into the underworld and describing what he finds there. The other significant influence is Plato's "Republic", which is a far more politically motivated work about imaginary lands and is referred to several times in "Utopia". More will be beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. | London, England |
483 YBN [10/20/1517 AD] | 1492) | |
483 YBN [10/31/1517 AD] | 1389) | Wittenberg, Germany |
481 YBN [08/10/1519 AD] | 1498) | Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain |
481 YBN [09/20/1519 AD] | 1491) Ferdinand Magellan (moJeLoN) (c1480-1521), Portuguese explorer, sets sail to circumnavigate the earth. Magellan leaves for America with 5 ships in order to find a way to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. This is the voyage to circumnavigate the earth that Columbus had intended. | Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain |
480 YBN [04/08/1520 AD] | 1494) | Puerto San Julian, Argentina |
480 YBN [10/21/1520 AD] | 1496) Asimov claims that the Pacific Ocean is not actually more passive than the Atlantic Ocean. | Straight of Magellan |
480 YBN [12/13/1520 AD] | 1495) | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
480 YBN [1520 AD] | 1487) | Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany |
479 YBN [03/06/1521 AD] | 1497) After entering the Pacific Ocean, the ships sail near the Chilean coast until Decemeber 18 when Magellan takes a course northwestward. Not until January 24, 1521, is land sighted, probably Pukapuka in the Tuamotu Archipelago. | Guam |
479 YBN [03/16/1521 AD] | 1499) At Massava Magellan secures the first alliance in the Pacific for Spain. Antonio Pigafetta, a wealthy tourist who paid to be on the Magellan voyage, provides the only extant eyewitness account of the events culminating in Magellan's death, as follows: "When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, {the natives} had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred people. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly... Recognising the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... A native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off." | Philippines |
479 YBN [11/06/1521 AD] | 1500) The remaining two ships of Magellan's now under the leadership of Cano, reach the Maluku Islands (the Spice Islands) with 115 men left. They manage to trade with the Sultan of Tidore, a rival of the Sultan of Ternate, who is the ally of the Portuguese. The two remaining ships, laden with valuable spices, attempt to return to Spain by sailing west. As they leave the Moluccas, however, Trinidad is found to be taking on water. The crew tries to discover and repair the leak, but fails. They conclude that Trinidad will need to spend considerable time being overhauled. The small Victoria was not large enough to accommodate all the surviving crew. As a result, Victoria with some of the crew sails west through the Indian Ocean for Spain. Several weeks later, Trinidad left the Moluccas to attempt to return to Spain via the Pacific route. This attempt fails; the ship is captured by the Portuguese, and is eventually wrecked in a storm while at anchor under Portuguese control. Four crewmen of the original fifty-five on the Trinidad will finally returned to Spain in 1525. Fifty-one of them had died in war or from disease. | Philippines |
478 YBN [05/06/1522 AD] | 1501) By May 6, 1522, the Victoria, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, rounds the Cape of Good Hope, with only rice for rations. Twenty crewmen die of starvation before Elcano reaches the Cape Verde Islands, a Portuguese holding, where he abandons 13 more crewmembers on July 9 in fear of losing his cargo of 26 tons of spices (cloves and cinnamon). | Cape of Good Hope |
478 YBN [09/08/1522 AD] | 1475) Magellen's crew is the first to circumnavigate the earth.. Juan Sebastian del Cano (KonO) (c1460-1525), Spanish Navigator, returns in a single remaining ship originally lead by Magellan to Seville, Spain with a crew that is the first to circumnavigate the earth. This voyage lasts 3 years and cost 4 ships, but the spices and other merchendice brought back more than compensate for the loss. This voyage proves that Eratosthenes estimate of the size of the Earth is correct, and that of Poseidoinius and Ptolemy wrong, and that a single ocean covers the earth. | Seville, Spain |
477 YBN [1523 AD] | 1488) | Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany(presumably) |
477 YBN [1523 AD] | 5914) Marco Antonio Cavazzoni (c1490-c1570), Italian composer, publishes "Recerchari, motetti, canzoni, Libro I" (Venice, 1523), the first set of independently composed keyboard music ever published. Much of these compositions are astonishingly mature for the time, featuring parallel 5ths and octaves and harsh dissonance, demonstrating a clear independence from vocal music. | (Saint Mark's Cathedral) Venice, Italy |
476 YBN [1524 AD] | 1386) | Mexico City, Mexico |
476 YBN [1524 AD] | 1510) Peter Apian is latinized from Peter Bienewitz or Bennewitz (pā'tər bē'nəvĭts, bĕn'əvĭts). Apian is a professor of mathematics at the University of Ingolstadt. In 1527, Peter Apian is called to the University of Ingolstadt as a mathematician and printer. His print shop starts small. Among the first books he prints are the writings of Johann Eck, Martin Luther's antagonist. Later, Apian's print shop will become well-known for its high-quality editions of geographic and cartographic works. | Landshut, Bavaria, Germany |
475 YBN [07/??/1525 AD] | 2776) William Tyndale (TinDeL) (CE c1494-1536) translates and prints the New Testament and Pentateuch into English. After church authorities in England prevent Tyndale from translating the Bible there, Tyndale goes to Germany in 1524, receiving financial support from wealthy London merchants. Tyndale's New Testament translation is completed in July 1525 and printed at Cologne. Interrupted by an injunction, Tyndale has the edition completed at Worms. By April 1526 an octavo edition is being sold in London. When copies enter England, they are denounced by the bishops and suppressed (1526); Cardinal Wolsey orders Tyndale seized at Worms. In November all available copies are burned at St. Paul's Cross. (To me this shows clearly an interest in keeping the public uninformed and uneducated, that information about the actual substance of the religion is to be kept only for an elite few. In addition, possibly to obscure and keep abstract the facts surrounding the religion, since people cannot criticize what they know nothing of. A similar occurrence has happened in science with the truth about Michael Pupin, the theory of time dilation, and much of the history of science. Apparently, the less the public knows, the less they can criticize and uncover dishonesty and error.) In 1535 while revising his translations, Tyndale is seized in Antwerp and confined in Vilvoorde Castle, near Brussels. Tyndale's trial ends in condemnation for heresy, and Tyndale is strangled at the stake before his body is burned. Tyndale's Bible is the first English translation to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, and the first to take advantage of the new medium of print, which allows for its wide distribution. Tyndale is educated at the University of Oxford and becomes an instructor at the University of Cambridge. In 1521, while at Cambridge, Tyndale is friends with a group of humanist scholars meeting at the White Horse Inn. Tyndale becomes convinced that the Bible alone should determine the practices and doctrines of the church and that every believer should be able to read the Bible in their own language. In 1528 Tyndale publishes the "The Obedience of a Christian Man" (1528), which replaces papal authority by royal authority and is heartily approved by King Henry VIII and "The Parable of the Wicked Mammon" (1528) dealing with Luther's teaching concerning justification by faith. Both these works are denounced by Sir Thomas More. The Practice of Prelates (1530), condemning the divorce of Henry VIII (with Catherine of Aragon), draws the wrath of the king. | Cologne, Germany |
475 YBN [1525 AD] | 1477) Durer's father is a goldsmith Durer is court painter to emperor Maximillian I and successor Charles V. It is clear from his writings that Dürer is highly sympathetic to Martin Luther, and he may be influential in the City Council declaring for Luther in 1525. However, Durer dies before religious divisions had hardened into different churches, and may well have regarded himself as a reform-minded Catholic to the end. The most striking painting illustrating Dürer's growth toward the Renaissance spirit is a self-portrait, painted in 1498 (Prado, Madrid). Dürer achieves an international reputation as an artist by 1515, when he exchanges works with the illustrious High Renaissance painter Raphael. Druerer's work on fortification is published in 1527, and his work on human proportion is brought out in four volumes shortly after his death at the age of fifty-six, in 1528. | Nürnberg, Germany |
474 YBN [1526 AD] | 1505) | Basil, Switzerland |
470 YBN [1530 AD] | 1503) As a young man, Hohenheim attends the Bergschule, founded by the wealthy Fugger family of merchant bankers of Augsburg, where his father teaches chemical theory and practice. Young people are trained at the Bergschule as overseers and analysts for mining operations in gold, tin, and mercury, as well as iron, alum, and copper-sulfate ores. The young Paracelsus learns about minerals from miners talking about metals that "grow" in the earth. Hohenheim enters at University of Basil in 1510, later moving to the University of Vienna. Paracelsus is said to have graduated from the University of Vienna with the baccalaureate in medicine in 1510, when he was 17. At Ferrara Hohenheim is free to express his rejection of the prevailing view that the stars and planets control all the parts of the human body. Hohenheim is thought to have begun using the name "para-Celsus" (above or beyond Celsus) around this time, regarding himself as even greater than Celsus, the renowned 1st-century Roman physician known for his tract on health and medicine. Paracelsus travels widely seeking out alchemists and physicians to learn from. Paracelsus is appointed town physician and lecturer in medicine at the University of Basel. Students from all parts of Europe begin to flock into the city. Paracelsus pins a program of his upcoming lectures to the notice board of the university on June 5, 1527, inviting not only students but everybody. Three weeks later, on June 24, 1527, surrounded by a crowd of cheering students, Paracelsus burns the books of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the Arab "Prince of Physicians," and those of the Greek physician Galen, in front of the university. Luther, just six and a half years before at the Elster Gate of Wittenberg on Dec. 10, 1520, had burned a papal bull that threatened excommunication. Paracelsus seemingly remains a Catholic to his death, although it has been said that his books were placed on the Index Expurgatorius. Paracelsus denounces the theory of humors. Like Luther, Paracelsus lectures and writes in German rather than Latin. Paracelsus' lecture hall is always crowded to overflowing. He stresses the healing power of nature and rages against those methods of treating wounds, such as padding with moss or dried dung, that prevent natural draining. The wounds must drain, he insists, saying "If you prevent infection, Nature will heal the wound all by herself." Paracelsus attacks many other medical frauds of his time including worthless pills, salves, infusions, balsams, electuaries, fumigants, and drenches. In the spring of 1528, in fear Paracelsus flees Basel in the middle of the night. Shortly before the flight from Basel, Paracelsus completes the most important of his earlier works, "Nine Books of Archidoxus", a reference manual on secret remedies. Between 1530 and 1534 Paracelsus writes his bestknown works, the "Paragranum" and the "Paramirum", both dealing with cosmology. Paracelsus returns to medical writing with the "Books of the Greater Surgery" in editions of 1536 and 1537; this is Paracelsus' only work that is a publishing success. The "Astronomia magna", done between 1537 and 1539, is said to show his most mature thinking about nature and humans. Paracelsus uses mercury and antimony even after practice had shown them to be toxic. Paracelsus believes in the 4 element theory of the Greek people and the 3 principles of the Arab people (mercury, sulfur and salt). During all his travels, Paracelsus spreads the anti-Aristotelian position that the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) are composed of primary principles: a fireproducing principle (sulfur), a principle of liquidity (mercury), and a principle of solidity (salt). Paracelsus rejects the magic theories of Agrippa and Flamel. Paracelsus does not think of himself as a magician and scorns those who do, though he is a practicing astrologer, as were are, if not all of the university-trained physicians working at this time in Europe. So Paracelsus wrongly believes in astrology and the influence of the stars on disease. Kind of a funny story is that Paracelsus is said to have cured many people in the plague-stricken town of Stertzing in the summer of 1534 by administering orally a pill made of bread containing a minute amount of the patient's excreta he had removed on a needle point. Probably not an effective cure, and very dangerous because of bacterial (in particular E Coli) infection. | Basel?, Switzerland? |
470 YBN [1530 AD] | 3058) At the University of Padua Fracastoro is a colleague of the astronomer Copernicus. As a physician, Fracastoro maintains a private practice in Verona. | Verona, Italy (and possibly mountain villa at Incaffi) |
470 YBN [1530 AD] | 5900) Luis de Milán (CE c1500-c1561), Spanish musician, composes instrumental music for lute. | (a Ducal court) Valencia, Spain |
469 YBN [1531 AD] | 1546) Servetus defends the botanical view of his friend Fuchs. Servetus believes and lectures on astrology. This is during the Protestant reformation, and Servetus has the view of a Unitarian (the belief that Jesus was not God, that God is only one thing not a trinity which includes Jesus and the so-called Holy Spirit). Servetus studies medicine in Paris and meets John Calvin, one of the early and most powerful Protestants there. | Toulouse, France (presumably) |
467 YBN [1533 AD] | 1489) | Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany(presumably) |
467 YBN [1533 AD] | 1542) | Friesland (present day Netherlands) |
466 YBN [1534 AD] | 1514) Although this break of allegiance to traditional Christianity is a progressive step towards atheism, Henry the VIII is a brutal person who orders the execution of many nonviolent people such as those who refuse to take an oath of loyalty such as humanist author of the book "Utopia", Thomas More. Henry VIII has his own his second wife, Anne Boleyn (c1501/1507-1536) executed. | London (presumably), England |
464 YBN [1536 AD] | 1504) This book restores, and even extends, the excellent reputation Paracelsus had earned at Basel in his prime. Paracelsus becomes wealthy and is sought after by royalty. | Basel?, Switzerland? |
463 YBN [1537 AD] | 1536) Fontana (Tartaglia) came from poverty and was largely self educated. Fontana was nicknamed "Tartaglia", which means "studderer", because during the French sack of Brescia in 1512, Fontana's face was slashed by a French soldier, leaving him with a speech defect. Tartgalia chose to adopt the name. Fontana teaches mathematics in various universities in northern Italy, and settles in Venice in 1534 to teach mathematics. | Venice, Italy (presumably) |
462 YBN [10/28/1538 AD] | 1371) | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
462 YBN [1538 AD] | 1554) | Padua, Italy{4 ans} (presumably) |
462 YBN [1538 AD] | 3059) | Verona, Italy (and possibly mountain villa at Incaffi) |
460 YBN [1540 AD] | 1483) | Frauenburg (Frombork, Poland) |
460 YBN [1540 AD] | 1509) | Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany |
459 YBN [1541 AD] | 1557) | Zurich, Swizerland (presumably) |
458 YBN [1542 AD] | 1511) The word "pathology", is somewhat abstract, one dictionary defines pathology as "the science or the study of the origin, nature, and course of diseases" which might just as easily be covered by the science of "health". "Pathology" relates to the path or course a disease routinely takes. The word "physiology", also somewhat abstract, is defined by one dictionary as "the branch of biology dealing with the functions and activities of living organisms and their parts, including all physical and chemical processes". Physiology deals with the actual physical processes of any part of a living body. Fernel rejects astrology as being relevant to healing (medicine). How the word "medicine" became associated with "healing" I do not know, however, in my opinion, the word "health" more accurately covers what a physician does. Perhaps a distinction between the fraudulent religious "healers" and formally educated "healers" needed to be clearly expressed. Frenel graduates from the University of Paris 1519, gets a medical degree in 1530, and in 1534 is a professor of "medicine" at University of Paris. Frenel is the physician to Henry II of France. | |
458 YBN [1542 AD] | 1540) A genus of flower is named after Fuchs, and the name Fuchs is also the origin or the word for the color "Fuscia" (a bluish red). Fuchs receives a medical (physician) degree at the University of Ingolstadt in 1524. In 1535 Fuchs is professor of medicine (health) at the University of Tübingen. Fuchs is an active supporter of Vesalius. | Basel, Switzerland |
457 YBN [1543 AD] | 1025) | |
457 YBN [1543 AD] | 1482) The Sun centered theory is revived. Copernicus' (1473-1543) book supporting a sun centered theory is published. A few hundred copies of Nicolaus Copernicus' (1473-1543) book, "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi" ("Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs"), are printed (200 copies still exist). The original hand written draft exists and shows that Copernicus crossed out an original reference to Aristarchos. Rheticus gives the manuscript to Andreas Osiander (1498–1552), a theologian and strong follower of Luther, who ads an unsigned “letter to the reader” directly after the title page, which states that the hypotheses contained within made no pretense to truth and that, in any case, astronomy is incapable of finding the causes of heavenly phenomena. In addition, the title of the work is changed from the manuscript’s "On the Revolutions of the Orbs of the World" to "Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs", a change that appears to lessen the book's claim to describe the real universe. These changes by Osiander are not known until Kepler reveals this in his "Astronomia Nova" (New Astronomy) in 1609. | (presumably) written in (Frauenburg, East Prussia now:)Frombork, Poland; (printed in)Nuremberg, Germany |
457 YBN [1543 AD] | 1553) Vesalius' father is the court pharmacist to Emperor Charles V. Vesalius is from long line of physicians and pharmacists in Wesel, and this is where the name Vesalius comes from. Vesalius studies in Louvain (now Belgium) (1529-1533), and medical (health) school of the University of Paris (1533-1536) both conservative centers supporting Galen, and so even as late as 1538 Vesalius publishes material largely based on Galen. At the University of Paris, Vesalius learned to dissect animals, has the opportunity to dissect human cadavers, and devotes much of his time to a study of human bones, at that time easily available in the Paris cemeteries. In 1536 Vesalius returns to his native Brabant to spend another year at the University of Louvain, where the influence of Arab medicine (health science) is still dominant. At Louvain, Vesalius writes his graduate dissertation on the 900s Arab physician al-Razi (Rhazes). In 1537, Vesalius then goes to the University of Padua, a progressive university with a strong tradition of anatomical dissection. On receiving the M.D. degree the same year, he is appointed a lecturer in surgery with the responsibility of giving anatomical demonstrations. Since Vesalius dissects many cadavers, and insisted on doing them himself, instead of relying on untrained assistants. Vesalius teaches anatomy at various universities in Italy. After publishing this book, Vesalius quits research and becomes the court physician to Charles V, and his son the Spanish king Phillip II. When Henry II is fatally wounded at a tournament (jousting?) in 1559 Vesalius attends to him taking precedence over Paré. Asimov claims that Vesalius is accused of heresy, body snatching, and dissection, and is apparently charged but his royal connections help him, and his sentence is a trip to the Holy land, but other sources say that Vesalius made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On the way back the ship he is on is battered by storms, but does reach Zante where Vesalius dies. | Basel, Switzerland |
456 YBN [01/24/1544 AD] | 3346) | Louvain, Belgium |
456 YBN [1544 AD] | 1179) The writings of Archimedes are translated in to Latin. | ? |
455 YBN [1545 AD] | 1537) Cardano's father was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci. Cardano becomes professor of medicine at the University of Pavia in 1546. Cardano believes in astrology. Cardano is jailed for some time for casting the horoscope of Jesus. In 1539 Tartaglia showed Cardano a method of solving cubic equations six years after Cardano promised to keep the solution a secret. | ?, Italy (presumably) |
455 YBN [1545 AD] | 1543) Pare writes his findings in French instead of Latin because he had no formal education, and is looked down upon by the arrogant educated establishment for this. In 1565 Pare proves that the Bezoar Stone does not cure all poisonings. At this time and for 200 more years surgery is viewed as menial labor and done by barbers, {shockingly and illogically} people who cut hair also perform operations. In 1536, Pare attains the rank of master barber-surgeon. Pare works as a barber-surgeon in the French army. Pare is the surgeon to a series of four kings, Henry II and his 3 sons. | Paris, France |
454 YBN [1546 AD] | 1507) | written: Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany| published: Basel, Switzerland |
454 YBN [1546 AD] | 1508) | written: Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany | published: Basel, Switzerland |
454 YBN [1546 AD] | 3057) | Verona, Italy |
451 YBN [1549 AD] | 1555) | |
450 YBN [1550 AD] | 1184) The process begins with wrought iron and charcoal. It uses one or more long stone pots inside a furnace. Iron bars and charcoal are packed in alternating layers, with a top layer of charcoal and then refractory matter to make the pot or 'coffin' air tight. Some manufacturers used a mix of powdered charcoal, soot and mineral salts, called cement powder, which gave the process its name. The pots are then heated from below for a week or more. Bars are regularly examined and when the correct condition is reached the heat is withdrawn and the pots are left until cool, usually around fourteen days. The iron gains a little over 1% in mass from the carbon in the charcoal, and becomes hetrogenous bars of blister steel. The bars are then shortened, bound, heated and hammered, pressed or rolled to become shear steel. | Bohamia, Czech Republic |
450 YBN [1550 AD] | 1185) | Gotland, Sweden |
450 YBN [1550 AD] | 1506) From 1514 to 1518 Bauer studies classics, philosophy, and philology at the University of Leipzig, which had recently been exposed to the humanist revival. Following the custom of the times, he Latinizes his name to Georgius Agricola (Bauer meaning "farmer"). After teaching Latin and Greek from 1518 to 1522 in a school in Zwickau, Agricola returns to Leipzig to begin the study of medicine but finds the university in disarray because of theological quarrels. A lifelong Catholic, he leaves in 1523 for more comfortable surroundings in Italy. He studies medicine, natural science, and philosophy in Bologna and Padua, finishing with clinical studies in Venice. For two years Agricola works at the Aldine Press in Venice, principally in preparing an edition of Galen's works on medicine (which will be published in 1525). From 1527 to 1533 Agricola is town physician in Joachimsthal, a mining town in the richest metal-mining district of Europe. Partly in the hope of finding new drugs among the ores and minerals Agricola visits mines and smelting plants, talking to the better-educated miners, and reading Classical authors on mining. These years provide the material for most of his books, beginning with "Bermannus; sive, de re metallica" (1530), a treatise on the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) mining district. In 1533 Agricola is appointed the town physician of Chemnitz where he remains for the rest of his life. | Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany |
449 YBN [1551 AD] | 1549) Reinhold studies and teaches mathematics at the University of Wittenberg | |
449 YBN [1551 AD] | 1560) Belon gets a medical (physician/health) degree from the University of Paris. King Frances I is one of the patrons of Belon. Belon is killed by robbers in Paris while picking herbs. | France? |
449 YBN [1551 AD] | 5910) Philippe de Monte (CE 1521-1603) composes music in the form of madrigals, chansons, masses and motets. The madrigal of this time, the name borrowed from the 1300s form, has no resemblance in poetic or musical structure to the 1300 madrigal. Compared to the frottola, the earliest Renaissance madrigals, dating from about 1530, are characterized by quiet and restrained expression, usually written for three or four voices, mostly homophonic (melody supported by chords) with occasional bits of imitation. | (Pinelli family) Naples, Italy |
448 YBN [1552 AD] | 1545) Eustacio is professor of medicine (health science) in the Collogio della Sapienza in Rome (later the University of Rome) until his death. The fact that his book became a bestseller more than a century after his death shows the extent of the religious restrictions on anatomists all through the Renaissance. | Rome, Italy |
447 YBN [10/27/1553 AD] | 1548) According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the execution of Michael Servetus will produce a Protestant controversy on imposing the death penalty for heresy, draws severe criticism upon John Calvin, and influences Laelius Socinus, a founder of modern unitarian views. | Geneva, Switzerland |
447 YBN [1553 AD] | 1541) Frisius has a medical (health/physician/doctor) degree from Louvain. | Friesland (present day Netherlands) |
447 YBN [1553 AD] | 1547) | Toulouse, France (presumably) |
447 YBN [1553 AD] | 5911) Thomas Tallis (CE c1505-1585), English composer, composes music. (Note how similar the Latin word "Gaude" (rejoice) is to the word "God" Determine when the transition from "Deus" to "God" happened in England and Germany.) | (Chapel Royal) London, England |
445 YBN [1555 AD] | 1558) | Zurich, Swizerland (presumably) |
445 YBN [1555 AD] | 1559) | Zurich, Swizerland (presumably) |
445 YBN [1555 AD] | 1561) | France? |
445 YBN [1555 AD] | 1773) | Siena?, Italy |
442 YBN [1558 AD] | 1556) | Zurich, Swizerland (presumably) |
441 YBN [1559 AD] | 1544) Colombo gets his medical (physician) degree in 1541 from the University of Padua. Columbo replaces Vesalius as anatomy professor. Columbo goes to Rome to ask Michelangelo to illustrate a book of anatomy that will surpass Vesalius, but Michelangelo is in his 70s and refuses the job. Columbo is the papal surgeon in Rome until his death. Columbo is a critic of the new anatomy of Vesalius. "De re anatomica" is Colombo's only formal written work. | Rome, Italy (presumably) |
440 YBN [1560 AD] | 1538) | Italy |
440 YBN [1560 AD] | 1563) Della Porta publishes a work on magic, and wrongly believes that magic is a real phenomenon. | |
440 YBN [1560 AD] | 5906) Orlande de Lassus (CE c1530-1594) Franco-Flemish composer, composes music around this time. | (court chapel of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria) Munich, Bavaria (now Germany) |
439 YBN [1561 AD] | 1562) Fallopius served as canon of the cathedral of Modena and then turned to the study of medicine (health science) at the University of Ferrara, where he becomes a teacher of anatomy. Fallopius then holds positions at the University of Pisa (1548-51) and at Padua (1551-62). Fallopius dies of tuberculosis before age 40. | Venice, Italy |
439 YBN [1561 AD] | 5904) Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (CE 1525/1526-1594) composes music in the Renaissance era. His most famous mass, "Missa Papae Marcelli" ("Mass of Pope Marcellus") is composed around this time (c1561). (It's interesting to know that this is the music that surrounded the time and life of Galileo, Descartes and other people making significant contributions to science.) | (Saint Maria Maggiore Church) Rome, Italy |
437 YBN [1563 AD] | 5928) Vincenzo Galilei (CE c1520-1591), father of Galileo Galilei (CE 1564-1642), composes music for Lute around this time. | Padua, Italy (verify) |
433 YBN [1567 AD] | 1512) | |
431 YBN [1569 AD] | 1550) The word Mercator translates to "merchant". Mercator's actual name is Gerhard Kremer, but he Latinizes his name as is 1500s fad. Mercator gets a Masters degree from the University of Louvain in 1532 (at age 20). Mercator makes instruments for Emperor Charles V. In 1544 Mercator is arrested and imprisoned on a charge of heresy. His inclination to Protestantism, and frequent absences from Louvain to gather information for his maps, had aroused suspicions. Mercator is one of 43 citizens charged. But the university authorities stand behind Mercator, and he is released after seven months and resumes his former way of life. Mercator obtains a privilege to print and publish books continues his scientific studies. Mercator studies under Gemma Frisius (the person that recognized that an accurate time piece is needed to know longitude). By age 24, Mercator is a skillful engraver, calligrapher, scientific-instrument maker. In 1535-36 Mercator works with Gaspar à Myrica, (an engraver and goldsmith) and Frisius in constructing a terrestrial globe and in 1537 a celestial globe. In 1552 Mercator moves permanently to Duisburg in the Duchy of Cleve and becomes well-known. Mercator assists the duke in establishing a grammar school by helping to design its curriculum. After establishing a cartographic workshop and employing engravers, Mercator returns to his main interest. | Duchy of Cleves, Germany (presumably) |
431 YBN [1569 AD] | 1551) | Duchy of Cleves, Germany (presumably) |
431 YBN [1569 AD] | 1992) Mathematics historian David Smith describes this wok as the most teachable and systematic treatment of algebra that appears in Italy up to this time. | Bologna, Italy |
430 YBN [1570 AD] | 1186) A theodolite is an instrument for measuring both horizontal and vertical angles, as used in triangulation networks. It is a key tool in surveying and engineering work, but theodolites have been adapted for other specialized purposes in fields like meteorology and rocket launch technology. | English |
430 YBN [1570 AD] | 1539) | |
428 YBN [11/11/1572 AD] | 1573) The name "Tycho" is the Latin version of the Danish "Tyge". Brahe's wealthy and childless uncle abducted Tycho at a very early age and raised him at his castle in Tostrup, Scania, also financing Tycho's education. Brahe enters the University of Copenhagen at age 13 and studies law and philosophy. When Brahe observes the predicted eclipse of the sun on August 21, 1560, he changes his mind from politics to astronomy and mathematics. Brahe believes astrology and casts horoscopes, Asimov comments that astrology is far more lucrative than astronomy in this time. In 1565 at age 19, Brahe gets in a dual over a point of mathematics and his nose is cut off, so Tycho wears a false nose of metal for the rest of his life. In August 1563, when Brahe makes his first recorded observation, a conjunction, or overlapping, of Jupiter and Saturn, he finds that the existing almanacs and ephemerides, which record stellar and planetary positions, are very inaccurate. The Copernican tables are several days off in predicting this event. At that point in his youth, Tycho decides to devote his life to the accumulation of accurate observations of stars (the so-called heavens), and buys instruments in order to make his own tables in order to correct the existing tables. The is a rumor of Brahe making astronomical observations in court dress. In 1573, Brahe marries a peasant girl whom he loves and spends his life with. In 1588 Frederick II dies, and his successor Christian IV ends funding for Tycho. In 1597 Tycho accepts the invitation of Emperor Rudolf II and goes to Germany. In his new headquarters in Prague, Brahe finds Johann Kepler as an assistant. Brahe corresponds with Galileo. On his death bed, perhaps from a ruptured bladder, Tycho moans "Oh, that it may not appear I have lived in vain". Tycho gives Kepler his observation data and Kepler prepares the tables of planetary motions. Sagan explains that Tycho delays giving Kepler all of his data. Maybe there is some relation between Tycho's realization that the comet had an non-circular orbit and Kepler recognizing the true orbit (at least in two dimensions) of a ellipse for planets. Brahe is the last naked eye astronomer. | Scania, Denmark (now Sweden) |
427 YBN [1573 AD] | 1574) Tycho establishes a printing shop to produce and bind his manuscripts, imports Augsburg craftsmen to construct the finest astronomical instruments, gets Italian and Dutch artists and architects to design and decorate his observatory, and invents a pressure system to provide the then uncommon convenience of lavatory facilities. But Frederick II will die in 1588, and under his son, Christian IV, most of Tycho's income will be stopped, partly because of the increasing needs of the state for money. | Herrevad Abbey, an abbey near Ljungbyhed, Scania, Denmark (now Sweden) |
427 YBN [1573 AD] | 1575) Brahe's "Astronomiae instauratae mechanica" published in 1598 contains his autobiography and a description of his instruments. Tycho will leave Denmark in 1587 and move to Prague, carrying along the records of his observations and most of his instruments. In 1600 Johannes Kepler will join him as his assistant. After Tycho's death in 1601, Kepler will prepare Tycho's astronomical studies for publication in "Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata" (1602-1603). Kepler is then free to use the valuable data to create his own system, (where the planets have elliptical orbits) which will lay the foundations for Newton's gravitational astronomy. | Island of Hven (now Ven, Sweden) |
426 YBN [1574 AD] | 5908) John Bull (CE c1562-1628), English composer, and one of the leading keyboard virtuosos of this time composes music. Bull graduates from Cambridge (1589) and Oxford (1592). (Is it correct to say that the harpsichord finds popularity in England before Germany and Italy?) (John Bull is an example of a somewhat radical change to a much more technical and faster playing style that Vivaldi will also display. This style is extremely different from the Gregorian chants and may represent a radical change in technology and education - in particular the possible birth of neuron reading.) | (Chapel Royal) London, England |
421 YBN [1579 AD] | 1567) Vieta, is very good at deciphering codes. A Huguenot sympathizer, Vieta deciphers a complex cipher of more than 500 characters used by King Philip II of Spain in his war to defend Roman Catholicism from the Huguenots. When Philip, assuming that the cipher could not be broken, discovered that the French were aware of his military plans, he complained to the pope that black magic was being employed against his country. Vieta occupies a high administrative office under Henry IV. Vieta is the father of modern algebra. Vieta prefers the word "analysis" to "algebra". | ?, France |
420 YBN [1580 AD] | 3221) | Netherlands |
419 YBN [1581 AD] | 1588) | London, England |
419 YBN [1581 AD] | 1597) Galileo is the oldest son of Vincenzo Galilei, a musician who made important contributions to the theory and practice of music and who may perform some experiments with Galileo in 1588-89 on the relationship between pitch and the tension of strings. A Tuscan tradition is that the oldest son gets a variation of the family last name for first name, and this is why Galileo received his first name. Galileo studies to be a physician at the University of Pisa, but after reading Archimedes, whom Galileo greatly admires, Galileo talks his reluctant father from allowing Galileo to go into mathematics and science. In 1585 Galileo leaves the university without obtaining a degree, and for several years he gives private lessons in the mathematical subjects in Florence and Siena. Ironically, Galileo recognizes that inaccurate time keeping is a major problem, and Huygens will later use the principle of the pendulum found by Galileo to regulate a clock solving the problem of accurate time keeping that Galileo has. (square-cube law I am doubting and am going to ignore for now) Galileo's work makes him unpopular in Pisa and he moves to Padua (in Venetian territory, which according to Asimov is a region of considerable intellectual freedom at this time), his new job pays 3 times his previous salary, although Asimov paints Galileo as always in debt from living gaily and generously, always in trouble, and unpopular with influential people. Galileo does not wear academic robes, although this costs him several fines. Galileo is a popular lecturer and students flock to hear him, coming in numbers as high as 2000 (although this may be from an exaggerated report). Galileo's studies of the sun damage his eyes, and he goes blind in his old age. After the telescope, both Venice and Florence offer him lucrative positions. To the annoyance of the Venetians Galileo choses to move to Florence. 1611 Galileo visits Rome where he is greeted with honor and delight. Galileo is refused burial in consecrated (blessed by religious human?/church property?) ground. Galileo's "Dialogue" is not removed from the the Roman Catholic Index of prohibited books until 1825. In 1965 Pope Paul VI will speak highly of Galileo. Galileo will not be officially forgiven until the 1960s...um...a little late. Galileo (wrote) "By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.". | Pisa, Italy |
418 YBN [1582 AD] | 1180) Richard Butt Hakluyt (c.1552 - November 23, 1616), a writer in England, writes a book "Voyages..." that describes America. | England |
418 YBN [1582 AD] | 1566) In 1565, Clavius lectures at the Collegio Romano in Rome and stays there for the rest of his life. Clavius is the last diehard opponent of the sun-centered theory revived by Copernicus. Many Protestant nations and people object to the calendar reform. | Rome, Italy |
417 YBN [1583 AD] | 1569) Scaliger studies at Bordeaux, and in 1559 moves to Paris to study Greek and Latin and then begins to teach himself Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian, Persian, and the principal modern languages. In 1562 Scaliger converts to Protestantism. Scaliger leaves France for Geneva in 1572 just before St Bartholomew's Day massacre of Protestant people. In 1593 Scaliger teaches at Univeristy of Leiden (a Protestant university). | ?, France |
416 YBN [1584 AD] | 1576) Giordano Bruno (CE 1548-1600), Italian philosopher, writes 6 Italian Dialogs in which he explains his belief in the infinity of space, that the Earth goes around the sun (heliocentric theory), and the atom theory. | Oxford, England |
415 YBN [1585 AD] | 1581) Somewhere people actually took note that Stevinus was from so-called illegitimate birth, from parents who were not married. Stevinus marries at 64 and has 4 children. Stevin is also known as Stevinus, the Latinized form of his name. Stevin helps to popularize the practice of writing scientific works in modern languages (in his case Dutch) rather than Latin, which for so long had been the traditional European language of learning. | Netherlands (presumably) |
414 YBN [1586 AD] | 1415) Al-Amili becomes a famous religious scholar as the "shaikh al-islam", the chief relgious authority in the country of Isfahan, the Safavid capital. Al-Amili's tomb, like that of Nasir al-Din is visited by people who flock regularly to the Shiite shrine cities, such as Meshed and Kazimain. | Isfahan, Iran |
414 YBN [1586 AD] | 1582) | (possibly Antwerp or Nassau), Netherlands |
414 YBN [1586 AD] | 1583) | Netherlands (presumably) |
414 YBN [1586 AD] | 1598) | Florence or Sienna, Italy |
412 YBN [1588 AD] | 1579) This text is set against contemporary mathematicians and philosophers. At Helmstedt, Germany, in January 1589 Bruno will be he was excommunicated by the local Lutheran Church. | ?, Germany |
411 YBN [1589 AD] | 1182) Two hundred years will pass before the water closet is popularized. | Somerset, England |
411 YBN [1589 AD] | 5905) | London, England |
411 YBN [1589 AD] | 5913) Dancing becomes popular during the Renaissance. One of the most comprehensive and popular dance manuals of the Renaissance is Thoinot Arbeau's "Orchesographie" (1589). In this work Arbeau explains the social necessity of dance to his student Capriol (translated from French): "Capriol: I much enjoyed fencing and tennis, and this placed me upon friendly terms with ypoung men. But, without knowledge of dancing, I could not please the damsels, upon whom, it seems to me, the entire reputation of an eligible young man depends. Arbeau: You are quite right, as naturally the male and female seek one another, and nothing does more to stimulate a man to acts of courtesy, honor, and generosity than love. And if you desire to marry you must realize that a mistress is won by the good temper and grace displayed while dancing, because ladies do not like to be present at fencing or tennis, lest a splintered sword or a blow from a tennis ball cause them injury...". | Europe |
410 YBN [1590 AD] | 1580) | Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
409 YBN [1591 AD] | 1568) Vieta, is very good at deciphering codes. A Huguenot sympathizer, Vieta deciphers a complex cipher of more than 500 characters used by King Philip II of Spain in his war to defend Roman Catholicism from the Huguenots. When Philip, assuming that the cipher could not be broken, discovered that the French were aware of his military plans, he complained to the pope that black magic was being employed against his country. Vieta occupies a high administrative office under Henry IV. Vieta is the father of modern algebra. Vieta prefers the word "analysis" to "algebra". | ?, France |
408 YBN [1592 AD] | 1587) Alpini gets a Medical (Health) degree from the University of Padua, and is a professor of Botany there in 1593. | Venice, Italy |
408 YBN [1592 AD] | 1613) Earliest thermometer. The invention of the thermometer is generally credited to the Italian mathematician-physicist Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Galilei calls this device a thermoscope. In Galilei's thermometer, the changing temperature of an inverted glass vessel produces an expansion or contraction of the air within it, which in turn changed the level of the liquid with which the vessel's long, open-mouthed neck is partially filled. This device is very inaccurate (because of the changing air pressure on earth) and Amontons 100 years later will improve the design. This general principle will be perfected in succeeding years by experimenting with liquids such as mercury and by providing a scale to measure the expansion and contraction brought about in such liquids by rising and falling temperatures. | Padua, Italy |
408 YBN [1592 AD] | 5917) Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (CE 1562-1621), Netherlands composer. | (Oude Kerk {old church}) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
405 YBN [1595 AD] | 1586) | Scotland (presumably) |
404 YBN [08/??/1596 AD] | 1616) Fabricius is a friend of Tycho Brahe, and Kepler. Fabricius is murdered by one of his parisheners, who Fabricius had threatened to expose for theft. Another story relates that after denouncing a local goose thief from the pulpit, the accused man struck David Fabricius in the head with a shovel and killed him. | Esens, Frisia (now northwest Germany and northeast Netherlands) (guess) |
404 YBN [1596 AD] | 1183) John Harrington, the inventor of the first flush toilet, writes a book called "A New Discourse upon a Stale Subject: The Metamorphosis of Ajax" about his invention. He publishes the book under the pseudonym of Misacmos. The book makes political allusions to the Earl of Leicester that anger Queen Elizabeth I, and he will be again banished from the court. The Queen's mixed feelings for him may be the only thing that saves Harrington from being tried at Star Chamber. | Somerset, England |
404 YBN [1596 AD] | 1552) The father of Rheticus was a physician who was beheaded for sorcery when Rheticus was age 14. Rheticus studies at Zürich where he meets Paracelsus, and Gesner is a schoolmate. Rheticus gets a masters degree and teaches Mathematics at the University of Wittenberg. Asimov describes Rheticus as "Copernicus' first disciple". | Kassa, Hungary |
404 YBN [1596 AD] | 1621) After failing to find a unique arrangement of polygons that fits known astronomical observations (even with extra planets added to the system), Kepler begins experimenting with 3-dimensional polyhedra. He finds that each of the five Platonic solids can be uniquely inscribed and circumscribed by spherical orbs; nesting these solids, each encased in a sphere, within one another would produce six layers, corresponding to the six known planets-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. By ordering the solids correctly-octahedron, icosahedron, dodecahedron, tetrahedron, cube-Kepler finds that the spheres can be placed at intervals corresponding (within the accuracy limits of available astronomical observations) to the relative sizes of each planet"s path, assuming the planets circle the Sun. Kepler also finds a formula relating the size of each planet"s orb to the length of its orbital period: from inner to outer planets, the ratio of increase in orbital period is twice the difference in orb radius. However, Kepler later rejected this formula, because it is not precise enough. As Kepler indicates in the title, he thinks that he has revealed God"s geometrical plan for the universe. Much of Kepler"s enthusiasm for the Copernican system stems from his theological convictions about the connection between the physical and the spiritual; the universe itself is an image of God, with the Sun corresponding to the Father, the stellar sphere to the Son, and the intervening space between to the Holy Spirit. His first manuscript of Mysterium contains an extensive chapter reconciling heliocentrism with biblical passages that seem to support geocentrism. | Graz, Austria |
403 YBN [1597 AD] | 1601) | Padua, Italy |
403 YBN [1597 AD] | 5902) John Dowland (CE c1563-1626), English composer, composes music for voice and lute. Downland graduated from Oxford (1588). In the best of his 84 ayres for voice and lute (published mainly in 4 vols., 1597, 1600, 1603, 1612), Dowland raises the level of English song, matching perfectly in music the mood and emotion of the verse. | London, England |
403 YBN [1597 AD] | 5907) Giovanni Gabrieli (CE c1553-1612), Italian composer, composes music around this time and represents the highest point of the High Renaissance Venetian school. This work "In Ecclesiis" is a good example of the "grand concerto", a genre that combines vocal soloists with choral and instrumental ensembles. | (St Mark's Cathedral) Venice, Italy |
400 YBN [02/17/1600 AD] | 1578) Giordano Bruno (CE 1548-1600), Italian philosopher, is burned alive at the stake after a seven year trial. Bruno might have lived had he recanted as Galileo will, but Bruno chooses not to. On Feb. 8, 1600, when the death sentence is formally read to Bruno, he addresses his judges, saying: "Perhaps your fear in passing judgment on me is greater than mine in receiving it." Bruno is brought to the Campo de' Fiori, his tongue in a gag, and burned alive. One witness, Friar Celestino reports that Bruno stated that (translated) "That there are many worlds, and all the stars are worlds, and believing that this is the only world is supreme ignorance.". The sentence states that Bruno said that it is "...a great blasphemy to say that bread transubstantiates into flesh". Eight of Bruno's heresies are identified, although this document has not been found, but if drawn from the original accusation then they probably included the claim of belief in multiple worlds. Bruno refuses to accept the cross held out to him at the last moment. Some victims, such as a Scottish person, in 1595 are burned in a shirt of pitch which is put over their naked body so that they will not die as quickly, and so the burning before death can be as painful as possible. Imagine what a painful, tortuous, cruel, and terrible death, being burned alive must be. Only the most criminally, vicious, violent and sadistic human could support inflicting that on a fellow human or any species, in particular a nonviolent human, no matter how bad they might be. This punishment may influence Galileo's actions before the Inquisition. All of Giordano Bruno's works are placed on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" in 1603. | Rome, Italy |
400 YBN [1600 AD] | 1564) In 1612 Fabricius does exhaustive study of chick(en) embyro. In 1559, Fabricius gets a medical (physician) at Padua. In 1565, Fabricius is a professor at Padua. Fabricius is a pupil of Fallopius. The English anatomist William Harvey is Fabricius' pupil. | Padua, Italy (presumably) |
400 YBN [1600 AD] | 1571) Gilbert gets a medical (health) degree from Cambridge in 1569. Gilbert is the president of the college of physicians in London in 1600. In 1601 Gilbert is appointed court physician to Queen Elizabeth I at 100 pounds/year. Gilbert follows the work of Peter Peregrinus. | London, England (presumably) |
398 YBN [1602 AD] | 1594) Sanctorius, is the Latin name of Santorio. Sanctorius earns a medical Degree from the University of Padua in 1582. Sanctorius is the physician to King Sigismund III of Poland for 14 years In 1611 Sanctorius teaches at the University of Padua. (thought about 80,000 different possible diseases?) | Padua, Italy (presumably) |
398 YBN [1602 AD] | 5915) Giulio Caccini (CE 1545-1618) Italian composer and singer composes operas. | (Medici court) Florence, Italy |
398 YBN [1602 AD] | 5916) | (Medici court) Florence, Italy |
397 YBN [1603 AD] | 1193) Sir Henry Platt in England suggested that coal might be charred in a manner analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood. This will eventually lead to the use of coke in a less costly production of steel that does not depend on wood. Coke is a solid carbonaceous residue derived from low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Bituminous coal is a relatively hard coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen. Bituminous coal is an organic sedimentary rock formed by diagenetic and submetamorphic compression of peat bog material. In order to be used for industrial processes, bituminous coal must first be "coked" to remove volatile components. Coking is achieved by heating the coal in the absence of oxygen, which drives off volatile hydrocarbons such as propane, benzene and other aromatic hydrocarbons, and some sulfur gases. This also drives off a considerable amount of the water contained in the bituminous coal. Coking coal will be blended with uncoked coal for power generation. The primary use for coking coal will be in the manufacture of steel, where carbon must be as volatile and ash free as possible. | England |
397 YBN [1603 AD] | 1565) | Padua, Italy (presumably) |
397 YBN [1603 AD] | 1636) Bayer is a lawyer by profession. Bayer unsuccessfully tries to impose names from Old and New Testament onto constellation names. That is good news, and I think it indicates that the majority of people in astronomy and science generally form the opposite end of the spectrum from those who strongly support religion, which is only logical because most of the stories of religions are obvious lies and those involved in science tend to be less easily fooled and smarter. Later Roman numerals will be added to the system. | Augsburg, Germany |
397 YBN [1603 AD] | 1641) Scheiner teaches Hebrew and mathematics, first at Freiburg, then at Ingolstadt. Scheiner publishes his last work "Prodromus", a pamphlet against the heliocentric theory which was published posthumously in 1651. | Dillingen, Germany |
397 YBN [1603 AD] | 3678) | Bologna, Italy |
396 YBN [01/01/1604 AD] | 1622) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) (presumably) |
396 YBN [10/??/1604 AD] | 1623) Kepler used the occasion both to render practical predictions (for example Kepler predicts the collapse of Islam and the return of Jesus to earth) and to speculate theoretically about the universe, for example, that the star was not the result of chance combinations of atoms and that stars are not suns. Clearly, all major religions will collapse eventually, in my estimation around 2800 CE, however, there may always be small groups of humans that still worship certain ancient humans as gods. It is interesting that Kepler could not grasp the truth that stars are other suns as Nicholas Krebs of Cusa had correctly understood and publicly recorded earlier. | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) (presumably) |
396 YBN [1604 AD] | 1600) | ? |
396 YBN [1604 AD] | 1635) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) (presumably) |
395 YBN [1605 AD] | 1590) Francis Bacon is not related to Roger Bacon 350 years before. Bacon studies law at Cambridge. In 1584 Bacon enters Parliament. Bacon is the confidential aide to the earl of Essex. After Essex' abortive attempt of 1601 to seize the Queen and force her dismissal of his rivals, Bacon, views Essex as a traitor, tries and convicts Essex for treason, and Essex is executed. In 1621 Bacon is accused of taking bribes as judge, and evidence is overwhelming. Some claim Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays because Bacon was educated and Shakespeare was not, and Bacon writes in Latin, (where Shakespeare apparently does not?). Bacon accepts astrology. Bacon rejects the sun-centered theory. Harvey describes Bacon as writing about science "like a lord chancellor". | London, England (presumably) |
395 YBN [1605 AD] | 1630) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
394 YBN [1606 AD] | 1570) | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
394 YBN [1606 AD] | 1589) Libavius is the Latinized "Libau". Libavius gets a Medical (Health Science/Physician) Degree at the University of Jena in 1581. Libavius is professor of history and poetry at the University of Jena from 1586 to 1591 and then becomes town physician and inspector of the Gymnasium at Rothenburg. Libavius founds a school (the Gymnasium Casimirianum) in Coburg in 1605. | |
394 YBN [1606 AD] | 2099) | Australia |
393 YBN [1607 AD] | 5912) | Mantua, Italy |
392 YBN [1608 AD] | 1618) Telescope and microscope. Hans Lippershey (LiPRsE) (CE 1570-1619), spectacle maker from the United Netherlands, is traditionally credited with inventing the telescope (1608). Lippershey places a double convex lens (the "object glass") at the farther end of a tube, and a double concave lens (the "eyepiece") at the nearer end. This is a refracting telescope, which spreads light out using two transparent lens. Lippershey applies to the States General of the Netherlands for a 30-year patent for his instrument, which he called a kijker ("looker"), or else an annual pension, in exchange for which Lippershey offers not to sell telescopes to foreign kings. Two other claimants to the invention come forward, Jacob Metius and Sacharias Jansen. The States General rules that no patent should be granted because so many people know about the device and that it is so easy to copy. However, the States General grants Lippershey 900 florins for the instrument but required its modification into a binocular device. An interesting truth is that a telescope and microscope are the same thing in that they take light from a small area and spread it out into a larger area. One difference is that a telescope draws from a larger area. There is not as much interest in humans taking light from a large space and compacting it together into a small area. | Netherlands |
391 YBN [08/??/1609 AD] | 1603) | Venice, Italy |
391 YBN [12/??/1609 AD] | 1604) | Venice, Italy |
391 YBN [1609 AD] | 355) | (University of Pisa) Pisa, Italy |
391 YBN [1609 AD] | 1599) | (University of Padua) Padua, Italy |
391 YBN [1609 AD] | 1602) | ?, Italy |
391 YBN [1609 AD] | 1619) German astronomer, Johannes Kepler (CE 1571-1630) shows that planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse. After the astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) dies, although there is a political struggle with Tycho’s heirs, Kepler is ultimately able to work with Tycho's astronomical data which is accurate to within 2′ of arc. With this precise data Kepler is able to discover his "first law" (1605), that Mars moves in an elliptical orbit. Kepler discovers three major laws of planetary motion: (1) the planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus; (2) A line connecting a planet and the Sun will sweep over equal areas in equal times (the “area law”)- this means the closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster the planet will move according to a fixed and calculable rule; and (3) there is an exact relationship between the squares of the planets’ periodic times and the cubes of the radii of their orbits (the “harmonic law”). Kepler does not publish his discoveries until 1609 in the "Astronomia Nova" (New Astronomy). In 1618 Kepler's mother, who dabbles in the occult, is arrested as a witch, and although not tortured, does not survive long after her release, which is obtained through the long-term efforts of Johan. | Weil der Stadt (now part of the Stuttgart Region in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, 30 km west of Stuttgart's center) |
391 YBN [1609 AD] | 1620) | Weil der Stadt (now part of the Stuttgart Region in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, 30 km west of Stuttgart's center) |
390 YBN [01/??/1610 AD] | 1605) Moons of Jupiter seen and their period determined by Galileo Galilei. Galileo finds that planet Jupiter has four moons, visible only by telescope, that circle Jupiter with regular motions. Within a few weeks Galileo determines the periods of each moon. In addition, Galileo is the first to see that planet Venus has phases like the moon. Galileo also finds many more stars can be seen with the telescope than with the naked eye. Galileo describes these earth-shaking finds in a little book, "Sidereus Nuncius" ("The Sidereal Messenger"). Kepler will call these moons "satellites" and they are known as the "Galilean satellites". These moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Jupiter and it's moons is an example of small bodies orbiting a large body and this is evidence in support of the sun-centered theory, and is definite proof that not all bodies orbit the Earth. Galileo is first to see that the planets appear as globes, but the stars appears as points, and concludes that the stars must be very far away, and that the universe may be infinitely large. | Venice, Italy |
390 YBN [1610 AD] | 1624) In this work Kepler speculates, among other things, that the distances of the newly discovered Jovian moons might agree with the ratios of the rhombic dodecahedron, triacontahedron, and cube. (Of course the theory of perfect solids is wrong.) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) (presumably) |
390 YBN [1610 AD] | 1626) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN [06/??/1611 AD] | 1617) Dutch astronomer, Johannes Fabricius (FoBrisEuS) (CE 1587-1615), is the first to show that the Sun has spots and rotates around its own axis. Johannes (1587-1615) returns from a university in the Netherlands with telescopes that he and his father David use (in addition to a camera obscura) to observe the Sun. Seeing sunspots on the eastern edge of the disk, steadily move to the western edge, disappear, then reappear at the east again suggests that the Sun rotates on its axis, which had been postulated before but never backed up with evidence. Fabricius (FoBrisEuS) publishes this discovery in "Narratio de maculis in sole observatis et apparente earum cum sole conversione" ("Account of Spots Observed on the Sun and of Their Apparent Rotation with the Sun", 1611). | Esens, Frisia (now northwest Germany and northeast Netherlands) (guess) |
389 YBN [1611 AD] | 1625) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN [1611 AD] | 1627) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN [1611 AD] | 1628) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN [1611 AD] | 1629) | Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN [1611 AD] | 1637) | ??, Germany |
388 YBN [01/12/1612 AD] | 1642) This book is responsible for an unpleasant argument between Scheiner and Galileo Galilei. | Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany (presumably) |
388 YBN [1612 AD] | 1595) | Padua, Italy (presumably) |
388 YBN [1612 AD] | 3680) | (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
387 YBN [1613 AD] | 1607) | Florence, Italy |
386 YBN [1614 AD] | 1584) Scottish mathematician, John Napier (nAPER) invents exponential notation and logarithms. Napier describes his invention in his book "Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio" ("Description of the Marvelous Canon of Logarithms"). Napier invents exponential notation (in 1594), finding that all numbers can be expressed in exponential form. That is, 4 can be written as 22, while 8 can be written as 23, and 5, 6, and 7 can be written as 2 to some fractional power between 2 and 3. Napier finds that once numbers can be written in such exponential form, multiplication can be done by adding exponents, and division can be done by subtracting exponents. In this way, multiplication and division are as simple as addition and subtraction. Napier's tables of logarithms are very popular. | Scotland (presumably) |
386 YBN [1614 AD] | 1596) | Padua, Italy (presumably) |
386 YBN [1614 AD] | 1638) Marius is "Mayer" latinized. Marius studies astronomy under Tycho Brahe. Marius studies medicine in Italy. Marius publishes one of Galileo's books under a different author's name. (purpose?) Marius claims to have seen the Jupiter moons in 1609 before Galileo. | ??, Germany |
386 YBN [1614 AD] | 5898) | (Magdeburg, Kassel, Halle, Dresden) Germany |
385 YBN [1615 AD] | 5909) Orlando Gibbons (CE 1583-1625), English composer, composes music. | (Chapel Royal) London, England |
385 YBN [1615 AD] | 5920) Heinrich Schütz (CE 1585-1672), German composer, composes mostly sacred vocal music at this time. Schütz is the greatest German composer of the 1600s and the first recognized internationally. His output is almost exclusively sacred. Schütz sets mainly biblical texts and composes the first German opera "Dafne" (1627). | (electoral court) Dresden, Germany |
384 YBN [1616 AD] | 1608) Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 incorrectly state that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." Psalm 104:5 says, "the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises." Before this, in 1613 Galileo wrote a letter to his student Benedetto Castelli (1528-1643) in Pisa about the problem of squaring the Copernican theory with certain biblical passages. Inaccurate copies of this letter were sent by Galileo's enemies to the Inquisition in Rome, and Galileo had to retrieve the letter and send an accurate copy. Also earlier, several Dominican fathers in Florence lodged complaints against Galileo in Rome, and Galileo went to Rome to defend the Copernican cause and his good name. Before leaving, he finished an expanded version of the letter to Castelli, now addressed to the grand duke's mother and good friend of Galileo, the dowager Christina. In his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo discussed the problem of interpreting biblical passages with regard to scientific discoveries but, except for one example, did not actually interpret the Bible. The people appointed pope always take an alias, perhaps to cover their tracks when they routinely dispense injustice and idiocy. but probably more likely to make them appear to be transformed, not a regular human anymore. | Rome, Italy |
384 YBN [1616 AD] | 1644) English Physician, William Harvey (CE 1578-1657), understands the circulatory system; that the heart is a muscle that contracts to push blood out, that blood can only move in one direction in blood vessels (not back and forth as Galen had believed), and that blood moves in a circle from the heart to the arteries, from the arteries to the veins, and through the veins back to the heart. 5 Harvey is the first to propose that the heart is a muscle that propels blood out on a circular course through the body, leaving through arteries and returning to the heart through veins. From dissection Harvey understands that the valves separating the two upper chambers (auricles) from the two lower chambers (ventricles) are one way valves. Blood can move from auricle to ventricle but not the other way. Fabricius had recognized that there are one-way values in the veins too, blood in the veins can only travel toward the heart and not away from it. When Harvey ties an artery, it is the side toward the heart that bulges with blood. When he ties off a vein, the side away from the heart bulges. Harvey is the first to recognize that blood moves in one direction only, not back and forth in the vessels (arteries and veins) as Galen had believed. Harvey also notes that blood spurts from a cut artery at the same time as muscular contractions of the heart. In this year at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in London, Harvey gives the first of his Lumleian Lectures before the Royal College of Physicians, the manuscript notes of which contain the first account of blood circulation. Some consider Harvey the founder of modern physiology. The functioning of the heart and the circulation had remained almost at a standstill ever since the time of the Greco-Roman physician Galen, 1,400 years earlier. Harvey's courage, penetrating intelligence, and precise methods are to set the pattern for research in biology and other sciences for succeeding generations. William Harvey and William Gilbert, the investigator of the magnet are credited with initiating accurate experimental research in this early modern period. ------- 6 William, is the oldest of nine children. Harvey gets a degree from Cambridge in 1597 at age 19. Harvey takes medical (health science) courses at the University of Padua (simov claims that since Mondino 300 years before, the University of Padua remained as best medical (physician) school on earth), where Harvey studies with Fabricius ab Aquapendente and others. Harvey gets a Medical degree in 1602. Harvey then returns to England, marries, and creates a successful practice. Harvey makes news by examining and exonerating several suspected witches and by performing a postmortem examination on Thomas Parr, who is reputed to have lived 152 years. Harvey is a staunch royalist. Harvey is court physician to James I, and Charles I until Charles I is beheaded in 1649. Harvey is the doctor of Francis Bacon. By 1616, Harvey has dissected 80 different species of animal. Harvey survives the English Civil War, although revolutionaries do break into his home and destroy some notes and specimens. Des cartes supports Harvey's theory of blood circulation. In 1653 appears the first English edition of De motu cordis, and Harvey's genius is fully recognized. Harvey gives buildings and a library to the Royal College of Physicians. This library is in use for less than 14 years, being destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, so that very few of Harvey's books have survived to the present day. In 1654, Harvey is elected president of the College of Physicians, but declines the privilege, preferring to spend his last years in peace. | London, England |
384 YBN [1616 AD] | 1654) Baffin thinks that no such path exists. Asimov claims that only for special ice breaking ships is it possible (to move directly over the top of the earth by ship). Is there some short path from Europe to India over the north pole? Is there water under the north pole? | Baffin Bay |
384 YBN [1616 AD] | 1831) Niccolò Zucchi (CE 1586-1670) builds the earliest known reflecting telescope. This telescope is before the telescopes of James Gregory and Isaac Newton. A reflecting telescope focuses light reflected off a parabolic shaped (concave) mirror instead of through a lens. These telescopes remove the problem of "chromatic aberration", found in the glass lens refracting telescopes. Chromatic aberration is the way light is separated into it's component colors when refracted, this causes objects to appear to be blurred and have colored edges. The reflecting telescope has the two advantages of no light being absorbed by the glass lens (or reflected back away from the viewer), and eliminates the chromatic aberration effect. With this telescope Zucchi discovers the (cloud) belts of the planet Jupiter (1630) and examines the spots on Mars (1640). | Rome, Italy |
383 YBN [1617 AD] | 1592) Briggs gets a Masters at Cambridge in 1585, and lectures in 1592. In 1596 Briggs is a professor of geometry at Greshman College in London. | London, England (preumably) |
383 YBN [1617 AD] | 1653) | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
383 YBN [1617 AD] | 1852) | Venice, Italy (presumably) |
381 YBN [1619 AD] | 1632) | Linz, Austria |
381 YBN [1619 AD] | 1643) | Innsbruck, Austria |
381 YBN [1619 AD] | 1656) Cysat is a pupil of Scheiner, enters Jesuit order in 1604 and becomes a priest. Cysat is professor of mathematics at the Jesiut college of Ingolstadt in Bavaria. In 1611 Cysat is an early user of the telescope. | Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany |
380 YBN [08/??/1620 AD] | 1631) | Linz, Austria |
380 YBN [1620 AD] | 1591) | London, England (presumably) |
379 YBN [1621 AD] | 1651) Dutch mathematician, Willebrord von Roijen Snell (CE 1580-1626), identifies the law of refraction. Snell proves that the angle of light passing from one material into a material of different density is not related to the angle of the light with the surface as Ptolemy thought, but is related to the sine of the angle. This law is called Snell's law. Snell's law was first described in a formal manuscript in a 984 CE writing by Ibn Sahl, who used it to work out the shapes of lenses that focus light with no geometric aberrations, known as anaclastic lenses. It was described again by Thomas Harriot in 1602, who did not publish his work. Snell produces a new method for calculating π, the first such improvement since ancient times. The index of refraction of some substance varies depending on the wavelength of the light, in other words the amount a beam of light is bent in some substance varies depending on the wavelength of the light. In many media, wave velocity changes with frequency or wavelength of the wave moving through it. This is called dispersion. The result is that the angles determined by Snell's law also depend on frequency or wavelength, so that a ray of mixed wavelengths, such as white light, will spread or disperse. Such dispersion of light in glass or water underlies the origin of rainbows, and also is the basis of glass prisms (or else all the beams of white light would pass through the prism unseparated), since different wavelengths appear as different colors. In optical instruments, dispersion leads to chromatic aberration, a color-dependent blurring that sometimes is the resolution-limiting effect. This was especially true in refracting telescopes, before the invention of achromatic objective lenses. | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
379 YBN [1621 AD] | 1662) In 1616 Gassendi gets a docterate in theology. Gassendi's work will affect Boyle. Gassendi vigorously opposes Descartes' view, and Harvey's theory of blood circulation. Gassendi is friends with the French playwright Moliére. In 1645 Gassendi is a professor of Mathematics at the Collége Royale at Paris. Even though the Paris parliament declares in 1624 that on penalty of death "no person should either hold or teach any doctrine opposed to Aristotle," Gassendi publishes in the same year his "Excertitationes...adversus Aristoteleos" ("Dissertations...against Aristotle"), the first of his many works attacking both medieval Scholasticism and Aristotelianism. Because Marin Mersenne and the Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) are Catholic priests they do not suffer persecution, for their published attacks on Aristotle, but those judged to be heretics continue to be burned, and laymen lack church protection. Adopting the hedonistic ethics of Epicurus, which sought to maximize pleasure and minimize pain, Gassendi reinterpreted the concept of pleasure in a distinctly Christian way. Gassendi believes that God endowed humans with free will and an innate desire for pleasure. Therefore by experiencing pleasure they are participating in God's divine plans for the creation. | Paris, France (presumably) |
378 YBN [1622 AD] | 1639) Oughtred was educated at Eton College and at King's College, Cambridge, where he received his bachelor's degree (1596) and master's degree (1600). | Albury, Surrey, England (presumably) |
377 YBN [1623 AD] | 1609) | Florence, Italy (presumably) |
377 YBN [1623 AD] | 1633) | Linz, Austria |
376 YBN [1624 AD] | 1593) | London, England |
376 YBN [1624 AD] | 1610) | Rome, Italy |
376 YBN [1624 AD] | 1667) | Paris, France |
376 YBN [1624 AD] | 6241) Submarine. Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633), a Dutch inventor, is usually credited with building the first submarine. Between 1620 and 1624 he successfully maneuvers his craft at depths of from 4 to 5 meters beneath the surface during repeated trials in the Thames River, in England. King James I is said to have gone aboard the craft for a short ride. Drebbel's submarine resembles that proposed earlier by William Bourne in 1578, in that its outer hull consists of greased leather over a wooden frame; oars extend through the sides and, sealed with tight-fitting leather flaps, providing a means of propulsion both on the surface and underwater. Drebbel's first craft is followed by two larger ones built on the same principle. | Thames River, England |
373 YBN [1627 AD] | 1188) | Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia |
373 YBN [1627 AD] | 1634) | Ulm, Germany |
372 YBN [1628 AD] | 1645) Harvey's book makes him famous throughout Europe, though the overthrow of so many traditional beliefs attracts virulent attacks and abuse from lesser minds. Harvey refuses to indulge in controversy and makes no reply until 1649, when he publishes a small book answering the criticisms of a French anatomist, Jean Riolan. | London, England printed in: Frankfurt, Germany |
371 YBN [1629 AD] | 1672) Cavalieri joins the Jesuit order in 1615. In 1629, Cavalieri is appointed professor of mathematics of the University of Bologna Cavaliei meets Galileo, corresponds with and considers himself a disciple of Galileo. | written: Bologna, Italy |
370 YBN [1630 AD] | 1649) Wendelin is also known by the Latin name Vendelinus. | Belgium (presumably) |
370 YBN [1630 AD] | 3347) | Rome, Italy |
369 YBN [1631 AD] | 1640) | Arundel, West Sussex, England (presumably) |
369 YBN [1631 AD] | 1655) | Ornans, France (presumably: birth and death location) |
369 YBN [1631 AD] | 1663) Gassendi is the first person to see the transit of a planet across the face of the Sun. This transit is predicted by Kepler, and arrives within 5 hours of Kepler's estimated time. One reason for these variable times are the incalculable affects, such as the movement of liquids such as water, and metals that planets and stars are composed of, in addition to the many asteroids which exert small gravitational affects. A perfect system of planetary and star prediction appears to be impossible, and because the affects of uncountable atoms and molecules can not be accurately calculated, estimates of position for all larger composite pieces of matter must be constantly updated. | Paris, France (presumably) |
369 YBN [1631 AD] | 1664) Gassendi is the first person to measure the velocity of sound, and shows that the velocity of sound is independent of its pitch. Aristotle had claimed that high notes travel faster than low notes. Gassendi measures the time difference between spotting the flash of a gun and hearing it the sound over a long distance on a still day. In the 1650s, Italian physicists Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and Vincenzo Viviani obtained the much better value of 350 metres per second using the same technique.10] Gassendi obtains the too high figure of about 478 meters per second (1,570 feet per second). (actual units) The current estimate for the speed of sound in for dry air at 0 degrees C is 331.29 meters per second (1,086 feet per second 742 mph). | Paris, France (presumably) |
368 YBN [1632 AD] | 1606) | Venice, Italy |
367 YBN [06/22/1633 AD] | 1611) | Rome, Italy |
367 YBN [1633 AD] | 1666) French Philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes (CE 1596-1650) (DAKoRT) describes the law of inertia (a body preserves its motion) and compares light to a ball. Descartes book "Le Monde ou Traité de la lumière" ("The World or Treatise on Light") includes the earliest clear statement of the principle of inertia, that a body will preserve its state of motion or rest. Also in this book, Descartes compares reflection of light to reflection of a ball against the wall of a tennis court, but does not explicitly state that light is made of particles. Newton will use the example of a tennis ball in being the first to publish the clearly stated theory of light being made of globular bodies in 1672. Descartes supressed both "Traite de l'homme" and "Traite de lumiere" after the condemnation of Galileo in 1633. | Netherlands (presumably) |
366 YBN [1634 AD] | 1659) | Paris, France (presumably) |
366 YBN [1634 AD] | 3344) | London, England |
365 YBN [1635 AD] | 1657) Mersenne is a schoolmate of Descarte, but goes on to enter the church, joining the Minim Friars in 1611. Mersenne suggests to Huygens the idea of timing rolling bodies down a plane by use of a pendulum, which inspires Huygens to invent the first pendulum clock. Mersenne's house is an important meeting-place for philosophers and scientists: the young Pascal met Descartes there in 1647. Gassendi is one of his close friends. Mersenne is associated with the origins of mechanistic philosophy. | Paris, France (presumably) |
365 YBN [1635 AD] | 1660) Frequencies of sounds measured. Marin Mersenne (mRSeN) (CE 1588-1648), French Mathematician, publishes the multipart "Harmonie universelle" (1636-37), which discusses mechanics, as well as music theory and musical instruments, and includes the first recorded measurement of frequency of sound (84 cycles per second). Mersenne writes: "If one compares two or more strings fixed by the two ends, one can say that the longest one vibrates a longer time than the shortest, and that the length of time follows that of the strings; and because the longest make fewer returns {ULSF: oscillations} than the shortest in the same time, it appears that all the strings which are different only in length each make as many retyrns as the others, and consequently that the duration of the returns of the longest makes up for the speed of those of the shortest, which amass in little time what the longest makes in more. It is very easy to know the number of beats or oscillations of all the strings of whatever instrument one wishes, if one has understood what I have said of these tremblings...the string which is in unison with a four-foot, open organ pipe makes 48 vibrations in ..a second, which is the duration of a heart beat... Secondly, that the vibrations of a strings are multiplied in the same proportion as the sounds become higher in pitch; and consequently when one knows the number of vibrations of a string, the pitch of which one knows, one knows as well the number of vibrations of all sorts of strings, the pitches of which one recognizes.". Usually A above middle C is taken as a reference pitch. The frequency used for A, since 1939 440 vibrations per second (440 Hertz), has changed many times over the years. Marsenne describes this A at 480 vibrations per second, but it has been as low as 415 vibrations per second. | Paris, France (presumably) |
365 YBN [1635 AD] | 1669) In 1623 Gellibrand gets his Masters at Oxford. Gellibrand is a Professor of astronomy at Gresham College in 1627. Gellibrand is a friend of Briggs. In 1631 Gellibrand gets in trouble for puritan views with Anglican people but is acquitted. | ?, England |
365 YBN [1635 AD] | 1673) | written: Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
365 YBN [1635 AD] | 3345) | London, England |
364 YBN [1636 AD] | 1219) Havard College is now the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University. | Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
364 YBN [1636 AD] | 1697) Gascoigne dies in the English Civil War as a royalist for King Charles I. | |
363 YBN [1637 AD] | 1615) | Florence, Italy |
363 YBN [1637 AD] | 1668) René Descartes (CE 1596-1650) (DAKoRT) describes the Cartesian coordinate system, where points are plotted on at two dimensional graph, in "La Géométrie" ("Geometry") which is published as an appendix to "Discours de la méthode" ("Discourse on Method"). The Cartesian coordinate system is the familiar two dimensional graph where points on a plane can be drawn, x along a horizontal line, and y along a vertical line, in order to plot curves. Descartes is the first to recognize that every point in a plane can be represented by two numbers, for example (-2,3), which can represent two units left and three units up. This makes a new way to visualize mathematical functions such as y=2x+3. This connects algebra and geometry. | Netherlands (presumably) |
363 YBN [1637 AD] | 1706) | Netherlands (presumably) |
362 YBN [1638 AD] | 1612) | Leiden, Netherlands and Florence, Italy |
362 YBN [1638 AD] | 1701) | England |
361 YBN [1639 AD] | 1387) | Quebec, New France (modern Canada) |
361 YBN [1639 AD] | 1661) | Paris, France (presumably) |
361 YBN [1639 AD] | 1708) Jeremiah Horrocks (CE 1618-1641), is the first human to observe the transit of Venus. Horrocks suggests that (by recording the time) of the Venus transit from various observatories around the earth, the parallax of Venus can be measured. This parallax can then be used to understand the scale of the star system. This eventually will be done. Horrocks is first to show that the moon moves around the earth in an ellipse with the earth at one focus, which Kepler did not understand. From Kepler's recently published Rudolphine Tables (1627), Horrocks works out that a transit of Venus is due on November 24th, 1639 at 3 p.m. Horrocks will record an account of this day in his "Venus in Sole Visa" ("Venus in the Face of the Sun"), printed posthumously by Hevelius in 1662. The day is cloudy but at 3.15, "as if by divine interposition" the clouds disperse. Horrocks notes a spot of unusual size on the solar disc and begins to trace its path. Horrocks then writes, "she was not visible to me longer than half an hour, on account of the Sun quickly setting." Horrocks corrects the Rudolphine tables of Kepler's in regard to the transit of Venus. Horrocks also attempts to determine the solar parallax calculating 15", compared with a modern value of 8".8. Horrocks estimates the distance of the Sun from the Earth more correctly than anyone else had done before. Horrocks is the first astronomer to accept Kepler's elliptical orbits fully. Horrocks is the first of record to understand that the irregularities in the orbit of the Moon might be the result of the Sun, and that Jupiter and Saturn might exert an influence on each other. This is a preview of the theory of universal gravitation that will be first understood by Newton. | Hoole, Lancashire, England (presumably) |
360 YBN [1640 AD] | 1665) | Paris, France (presumably) |
360 YBN [1640 AD] | 1700) In 1627 Wilkens enters Oxford at age 13. In 1634 Wilkens earns a masters degree at age 20, and is ordained a priest few years later. Wilkens marries the sister of Oliver Cromwell. Wilkens is the only person to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Wilkens serves as Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death. | England |
360 YBN [1640 AD] | 1718) Pascal is an infant prodigy in math and science. In 1648 Pascal will adopt Jansenism (a Roman Catholic sect founded by Cornelius Jansen, emphasizing original sin, that is that all humans are born sinful, and without divine help a human can never become good. Jansenism is marked by strong anti-Jesuit feeling, Jesuits are a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, whose members are sometimes refered to as the "soliers of Christ" and the "foot soldiers of the Pope"), and turns to religious writing, including "Pensées" ("thoughts") (published posthumously). In "Pensées" Pascal states his belief in the inadequacy of reason to solve man's difficulties or to satisfy his hopes and preaches instead the necessity of mystic faith for true understanding of the universe and its meaning to man. In his last years Pascal declares reason an insufficient tool to understanding the universe and Asimov says he had thus retreated beyond Thales. Pascal writes 18 Lettres provinciales (Provincial Letters)(January 1656-March 1657) against the Jesuits using the pseudonym Louis de Montalte and angers Louis XIV. The king orders that the book be shredded and burnt in 1660. The first ten letters constitute a dialog between a naïve enquirer (presented as the writer of the letters), a friendly Jansenist, and some Jesuit priests. The letters are popular, and will be placed on the Catholic Church's Index of Prohibited Books in 1657. Pascal's sister Gilberte tells of his asceticism, of his dislike of seeing her caress her children, and of his apparent revulsion from talk of feminine beauty. One of Pascal's famous quotes is Pascal's wager: "Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists." In my own view, it is idiocy and delusion to support the idea of a god, because it is such an easily concept to disprove, being that humans only recently evolved language, and created numerous gods...it's like living for the teapot that might be orbiting Mars...it's idiocy, and all the evidence is against any kind of divine punishment for not conforming to popular religious myths and claims. This shows clearly that Pascal, like so many in history, lacked the wisdom and education to see beyond the claims of religions. The arrogance of those who claim to know what a god is and wants is almost as bad as the myth of gods itself. I am glad to be one of the few humans in this time, who will be recognized as not being duped by religions including the all-popular and powerful Godism. Pascal suffers increasingly after 1658 from head pains, and dies on in 1662 at age 39. 18 months before Pascal's death, he devises a system of cheap public transport for Paris, the so-called carrosses à cinq sols". | Paris, France (presumably) |
359 YBN [1641 AD] | 1698) Sylvius gets his Medical (health science/physician) degree from Basel, Switzerland. In 1658, Sylvius is a professor of medicine at the University of Leiden. | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
359 YBN [1641 AD] | 1699) | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
359 YBN [1641 AD] | 6244) Repeating gun. A repeating rifle is a firearm designed for use with a magazine of cartridges, each of which is fed into the chamber or breech by lever, bolt action, or some other method. Before the invention of the cartridge that contains powder, ball, and primer, a repeater has to have separate magazines for powder and ball. Alternative arrangements are multiple barrels, multiple breeches, and the loading of several shots into one barrel and igniting the outermost charge, which would eject its ball and ignite the next charge. The first effective breech-loading and repeating flintlock firearms are developed in the early 1600s. In this year, 1641, Peter Kalthoff is granted a monopoly on magazine guns in the Netherlands. (At some time, the light particle as ammunition, and microscopic remote controlled gun became the most effective and dominant weapon on Earth, surpassing the hand-held automatic ballistic gun.) | Netherlands |
358 YBN [1642 AD] | 1719) | Rouen, France (presumably) |
358 YBN [1642 AD] | 2098) | New Zealand |
357 YBN [1643 AD] | 1190) Traditionally George Fox has been credited as the founder or the most important early figure. | Rome, Italy |
357 YBN [1643 AD] | 1650) | Belgium (presumably) |
357 YBN [1643 AD] | 1692) Earliest vacuum. Italian physicist, Evangelista Torricelli (TORriceLlE) (CE 1608-1647), is the first human to create a sustained vacuum. Galileo observed that a hollow cylinder with a piston in a pool of water does not pull water up completely in the cylinder as is expected, but can only draw water up into the cylinder 10m (30 feet) above the water level, further pumping has no effect, the weight of the air pushes the water no higher. Torricelli investigates this and tries a heavier fluid, filling a 4 foot glass tube closed at one end with mercury (a liquid at room temperature with a density 13.5 times water), and closes the other end with a stopper. Torricelli then turns the tube over and puts it into a pool of Mercury. When the stopper is removed, the mercury pours out of the tube, but 30 inches of mercury remain in the tube, supported by the pressure of the air outside the tube pushing down on the dish of liquid mercury. The weight of the air is presumed to be the reason the column of Mercury appears to defy gravity. Above the column of mercury in the tube is a vacuum of empty space (except for small quantities of Mercury vapor). This is the first human made vacuum. Torricelli notices that the height of the Mercury in the glass tube changes slightly from day to day, and he correctly attributes this to a change in pressure of the atmosphere. (The pressure exerted by one millimeter of mercury is called a Torricelli in his honor). That air has a finite weight means that it has a finite height, and that the atmosphere does not extend indefinitely up. In addition, this hints that the depths of space must be empty space (a vacuum). This device is also the first barometer, a measure of pressure exerted by air. | Florence, Italy |
357 YBN [1643 AD] | 6322) Claudio (Giovanni Antonio) Monteverdi (CE 1567-1643), Italian composer, composes the Opera "Incoronazione di Poppea" ("The Coronation of Poppea"). | Venice, Italy |
356 YBN [1644 AD] | 1658) | Paris, France (presumably) |
356 YBN [1644 AD] | 1694) A member of a noble family of Gdansk, Hevelius is a city councilor and a brewer. After studying at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, Hevelius returns to Gdansk and builds his observatory atop his house. Hevelius' surname appears in various spellings, among them Hevel, Hewel, Hewelcke, and Höwelcke. | |
356 YBN [1644 AD] | 2618) | Netherlands (presumably) |
355 YBN [1645 AD] | 1844) French astronomer, librarian and mathematician, Ismaël Bullialdus (CE 1605-1694) recognizes that the strength that the Sun holds the planets with decreases by the distance squared. Bullialdus writes: "As for the power by which the Sun seizes or holds the planets, and which, being corporeal, functions in the manner of hands, it is emitted in straight lines throughout the whole extent of the world, and like the species of the Sun, it turns with the body of the Sun. Now, given that it is corporeal, it becomes weaker, and attenuates at a greater distance and interval, and the ratio of its decrease in strength is the same as in the case of light, namely, the duplicate proportion of the distance, but inversely. Kepler does not deny this, yet he claims the motive power decreases only in direct proportion to the distance. Furthermore, Kepler claims this attenuation in the motive power produces a weakening of the power only in longitude, because local motion impressed by the Sun on the planets (which motion similarly animates the corporeal parts of the Sun itself) occurs only in longitude, not in latitude. In response to this Kepler offsets the inadequacy of this analogy by increasing the quantity matter in the slower planets." | Paris, France |
354 YBN [1646 AD] | 1684) | Rome, Italy (presumably) |
354 YBN [1646 AD] | 1687) | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
353 YBN [1647 AD] | 1674) | written: Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
353 YBN [1647 AD] | 1695) | |
352 YBN [09/19/1648 AD] | 1721) | Rouen, France (presumably) |
352 YBN [1648 AD] | 1189) Traditionally George Fox has been credited as the founder or the most important early figure. | England |
352 YBN [1648 AD] | 1648) In 1634 Helmont is called before the Inquisition for claiming saintly relics exhibit their effects through magnetic influence. Ecclesiastical court proceedings of one sort or another were pending against Helmont for more than 20 years. | Vilvoorde, Belgium |
352 YBN [1648 AD] | 1686) Glauber sells many products (including sodium sulfate) as "cure-alls". In 1648 Glauber moves to Amsterdam and into the house last owned by an alchemist. Glauber greatly admires Paracelsus. Glauber believes in some of the mystical belief associated with alchemy in being a firm believer in the so-called "philosophers' stone" and "elixir of life". Glauber possibly died as result of working with harmful chemicals. | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
351 YBN [05/19/1649 AD] | 1526) | England |
350 YBN [1650 AD] | 1670) Riccioli is an Italian astronomer and Jesuit priest who publicly rejects the sun-centered theory. | Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
350 YBN [1650 AD] | 1675) Kircher receives a Jesuit education, and is ordained a priest in 1628. Kircher leaves the fighting in Germany (part of the Thirty Years' War) and, after various academic positions at Avignon, France, settles in 1634 in Rome. Kircher writes against the Copernican model in his "Magnes" (supporting instead the model of Tycho Brahe), but in his later "Itinerarium extaticum" (1656, revised 1671) Kircher presented several systems, including the Copernican, as alternative possibilities. Kircher assembles one of the first natural history collections, that will forms the nucleus of the museum that bears his name, the "Museo Kircheriano" at Rome. | Rome, Italy (presumably) |
350 YBN [1650 AD] | 1683) German physicist, Otto von Guericke (GAriKu) (CE 1602-1686) constructs the first air pump and uses it to produce a vacuum chamber in which he examines the role of air in combustion and respiration. This air pump is like a waterpump but airtight and powered by pumping by hand. Guericke uses the pump to create evacuated containers and shows that a ringing bell inside the vessel can not be heard, that candles will not burn, and that animals cannot live in a vacuum. Lavoisier 100 years later will determine the components of air on Earth. Guericke shows that the pressure of a vacuum pulling on a piston cannot by stopped by 50 people pulling on a rope attached to the piston. In 1654, before Emperor Ferdinand III at Regensburg, Guericke shows that two teams of horses cannot pull apart to semispheres connected together with a vacuum inside, and then how adding air into the two semispheres allows them to fall apart effortlessly. There are two kinds of air pumps in use, mechanical and mercurial. Guericke believes that comets are normal members of the solar system and make periodic returns. | Magdeburg, Germany (presumably) |
350 YBN [1650 AD] | 1722) | Rouen, France (presumably) |
350 YBN [1650 AD] | 1753) In 1653 Malpighi gets his medical degree from the University of Bologna, and lectures mainly there and other universities in Italy. In 1667, the Royal Society asks Malpighi to send his scientific communications. In 1684 Malpighi's villa is burned (as a result of opposition to his views), his apparatus and microscopes shattered, and his papers, books, and manuscripts are destroyed. In 1691, Malpighi retires to Rome to be physician to Pope Innocent XII. | Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
350 YBN [1650 AD] | 2017) Francis Glisson (CE 1597-1677), publishes a report "De rachitide" (1650; On Rickets), that gives a clear description of the disease Rickets. Rickets is a vitamin deficiency disease and will require the discovery of vitamins by Casimir Funk in 1912. Glisson is a member of the group that, beginning in 1645, meets regularly in London and out of which the Royal Society will later emerge. From this "Invisible College" as it was later known, comes one of the earliest examples of cooperative research. A committee of nine is created in 1645 to investigate rickets but because Glisson's contribution far exceeds that of any other contributor, it is agreed that Glisson should publish the report. Like his colleague William Harvey, Glisson is a Cambridge-trained physician. Both are dedicated to scientific experimentation and careful observation and description. Glisson is a professor of physics at Cambridge for 40 years, however makes his professional home in London. | London, England |
349 YBN [1651 AD] | 1572) | London, England (presumably) |
349 YBN [1651 AD] | 1646) | London, England (presumably) |
349 YBN [1651 AD] | 1647) | London, England (presumably) |
349 YBN [1651 AD] | 1671) | Bologna, Italy |
348 YBN [1652 AD] | 1775) Rudbeck builds up a botanical garden. Rudbeck teaches at the medical school of the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Rudbeck is chancellor at age 31. Rudbeck believes Plato's fictional tale of Atlantis, and writes several volumes trying to prove that Atlantis is really Scandinavia and that Sweden was the source of human civilization. | Uppsala, Sweden |
346 YBN [1654 AD] | 1693) Ferdinand II funds Steno and Galileo. In 1657 Ferdinand II helps support the foundation of the Accademia del Cimento. | Tuscany, Italy (presumably) |
346 YBN [1654 AD] | 1720) | Paris, France (presumably) |
346 YBN [1654 AD] | 2018) This work is based on Glisson's own dissections contributes to the understanding of the structure and functioning of the liver. This work includes the most advanced physiological description of the digestive system to date. The prevailing mechanical philosophy promotes a view of matter as completely passive and inert, and Glisson's theory of "irritability" runs counter to this. Because the passivity of matter is used to ensure a role for a God, Glisson's active matter is seen as a support for atheism and for that reason Glisson's works are attacked by the Cambridge Platonists Henry More (1586-1661) and Ralph Cudworth (1617-1688). The idea of irritability will be picked up by Albrecht von Haller in the following century and will find a permanent place in physiology. | London, England |
345 YBN [03/25/1655 AD] | 1763) Dutch physicist and astronomer, Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) identifies the first known moon of Saturn, Titan. In this same year Huygens identifies the ring of Saturn. Huygens had initially been attracted to Saturn by its apparently anomalous shape, described by Galileo as "three spheres which almost touch each other, which never change their relative positions, and are arranged in a row along the zodiac so that the middle sphere is three times as large as the others." Intrigued by this peculiar shape, Huygens realized that its resolution would depend on constructing improved telescopes, less subject to various aberrations and more capable of producing detailed images. Huygens announces his finding in a cipher to protect his priority while verifying his finding further. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and as large as any moon of Jupiter, and will be shown to be the only moon in this star system with a dense atmosphere. With six planets and six moons Huygens erroneously declares that there are no more planets or moons to be found, and is proven wrong in his lifetime by Cassini who finds 4 more moons of Saturn. Huygens understands that Saturn will be in the same orientation as the earth and so the rings will not be visible every 14 years. | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
345 YBN [1655 AD] | 1702) This book promptly brings fame to Wallis, who is then recognized as one of the leading mathematicians in England. Wallis deciphers a number of cryptic messages from Royalist partisans that had fallen into the hands of the Parliamentarians. In the English civil war, Wallis supports the Parliamentarians against Charles I. In 1649, Wallis is appointed to teach at Oxford under the Parliamentary regime. Wallis is nationalistic and fights against the Gregorian system in England (which Wallis views as implying subservience to Rome) and delays this decision by half a century. In London, in 1647 Wallis' serious interest in mathematics begins when he reads William Oughtred's "Clavis Mathematicae" ("The Keys to Mathematics"). | (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
345 YBN [1655 AD] | 1762) Huygens' father is an important official in the Dutch government. Huygens is educated at the University of Leiden. Huygens is friends with Descartes. From an early age, Huygens shows a marked mechanical bent and a talent for drawing and mathematics. Some of his early efforts in geometry impress Descartes, who was an occasional visitor to the Huygens' household. Huygens's first published work, on the quadrature of various mathematical curves, appeared in 1651. In 1663 Huygens is elected a charter member of the Royal Society. In 1666 Louis XIV lures Huygens to France in line with his policy of collecting scholars for the glory of his regime. Apart from occasional visits to Holland, Huygens lives in Paris from 1666 to 1681. In France Huygens helps found the French Academy of Sciences. In 1681 Huygens returns to the Netherlands (Asimov suggests because he is protestant and Louis XIV is moving in direction of intolerance of protestants). The death in 1683 of Huygens' patron, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who had been Louis XIV's chief adviser, and Louis's increasingly reactionary policy, which culminates in the revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes, which had granted certain liberties to Protestants, rules against Huygens ever returning to Paris. Huygens visits London in 1689, meets Sir Isaac Newton and lectures on his own theory of gravitation before the Royal Society. He never marries. Unlike many men of science in the 1600s, Huygens never occupies himself to any significant extent with either philosophy or theology, devoting his efforts entirely to the pursuit of science. | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
345 YBN [1655 AD] | 1843) | Paris, France (presumably) |
344 YBN [03/25/1656 AD] | 1769) | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
344 YBN [1656 AD] | 1716) Athanasius Kircher (KiRKR) (CE 1601-1680) is the first to explicitly print that stars are other Suns with planets around them, which he prints in his book "Itinerarium extaticum" (Ecstatic journey). Huygens refers to this work of Kircher's in his 1698 "Cosmotheoros" when reaffirming that other stars and more distant Suns with planets but correcting Kircher by supporting the Copernican Sun-centered model. Kircher is sometimes called the last Renaissance man, important for the large quantity of knowledge he disseminates. | (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
344 YBN [1656 AD] | 1764) Christaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) invents the first pendulum {PeNJUluM or PeNDUluM} clock. This first pendulum clock is described and illustrated by Huygens in his book, 'Horologium' in 1658. Galileo had suggested the use of a pendulum to count the time. Galileo had drawn a design of a clock which connected a pendulum to gears in his old age, and Huygens built his pendulum clock over ten years after Galileo's death. Huygen's design, where the dial and hands of a clock are controlled by a pendulum, is the first truly practical pendulum clock. Huygens attaches a pendulum to the gears of a clock. The regular swing of the pendulum allows the clock to achieve greater accuracy, as the hands are turned by the falling weight, which releases the same amount of energy with each tick. Huygens shows that a pendulum does not swing in exactly equal times unless it swings through an arc that is not quite circular but cycloid. He builds attachments to the pendulum's fulcrum (pivot point at top) that make it swing in the proper arc and attaches this to the works of the clock, using falling weights to transfer just enough energy to the pendulum to keep it from coming to a halt through friction and air resistance. Huygens presents his clock to the Dutch governing body. This begins the era of accurate timekeeping. Asimov indicates that it is unlikely physics could progress without such a device. Although the pendulum clock is the most accurate such device then available, its motion is easily disturbed by the movement of the ship at sea. Although Huygens publishes his idea for a precision pendulum in a small booklet titled "Horologium" in 1658, he will not produce the full theory of the pendulum for the scientific world until the 1673 publication, "Horologium oscillatorium sive de moto pendulorum". | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
343 YBN [1657 AD] | 1703) | London, England (presumably) |
343 YBN [1657 AD] | 1717) The academy is discontinued after ten years. The Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment), an early scientific society, is founded in Florence. | Florence, Italy |
343 YBN [1657 AD] | 1765) | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
343 YBN [1657 AD] | 1794) Hooke is the son of a clergyman. Hooke is an infant prodigy in mechanics. Hooke is accepted to Oxford in 1653 (at age 18). Hooke is supports himself by waiting on tables. In 1662, with the help of Boyle, Hooke secures the job as Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society, which he holds from (1662-1677) at £30/year plus the privilege of lodging at Gresham College. Hooke's task is to report on and/or demonstrate three to four major experiments to the Royal Society each week. This is the only paid position in the Royal Society. In 1663, Hooke is elected a member of the Royal Society. From 1677 to 1683 Hooke is secretary of the Royal Society. Hooke has priority and proper credit disputes with Huygens and most famously with Newton. After the London fires of 1666 Hooke is involved in rebuilding projects and never revisits the microscope. Hooke designs many buildings including Montague House, the Royal College of Physicians, Bedlam and Bethlehem Hospital. | Oxford, England (presumably) |
342 YBN [1658 AD] | 1677) | Rome, Italy (presumably) |
342 YBN [1658 AD] | 1767) | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
342 YBN [1658 AD] | 1804) Swammerdam is the son of an apothecary (a historical name for a medical practitioner who formulates and dispenses health materials to physicians, surgeons and patients, a role now served by a pharmacist). Swammerdam studies medicine at Leiden university, where Steno and Graaf are fellow students. In 1667 Swammerdam earns his medical degree from Leiden university. Much to Jan's father's displeasure, Swammerdam does not practice medicine but continues his microdissections of insects. At some point Jan's father stop funding Jan. In 1673 Swammerdam meets Flemish mystic Antoinette Bourignon, and later subjects himself to the tutelage of Bourignon and, for the most part, renounces scientific study. Swammerdam's work is largely neglected until Hermann Boerhaave revisits and publishes it 50 years later in 1737 in two volumes called "Biblia naturae" (Bible of Nature). | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
341 YBN [1659 AD] | 1681) Fermat is educated at home, and gets a law degree in 1631 from the University of Orleans. Fermat is a councilor for the Toulouse Parliament and devotes his spare time to mathematics. Fermat scribbles notes in margins as opposed to publishing or writing about findings to friends. Fermat's son publishes his notes five years after Fermat's death. | Toulouse, France (presumably) |
341 YBN [1659 AD] | 1741) Ray is the son of a blacksmith. Ray receives his early education at the Braintree grammar school. In 1644, with the aid of a fund that had been left in trust to support needy scholars at the University of Cambridge, Ray matriculates at St. Catherine's Hall College. In 1651 Ray earns his masters from Cambridge, and stays on as lecturer. In 1662 Ray leaves Cambridge refusing to take an oath to the restored king. In 1671 Ray is elected as a member in the Royal Society. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
341 YBN [1659 AD] | 1755) | Bologna, Italy |
341 YBN [1659 AD] | 1766) | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
341 YBN [1659 AD] | 1771) Huygens is not the first to identify the Orion Nebula, as it was already known earlier (by an Arabic astronomer,) by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in 1610, and Johann Cysat in 1619. | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
341 YBN [1659 AD] | 5918) Barabara Strozzi (CE 1619-1663), Italian composer and singer, composes music. Strozzi is one of the most successful women composers of the seventeenth century, and is the most prolific composer of printed secular vocal music in Venice around the middle of the century, with seven different publications, along with one of sacred music, issued between 1644 and 1664. | |
340 YBN [11/28/1660 AD] | 1704) | London, England |
340 YBN [1660 AD] | 1682) | Toulouse, France (presumably) |
340 YBN [1660 AD] | 1691) | Magdeburg, Germany (presumably) |
340 YBN [1660 AD] | 1737) Boyle was born in Ireland into one of the wealthiest families in Britain. Boyle is an infant prodigy. Boyle goes to Eaton at 8 and is speaking Greek and Latin. At 14, Boyle lives in Italy studying works of Galileo. Boyle never marries but like most people probably did get sex at least once and no doubt masturbated regularly for much of his life. In 1654 Boyle is invited to Oxford, and lives at the university from c. 1656 until 1668. The Dutch-Jewish philosopher Spinoza tries to convince Boyle that reason is superior to experiment. In 1660 Boyle helps found the Royal Society of London whose motto is "Nullius in verba" ("Nothing by mere authority"). Boyle believes in transmutation of gold (through chemistry) and in 1689 convinces the British government to repeal the law forbidding the manufacture of gold (that sounds like kind of a unusual law and shows the gullibility of people at this time]. Sadly Boyle's interest in religion grows as he ages. Boyle learns Hebrew and Aramaic for his biblical studies. In his will he founds the Boyle Lectures, not on science, but on the defense of Christianity, which continue to this day. | Oxford, England (presumably) |
340 YBN [1660 AD] | 3142) | Oxford, England (presumably) |
339 YBN [1661 AD] | 1738) Halley is clearly a person who mathematically analyzed orbits translating earth-based observations into two dimensional curves. | Oxford, England (presumably) |
339 YBN [1661 AD] | 1754) This is a second piece of evidence in support of the circulation theory of Harvey who died a few years too soon to know. Rudbeck adding the final piece to the circulatory system with the lymphatic system. Malphigi sends these findings in two letters to Borelli in Pisa who publishes them as "De pulmonibus observationes anatomicae" ("On the lungs"; Bologna, 1661). In this work Malphigi also gives a detailed account of the vesicular structure of the human lung. | Bologna, Italy |
339 YBN [1661 AD] | 1810) Steno is the son of a goldsmith. Steno is brought up Lutheran. In 1664 Steno earns his medical degree from Leiden University. Steno is court physician to Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany. In 1667, Steno converts to Catholicism and abandons science for religion, (like Pascal and Swammerdam). In 1677 Steno rises to the position of bishop. | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
338 YBN [1662 AD] | 1710) Graunt influences, and is influenced by, his friend, the physician Sir William Petty (CE 1623-1687), author of "Political Arithmetic" and other works that analyze available facts in a number of areas, including life expectancy and earning capacity, emphasizing their economic and fiscal implications. | London, England |
338 YBN [1662 AD] | 1739) Robert Boyle (CE 1627-1691) explains that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely related (Boyle's Law). Robert Boyle (CE 1627-1691) with Robert Hooke find that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely related (this is called Boyle's Law). Boyle finds this when using a 17 foot J-shaped tube to trap air using mercury. Boyle recognizes that when he adds twice the amount of mercury, he is adding twice the pressure on the air trapped in the end of the tube. When Boyle does this the air volume is reduced by a half, and in reverse, if pressure is lowered by removing half of the mercury, the volume of the air expands by two times. This inverse relationship of a gases volume to it's pressure is called Boyle's law (in France it is credited to Mariotte). | Oxford, England (presumably) |
337 YBN [1663 AD] | 1814) James Gregory (1638-1675) publishes an early design of a reflecting telescope. Niccolò Zucchi (CE 1586-1670) builds the earliest known reflecting telescope in 1616. | London, England |
337 YBN [1663 AD] | 2247) Otto von Guericke (GAriKu) (CE 1602-1686) builds the first static electricity generator by rotating a sulfur globe against a cloth. Guericke makes the first friction electric machine, by mechanizing the act of rubbing sulfur. Guericke makes a sphere of sulfur that can be rotated on a crank-turned shaft, that when stroked with the hand as it rotates accumulates a large amount of static electricity. Guericke produces sizable electric sparks from his charged globe, which he reports to Leibniz in a letter in 1672. | Magdeburg, Germany (presumably) |
336 YBN [07/??/1664 AD] | 2328) | London, England (presumably) |
336 YBN [11/23/1664 AD] | 1799) Hooke describes a transverse wave theory of light with a transparent medium: "And first for Light it seems very manifest, that there is no luminous Body but has the parts of it in motion more or less. First, That all kind of fiery burning Bodies have their parts in motion, I think, will be very easily granted me. That the spark struck from a Flint and Steel is in a rapid agitation, I have elsewhere made probable. And that the Parts of rotten Wood, rotten Fish and the like, are also in motion, I think, will as easily be conceded by those, who consider, that those parts never begin to shine till the Bodies be in a state of putrefaction; and that is now generally granted by all, to be caused by the motion of the parts of putrifying bodies. That the Bononian stone shines no longer then it is either warmed by the Sun-beams, or by the flame of a Fire or of a Candle, is the general report of those that write of it, and of others that have seen it. And that heat argues a motion of the internal parts is (as I said before) generally granted. But there is one Instance more, which was first shewn to the Royal Society by Mr. Clayton a worthy Member thereof, which does make this Assertion more evident then all the rest: And that is, That a Diamond being rub'd, struck or heated in the dark, shines for a pretty while after, so long as that motion, which is imparted by any of those Agents, remains (in the same manner as a Glass, rubb'd, struck, or (by a means which I shall elsewhere mention) heated, yields a sound which lasts as long as the vibrating motion of that sonorous body) several Experiments made on which Stone, are since published in a Discourse of Colours, by the truly honourable Mr. Boyle. What may be said of those Ignes fatui that appear in the night, I cannot so well affirm, having never had the opportunity to examine them my self, nor to be inform'd by any others that had observ'd them: And the relations of them in Authors are so imperfect, that nothing can be built on them. But I hope I shall be able in another place to make it at least very probable, that there is even in those also a Motion which causes this effect. That the shining of Sea-water proceeds from the same cause, may be argued from this, That it shines not till either it be beaten against a Rock, or be some other wayes broken or agitated by Storms, or Oars, or other percussing bodies. And that the Animal Energyes or Spirituous agil parts are very active in Cats eyes when they shine, seems evident enough, because their eyes never shine but when they look very intensly either to find their prey, or being hunted in a dark room, when they seek after their adversary, or to find a way to escape. And the like may be said of the shining Bellies of Gloworms; since 'tis evident they can at pleasure either increase or extinguish that Radiation. It would be somewhat too long a work for this place Zetetically to examine, and positively to prove, what particular kind of motion it is that must be the efficient of Light; for though it be a motion, yet 'tis not every motion that produces it, since we find there are many bodies very violently mov'd, which yet afford not such an effect; and there are other bodies, which to our other senses, seem not mov'd so much, which yet shine. Thus Water and quick-silver, and most other liquors heated, shine not; and several hard bodies, as Iron, Silver, Brass, Copper, Wood, &c. though very often struck with a hammer, shine not presently, though they will all of them grow exceeding hot; whereas rotten Wood, rotten Fish, Sea water, Gloworms, &c. have nothing of tangible heat in them, and yet (where there is no stronger light to affect the Sensory) they shine some of them so Vividly, that one may make a shift to read by them. It would be too long, I say, here to insert the discursive progress by which I inquir'd after the proprieties of the motion of Light, and therefore I shall only add the result. And, First, I found it ought to be exceeding quick, such as those motions of fermentation and putrefaction, whereby, certainly, the parts are exceeding nimbly and violently mov'd; and that, because we find those motions are able more minutely to shatter and divide the body, then the most violent heats menstruums we yet know. And that fire is nothing else but such a dissolution of the Burning body, made by the most universal menstruum of all sulphureous bodies, namely, the Air, we shall in an other place of this Tractate endeavour to make probable. And that, in all extreamly hot shining bodies, there is a very quick motion that causes Light, as well as a more robust that causes Heat, may be argued from the celerity wherewith the bodyes are dissolv'd. Next, it must be a Vibrative motion. And for this the newly mention'd Diamond affords us a good argument; since if the motion of the parts did not return, the Diamond must after many rubbings decay and be wasted: but we have no reason to suspect the latter, especially if we consider the exceeding difficulty that is found in cutting or wearing away a Diamond. And a Circular motion of the parts is much more improbable, since, if that were granted, and they be suppos'd irregular and Angular parts, I see not how the parts of the Diamond should hold so firmly together, or remain in the same sensible dimensions, which yet they do. Next, if they be Globular, and mov'd only with a turbinated motion, I know not any cause that can impress that motion upon the pellucid medium, which yet is done. Thirdly, any other irregular motion of the parts one amongst another, must necessarily make the body of a fluid consistence, from which it is far enough. It must therefore be a Vibrating motion. And Thirdly, That it is a very short-vibrating motion, I think the instances drawn from the shining of Diamonds will also make probable. For a Diamond being the hardest body we yet know in the World, and consequently the least apt to yield or bend, must consequently also have its vibrations exceeding short. And these, I think, are the three principal proprieties of a motion, requisite to produce the effect call'd Light in the Object. The next thing we are to consider, is the way or manner of the trajection of this motion through the interpos'd pellucid body to the eye: And here it will be easily granted, First, That it must be a body susceptible and impartible of this motion that will deserve the name of a Transparent. And next, that the parts of such a body must be Homogeneous, or of the same kind. Thirdly, that the constitution and motion of the parts must be such, that the appulse of the luminous body may be communicated or propagated through it to the greatest imaginable distance in the least imaginable time, though I see no reason to affirm, that it must be in an instant: For I know not any one Experiment or observation that does prove it. And, whereas it may be objected, That we see the Sun risen at the very instant when it is above the sensible Horizon, and that we see a Star hidden by the body of the Moon at the same instant, when the Star, the Moon, and our Eye are all in the same line; and the like Observations, or rather suppositions, may be urg'd. I have this to answer, That I can as easily deny as they affirm; for I would fain know by what means any one can be assured any more of the Affirmative, then I of the Negative. If indeed the propagation were very slow, 'tis possible something might be discovered by Eclypses of the Moon; but though we should grant the progress of the light from the Earth to the Moon, and from the Moon back to the Earth again to be full two Minutes in performing, I know not any possible means to discover it; nay, there may be some instances perhaps of Horizontal Eclypses that may seem very much to favour this supposition of the slower progression of Light then most imagine. And the like may be said of the Eclypses of the Sun, &c. But of this only by the by. Fourthly, That the motion is propagated every way through an Homogeneous medium by direct or straight lines extended every way like Rays from the center of a Sphere. Fifthly, in an Homogeneous medium this motion is propagated every way with equal velocity, whence necessarily every pulse or vitration of the luminous body will generate a Sphere, which will continually increase, and grow bigger, just after the same manner (though indefinitely swifter) as the waves or rings on the surface of the water do swell into bigger and bigger circles about a point of it, where, by the sinking of a Stone the motion was begun, whence it necessarily follows, that all the parts of these Spheres undulated through an Homogeneous medium cut the Rays at right angles. But because all transparent mediums are not Homogeneous to one another, therefore we will next examine how this pulse or motion will be propagated through differingly transparent mediums. And here, according to the most acute and excellent Philosopher Des Cartes, I suppose the sign of the angle of inclination in the first medium to be to the sign of refraction in the second, As the density of the first, to the density of the second. By density, I mean not the density in respect of gravity (with which the refractions or transparency of mediums hold no proportion) but in respect onely to the trajection of the Rays of light, in which respect they only differ in this; that the one propagates the pulse more easily and weakly, the other more slowly, but more strongly. But as for the pulses themselves, they will by the refraction acquire another propriety, which we shall now endeavour to explicate. (see image) We will suppose therefore in the first Figure ACFD to be a physical Ray, or ABC and DEF to be two Mathematical Rays, trajected from a very remote point of a luminous body through an Homogeneous transparent medium LLL, and DA, EB, FC, to be small portions of the orbicular impulses which must therefore cut the Rays at right angles; these Rays meeting with the plain surface NO of a medium that yields an easier transitus to the propagation of light, and falling obliquely on it, they will in the medium MMM be refracted towards the perpendicular of the surface. And because this medium is more easily trajected then the former by a third, therefore the point C of the orbicular pulse FC will be mov'd to H four spaces in the same time that F the other end of it is mov'd to G three spaces, therefore the whole refracted pulse GH shall be oblique to the refracted Rays CHK and GI; and the angle GHC shall be an acute, and so much the more acute by how much the greater the refraction be, then which nothing is more evident, for the sign of the inclination is to the sign of refraction as GF to TC the distance between the point C and the perpendicular from G on CK, which being as four to three, HC being longer then GF is longer also then TC, therefore the angle GHC is less than GTC. So that henceforth the parts of the pulses GH and IK are mov'd ascew, or cut the Rays at oblique angles. It is not my business in this place to set down the reasons why this or that body should impede the Rays more, others less: as why Water should transmit the Rays more easily, though more weakly than air. Onely thus much in general I shall hint, that I suppose the medium MMM to have less of the transparent undulating subtile matter, and that matter to be less implicated by it, whereas LLL I suppose to contain a greater quantity of the fluid undulating substance, and this to be more implicated with the particles of that medium. But to proceed, the same kind of obliquity of the Pulses and Rays will happen also when the refraction is made out of a more easie into a more difficult mediū; as by the calculations of GQ & CSR which are refracted from the perpendicular. In both which calculations 'tis obvious to observe, that always that part of the Ray towards which the refraction is made has the end of the orbicular pulse precedent to that of the other side. And always, the oftner the refraction is made the same way, Or the greater the single refraction is, the more is this unequal progress. So that having found this odd propriety to be an inseparable concomitant of a refracted Ray, not streightned by a contrary refraction, we will next examine the refractions of the Sun-beams, as they are suffer'd onely to pass through a small passage, obliquely out of a more difficult, into a more easie medium." | London, England |
336 YBN [1664 AD] | 1714) As a student at Oxford, Thomas Willis joins the Royalist garrison during the Civil War. In the Restoration, Willis gains professional preferment, becoming Professor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford in (1660-1675). Willis is one of the founding members of the Royal Society and moves to London just after the Great Fire, establishing a very large practice in St Martin's Lane. In 1542 Willis earns a masters degree at Oxford at age 21. | Oxford, England (presumably) |
336 YBN [1664 AD] | 1800) | London, England (presumably) |
336 YBN [1664 AD] | 1801) | London, England (presumably) |
335 YBN [1665 AD] | 1688) Borelli is friends with Malpighi. Borelli is influenced by the mechanistic view of Descartes. Borelli is appointed professor of mathematics at Messina in 1649 and at Pisa in 1656. During his career, Borelli enjoys the protection of Queen Christina of Sweden, which shelters him from the attacks from the Italian authorities suffered by Galileo. | Pisa, Italy (presumably) |
335 YBN [1665 AD] | 1707) Grimaldi is the son of silk merchant. Grimaldi enters the Jesuit order at 15. In 1647, Grimaldi earns his doctorate degree and becomes professor at University of Bologna. Grimaldi is an assistant to Ricchioli. | Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
335 YBN [1665 AD] | 1726) Giovanni Domenico Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) measures the period of a Mars day as 24 hours and 40 minutes. Cassini identifies a number of double stars including the bright star Castor. | Bologna, Italy |
335 YBN [1665 AD] | 1756) | Bologna, Italy |
335 YBN [1665 AD] | 1776) In 1665, Lower gets his bachelor from Oxford. In 1667, Lower is elected to the Royal Society. In London Lower carries out research, some in partnership with Robert Hooke. | London?, England |
335 YBN [1665 AD] | 1812) | Paris, France |
334 YBN [12/22/1666 AD] | 1712) | Paris, France |
334 YBN [1666 AD] | 1689) | Pisa, Italy (presumably) |
334 YBN [1666 AD] | 1723) Sydenham takes the side of the Parliamentarians. All five Sydenham brothers (Thomas was the youngest) and their father served as officers in Cromwell's rebel army. Thomas was wounded, two of his brothers were killed, their mother was murdered by Royalist troops, and the eldest brother, William, became a leading figure in Cromwell's protectorate. Because of the fighting Sydenham does not get his bachelor's degree until 1648 age 24. Sydenham is friends with Robert Boyle and John Locke. Sydenham revives the Hippocratic methods of observations and experience. Sydenham is recognized as a founder of clinical medicine and epidemiology (study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations). Sydenham emphasizes detailed observations of patients and maintains accurate records. Sydenham is called "the English Hippocrates" before his death. | London, England (presumably) |
334 YBN [1666 AD] | 1757) | Bologna, Italy |
334 YBN [1666 AD] | 1758) | Bologna, Italy |
334 YBN [1666 AD] | 1803) Hooke is inspired by his optical theories to develop the idea that planetary motions can be explained in terms of a single attractive force from the sun bending the straight-line motion of a planet into an elliptical orbit. In addition, Hooke theorizes that this force would vary in inverse proportion to the square of the distance between the sun and the planet. When Newton proves this relationship (in addition to adding a gravitational constant and object mass), at the request of Edmund Halley in 1684, Newton will not correct Halley's assumption that Newton had reached the idea himself. This proof, of course, is the centerpiece of Newton's "Principia Mathematica", which Halley will persuade Newton to write. Hooke is outraged when he hears that his original idea is not acknowledged in the "Principia". | London, England (presumably) |
334 YBN [1666 AD] | 1853) Leibniz is born into a Lutheran family near the end of the Thirty Years' War, which has laid Germany in ruins. Leibniz is the son of a professor of philosophy who dies when Gottfried is 6. Leibniz is a child prodigy. Leibniz learns Latin at eight, Greek at 14 (although I have to wonder how well, it is easy to claim but to be fluent language takes years of learning all of the idioms for example, in addition to simply the thousands of nouns and verbs) Leibniz earns a degree in law from the University of Leipzig in 1665. Among the great philosophers of this time, Leibniz is the only one who has to earn a living. As a result, Leibniz serves in a variety of positions for people of royalty. Leibniz proposes that education be made more practical, and that academies be founded. Leibniz sees as one of his tasks to bring about a reconciliation between the religious divisions in the Western half of the religion based on Jesus. Leibniz works on hydraulic presses, windmills, lamps, submarines, clocks, and a wide variety of mechanical devices. Leibniz devises a means of perfecting carriages and experiments with phosphorus. While in the mines of the Harz Mountains, Leibniz hypothesizes that the Earth was at first molten. Leibniz is an atomist. Leibniz meets Huygens. In 1673 Leibniz is elected to the Royal Society. Leibniz develops a water pump run by windmills, which serves the mines of the Harz Mountains, where Leibniz often works as an engineer from 1680 to 1685. After the king of France, Louis XIV takes Strasbourg and lays claim to 10 cities in Alsace in 1681, Leibniz suggests to his prince a method of increasing the production of linen and a process for the desalinization of water. Leibniz formed a goal of writing a history of the Earth, which includes such matters as geological events and descriptions of fossils, but never writes it. Leibniz searches monuments and linguistics for the origins and migrations of peoples, in addition to the birth and progress of the sciences. In 1691 Leibniz is named librarian at Wolfenbüttel and propagates his ideas through articles in scientific journals. All of these writings oppose Cartesianism, which is judged to be damaging to faith. In 1697, Leibniz publishes "De Rerum Originatione" ("On the Ultimate Origin of Things") which tries to prove that the ultimate origin of things can be nothing other than a God. In 1700 Leibniz and Newton are the first foreign members to be elected into the Parisian Academy of Sciences. Leibniz is an advisor to Louis XIV and Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, who Leibniz meets for the first time in October 1711. Leibniz turns down an offer to take charge of the Vatican Library. Leibniz never marries (yes, but no doubt...ok you understand) Leibniz is a universal letter writer with more than 600 correspondents to both educated men and women. Only Leibniz's secretary attends his funeral. | Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
333 YBN [06/15/1667 AD] | 1815) Denis (also Denys) is the personal physician to King Louis XIV. | ?, France |
333 YBN [1667 AD] | 1813) | Florence, Italy (presumably) |
333 YBN [1667 AD] | 1816) | Padua?, Italy |
333 YBN [1667 AD] | 5922) Dieterich Buxtehude (CE c1637-1707), Danish (or German) composer composes music around this time. Most of Buxtehude's instrumental music is for the organ: about half consists of freely composed music. Buxtehude represents the climax of the 1600s north German school, and he significantly influences Johann Sebastian Bach. | (Marienkirche {Saint Mary's church}) Lübeck, Germany |
332 YBN [11/26/1668 AD] | 3257) | London, England (presumably) |
332 YBN [1668 AD] | 1727) Gian Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) establishes Jupiter's period of rotation as nine hours fifty-six minutes, by observing the movement of spots of Jupiter's clouds. Cassini is the first to observe the shadows of Jupiter's moons as they pass between Jupiter and the Sun. Cassini issues a table of the motions of Jupiter's moons, which will later serve the Danish astronomer Ole Rømer (Roemer) in his measuring the velocity of light and proving that this velocity is finite in 1675. | (Observatory at) Panzano (near Bologna), Italy |
332 YBN [1668 AD] | 1736) Redi is known as a poet mainly for his Bacco in Toscana (1685; "Bacchus in Tuscany"). In 1647, Redi receives his medical degree from the University of Pisa. He taught in the Studio at Florence in 1666. Redi is employed as personal physician to Ferdinand II and Cosimo III, both grand dukes of Tuscany. | Florence, Italy (presumably) |
332 YBN [1668 AD] | 1817) | Padua?, Italy |
332 YBN [1668 AD] | 1818) De Graaf earns his undergraduate degree from the University of Leiden where he is a student of Sylvius. In 1665 De Graaf earns a medical degree from University of Angers, France. De Graaf is the first to appreciate the work of Leeuwenhoek, and introduces Leeuwenhoek's work to the Royal Society. De Graaf dies in 1673, at age 32. | Delft, Netherlands (presumably) |
332 YBN [1668 AD] | 1830) | Cambridge, England |
331 YBN [03/08/1669 AD] | 3258) | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
331 YBN [07/??/1669 AD] | 1827) | Cambridge, England |
331 YBN [07/??/1669 AD] | 1828) | Cambridge, England |
331 YBN [1669 AD] | 1735) Erasmus Bartholin (BoRTUliN) (CE 1625-1698), Danish physician, is the first to record the "double refraction" phenomenon of calcite (Iceland feldspar). Bartholin receives a transparent crystal from Iceland (now called Iceland spar) and notes that objects viewed through the crystal are seen double. Bartholin presumes that light traveling through the crystal is refracted at two angles, so that two rays of light emerge where one had entered. This phenomenon is therefore called "double refraction" (and Birefringence). In addition, Bartholin recognizes that when the crystal is rotated, one image remains fixed while the other rotates around it. The ray giving rise to the fixed image Bartholin calls the ordinary ray, and the other the extraordinary ray. Newton explains so-called "double refraction" in "Opticks" as the result of rays of light having four sides, two that are responsible for the "unusual" (extraordinary) refraction, the other two sides responsible for the usual refraction. Thomas Young will explain double-refraction 150 years in terms of a wave-theory of light. Calcite is the most common form of natural calcium carbonate (CaCO3), a widely distributed mineral known for the beautiful development and great variety of its crystals. Calcite is polymorphous (same chemical formula but different crystal structure) with the minerals aragonite and vaterite and with several forms that apparently exist only under somewhat extreme experimental conditions. Bartholin publishes this phenomenon in "Experimenta crystalli islandici disdiaclastici quibus mira & insolita refractio detegitur". (Hafniæ 1669) ("Experiments with the double refracting Iceland crystal which led to the discovery of a marvelous and strange refraction", 1959). I view all refraction phenomena as most likely light particle collision (reflection) phenomena. | Copenhagen, Denmark |
331 YBN [1669 AD] | 1774) The motivation for Brand's find is a search for the philosopher's stone in urine. Brand no doubt refines his production method over time; the version published later by Leibniz is * Boil urine to reduce it to a thick syrup. * Heat until a red oil distills up from it, and draw that off. * Allow the remainder to cool, where it consists of a black spongy upper part and a salty lower part. * Discard the salt, mix the red oil back into the black material. * Heat that mixture strongly for 16 hours. * First white fumes come off, then an oil, then phosphorus. * The phosphorus may be passed into cold water to solidify. The chemical reaction Brand stumbles on is as follows. Urine contains phosphates PO43-, as sodium phosphate (ie. with Na+), and various carbon-based molecules. Under strong heat the oxygens from the phosphate react with carbon to produce carbon monoxide CO, leaving elemental phosphorus P, which comes off as a gas. Phosphorus condenses to a liquid below about 280°C and then solidifies (to the white phosphorus allotrope) below about 44°C (depending on purity). This same essential reaction is still used today (but with mined phosphate ores, coke for carbon, and electric furnaces). The phosphorus Brand's process yielded was far less than it could have been. The salt part he discarded contained most of the phosphate. He used about 5,500 litres of urine to produce just 120 grams of phosphorus. If he'd ground up the entire residue he could have got 10 times or 100 times more (1 litre of adult human urine contains about 1.4g phosphorus). | Hamburg, Germany (presumably) |
331 YBN [1669 AD] | 1793) Becher is the son of Luthuran minister. Becher, as economic advisor to Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, suggests a Rhine-Danube canal to facilitate trade between Austria and the Netherlands. | ?, Germany |
331 YBN [1669 AD] | 1805) | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
331 YBN [1669 AD] | 1811) | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
330 YBN [1670 AD] | 1742) | Cambridge?, England |
330 YBN [1670 AD] | 1908) Spinoza is born in Amsterdam, where his family had settled after fleeing religious persecution in Portugal. In 1656 Spinoza is banned from his synagogue on charges of atheism. The edict asks for God to curse him and warns "that none may speak with him by word of mouth, nor by writing, nor show any favor to him, nor be under one roof with him.". Spinoza then Christianizes his name to Benedict. Spinoza conducts a large correspondence with various scientists and philosophers. Two of the most important were Henry Oldenburg, the first secretary of the British Royal Society, and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, who visits Spinoza in 1676. Spinoza is offered the chair of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg but declines it, seeking to preserve his independence. Spinoza died in The Hague in 1677, at age 44, of consumption aggravated by inhaling dust while polishing lenses. | The Hague, Netherlands |
330 YBN [1670 AD] | 5921) Jean-Baptiste Lully (CE 1632-1687), French composer of Italian birth, collaborates with Molière on a series of comédies-ballets which culminate in "Le bourgeois gentilhomme" (1670). (Is this the earliest evidence of ballet?) | (Court of King Louis XIV) Paris, France |
329 YBN [1671 AD] | 1713) Picard is a Roman Catholic priest. Picard studies astronomy under Gassendi. In 1655, Picard succeeds Gassendi as professor of Astronomy at the Collège de France. Picard is one of the charter members of the French Academy of Sciences. | Paris, France (presumably) |
329 YBN [1671 AD] | 1715) | Oxford, England (presumably) |
329 YBN [1671 AD] | 1729) Giovanni Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) identifies the moon of Saturn, Iapetus (IoPeTuS). Cassini uses a telescope over 100 feet long. | (Paris Observatory) Paris, France |
329 YBN [1671 AD] | 1796) | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
329 YBN [1671 AD] | 1832) | Cambridge, England |
329 YBN [1671 AD] | 1834) | Cambridge, England |
329 YBN [1671 AD] | 1854) | Mainz, Germany |
329 YBN [1671 AD] | 2119) | Oxford, England (presumably) |
328 YBN [02/19/1672 AD] | 1829) The theory that light is a particle is revived. Color determined to be a property of light, not of objects. Glass prism in use. White light separated into and recreated from primary colors. Light of different colors shown to refract at different angles. Isaac Newton (CE 1643-1727) theorizes that light may be "...globular bodies...". Newton shows that white light can be separated into and recreated from primary colors. Newton also shows that color is a property of light, not a property of objects light is reflected off of, explaining that objects illuminated with one color appear as that color and that there are no colors in the dark. This is Newton's first published paper. This letter recounts the experiments Newton had conducted six years earlier. Both Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens support a wave theory and lead the opposition to Newton's new corpuscular theory of light. This paper divides scientists into two groups, those who support the corpuscular interpretation of light (light as a particle), and those who view light as being like sound, a wave where particles of a medium, thought to be ether, move a signal. These two sides continue to this day, although the wave interpretation has changed from being made of particles of an aether, to a non-material electromagnetic translational wave, however currently a large group of people accept a compromise that light is both a particle and a wave. This light as a particle, or corpuscular, theory will dominate for 100 years, but will fall to the theory of light as a wave in the 1800s with the rise in popularity of Thomas Young's interpretation of light rays canceling each other out, and using Newton's rings to correctly determine the various wavelengths of different colors of light. However, the light as a particle theory will emerge again in the 1900s, Maxwell Planck will view light as made of quanta as a result of his analysis of the black-body phenomenon. In 1633 Descartes had described light as being like a "ball". Newton addresses objections and questions about his corpuscular theory for light in a November letter. For example, describing the sensation of color: "...as Modes of Sensation, excited in the mind by various motions, figures, or sizes of the corpuscles of Light ...". Note that while supporting a corpuscular theory for light, Newton also supports the theory that an aether fills the universe, writing in November: "... assuming the Rays of Light to be small bodies, emitted every way from Shining substances, those, when they impinge on any Refracting or Reflecting superficies, must as necessarily excite Vibrations in the æther, as Stones do in water when thrown into it. ...". Note too that Newton does not explicitly recognize the idea that all matter is made of light, first theorized (although not explicitly light in the form of particles) by Robert Grosseteste in 1208. My own view is that light is a material particle and the fundamental particle of all matter, that light beams have no amplitude and do not move in sine wave shapes but move in straight lines, that light particles can collide with each other, that light waves do not "cancel" each other out as Thomas Young thought, and that wavelength is perhaps more accurately called "particle interval". I think reflection explains the spreading out of light in so-called diffraction and interference and the phenomenon of polarization. But these questions need to be examined more and more experiments performed to understand fully what the true nature of light and the universe is. | Cambridge, England |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1191) Perhaps Willis is referring to violence in self defense, but this is doubtful since unusual and terrible tortures (using various devices) and painful dangerous procedures are inflicted on people thought to have a mental disorder. But on the issue of violence as relates to so-called mental disorder, for some reason, many people tolerate violence such as assault and murder, by using the excuse that the so-called violenter (the doer of the violence) has a psychiatric disorder, instead of jailing people who use first strike violence on nonviolent people, no matter what the reason. Violent and nonviolent people are all thrown together in psychiatric hospitals, and classified according to abstract theoretical diseases with no diagnostic evidence. Violence done by people in psychiatric hospitals by either patients or staff is generally not made public nor prosecuted. | London, England |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1685) | Magdeburg, Germany (presumably) |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1730) Giovanni Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) identifies a moon of Saturn, Rhea {rEo} (Ancient Greek: Ῥέᾱ). | Paris, France |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1731) The scale of our star system is determined from the parallax of Mars. (Italian:) Giovanni Domenico Cassini (Ko SEnE) (French:) Jean Dominique Cassini (KoSE nE) (CE 1625-1712) measures the parallax of planet Mars from his own measurements in Paris and Jean Richer's (rEsA) (CE 1630-1696) simultaneous measurements in French Guiana. The relative distances of the planets were known since the time of Kepler, so only one distance is needed to know the rest. This provides a scale to the star system, allowing the distance to all the other planets to be calculated. Aristarchus of Samos had concluded that the Sun is 19 times more distant than the moon. Around 1620, Johannes Kepler, using observations of Mars from Tycho Brahe estimates the distance to the Sun to be at least 1800 times the diameter of Earth. This distance to Mars can be measured by comparing the position of Mars to the bright star ψ Aquarii which Mars appears very close to on October 1, 1672. From observations made by Richer in Cayenne and by Picard and Romer in France, Cassini makes the first approximation of a true determination of the scale of the solar system and therefore, the distance to the Sun from planet Earth. Cassini concludes that this distance must be 86 million miles. From the measurement of the distance from earth to Mars (state actual units), Cassini calculates that the Sun is 87 million miles from the earth, a value confirmed by Flamsteed in this same year. While being too low by 7%, this is the (most accurate measurement and larger than all earlier estimates: Aristarchos had the sun 5 million miles, Poseidonius 40 million miles, Kepler guessed 15 million miles). Richer finds that a pendulum clock moves more slowly in Cayenne than in Paris by two and a half minutes a day. The conclusion is that the force of gravity is weaker in Cayenne because it is farther from the center of the earth than Paris. Perhaps Richer noticed the difference in the clock because of the clock being slower than the 24 hour day. This will lead Newton (and Huygens) to conclude that the earth is larger near the equator. This would make the earth an oblate spheroid, which it is, the surface of earth at the equator is 13 miles {km} farther from the center of the earth than the surface at the poles. | Paris, France;Guiana, South America |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1759) | Bologna, Italy |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1778) | Paris, France (presumably) |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1806) | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1807) | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1809) | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
328 YBN [1672 AD] | 1820) Along with the Italian microscopist Marcello Malpighi, Grew is considered to be among the founders of the science of plant anatomy. Grew is the only son of a clergyman. Grew's father was on the side of the Parliament in the English Civil War. In 1671 Grew earned his medical degree from the University of Leiden, Netherlands. Grew is an early member of the Royal Society, and in 1677 is secretary with Hooke. In 1676, Grew is the first to use the term "comparative anatomy" in a lecture before the Royal Society. | presented: London, England |
327 YBN [1673 AD] | 1709) | Gdansk, Poland |
327 YBN [1673 AD] | 1770) | Paris, France (presumably) |
327 YBN [1673 AD] | 1819) | Delft, Netherlands (presumably) |
327 YBN [1673 AD] | 1833) | Oxford, England (presumably) |
327 YBN [1673 AD] | 3377) | Paris, France (presumably) |
326 YBN [09/07/1674 AD] | 1781) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) is the first to observe protists (single-cell organisms with one or more nucleus that are the ancestor of all multicellular organisms). Leeuwenhoek examines cloudy water from a nearby lake and discovers that it is filled with tiny "animalcules," which modern people recognize as protists. Leeuwenhoek looks at many things including teeth scrapings, and ditch water. Leeuwenhoe k notes the fine structure of muscle, skin, hair, ivory, and insects. Leeuwenhoek finds tiny creatures parasitic on fleas which will inspire Jonathan Swift to write his famous quatrain "So naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on his prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum." The microscopes made by Robert Hooke (1635-1703) and other contemporaries are compound microscopes, with both an objective lens and an eyepiece, but Leeuwenhoek uses simple microscopes, with a single bead-like lens mounted between two small thin metal sheets, usually brass. The object to be viewed is mounted on a pin on one side of the lens, and the eye is placed, almost touching the lens, on the other. The microscopes are successful because the tiny spherical lenses are exquisitely ground, or, in a few cases, blown. | Delft, Netherlands |
326 YBN [1674 AD] | 1749) | ?, England |
326 YBN [1674 AD] | 1783) | Delft, Netherlands |
326 YBN [1674 AD] | 1825) Mayow earns his Bachelor's degree from Oxford in 1665. In 1670, Mayow earns his doctorate in civil law. Mayow dies around age 36. | Oxford, England |
326 YBN [1674 AD] | 2410) | Lyons, France |
325 YBN [12/07/1675 AD] | 1838) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
325 YBN [1675 AD] | 1732) Giovanni Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) identifies the "Cassini division", the dark gap between the rings A and B of Saturn. Cassini thinks that the ring might be made of many tiny objects, but most astronomers including Herschel view the ring as solid and Cassini's division as only dark markings on it. James Maxwell will provide mathematical evidence to support Cassini's theory 150 years later. | Paris, France |
325 YBN [1675 AD] | 1760) | Bologna, Italy |
325 YBN [1675 AD] | 1780) In 1653 Wren earns a masters degree from Oxford. In 1657 Wren is professor of astronomy at Gresham College. Wren designs St Paul's Cathedral in London after the fire of 1666. Wren is a royalist. Wren is a charter member of Royal Society, and president in 1681. Wren wants to redesign London to be more logical, but the land owners stop it. On a nearby wall Wren's son later places a dedication: "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" ("Reader, if you seek a monument, look about you"). Wren's scientific work is highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal. Wren's speculations on the nature of gravity lay the groundwork for Newton. Wren is the leader of the English Baroque (architectural) school and remains the most famous architect in English history. | London, England |
325 YBN [1675 AD] | 1835) | Cambridge, England |
325 YBN [1675 AD] | 1836) | Cambridge, England |
325 YBN [1675 AD] | 1859) Flamsteed is acquainted with Newton and enters Cambridge. Flamsteed starts his scientific career under the patronage of William Brouncker, the first president of the Royal Society, having impressed Brouncker by computing an almanac of celestial events for 1670. Flamsteed is forced to become a priest to the parish of Burstow, Surrey for a source of income from 1684 until his death. In 1677 Flamsteed becomes a member of the Royal Society. Flamsteed is forced to take private pupils to augment his income. A small inheritance from his father, who dies in 1688, provides the money to construct a mural arc, a wall-mounted instrument for measuring the altitudes of stars as they pass the meridian. Newton expects Flamsteed to provide his observations, but Flamsteed refuses until he will be finished, and they become angry with each other. Finally in 1708 Halley publishes a number of Flamsteed's observations with George of Denmark funding the cost of printing. Flamsteed become furious, and burns at least 300 copies of the work. (wins court case) | Greenwich, England |
325 YBN [1675 AD] | 2875) | Paris, France (presumably) |
324 YBN [06/13/1676 AD] | 1837) | Cambridge, England |
324 YBN [10/09/1676 AD] | 1782) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) is the first to observe bacteria (prokaryotes, single-cell organisms without a nucleus). This is Leeuwenhoek's most famous letter (dated October 9, 1676). This letter communicates the results of a series of experiments on water filled with pepper. Leeuwenhoek begins by examining some snow-water that he has kept sealed for three years. He sees no creatures. Leeuwenhoek then added some peppercorns to the solution, and, after three weeks, observes the sudden appearance of a tremendous number of "very little animals." Judging by his calculations of their number and size, historians have concluded that Leeuwenhoek was the first person to see bacteria. Colleagues reproduce Leuwenhoek's experiments in the months that follow. Leeuwenhoek does not connect the microscopic organisms with disease, but his observations lay the foundation for further investigations. The organisms Leeuwenhoek sees are so small that, in his words, a million would not occupy the space of a grain of sand. Leeuwenhoek discovers bacteria but does not recognize them as a radically different form of life from protists. | Delft, Netherlands |
324 YBN [1676 AD] | 1711) Mariottee is a Roman Catholic priest. Mariotte is one of the founding members of the Academy of Sciences in Paris in 1666. | Paris, France (presumably) |
324 YBN [1676 AD] | 1725) | London, England (presumably) |
324 YBN [1676 AD] | 1746) | ?, England |
324 YBN [1676 AD] | 1747) | ?, England |
324 YBN [1676 AD] | 1748) | ?, England |
324 YBN [1676 AD] | 1851) Humans measure the speed of light. The Danish astronomer, Ole (or Olaus) Rømer (ROEmR) (CE 1644-1710), shows that the speed of light is finite, and calculates the speed of light as (in modern units) 225,000 km per second (too small according to the modern estimate: 299,792 km per second). Aristotle and Descartes has supposed the velocity of light to be infinite. Galileo had documented an attempt to measure the speed of light in 1638. In the time before portable accurate chronometers, the eclipses of Jupiter's moons are thought to be provide accurate time measurements to determine longitude. Galileo had suggested this in 1612. By 1668 Cassini had published a table of the motions of the moons of Jupiter. In September 1676, Rømer presents the Paris Academy with a prediction that the egress, or end, of the eclipse of the innermost moon of Jupiter expected on November 9 will occur ten minutes late compared to the time expected from averaging all eclipses. Observations confirm this prediction, and soon afterwards, Rømer presents memoirs in which he explains the delay as being due to the time light takes to travel across the space between Jupiter and Earth. Rømer explains that ingresses, when a Moon disappears into the shadow of Jupiter only occur (or can only be seen) when the Earth is approaching Jupiter, and egresses, (when a moon of Jupiter moves out of the shadow of Jupiter) only occur (or can be seen) when the Earth is moving away from Jupiter. In addition, Rømer explains that the intervals between ingresses are shorter than the average value, but egresses are separated by intervals that are longer than the average value. Rømer recognizes that the changing eclipse intervals are because of the finite speed of light and the varying distance that light must cover between Jupiter and the Earth, which is always decreasing for ingresses and increasing for egresses. From the observed timings, Rømer calculates that light takes 22 minutes to cross the diameter of the Earth's orbit. Cassini opposes Rømer's explanation, but Huygens, Newton and others accept it. Rømer observes that forty orbits of Io, each 42.5 hours, observed as the Earth moves towards Jupiter are in total 22 minutes shorter than forty orbits of Io observed as the Earth moves away from Jupiter, and Rømer concludes from this that light will travel the distance which the Earth travels during eighty orbits of Io in 22 minutes. Roemer announces the calculation of the speed of light at the French Academy of Sciences in Paris. An article "Demonstration touchant le mouvement de la lumiere trouvé par M. Römer de l' Academie Royale des Sciences" will be published in the "Journal des sçavans." on December 7, 1676 which describes Roemer's finding. | (Paris Observatory) Paris, France |
324 YBN [1676 AD] | 1870) The island of St. Helena is the future exiled home of Napoleon Bonaparte. Halley's father is a wealthy business (owner?). Halley publishes a work on Kepler's laws when he is 19. Halley is called the "southern Tycho". Halley is awarded a master's degree from Oxford. Halley is elected to the Royal Society. In 1684 Halley encourages Newton and funds the printing of the Principia. Halley's father is murdered. Halley dines with Peter the Great on the czar's visit to England. In 1704, despite the objections of Flamsteed, Halley is made a professor of geometry at Oxford. Halley's comet appeared in 1986 and should return around 2061]. Halley repeats the suggestion of Kepler that the transit of Venus be used to determine the distance of Venus through parallax and therefore the scale of the solar system. Halley travels widely and measures magnetic variations. In 1720 Halley replaces Flamsteed as astronomer royal. Halley spends 20 years doing careful observations of the moon. | Saint Helena |
323 YBN [1677 AD] | 1784) | Delft, Netherlands |
322 YBN [06/25/1678 AD] | 3862) | (University of Padua) Padua, Italy |
322 YBN [1678 AD] | 1768) | Paris, France (presumably) |
322 YBN [1678 AD] | 1802) | London, England (presumably) |
322 YBN [1678 AD] | 1871) This book establishes Halley's reputation as an astronomer. In 1678 Halley is elected a fellow of the Royal Society and the King intercedes so that Halley is granted an M.A. degree from Oxford University. | London, England (presumably) |
322 YBN [1678 AD] | 3379) Hautefeuille is born of poor parents, raised by the Duchess of Bouillon, and eventually takes holy orders and becomes an abbé. Hautefeuille spends all his time in mechanical pursuits, publishing works on acoustics, optics, tidal phenomena, and watch mechanisms. | Orléans, France |
322 YBN [1678 AD] | 3592) Swammerdam shows this to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Swammerdam describes this experiment in his "Biblia Naturae", volume 2, p. 839:- "Let there be a cylindrical glass tube, in the interior of which is placed a muscle, whence proceeds a nerve that has been enveloped in its course with a small silver wire, so as to give us the power of raising it without pressing it too much, or wounding it. This wire is made to pass through a ring bored in the extremity of a small copper support and soldered to a sort of piston, or partition; but the little silver wire is so arranged that, on passing between the glass and the piston, the nerve may be drawn by the hand and so touch the copper. The muscle is immediately seen to contract.". Du Verney in 1700 makes a similar observation. Floriano Caldani (1756) and Giambattista Beccaria (1758) will demonstrate electrical excitability in the muscles of dead frogs, and Luigi Galvani will demonstrate this clearly (1791). Galvani is most remembered for the connection of electricity and muscle contraction. From this will spring the science of reading from and writing to neuron cells, which enables the remote sending of images and sounds to be seen and hear directly in the brain. | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
321 YBN [03/??/1679 AD] | 1858) | Hannover, Germany |
321 YBN [05/27/1679 AD] | 1527) | (presumably) London, England |
321 YBN [1679 AD] | 1734) | Paris, France |
321 YBN [1679 AD] | 1761) | Bologna, Italy;(p 2: published London, England) |
321 YBN [1679 AD] | 1863) In 1669 Papin earns a medical degree at Angers. Papin is an assistant to Huygens in Paris and helps with his air pump experiments. Papin helps improve Boyle's air pump. Papin corresponds with Leibniz. In 1675 Papin goes to England to be Boyle's assistant. In 1680 the steam digester earns Papin membership in the Royal Society, and he cooks a meal for the Society in his digester, in addition to one for King Charles II. Papin is a Huguenot (French Protestant) and is greatly affected by the increasing restrictions placed on Protestants by Louis XIV of France and the King's ultimate revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. In Germany Papin is able to live with fellow Huguenot exiles from France. Papin is professor of mathematics at the University of Marburg from 1687 to 1696. In 1707 Papin returns to London where he lives in obscurity and poverty until his death. | London, England |
320 YBN [01/06/1680 AD] | 1848) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
320 YBN [06/04/1680 AD] | 1787) | Delft, Netherlands |
320 YBN [07/08/1680 AD] | 2326) | London, England (presumably) |
320 YBN [1680 AD] | 1690) | Rome, Italy (presumably) |
320 YBN [1680 AD] | 1740) In this year Boyle is offered the presidency of the Royal Society (in 1680) and the episcopacy but declines both. | London, England (presumably) |
320 YBN [1680 AD] | 1865) | London, England (presumably) |
320 YBN [1680 AD] | 3378) | Paris, France |
319 YBN [11/04/1681 AD] | 1786) | Delft, Netherlands |
319 YBN [1681 AD] | 1824) | London, England (presumably) |
318 YBN [03/03/1682 AD] | 1788) | Delft, Netherlands |
318 YBN [1682 AD] | 1821) | presented: London, England |
317 YBN [09/12/1683 AD] | 1785) | Delft, Netherlands |
317 YBN [1683 AD] | 1724) | London, England (presumably) |
317 YBN [1683 AD] | 1728) | Paris, France |
317 YBN [1683 AD] | 3594) | Paris, France (presumably) |
317 YBN [1683 AD] | 5925) Arcangelo Corelli (CE 1653-1713), Italian violinist and composer, composes music around this time. Corelli is the first composer whose fame is based exclusively on his nonvocal music. Corelli's reputation is based mainly on his sonatas and his 12 Concerti Grossi, which establish the concerto grosso form. Corelli writes four sets of 12 trio sonatas each (1681-95), a set of 12 solo sonatas (1700), and the concerti grossi (1714). (Notice how all 3 songs have a similar sound to Pachelbel's Canon - perhaps this is a traditional sound of the baroque period- a kind of slow string chromatic and 1-4 2-5 3-6 etc descent pattern.) | Rome, Italy |
316 YBN [10/??/1684 AD] | 1855) The idiotic conflict over who developed differential and integral calculus between Newton and Leibniz (mainly by Newton) has serious and far-reaching effects on the development of science. For example, this conflict results in the cutting off of free communication of ideas between the English scientists and those of Europe. Leibniz's notation is more efficient than Newton's and is most popular form of calculus used today. | (develops in) Paris, France; (publishes in) Hannover, Germany |
316 YBN [11/??/1684 AD] | 1847) In August 1684, the British astronomer Edmond Halley visited Newton in Cambridge to ask him if he could provide a mathematical explanation for the elliptical orbits of planets. Upon learning that Newton had solved the problem, Halley asks Newton's to send the demonstration. Three months later Halley receives the short tract entitled "De Moto". | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
316 YBN [1684 AD] | 1733) Giovanni Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) identifies the moons of Saturn: Dione (DIOnE) (Greek Διώνη) and Tethys (TEtuS) (Greek Τηθύς). | (Paris Observatory) Paris, France |
316 YBN [1684 AD] | 1822) | London, England (presumably) |
315 YBN [1685 AD] | 1705) | London, England (presumably) |
315 YBN [1685 AD] | 3348) | (Würzburg praemonstrantensian monastery)Würzburg, Germany |
314 YBN [03/??/1686 AD] | 3259) | Hannover, Germany (presumably) |
314 YBN [09/??/1686 AD] | 3262) | Paris?, France (guess) |
314 YBN [1686 AD] | 1874) | London, England (presumably) |
314 YBN [1686 AD] | 1879) In 1691 Fontenelle is elected to the French Academy of Sciences, and in 1697 is the secretary. Fontenelle writes "Histoire de l'Académie des Sciences", an annual summary of the work of the Academy starting in 1702. Fontenelle lives to one month short of 100. Fontenelle is a close friend of Montesquieu and well known to Voltaire, who will make light of Fontenelle in his Micromégas (1752), a dissertation on the smallness of man in relation to the cosmos. Although Fontenelle is generally a modernist, he fails to see the truth of Newtonian physics. | Paris, France (presumably) |
314 YBN [1686 AD] | 1880) French science writer, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (FonTneL) (CE 1657-1757) publishes "Histoire des oracles" (1687; "History of the Oracles"), based on a Latin treatise by the Dutch writer Anton van Dale (1683), in which Fontenelle subjects pagan religions to criticisms that the reader may inevitably see as applicable to Christianity as well. The same antireligious bias is seen in Fontenelle's amusing satire "Relation de l'île de Bornéo" (1686; "Account of the Island of Borneo"), in which a civil war in Borneo is used to symbolize the conflicts between Catholics (Rome) and Calvinists (Geneva). | Paris, France (presumably) |
313 YBN [1687 AD] | 1845) Law of gravitation. Isaac Newton (CE 1642-1727) describes the universal law of gravitation, that all matter attracts other matter with a force that is the product of their masses, and the inverse of their distance squared. In his book "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687), referred to as "Principia", Newton codifies three laws of motion. The first is the principle of inertia: a body at rest remains at rest and a body in motion remains in motion at a constant velocity as long as outside forces are not involved. This confirms Buridan's suggestion 300 years before and ends the theory that angels or spirits constantly push the planets. Planets move because nothing exists in the space they move to stop them after the initial impulse. The second law of motion defines a force in terms of mass and acceleration (force = mass x acceleration) and this is the first clear distinction between the mass of a body (representing its resistance to acceleration; or in other words the quantity of inertia it possesses), and its weight (representing the amount of gravitational force between itself and another body). The third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The famous equation Newton publishes is: F=Gm1m2/d^2 where m1 and m2 are the masses of two objects (for example, the earth and moon), d is the distance between their centers, G is the gravitational constant, and F is the force of gravitational attraction between them. Newton holds that this law is true for any two objects in the universe. So this laws comes to be called the law of "universal gravitation". Newton's second law describes the equation F=ma, that the force used to move an object, and likewise the force a moving object has, is proportional to the object's mass and acceleration. Substituting a=F/m in the F=Gm1m2/d^2 equation, the force of acceleration on any mass from another mass can be calculated as a2=Gm1/r^2. Newton is the first to estimate the mass or amount of matter contained in a planet. That the Sun holds planets with a strength that decreases with distance squared shown from Ismaël Bullialdus in 1645. Robert Hooke had explained this inverse distance squared relation to Newton in his letter of 1679. In his book "Optics" in 1704, Newton suggests that light particles are bent by gravity writing: " Do not Bodies act upon Light at a distance, and by their action bend its rays, and is not this action (cæteris paribus) strongest at the least distance?", but never suggests a mass for light particles. I think that it cannot be ruled out that the observed phenomenon of gravitation may be the result, strictly of many particle collisions, or even perhaps the result of some more complex phenomenon involving living objects at various scales in space (similar to the way living objects at our scale, persumably shape globular galaxies). | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
313 YBN [1687 AD] | 1890) Admontons goes deaf while still young, but like Edison considers it a blessing because he can focus on his work. Amontons also demonstrates an optical telegraph and proposes the use of his clepsydra (water clock) for keeping time on a ship at sea. | Paris, France |
313 YBN [1687 AD] | 3895) | Livorno, Italy |
311 YBN [1689 AD] | 5926) Henry Purcell (CE 1659-1695), English composer, composes music around this time. In time Purcell becomes increasingly in demand as a composer, and his theater music in particular makes his name familiar to many who know nothing of his church music or the odes and welcome songs he wrote for the court. Much of the theatre music consists of songs and instrumental pieces for spoken plays, but during the last five years of his life Purcell collaborates on five "semi-operas" in which the music is a large part, with "divertissements", songs, choral numbers and dances. Purcell's only true opera (i.e. with music throughout) is Dido and Aeneas, written for a girls school at Chelsea, a suburb of London, and first performed by the pupils in 1689 although a few outsiders are probably brought in to play the men's parts. The Oxford Groove Encyclopedia states that "Purcell was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period and one of the greatest of all English composers." (Baroque music, with the characteristic bold horns sounds so triumphal.) | (Chapel Royal) London, England |
310 YBN [12/??/1690 AD] | 1862) | Greenwich, England |
310 YBN [1690 AD] | 1200) Polhem's father dies when Christopher is only 10 years old. Polhem lives with his uncle in Stockholm and in Stockholm attends a German school until the age of 12 when his uncle dies leaving Polhem, once again without the possibility of education. Polhem works as a farmhand on Vansta, a property in Södertörn, Stockholm for 10 years. Hungering for knowledge within his fields of interest, mathematics and mechanics, Plhem soon realizes that he will get no further without learning Latin. Self-studies are attempted, but given up; Polhem realizes he needs a tutor. In exchange for constructing a complex clock, Polhem is given Latin lessons by a local vicar. Word of Polhem's mechanical skill spreads quickly and a member of the clergy writes the professor of mathematics at Uppsala University, Anders Spole to recommend Polhem. Spole presents two broken clocks to Polhem and offers to let him study under him if Polhem can repair them, Polhem repairs the clocks with no difficulty and begins recovering years of lost education in 1687, at the age of 26. In 1687 Polhem enters the University of Uppsala. In gratitude for his services the Swedish government ennobles Polhem in 1716. | Sweden |
310 YBN [1690 AD] | 1696) | Gdansk, Poland |
310 YBN [1690 AD] | 1849) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
310 YBN [1690 AD] | 1864) From the time of Papin's settlement in Germany he carries on an active correspondence with Huygens and Leibniz, which is still preserved, and in one of his letters to Leibniz, in 1698, Papin mentions that he is engaged on a machine for raising water to a great height by the force of fire. In a later communication Papin speaks also of a little carriage he has constructed to be propelled by this force. Again in 1702 Papin writes about a steam "ballista", which he anticipates would "promptly compel France to make an enduring peace." (perhaps a steam powered metal projectile gun?) In 1705 Leibniz sends Papin a sketch of Thomas Savery's engine for raising water, and this stimulates Papin to further exertions. | Leipzig, Germany |
310 YBN [1690 AD] | 1867) | Leipzig, Germany |
310 YBN [1690 AD] | 1873) The earliest applications of diving bells were probably for commercial sponge fishing. A diving bell was used to salvage a cannon from the Swedish warship Vasa in the period immediately following its sinking in 1628. In a demonstration, Halley and five companions dive to 60 feet in the River Thames, and remained there for over one and a half hours. Halley's bell is of little use for practical salvage work, as it was very heavy, but he does make improvements to it over time, later extending his underwater exposure time to over 4 hours. | London, England (presumably) |
310 YBN [1690 AD] | 1888) | ?, Sweden |
310 YBN [1690 AD] | 3263) | Leipzig, Germany |
309 YBN [1691 AD] | 1744) | Cambridge?, England |
309 YBN [1691 AD] | 1869) Havers is the son of a rector (the head of a school). In 1668 Havers enters Cambridge but does not graduate. In 1687 Havers gets a medical license after graduating from University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. | London, England (presumably) |
307 YBN [1693 AD] | 1745) | Cambridge?, England |
307 YBN [1693 AD] | 1750) | ?, England |
307 YBN [1693 AD] | 1856) The Encyclopedia Britannica, states that, in criticizing the Cartesian formulation of the laws of motion, known as mechanics, Leibniz becomes, in 1676, the founder of a new formulation, known as dynamics, which substitutes kinetic energy for the conservation of movement. | Hannover, Germany |
307 YBN [1693 AD] | 1878) Edmond Halley (CE 1656-1742) prepares detailed mortality tables for the city of Breslau, a Polish-German town known for keeping meticulous records. This is one of the first attempts to relate mortality and age in a population, which leads to modern insurance practices which are based on the idea of earning income from life insurance using the probability of death in an average person, while providing the service of allowing people to financially help their family in the event of (in particular an unexpected) death. | London, England (presumably) |
306 YBN [03/03/1694 AD] | 1789) | Delft, Netherlands |
306 YBN [10/23/1694 AD] | 5923) | (Stuttgart and/or) Gotha, Germany (verify) |
306 YBN [1694 AD] | 1388) | Halle, Saxony-Anhalt |
306 YBN [1694 AD] | 1797) | London, England (presumably) |
306 YBN [1694 AD] | 5957) Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (CE 1666-1729), French composer, composes the opera "Cephale et Procris". | Paris, France (performed) |
305 YBN [06/10/1695 AD] | 1792) | Delft, Netherlands |
305 YBN [1695 AD] | 1883) | Oxford, England |
305 YBN [1695 AD] | 1891) | Paris, France (presumably) |
305 YBN [1695 AD] | 3260) Leibniz begins: "Since we first mentioned a new science of dynamics, which was still to be founded, many prominent men in various places have asked for a fuller explanation of its teachings. but as we have not yet found leisure to write a book, we shall here set down some things which may cast some light on it - light which will be returned to us with interest if we succeed in eliciting the opinions of men who combine force of insight with distinction of style. We confess that their judgment will be most welcome and we hope, useful in advancing the perfection of the work. We have suggested elsewhere that there is something besides extension in corporeal things; indeed, that there is something prior to extension, namely, a natural force everywhere implanted by the Author of nature - a force which does not consist merely in a simple faculty such as that with which the Scholastics seem to have contented themselves but which is provided besides with a striving or effort (conatus seu nisus) which has its full effect unless impeded by a contrary striving. This nisus sometimes appears to the senses, and is in my opinion to be understood on rational grounds, as present everywhere in matter, even where it does not appear to sense. but if we cannot ascribe it to God by some miracle, it is certainly necessary that this force be produced by him within bodies themselves. Indeed, it must constitute the inmost nature of the body, since it is the character of substance to act, and extension means only the continuation or diffusion of an already presupposed acting and resisting substance. So far is extension itself from comprising substance! It is beside the point here that all corporeal action arises from motion and that motion itself comes only from other motion already existing in the body or impressed upon it from without. For like time, motion taken in an exact sense never exists, because a whole does not exist if it has no coexisting parts. Thus there is nothing real in motion itself except that momentaneous state which must consist of a force striving toward change. Whatever there is in corporeal nature besides the object of geometry, or extension, must be reduced to this force. This reasoning does justice, at last, both to truth and to the teachings of the ancients. Our age has already saved from contempt the corpuscles of Democritus, the ideas of Plato, and the tranquility of the Stoics which arises from the best possible connection (nexus) of all things; now we shall reduce the Peripatetic tradition of forms or entelechies, which has rightly seemed enigmatic and scarcely understood by its authors themselves, to intelligible concepts. Thus we believe that this philosophy, accepted for so many centuries, must not be discarded but be explained in a way that makes it consistent within itself (where this is possible) and clarifies and amplifies it with new truths." Leibniz writes "Active force, which may well be called power, as it is by some, is of two kinds. The first is primitive force, which is in all corporeal substance as such, since I believe that a body entirely at rest is contrary to the nature of things. The second is derivative force, which is exercised in various ways through a limitation of primitive force resulting from the conflict of bodies with each other. Primitive force, which is nothing but the first entelechy (note: entelechy eNTeLeKE is an actuality as opposed to a potentiality and in vitalist philosophy, a vital agent or force directing growth and life), corresponds to the soul or substantial form, but for this very reason it relates only to general causes which cannot suffice to explain phenomena. Therefore I agree with those who deny that forms are to be used in investigating the specific and special causes of sensible things. This I must emphasize to make it clear that in restoring to the forms their proper function of revealing the sources of things to us, I am not trying to return to the word battles of the more popular Scholastics. A knowledge of forms is necessary, meanwhile, for philosophizing rightly, and no one can claim to have grasped the nature of body adequately unless he has paid some attention to such things and has come to understand that the crude concept of a corporeal substance which depends only on sensory imagery and has recently been carelessly introduced by an abuse of the corpuscular philosophy (which is excellent and more true in itself) is imperfect, not to say false. This can also be shown by considering that such a concept of body does not exclude cessation or rest from matter and cannot provide reasons for the laws of nature which apply to derivative force. Passive force is likewise of two kinds - primitive and derivative. The primitive force of suffering or of resisting constitutes the very thing which the Scholastics call materia prima, if rightly interpreted. It brings it about, namely, that one body is not penetrated by another but opposes an obstacle to it and is at the same time possessed of a kind of laziness, so to speak, or a repugnance to motion, and so does not allow itself to be set in motion without somewhat breaking the force of the body acting upon it. Hence the derivative force of suffering thereafter shows itself in various way in secondary matter. But setting aside these general and primary considerations, and having established the fact that every body acts by virtue of its form and suffers or resists by virtue of its matter, we must now proceed to the doctrine of derivative forces and resistances and discuss the question of how bodies prevail over or resist each other in various way by their varied impulses. For to these derivative forces apply the laws of action, which are not only known by reason but also verified by sense itself through phenomena. Here, therefore, we understand by derivative force, or the force by which bodies actually act and are acted upon by each other, only that force which is connected with motion (local motion, that is) and which in turn tends to produce further local motion. For we admit that all other material phenomena can be explained through local motion. Motion is the continuous change of place and thus requires time. But as the moving body has its motion in time, so it has a velocity at every moment of time, a velocity which is the greater in the degree that more space is passed through in less expenditure of time. This velocity along with direction is called conatus. Impetus, however, consists in the product of the mass (molis) of the body by its velocity, and so its quantity is that which Cartesians usually call the quantity of motion, that is, the momentaneous quantity, although speaking more accurately, the quantity of motion, having an existence in time, is an integral of the impetuses (whether equal or unequal) existing in the moving body multplied by the corresponding intervals of time. In our debate with the Cartesians, however, we have followed their way of speaking. yet in the scientific use of terms, as we may conveniently distinguish an increase which has already taken place, or one still to come, from one which is now occurring, designating this latter as the increment or element of the increase; so we can distinguish the falling of a body at the present moment from the fall which has already taken place which it increases. So we can also distinguish the present or instantaneous element of motion from the motion extended through time and call it 'motion'. Then what is popularly called motion would be called quantity of motion. But although we can readily comply with any accepted terminology after its meaning is established, we must be careful about terms until this is done, in order not to be misled by their ambiguity. Furthermore, just as the calculation of motion carried out through time is integrated from an infinite number of impetuses, so in turn the impetus itself (even though it is a momentaneous thing) arises from a succession of an infinite number of impacts on the same moving body; so it too contains a certain element from which it can arise only through infinite repetitions. Assume a tube AC rotating about a fixed center C with a definite uniform velocity and in the horizontal plane of this page (Figure 29). Assume a ball B moving within the tube without any chain or impediment and hence beginning to move by centrifugal force. It is obvious that the beginning of the conatus of receding from the center (the conatus, namely, by which the ball D tends toward the end of the tube is infinitely small with respect to the impetus which it already has from the rotation or that by which the ball B tends from D to D along with the tube itself, while retaining its distance from the center. But if the centrifugal impulsion proceeding from the rotation is continued for some time, there must arise in the ball, from its own progression, a certain complete centrifugal impetus D'B' comparable to the impetus of rotation DD'. Hence the nisus is obviously twofold, an elementary or infinitely small one which I also call a solicitation and one formed by the continuation or repetition of these elementary impulsions, that is, the impetus itself. but I do not mean that these mathematical entities are really found in nature as such but merely that they are means of making accurate calculations of an abstract mental kind. Hence force is also of two kinds: the one elementary, which I also call dead force, because motion does not yet exist in it but only a solicitation to motion, such as that of the ball in the tube or a stone in a sling even while it is still held by the string' the other is ordinary force combined with actual motion, which I call living force (vis viva). An example of dead force is centrifugal force, and likewise the force of gravity or centripetal force; also the force with which a stretched elastic body begins to restore itself. But in impact, whether this arises from a heavy body which has been falling for some time, or from a bow which has been restoring itself for some time, or from some similar cause, the force is living and arises from an infinite number of continuous impressions of dead force. This is what Galileo meant when in an enigmatic way, he called the force of impact infinite as compared with the simple impulsion of gravity. But even though impetus is always combined with living force, the two are nonetheless different, as we shall show below. Living force in any aggregate of bodies can further be understood in two senses - namely, as total and partial. Partial force in turn is either relative or directive, that is, either proper to the parts themselves or common to all. Respective or proper force is that by which the bodies included in an aggregate can interact upon each other; directive or common force is that by which the aggregate can itself also act externally. I call this 'directive' because the integral force of total direction is conserved in this partial force. Moreover, if it were assumed that the aggregate should suddenly become rigid by the cessation of the motion of the parts relative to each other, this alone would be left. Thus absolute total force is composed of relative and directive force taken together. but this can be understood better from the rules to be treated below. So far as we know, the ancients had a knowledge of dead force only, and it is this which is commonly called mechanics, which deals with the level, the pulley, the inclined plane (applicable to the wedge and screw), the equilibrium of liquids, and similar matters concerned only with the primary conatus of bodies in itself, before they take on an impetus through action. Although the laws of dead force can be carried over, in a certain way, to living force, yet great caution is necessary, for it is at this point that those who confused in general with the quantity resulting from the product of mass by velocity were misled because they saw that dead force is proportional to these factors. As we pointed out long ago, this happens for a special reason, namely, that when for example, different heavy bodies fall, the descent itself of the quantities of space passed through in the descent are, at the very beginning of motion while they remain infinitely small or elementary, proportional to the velocities or to the conatuses of descent. But when some progress has been made and living force has developed, the acquired velocities are no longer proportional to the spaces alreadyh passed through in the descent but only to their elements. Yet we have already shown, and will show more fully, that the force must be calculated in terms of these spaces themselves. Though he used another name, and indeed, another concept, Galileo began the treatment of living force and was the first to explain how motion arises from the acceleration of heavy falling bodies. Descartes rightly distinguished between velocity and direction and also saw that in the collision of bodies that state results which least changes the prior conditions. but he did not rightly estimate this minimum change, since he changes wither the direction alone or the velocity alone, while the whole change must be determined by the joint effect of both together. He failed to see how this was possible, however, because two such heterogeneous things did not seem to him to be capable of comparison or of simultaneous treatment - he being concerned with modalities rather than with realities in this connection; not to speak of his other errors in his teachings on this problem. Honoratius Fabri, Marcus Marci, John Alph. Borelli, Ignatius Baptista Pardies, Claude Deschales, and other most acute men have given us things that are not to be despised in the doctrine of motion, yet they have not avoided these capital errors. So far as I know, Huygens, whose brilliant discoveries have enlightened our age, was also the first to arrive at the pure and transparent truth in this matter, and to free this doctrine from fallacies, by formulating certain rules which were published long ago. Almost the same rules were obtained by Wren, Wallis, and Mariotte, all excellent men in this field, though in differing measure. but there is no unity of opinion about the causes; hence men who are outstanding in these studies do not always accept the same conclusions. It would seem, indeed, that the true foundations of this science have not yet been revealed. Not everyone has accepted the proposition which seems certain to me - that rebound or reflection results only from elastic force, that is, from the resistance offered by an internal motion. nor has anyone before me explained the concept of forces itself, a matter which has always disturbed the Cartesians and others who could not undetsand that the sum of motion or of impetuses, which they take for the quantity of forces, can be different after collision than it was before, because they believed that such a change would change the quantity of forces as well. ..." Use of the concept of entelechy and vis-viva both imply belief in the erroneous theory of vitalism, the doctrine that phenomena are only partly controlled by mechanical forces and in biology, a doctrine that ascribes the functions of a living organism to a vital principle distinct from chemical and physical forces. The phenomenon of "partial force" being either relative or directive, relating to individual parts or common to all, may be similar to the important idea of collective movement versus individual movement - my argument is that the electric effect may be a composite effect of many particles from gravity only - and I want to model these phenomena - where a collective movement appears from a distance to be an unusual individual movement, for example, larger than the force of gravity, but as the result of many particles grouped together. I would call these "composite" (combined) or "individual". But it may be that Leibniz is describing something else. | Hannover, Germany (presumably) |
303 YBN [1697 AD] | 1823) | London, England (presumably) |
303 YBN [1697 AD] | 1887) | Stockholm, Sweden |
302 YBN [07/02/1698 AD] | 1868) On this day, Savery patents his steam engine. Savery is a military engineer, rising to the rank of captain by 1702. | ?, England |
302 YBN [1698 AD] | 1777) The size and distance of other stars is measured. Christaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) makes the first specific estimate of the distance and size of the stars by comparing the size of Sirius to a fractional portion of the Sun. Huygens reports in his "Cosmotheoros" (1699), his experiment of drilling a series of holes in a brass plate, holding the plate up to the Sun, and comparing the holes to his memory of the appearance of the star Sirius. The hole that matches is effectively 1/27,664 the apparent size of the Sun. So Huygens concludes that Sirius, must be 27,664 times farther from us than the Sun, or about half a light-year away. According to Carl Sagan, had Huygens known that Sirius is intrinsically brighter than the Sun, he would have almost calculated the modern estimate of 8.8 light-years away. Huygens accepts like Nicolas of Cusa that stars are uniformly distributed through out space and each star has a number of planets. Huygens also reaffirms the view of Athanasius Kircher (KiRKR) (CE 1601-1680) that the fixed stars are other suns with planets going around them, but supports the Copernican Sun-centered theory over the Earth centered-theories of Tycho Brahe that Kircher supported. | The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
301 YBN [1699 AD] | 1886) Built in 1699 in Stjärnsund, the factory produces a number of products, deriving from the idea that Sweden should export fewer raw materials and process them within their own borders instead. The factory is a failure; it meets large resistance among workers who fear they will be replaced by machinery. Eventually most of the factory is destroyed in a fire in 1734, leaving only the part of the factory that produces clocks left. The factory continues producing clocks, known for their high quality and low price. Although the popularity of the clocks is less during the beginning of the 1800s, clock-making continues to this day at Stjärnsund, still producing around twenty clocks of the Polhem design per year. Economically, the factory is unfeasible, but the king at the time, Charles XII, is supportive and gives Polhem freedom from taxes to encourage his efforts. The factory of Stjärnsund is visited by Carolus Linnaeus, who writes about the factory in his diaries as "Nothing is more optimistic than Stjärnsund" ("Intet är spekulativare än Stjärnsund"). | Stjärnsund, Sweden |
301 YBN [1699 AD] | 1893) | Paris, France (presumably) |
301 YBN [1699 AD] | 1896) | Paris, France (presumably) |
301 YBN [1699 AD] | 2008) Malebranche explains his medium theory of light in a lecture given to the Paris academy devoted to the subject of light and colors. Malebranche is guided by the analogy of pitch in sound to color in light. According to Malebranche white has the greatest frequency, followed by yellow, red and blue, with black having frequency zero. In 1712 Malebranche will publish an amended and extended version of his ideas in which Malebranche adopts Newton's idea of 7 homogenious colors, which he distinguishes according to their frequency | Paris, France |
300 YBN [01/02/1700 AD] | 1790) | Delft, Netherlands |
300 YBN [07/11/1700 AD] | 1857) | Berlin, Germany |
300 YBN [1700 AD] | 1885) Stahl is born into a wealthy and privileged family. Stahl earns a medical degree at Jena in 1684. Stahl is the son of a minister. Stahl marries 4 times. Asimov comments "(Stahl) had rational views on mental disease". To me this shows, possibly some arrogance or ignorance in Asimov, by his acceptance of the shockingly brutal and mostly pseudoscience theories and, hello, unconsensual surgeries of psychology. In 1694 Stahl becomes professor of theoretical medicine at the newly founded Prussian University in Halle. Stahl moves to Berlin in 1715 to serve as the first royal physician and court counselor to Frederick William I of Prussia, a post that he holds until his death in 1734. From 1715 Stahl also presides over Berlin's Medical Board, which becomes the Higher Medical Board for all of Prussia in 1725. Stahl is instrumental in the founding of the Berlin Medical-Surgical College in 1723. | Halle, Germany |
300 YBN [1700 AD] | 3593) | Paris, France (presumably) |
300 YBN [1700 AD] | 5924) Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (CE 1671-1751), Italian composer, composes around this time. Albinoni is remembered mainly for his instrumental music. (Tell story of the famous "Adagio".) (Notice the similar impressive fast scales/arpeggios on violin style similar to Vivaldi in this work.) | Venice, Italy |
300 YBN [1700 AD] | 6251) | Florence, Italy |
299 YBN [1701 AD] | 1195) The seed drill is invented by Jethro Tull. The seed drill allows farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at specific depths. Prior to this farmers simply cast seeds on the ground by hand, to grow where they landed (broadcasting). Some of the broadcast seeds are cast on unprepared ground where they never germinate, germinate prematurely only to be killed by frost or die from lack of access to water and nutrients. | England |
299 YBN [1701 AD] | 1875) To obtain these readings, under instructions from the Admiralty, Halley commands the war sloop "Paramour Pink" in 1698-1700 on the first sea voyage undertaken for purely scientific purposes, this one to observe variations in compass readings in the South Atlantic and to determine accurate latitudes and longitudes of various ports. | London, England (presumably) |
298 YBN [12/25/1702 AD] | 1791) | Delft, Netherlands |
298 YBN [1702 AD] | 1882) Gregory is the only one in the part of the country he lives in who has a barometer, which he uses to gather knowledge about the weather. Gregory incurs the suspicion of the ignorant and superstitious as a dealer in the "black art", and narrowly escapes being formally tried by the presbytery of the bounds for witchcraft or conjuration. David Gregory is the nephew of James Gregory (who designed a reflecting telescope before Newton). In 1683 David Gregory is hired as professor of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh at the recommendation of Newton and Flamsteed. David Gregory claims to be first to give public lectures on Newtonian theory. Da vid Gregory is hired as professor of astronomy at Oxford. David Gregory is a friend of Newton's. | Oxford, England (presumably) |
298 YBN [1702 AD] | 1892) | Paris, France (presumably) |
297 YBN [1703 AD] | 3261) | (written in 1656) Paris, France (presumably) |
297 YBN [1703 AD] | 5932) Antonio (Lucio) Vivaldi (CE 1678-1741), Italian composer, composes trio Sonatas. In 1703 Vivaldi is ordained a priest (and later becomes known as the "Red Priest" for his red hair). He spent most of his career teaching violin and leading the orchestra at a Venetian girls' orphanage. Vivaldi popularizes effects such as pizzicato (Played by plucking rather than bowing the strings) and muting (to soften or muffle the sound of an instrument). (Vivaldi is an example of the dramatic change that occurred perhaps around 1600 to a very technical high speed playing which is very far from the Gregorian chants. This clearly must reflect a change in the collective mind and education of society - to a radically more technical and skillful level. John Bull is an earlier example of this. It may relate to the radical neuron reading being discovered. Identify the first "technical" composers. I would look to the keyboard and violin works, like tocattas.) (Notice Vivaldi wears a wig - an apparently early indication of this fashion.) | (Ospedale della Pietá Girls' ophanage) Venice, Italy |
297 YBN [1703 AD] | 5942) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes his first Violin Sonata (BWV 1001). | (the ducal court) Weimar, Germany |
296 YBN [1704 AD] | 1743) | Cambridge?, England |
296 YBN [1704 AD] | 1826) Newton suggests that light particles are affected by gravity. In the first edition of his "Opticks", Newton writes: "Do not Bodies act upon Light at a distance, and by their action bend its rays, and is not this action (cæteris paribus) strongest at the least distance?". | (mint) London, England (presumably) |
296 YBN [1704 AD] | 5927) Alessandro Scarlatti (CE 1660-1725), Italian composer, composes the opera "Humanità e Lucifero" ("Humanity and Lucifer") which is about the victory of Humanity over Satan. Scarlatti is important in the development of opera and is considered the founder of the so‐called "Neapolitan school" of opera. His 115 operas include only one comic opera, "Il trionfo dell'onore" (Naples 1718). Sixty‐four survive, wholly or in part. (Lucifer is represented by the tenor.) (Notice a similarity to melody of Beethoven's 5th symphony. It's apparently basically the same 4 notes and time but the last note is ascending. There is also the similar repeating the appegio on higher notes.) | (Teatro Pratolino) Florence, Italy (verify) |
295 YBN [1705 AD] | 1872) | London, England (presumably) |
295 YBN [1705 AD] | 1876) | |
294 YBN [1706 AD] | 1897) Hauksbee is the son of a draper (merchant in cloth or dry goods). Hauksbee is an instrument maker. Hauksbee is a pupil of Boyle's. In 1705 Hauksbee is elected to the Royal Society. | London, England (presumably) |
294 YBN [1706 AD] | 1916) Giovanni Battista Morgagni (MoRGonYE) (CE 1682-1771), Italian anatomist, publishes the first volume of "Adversaria Anatomica" (1706-19) which establishes his reputation as an accurate anatomist. "Adversaria Anatomica" is a collection of medical essays communicated to the Academia Inquietorum which establishes Morgagni in the scientific community. | Padua, Italy |
293 YBN [01/05/1707 AD] | 5930) Alessandro Scarlatti (CE 1660-1725), Italian composer, composes the opera "Mitridate Eupatore" (1707). | (Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo) Venice, Italy (verify) |
293 YBN [1707 AD] | 1866) | Hesse-Kassel?, Germany |
293 YBN [1707 AD] | 3256) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
292 YBN [02/04/1708 AD] | 5938) | (Saint Blasius’s church) Mühlhausen, Germany |
292 YBN [1708 AD] | 1196) Meissen porcelain, the first European porcelain is successfully produced in a trial firing by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. | Saxony, Germany |
292 YBN [1708 AD] | 1902) Boerhaave is the son of a clergyman. In 1689 Boerhaave received a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Leiden. In 1693 Boerhaave earns a medical degree at Harderwyck. Boerhaave spends all of his professional life at the University of Leiden, serving as professor of botany (1709 ), and of medicine, rector of the university, professor of practical medicine, and professor of chemistry. Students come from all over Europe to study under Boerhaave. Peter the Great visits Boerhaave. Boerhaave is sometimes known as the Dutch Hippocrates. Boerhaave is regarded as the founder of the clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital. Boerhaave's reputation as one of the greatest physicians of the 1700s lays partly in his attempts to collect, arrange, and systematize the mass of medical information that has accumulated up to his time. Boerhaave dies extremely wealthy. | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
292 YBN [1708 AD] | 4481) | Paris, France |
291 YBN [1709 AD] | 1194) Other ironmasters following Darby's lead, find that the process is not so easy to adapt. It is later learned that Darby's coal supply, from Cumbria, just happens to have a lower than normal sulfur content, which is necessary in order to producing quality iron. Ironmasters will slowly adapt the blast furnace process with the introduction of various types of flux that cleans out the impurities in the coal, and by the mid-1700s iron production will increase. | England |
291 YBN [1709 AD] | 1898) | London, England (presumably) |
291 YBN [1709 AD] | 1904) | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
291 YBN [1709 AD] | 1926) | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
290 YBN [1710 AD] | 1752) | ?, England |
290 YBN [1710 AD] | 3773) Berkeley writes essays against the freethinkers, for Richard Steele an essayist. In politics Berkeley is a Hanoverian Tory. In his "Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Part I" (1710), Berkeley puts all objects of sense, including tangibles, within the mind; rejects material substance, material causes, and abstract general ideas; while affirming spiritual substance. | (Trinity College) Dublin, Ireland |
289 YBN [1711 AD] | 1779) | London, England |
289 YBN [1711 AD] | 2329) | England (presumably) |
288 YBN [1712 AD] | 1860) Flamsteed was obliged to turn his data over to the Royal Society, of which Newton was president. | Greenwich, England |
288 YBN [1712 AD] | 1889) Newcomen is a blacksmith. Newcomen may have consulted with Hooke on the operation of vacuums. In 1698 Newcomen goes into partnership with Savory who had already built the first steam engine and held comprehensive patents. | Dudley Castle, Staffordshire, England |
287 YBN [1713 AD] | 1751) | ?, England |
287 YBN [1713 AD] | 1850) Isaac Newton (CE 1642-1727) publishes a second edition of "Principia" in which he fires volleys at the philosophies of Leibniz and Descartes in the "General Scholium" he adds to the second edition. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
286 YBN [1714 AD] | 1925) Fahrenheit is the son of a wealthy merchant. Fahrenheit moves to Amsterdam from his native Danzig (now Gdańsk in Poland) to become a glass blower and instrument maker. Alcohol alone boils at too low a temperature to allow high temperatures to be measured. Alcohol and water change volume with changing temperature too unevenly. In 1724 Fahrenheit's report on his thermometer earns him election to the Royal Society. Galileo had invented the thermometer in about 1600, using changes in air volume as an indicator. Since the volume of air also varies considerably with changes in atmospheric pressure, liquids of various kinds were quickly substituted. Using mercury Fahrenheit fixes his zero point by using the freezing point of a mixture of ice and salt as this gives him the lowest temperature he can reach. Fahrenheit's other fixed point is taken from the temperature of the human body, which he puts at 96°. Given these two fixed points the freezing and boiling points of water then work out at the familiar 32° and 212°. | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
285 YBN [1715 AD] | 5941) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Suite in E minor for Lautenwerk", (BWV 996). The Lautenwerk (also called Lautenclavecin, Lauten-Clavicymbel, and Lautenclavier) is the German term for a lute-harpsichord. This is a keyboard instrument with gut, rather than steel, strings, which are plucked by a quill. Bach owned two harpsichords at the time of his death, according to an inventory of his belongings, though neither has survived. The Lautenwerk was played like the harpsichord, though with a softer sound because of the gut strings. The instrument was also known in France (‘clavecin-luth’) and Italy (‘arpicordo leutato’), but most popular in Germany. Even so, the instrument was relatively rare, even in the Baroque, compared to the standard harpsichord. | (the ducal court) Weimar, Germany |
284 YBN [1716 AD] | 5931) François Couperin (CE 1668-1733), French composer publishes "L′art de toucher le clavecin" ("The Art of Playing the Harpsichord", 1716) which is the most valuable instrumental treatise of its time. Couperin starts composing for harpsichord starting in 1713. | (Saint Gervais Cathedral) Paris, France (presumably) |
284 YBN [1716 AD] | 5939) | Weimar, Germany |
284 YBN [1716 AD] | 5940) | (the ducal court) Weimar, Germany |
283 YBN [1717 AD] | 1944) François Marie Arouet (Voltaire), (CE 1694-1778) is at first exiled and then imprisoned in the Bastille for writing offensive verses. Voltaire has a mistress named Émilie Du Châtelet. Voltaire maintains a long correspondence with Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia (later Frederick II) and exchanged letters with Catherine II of Russia. Over the course of his life Voltaire writes 28 tragedies on a variety of subjects. Voltaire is a prolific writer, and produces works in almost every literary form, authoring plays, poetry, novels, essays, historical and scientific works, over 20,000 letters and over two thousand books and pamphlets. Voltaire became wealthy through wise investment. In 1758, Voltaire buys a property on the Swiss border in order to safeguard himself against attacks by police from either country. A Voltaire quote is "Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient." Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his father the year of Voltaire's death, saying, "The arch-scoundrel Voltaire has finally kicked the bucket....". At his estate at Ferney, Voltaire renovates the church and has "Deo erexit Voltaire" ("Voltaire erected this to God") carved on the facade. Voltaire uses the word "l'infâme" (the infamous thing) to designate the church, especially when the church is identified with intolerance. Voltaire never ceased to acknowledge a degree of genius in Shakespeare, yet spoke of Shakespeare as "a drunken savage." According to the Columbia Encyclopedia Voltaire opposes the atheism and materialism of Helvétius and Holbach, and states "If God did not exist, he would have to be invented," (which in my opinion is wrong, there is no need for the existence of any dieties). Voltaire writes between fifty and sixty plays, including a few unfinished ones. Voltaire writes numerous histories: * History of Charles XII, King of Sweden (1731) * The Age of Louis XIV (1752) * The Age of Louis XV (1746 - 1752) * Annals of the Empire - Charlemagne, A.D. 742 - Henry VII 1313, Vol. I (1754) * Annals of the Empire - Louis of Bavaria, 1315 to Ferdinand II 1631 Vol. II (1754) * Essai sur l'histoire générale et sur les murs et l'esprit des nations (7 vol., 1756; tr. 1759) * History of the Russian Empire Under Peter the Great (Vol. I 1759; Vol. II 1763) | Paris, France |
283 YBN [1717 AD] | 5946) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Cello Suite No. 1 in G major" (BWV 1007). | Cöthen, Germany (verify) |
283 YBN [1717 AD] | 5951) | (River Thames) London, England |
282 YBN [1718 AD] | 1846) Theory that Universe is mostly made of empty space and that light moves in a straight line. These new views are added as extra Queries in the last part of the second edition of Newton's "Opticks". Isaac Newton rejects the theory of light as a motion through a medium in favor of a universe mostly made of empty space and supports the theory that light moves in a straight line. Rejecting the idea that light is a motion Newton writes: "Are not all Hypotheses erroneous, in which Light is supposed to consist in Pression or Motion, propagated through a fluid Medium?". In support of the Universe being mostly empty space Newton writes: "Mr. Boyle has shew'd that Air may be rarified above ten thousand times in Vessels of Glass; and the Heavens are much emptier of Air than any Vacuum we can make below.". Newton expresses doubts about the existance of an aether in writing: "And for rejecting such a Medium, we have the Authority of those the oldest and most celebrated Philosophers of Greece and Phoenicia, who made a Vacuum, and Atoms, and the Gravity of Atoms, the first Principles of their Philosophy". Newton supports the theory that light moves in a straight line writing "...if it {Light} consisted in Pression or Motion, propagated either in an instant or in time, it would bend into the Shadow. For Pression or Motion cannot be propagated in a Fluid in right Lines...but will bend and spread every way into the ...medium which lies beyond the Obstacle....The Waves, Pulses or Vibrations of the Air, wherein Sounds consist bend...For a bell or a Cannon may be heard beyond a Hill which intercepts the sight of the sounding Body...But Light is never known to ...bend into the Shadow.". Query 4 implies that reflection, refraction and inflection (diffraction) are all controlled by one principle. Query 5 reveals that Newton accepts the view of heat as motion. Newton does not recognize that all matter may be made of particles of light, but does theorize in Query 30 that bodies and Light may be convertible into one another. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
282 YBN [1718 AD] | 1899) De Moivre is the son of a surgeon. A French Huguenot, de Moivre is jailed as a Protestant upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685. When de Moivre is released shortly thereafter, he flees to England. De Moivre is one of the people France loses to other more tolerant nations. In London, De Moivre becomes close friends with Halley and Newton. In 1697 De Moivre is elected to the Royal Society. (De Moivre founds analytical trigonometry, just as Descartes converts geometry to algebraic formulas, so does De Moivres for trigonometry. t: i don't understand, he graphically displays trigonmetry?] | London, England (presumably) |
281 YBN [1719 AD] | 5948) | (court of Prince Leopold) Cöthen, Germany and (church of St. Thomas) Leipzig, Germany |
280 YBN [1720 AD] | 1917) Réaumur is commissioned by Louis XIV (1710) to compile a report on the industry and arts of France, which is published as the "Description des arts et métiers" ("Description of the Arts and Skilled Trades"). In 1708 Réaumur is admitted to the French Academy of Sciences. | Paris, France |
280 YBN [1720 AD] | 1958) Maclaurin is the son of a minister. Maclaurin is raised by an uncle, also a minister, after his parents both die. Maclaurin is a child prodigy and enters the University of Glasgow at age 11. In 1715 Maclaurin masters in mathematics (at age 17). In 1717 Maclaurin is a professor of mathematics at Mariscal College, Aberdeen (at age 19). In 1719 Maclaurin is elected to the Royal Academy (at age 21) and meets Newton in London. In 1742 Maclaurin writes in defense of Newton's priority in forming calculus against philosopher George Berkeley. In 1745, when Jacobites (supporters of the Stuart king James II and his descendants) march on Edinburgh, Maclaurin takes a prominent part in preparing trenches and barricades for the city's defense, but when the Jacobites take Edinburgh, Maclaurin flees to England. Colin Maclaurin Encyclopædia Britannica Article Page 1 of 1 Print PagePrint ArticleE-mail ArticleCite Article Send comments or suggest changes to this article Share full article with your Readers born February 1698, Kilmodan, Argyllshire, Scotland died June 14, 1746, Edinburgh Photograph:Maclaurin, engraving by S. Freeman; in the British Museum Maclaurin, engraving by S. Freeman; in the British Museum Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd. Scottish mathematician who developed and extended Sir Isaac Newton's work in calculus, geometry, and gravitation. A child prodigy, he entered the University of Glasgow at age 11. At the age of 19 he was elected a professor of mathematics at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and two years later he became a fellow of the Royal Society of London. At this time he became acquainted with Newton. In his first work, Geometrica Organica; Sive Descriptio Linearum Curvarum Universalis (1720; "Organic Geometry, with the Description of the Universal Linear Curves"), Maclaurin developed several theorems similar to some in Newton's Principia, introduced the method of generating conic sections (the circle, ellipse, hyperbola, and parabola) that bears his name, and showed that certain types of curves (of the third and fourth degree) can be described by the intersection of two movable angles. On the recommendation of Newton, he was made a professor of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh in 1725. In 1740 he shared, with the Swiss mathematicians Leonhard Euler and Daniel Bernoulli, the prize offered by the French Academy of Sciences for an essay on tides. His two-volume Treatise of Fluxions (1742), a defense of the Newtonian method, was written in reply to criticisms by Bishop George Berkeley of England that Newton's calculus was based on faulty reasoning. Apart from providing a geometric framework for Newton's method of fluxions, the treatise is notable on several counts. It contains solutions to a number of geometric problems, shows that stable figures for a homogeneous rotating fluid mass are the ellipsoids of revolution, and gives for the first time the correct theory for distinguishing between maxima and minima in general (see calculus of variations), pointing out the importance of the distinction in the theory of the multiple points of curves. It also contains a detailed discussion of infinite series, including the special case of Taylor series now named in his honour. In 1745, when Jacobites (supporters of the Stuart king James II and his descendants) were marching on Edinburgh, Maclaurin took a prominent part in preparing trenches and barricades for the city's defense. As soon as the rebel army captured Edinburgh, Maclaurin fled to England until it was safe to return. The ordeal of his escape ruined his health, and he died at age 48. Maclaurin's "Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries" will be published posthumously, as will be his "Treatise of Algebra" (1748). | Aberdeen, Scotland (presumably) |
280 YBN [1720 AD] | 5945) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Partita No. 3" (BWV 1006). | (the ducal court) Weimar, Germany |
279 YBN [1721 AD] | 1223) Johann Sebastian Bach (March 21, 1685 - July 28, 1750) a prolific German composer and organist, presents six concertos, the "Brandenburg concertos" (BWV 1046-1051) in 1721 but these are probably composed earlier, and will become very popular. | Germany |
279 YBN [1721 AD] | 5929) Alessandro Scarlatti (CE 1660-1725), Italian composer, composes the opera "La Griselda". | (Viceroy of Naples Court) Naples, Italy |
279 YBN [1721 AD] | 5947) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Violin Concerto No. 1 In A Minor" (BWV 1041). | Cöthen, Germany (verify) |
279 YBN [1721 AD] | 5955) | Cöthen, Germany (verify) |
278 YBN [1722 AD] | 1934) | Kew, England |
278 YBN [1722 AD] | 5944) | (the ducal court) Weimar, Germany |
278 YBN [1722 AD] | 5949) | (church of St. Thomas) Leipzig, Germany |
278 YBN [1722 AD] | 5950) | (church of St. Thomas) Leipzig, Germany |
277 YBN [1723 AD] | 3322) Maraldi is born in Perinaldo/Nica, Italy, as a nephew of G.D. Cassini. Jacques Philippe (or Giacomo Filippo) Maraldi comes to Paris in 1687 to assist his uncle at the Paris Observatory and in geodesic work. | |
276 YBN [1724 AD] | 1881) Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (FonTneL) (CE 1657-1757) publishes "De l'origine des fables" (1724; "Of the Origin of Fables"), in which Fontenelle supports the theory that similar fables arise independently in several cultures and also lightly addresses comparative religion. | Paris, France (presumably) |
276 YBN [1724 AD] | 1903) | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
276 YBN [1724 AD] | 1970) Daniel Bernoulli (BRnULE) (CE 1700-1782), Swiss mathematician writes "Exercitationes quaedam Mathematicae" on differential equations and the physics of flowing water. This book will win him a position at the influential Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. Daniel Bernoulli is the second son of Johann Bernoulli, who first teaches him mathematics. | Italy? |
275 YBN [1725 AD] | 1861) | London, England (presumably) |
275 YBN [1725 AD] | 3604) | Lyon, France |
275 YBN [1725 AD] | 5933) Antonio (Lucio) Vivaldi (CE 1678-1741), Italian composer, composes Mandolin Concerto (RV425). | Venice, Italy |
275 YBN [1725 AD] | 5934) The simplicity of Vivaldi's funeral on July 28, 1741, suggests that he dies in considerable poverty. | Venice, Italy |
275 YBN [1725 AD] | 5943) | (Saint Thomas Church) Leipzig, Germany |
274 YBN [1726 AD] | 1945) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) is assaulted by people hired by, a young nobleman, the chevalier de Rohan, who resented witty writings made at Rohan's expense by Voltaire. Far from obtaining justice, Voltaire is then imprisoned in the Bastille through the influence of the powerful Rohan family, and is released only upon his promise to go to England. During the more than two years (1726-28) in England, Voltaire meet many literary people of the period through his friend Lord Bolingbroke. Voltaire is impressed by the greater freedom of thought in England and is deeply influenced by Newton and Locke. | Paris, France |
274 YBN [1726 AD] | 3381) In 1703 Hales earns a masters degree in theology from Cambridge. In 1753 Hales is elected a foreign member of French Academy. | Teddington, England (presumably) |
273 YBN [1727 AD] | 1909) This work will be republished in 1733 as volume 1 of Hales' "Statical Essays". | Cambridge, England |
273 YBN [1727 AD] | 1991) (Over the course of his lifetime:) 1768 Euler publishes a very successful popularization of science (science history?). Euler publishes no less than 856 separate works. Euler's collected works are more than seventy volumes. Euler began replacing geometric proofs with algebraic proofs. Euler is one of the first to develop the methods of the calculus on a wide scale. Euler is credited with being the first to use the Greek letter Sigma for summation. In 1739 Euler writes the "Tentamen novae theoriae musicae", hoping to eventually integrate musical theory as part of mathematics. In 1741 Euler accepts the invitation of Frederick II of Prussia to join the newly reorganized Berlin Academy of Sciences. Euler spends twenty-five years in Berlin, during which time Euler is closely associated with the academy's president, Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759). During this time in the "Republic of Letters", Euler participates in several controversies including a dispute on the monads of Leibniz, which Euler vehemently opposes and a controversy about Maupertuis's "Principle of Least Action," in which Euler supports his colleague Maupertuis against Johann Samuel König and Voltaire. Maupertuis's dies in 1759 and Euler becomes the de facto leader and administrator of the Berlin Academy, but without the official title of president. Euler's strained relations with Frederick II lead Euler to accept an invitation from Catherine the Great to rejoin the In "Rettung der Göttlichen Offenbahrung Gegen die Einwürfe der Freygeister" ("Defense of the Divine Revelation against the Objections of the Freethinkers") is primarily an argument for the divine inspiration of scripture, which presents Euler as a staunch Christian and a biblical literalist. De Morgan relates a story about Czarina (Elizabeth) being displeased with the antireligious views of Denis Diderot, and persuading Euler to help her in suppressing Diderot. Diderot is informed that a learned mathematician has an algebraic demonstration of the existence of a deity and would like to give this proof to Diderot before the Court, to which Diderot agrees. Euler advanced towards Diderot and states "Monsier, a+bn/n=x, donc Dieu existe; respondez!", De Morgan writes that Diderot does not understand algebra, and is embarrassed while laughter arises on all sides. According to De Morgan Diderot then asks permission to return to France which is granted. However amusing the anecdote may be, it is almost certainly false, given that Diderot was actually a capable mathematician who had published mathematical treatises. (I find this story to be very biased in favor of belief in a Deity. In addition, no math equation proves the existence of a Deity. It is amazing that there appears to be a universe that may have no end in size, magnification or microfication, but that does not equal evidence of a Deity, simply that there is an awesome and incomprehensible universe, there is no need or evidence for a Deity. We can be in deep respect and awe of the universe without any Deities, and in particular in the form of a human, knowing the history of the traditional beliefs of Deities who lived in the clouds of an earth-centered universe, and then monotheism, etc.) St. Petersburg Academy which Euler does in 1766 remaining there until his death in 1783. | Saint Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
273 YBN [1727 AD] | 2620) | London, England (presumably) |
272 YBN [08/??/1728 AD] | 1913) In 1724, Bering is appointed by Peter I (the Great), Tsar of Russia, to determine whether Asia and North America are connected by land. Peter the Great, who is modernizing Russia, wants Russia's vast new holdings in Siberia mapped. The Russian leaders are interested in both colonial expansion in North America and in finding a northeast passage, that is a sea route to China around Siberia. In 1648 a Russian, Semyon Dezhnyov, had sailed through the Bering Strait, but his report went unnoticed until 1736. Bering leads the expedition over 6,000 miles of wilderness and reaches Okhotsk on the Pacific coast on September 30, 1726, nineteen months after leaving St. Petersburg. The group then builds ships and sails to the Kamchatka Peninsula. The ship Gabriel is built (on the Kamchatka Peninsula), and on July 14, 1728, Bering begins his first exploration. The Gabriel sails northward, rounding East Cape on August 14. Since the Asiatic coast trends westward and no land appears to the north, Bering decides that he has fulfilled his mission, correctly concluding that Siberia and America are not joined; Bering then turns back at latitude 67° 18' to avoid wintering on a desolate and unknown shore. The expedition spends the winter at Kamchatka, where Bering sees numerous signs indicating land to the east. But bad weather during the following summer frustrates his attempts to locate this land, and the expedition returns to St. Petersburg in March 1730. The Bering Strait and Bering Sea are named after Vitus Bering. | Bering Straight |
272 YBN [1728 AD] | 1202) Daniel Defoe writes "Is it not enough to make any one mad to be suddenly clap'd up, stripp'd, whipp'd, ill fed, and worse us'd?" against "treatments" given with no consent in psychitric hospitals. | |
271 YBN [01/??/1729 AD] | 1931) In 1717 Bradley earns his Masters degree from Oxford. Bradley is friends with Newton and Halley. In 1718 Bradley is elected to the Royal Society. In 1742 on the death of Halley, Bradley is appointed third astronomer royal. Bradley announces this finding in (Phil. Trans. xxxv. 637). | Kew, England |
271 YBN [1729 AD] | 1884) | ?, England |
271 YBN [1729 AD] | 1957) Gray is the son of a dyer. In London Gray assists Dr John Desaguliers, one of the Royal Society' demonstrators, who gives lectures around the country (and on the Continent) about new scientific discoveries. In this position Gray is probably not paid, but provided with a place to live only. Gray falls into poverty and through the efforts of John Flamsteed and Sir Hans Sloane (later President of the Royal Society) obtains a pensioned position at the Charterhouse in London (a home for destitute gentlemen who had served their country). During this time Gray begins experimenting again with static electricity, using a glass-tube as a friction generator. | London, England |
271 YBN [1729 AD] | 1962) | ??, France (presumably) |
271 YBN [1729 AD] | 5936) | (New Italian Theatre) Paris, France (presumably) |
270 YBN [1730 AD] | 1205) | England |
270 YBN [1730 AD] | 1900) | London, England (presumably) |
270 YBN [1730 AD] | 1941) Brandt is the son of an apothecary. Brandt studies medicine and chemistry under Boerhaave. In 1726 Brandt earns a medical degree but does not practice. In 1727 Brandt is in charge of Bureau of Mines at Stockholm. In 1730 Brandt is made assay master (warden) of the Stockholm mint. German miners named a blue metal Kobold after an earth spirit (roots in polytheism?) they believed had bewitched what they thought was (also blue) copper ore. Brandt is hired as professor of chemistry at the University of Uppsala. Kolbolt had been used to make a blue dye for a few centuries. Brandt is one of the first chemist to speak out against alchemical fraud, dedicating his last years to exposing fraudulent alchemical processes for producing gold, such as the trick of dissolving gold in nitric acid and then precipitating the gold out when the acid is cooled and shaken. Asimov describes Brandy as the first chemist to be completely free of alchemical taint. | Stockholm, Sweden |
269 YBN [1731 AD] | 1920) | Paris, France (presumably) |
269 YBN [1731 AD] | 2035) Alexis Claude Clairaut (KlArO) (CE 1713-1765), French mathematician publishes "Recherches sur les courbes à double courbes" at age 18. Clairaut is the son of a mathematics teacher. By age ten Clairaut studies L'Hôpital's work on conic sections and two years later reads a paper to the French Académie des sciences. Clairaut collaborates with the Marquise du Châtelet in her French translation of Newton's "Principia". Clairaut is noted for his work on differential equations and on curves and for formulating Clairaut's theorem dealing with geodesic lines on the surface of an ellipsoid. Clairaut helps the development of three-dimensional analytic geometry around 1730, when Clairaut, and the Swiss mathematicians Leonhard Euler and Jakob Hermann produce general equations for cylinders, cones, and surfaces of revolution. | Paris, France |
269 YBN [1731 AD] | 2956) | London, England |
268 YBN [06/27/1732 AD] | 2105) Interesting that the oldest university in Europe would be the first to hire a female professor. This shows a strong belief in gender equality in Italy at an early time relative to other nations. Bassi has eight to twelve children. | Bologna, Italy |
268 YBN [1732 AD] | 3595) | London, England (presumably) |
267 YBN [12/??/1733 AD] | 1965) Du Fay is the superintendent of gardens for King Louis XV. Du Fay never marries. Du Fay dies of smallpox at age 40. | Paris, France |
267 YBN [1733 AD] | 1197) | England |
267 YBN [1733 AD] | 1901) In 1694 Saccheri is ordained a priest. In 1697 Saccheri teaches mathematics at the Jesuit College of Pavia until death. Other books by Saccheri are: Quaesita geometrica (1693), Logica demonstrativa (1697), and Neo-statica (1708). | Pavia, Italy |
267 YBN [1733 AD] | 1910) | Cambridge, England |
267 YBN [1733 AD] | 1933) | Kew, England |
267 YBN [1733 AD] | 1943) | Stockholm, Sweden (presumably) |
267 YBN [1733 AD] | 1988) Dolland uses two different kinds of glass which refract the various colors of light (by different angles), and combines them so that the action of one glass is counterbalanced by the action of the other (needs to be more specific). This invention allows larger refracting telescopes (achromatic telescopes) to be usable. These lens are also used in achromatic microscopes. | London, England (presumably) |
267 YBN [1733 AD] | 5935) Georg Philipp Telemann (CE 1681-1767), German composer, composes his "Musique de table" (1733). Telemann is by far the most famous composer in Germany; in a contemporary dictionary he is assigned four times as much space as J. S. Bach. (Perhaps the close-sounding association with "Telephone"-man helped his popularity.) | (Hamburg Opera) Hamburg, Germany |
267 YBN [1733 AD] | 5937) Jean-Philippe Rameau (CE 1683-1764), French composer and theorist, composes his first opera "Hippolyte et Aricie". | (the Opéra) Paris, France (presumably) |
266 YBN [1734 AD] | 1919) | Paris, France (presumably) |
266 YBN [1734 AD] | 2073) | Sweden (presumably) |
265 YBN [1735 AD] | 1936) Harrison is a Yorkshire mechanic. After 5 months at sea one of Harrison's clock is off by less than a minute. Harrison is the son of carpenter. Harrison's fifth clock is no bigger than a large watch. In 1598 Phillip II of Spain offered a similar prize that went unclaimed. In 1707 a British fleet miscalculates its position and crashes into rocks off Cornwall, so in 1713 the British government offers a reward of £20,000 for an accurate ship's chronometer. Harrison first became interested in the problem of an accurate clock in 1728. In 1765 Harrison finally receives £20,000 reward for an accurate ship's chronometer. Harrison's chronometer will be used in 1776 by James Cook on his voyage to Australia and New Zealand. | London, England |
265 YBN [1735 AD] | 1973) Charles Marie de La Condamine (loKoNDuMEN) (CE 1701-1774), French geographer is sent by the Académie des Sciences to Peru to make astronomical observations which will determine the length of a degree of the meridian near the Equator. La Condamine accomplishes the first scientific exploration of the Amazon River. La Condamine returns to Europe from South America with rubber tree sap and curare (used as a muscle relaxant). La Condamine supports a standard system of measure. La Condamine speculates on the idea of inoculation against smallpox 22 years before Jenner. La Condamine confirms that the force of gravity at the equator is greater than that in Europe, proving that the earth is wider at the equator and is an oblate spheroid (as opposed to a prolate spheroid as claimed by Cassini and his son). | Peru, South America |
265 YBN [1735 AD] | 1996) Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus (lin Aus or lin EuS) (CE 1707-1778) creates a uniform system for categorizing living objects of earth, including the human species (overshadowing the earlier work of Ray) and is considered the founder of taxonomy. In his book "Systema Naturae" (1735), Linnaeus (linAus]) establishes the classification of living things in a methodical way (overshadowing the earlier work of Ray). For this Linnaeus is considered the founder of taxonomy. Linnaeus popularizes a binomial nomenclature where each living object is given a generic name and then a specific name, and points out exactly how each species differs. This book is first published in 11 pages, but will have 2,500 pages by the tenth edition. This book presents a classification of three kingdoms of nature. Linnaeus groups species into genus, class, order, (later Cuvier will group orders in phyla). Linnaeus daringly even includes humans in his categorization calling them "homo sapiens" (man, wise). Linnaeus includes the orangutan in the same genus as humans naming them "homo troglodytes" ("man, cave-dwelling" but this name will not endure). Linnaeus is the first to use the male and female symbols. Linnaeus also includes minerals in his classification system. | Netherlands |
264 YBN [1736 AD] | 1923) In 1694, Desaguliers' family fled to England as Protestants to escape persecution by Louis XIV. Desaguliers is educated at Oxford. In 1710 Desaguliers is made a deacon. The word "insulator" is Latin for "Island", since nonconductors can contain the electric fluid as the sea contains an island. Desaguliers at one time assists Sir Isaac Newton in Newton's experiments and through his speakings and writings was among Newton's staunch advocates. Between 1729 and 1736, Stephen Gray and Jean Desaguliers who are friends, perform a series of experiments which show that a cork and other objects can be electrified as far away as 800 or 900 feet away by connecting them to a rubbed glass tube with materials such as metal wires or string made of hemp. Gray and Desaguliers find that other materials, such as silk, do not allow the distant objects to be electrified. Gray and Desaguliers find that the distant object will not become electrified if the transmission line makes contact with the earth, but only if the object and earth are separated or insulated by suspending the object on silk threads. | London, England |
264 YBN [1736 AD] | 1966) Maupertuis is from a wealthy family. In 1731, Maupertuis becomes a member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris. The success of Maupertuis' expedition gains him favor with Frederick the Great, who calls Maupertuis to Berlin. Maupertuis becomes a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1741 and serves as its president from 1745 to 1753. Maupertuis helps popularize Newtonian mechanics. Maupertuis will write numerous astronomical writings, including "Discours sur la figure des astres" (1732) and 'Discours sur la parallaxe de la lune" (1741). | Lapland |
263 YBN [1737 AD] | 1808) | Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
263 YBN [1737 AD] | 1905) | Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
263 YBN [1737 AD] | 2001) | Netherlands(presumably) |
262 YBN [1738 AD] | 1226) A valve-type flush toilet is invented by JF Brondel. | |
262 YBN [1738 AD] | 1928) | France (presumably) |
262 YBN [1738 AD] | 1946) | Cirey, France |
262 YBN [1738 AD] | 1971) | Basel, Switzerland (presumably)| (published in ) Strasbourg |
262 YBN [1738 AD] | 2087) | Cambridge, England |
261 YBN [1739 AD] | 1912) | Cambridge, England |
261 YBN [1739 AD] | 1937) | London, England |
261 YBN [1739 AD] | 2088) | Paris, France |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 1201) | Sheffield, England |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 1918) | Paris, France (presumably) |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 2005) Georges Louis Leclerc, comte (count) de Buffon (BYUFoN) (CE 1707-1788), French naturalist, translates Newton's "The Method of Fluxions" (1740) into French. | Montbard, France |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 2006) When done this the "Histoire" will contain: Vols. 1-15. Quadrupeds, (1749-67), written with the assistance of Louis Daubenton who provides the anatomical details. Vols. 16-24. Birds, (1770-83), written with the assistance of the Abbé Bexon and G. de Montbeillard. Vols. 25-31. Supplementary Volumes. These deal mainly with the quadrupeds, but Vol. 5 (1778) contains Buffon's important "Epochs of Nature". Vols. 32-36. Minerals, (1783-88). The final 8 volumes, Reptiles (2 vols., 1788-89), Fish (5 vols., 1798-1803), and Cetacea (1804) will be prepared by E. de Lacepede. Buffon is not interested in problems of plant and animal classification in contrast to the publications of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. In Volume 1, Buffon (wrongly) argues that natural classes such as cats and dogs are misguided and that only individuals exist in nature. However Buffon accepts that "two animals belong to the same species as long as they can perpetuate themselves". In this work Buffon rejects the idea of a common descent for similar animals arguing that if the ass was derived from the horse that there would be intermediate forms but that none are found. Buffon wrongly views apes as corrupted humans, and donkeys as corrupted horses (Erasmus Darwin will also believe this inaccurate theory). | Montbard, France |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 2007) The Answers.com Biography of Buffon states that "All of these questions impinged upon religious matters. While Buffon evidently satisfied all the outward forms of Christian practice, he almost certainly was a deist in the 1730s and may very well have become an atheist in his later years." The Oxford University Press, French Literature Companion, states that "while avoiding direct conflict with the Church, {Buffon's} conception of human nature and origins was unrepentantly heretical". | Montbard, France |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 2010) | |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 2019) Marggraf is the director of the chemical laboratory of the German Academy of Sciences of Berlin (1754-60) (appointed by Frederick II in 1753). | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 2067) Bonnet finds that the eggs of the spindle-tree aphid female can develop without being fertilized by sperm. Bonnet notes the freshwater hydra's ability to regenerate lost body parts. (identify when) In 1695 Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) had identified parthenogenesis in aphids. | Geneva?, Switzerland (presumably) |
260 YBN [1740 AD] | 2961) Bose conveys electricity from on person to another using water. Bose is a professor of natural philosophy at (University of) Wittenberg. Bose performs public experiments with his electrostatic machines. One of experiment is actually a joke. A charming young lady offers a welcoming kiss to somebody from the audience. However, she stands on an electrically isolated platform and her body is connected to a hidden charged electrostatic generator. The kiss is accompanied by an electrical spark. A shock obtained by a man sometimes is very strong. Bose describes this "funny" experiment in his poem written for countess Brühl. In 1760, during a war with Prussia, Bose is kidnapped to Magdeburg, where Bose dies in the following year. | (University of Wittenberg)Wittenberg, Germany |
259 YBN [07/16/1741 AD] | 1914) Bering had proposed a second exploratory mission (his first mission in 1728 showed that no land bridge exists between Siberia and America), and in 1732 Bering is given command of what is called the "Great Northern Expedition". This begins as a small proposal but becomes unrealistically inflated by the government. Bering is to locate and map the American coast as far as the first European settlement; other groups, coordinated by him, are to chart the Siberian coast and determine once and for all whether Asia and America are connected. Bering is in charge of a sizable scientific party, and also ordered to initiate economic development in eastern Siberia. Bering will not survive the expedition, however forty-five of the 77 officers and men of the St. Peter eventually will reach safety in 1742. This "Great Northern Expedition", obtains significant geographic and scientific information: mapping the strait, now named for Bering, dividing Asia and America, the Siberian coast from the White Sea to the Kolyma River, and the coast of America from Prince of Wales Island to the Komandorskie Islands. Bering suffers from scurvy and will die on Bering Island, near Kamchatka. | Bering Straight |
259 YBN [09/12/1741 AD] | 5952) | (composed) London, England and (performed) Dublin, Ireland |
259 YBN [1741 AD] | 1911) | Cambridge, England |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 1929) Goldbach is the son of a minister. Goldbach studies medicine and mathematics at the University of Königsberg. In 1725 Goldbach is hired as professor of mathematics at the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. Goldbach is a voluminous correspondent with mathematicians of the time. | Moscow, Russia |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 1942) | Stockholm, Sweden |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 1948) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) writes the drama "Mahomet, ou le fanatisme") aka "Fanaticism, or Mahomet", a play in 5 acts, which he describes as "written in opposition to the founder of a false and barbarous sect to whom could I with more propriety inscribe a satire on the cruelty and errors of a false prophet." | Cirey, France |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 1959) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 1963) I think it is again important to note that a microscope and telescope are basically the same thing, magnifiers, they spread out light so a small area appears to be larger. | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 1975) Celsius is a professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, and in 1740 he builds the Uppsala Observatory. Initially Celsius places the boiling point at 0 and the freezing point at 100, but this is reversed in 1743. This scale will become the (official) "Celsius scale" in 1948. Celsius publishes "Dissertatio de Nova Methodo Distantiam Solis a Terra Determinandi" (1730; "A Dissertation on a New Method of Determining the Distance of the Sun from the Earth") and "De Observationibus pro Figura Telluris Determinanda in Gallia Habitis, Disquisitio" (1738; "Disquisition on Observations Made in France for Determining the Shape of the Earth"). | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 1985) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790) invents the "Franklin stove", a wood burning stove made of iron that fits in a fireplace, designed to give greater warmth, more comfort, and cleaner heating at a lower fuel cost.{7 us hist} Designed to be used in an already existing fireplace, the Franklin stove does not resemble what are now called Franklin stoves.{7 us hist} | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 2011) Albrecht von Haller (HolR) (CE 1708-1777), Swiss physiologist, publishes "Enumeratio methodica stirpium Helveticarum", (1742) a large book on flora of Switzerland. | Basel, Switzerland (presumably) |
258 YBN [1742 AD] | 2068) | Geneva?, Switzerland (presumably) |
257 YBN [1743 AD] | 1976) Franklin is the fifteenth child of seventeen born to a poor candlemaker. (Franklin is the first person in America to contribute to modern science). Franklin has only 2 years of formal schooling. At 12 Franklin is apprenticed to his brother James, a printer. Two other people to try this kite experiment are killed (presumably by lightning?). {With a Leyden jar a spark of light and crackling sound could be produced by putting a metal rod near the charged jar}. Benjamin Franklin builds a repulsive electroscope using the electrical repulsion of two linen threads to measure the strength of static electricity. (chronology - sometime between 1731 and 1753) Franklin is publicly a deist, writing in his autobiography started in 1771: "Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of the sermons which had been preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them. For the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to be much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.". Franklin invents a glass armonica based on the concept of the sound a drinking glass makes when rubbed. A person plays a melody by touching the rim of spinning glass bowls (each) mounted on rotating spindles. (In evaluating Mesmer's method of passing hands over people, Franklin rejects that Mesmer's method is legitimate, but describes psychosomatic cures, that cures might be affected by suggestion ). Franklin rejects Newton's corpuscular theory of light in favor of the theory of light as a wave propagated through an all encompassing aether. Through the group he founded in 1727 to debate questions of morals, politics, and natural philosophy, the "Junto", or Leather Apron Club, Franklin proposed a paid city watch, or police force (for Philadelphia). Franklin is a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. In 1900 Franklin is chosen as one of the charter members of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. | Philadelphia, Pennsylviania, (English Colonies) USA |
257 YBN [1743 AD] | 2023) Johann Georg Gmelin (GumAliN) (CE 1709-1755) German explorer makes a journey of scientific exploration through Siberia (1733-1743). Gmelin starts to study medicine at age 14. Gmelin is the first person to measure that the level of the Astrakhan in Russia near the Caspian Sea is below that of the Mediterranean Sea (sea level). In Eastern Siberia Gmelin identifies ground that is constantly frozen all summer long, this is called permafrost. Gmelin's major works are "Flora Sibirica" (4 vols., 1749-1750) and "Reisen durch Sibirien" (4 vols., 1753). | Astrakhan, Russia |
257 YBN [1743 AD] | 2030) Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (lumunOSuF) (CE 1711-1765) Russian chemist and writer, publishes "276 zametok po fizike i korpuskulyarnoy filosofi" ("276 Notes on Corpuscular Philosophy and Physics") which sets forth the dominant ideas of his scientific work. | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
257 YBN [1743 AD] | 2036) Clairaut accompanies Maupertuis on an expedition to Lapland to determine the length of 1° of a meridian within the Arctic circle to determine that the shape of the earth is an oblate spheroid. After his return Clairaut publishes his treatise "Théorie de la figure de la terre" (Theory of the Shape of the Earth, 1743), which contains "Clairaut's theorem". Clairaut shows how the shape of the earth can be calculated by measuring the force of gravity at different locations through the timing of pendulum swings. | Paris, France (presumably) |
257 YBN [1743 AD] | 2037) | Paris, France (presumably) |
257 YBN [1743 AD] | 2057) D'Alembert receives a pension from Louis XV even though D'Alembert's articles for Diderot were of an "anti-establishment" nature. D'Alembert refuses invitations to Berlin from Frederick II and to St Petersburg by Catherine II. D'Alem bert bitterly argues with Clauraut about who is the first to work on (the orbit of) Halley's comet. | Paris, France (presumably) |
256 YBN [1744 AD] | 1924) | London, England |
256 YBN [1744 AD] | 1967) Fermat had explained Snell's law of refraction, which describes the movement of a ray of light at the boundary of two media of different densities, based on the idea that a ray of light takes the least time possible in moving from the first medium to the second. Fermat's explanation implies that light moves more slowly in a denser medium, to which Maupertuis objects and wants to explain Snell's law without this principle. (As an aside, very generally speaking, and there are exceptions, the amount a beam of photons changes direction in a medium is more for a denser medium which is consistent with the theory that particles of light as masses encounter more collisions and/or orbit more other particles in a denser material). Maupertuis views this principle of least action as the fundamental principle of mechanics, and expects that all other mechanical laws should be derivable from it. As a believer in a deity, Maupertuis attempts to use this principle to prove the existence of a God. A similar principle had previously been formulated by Leonhard Euler as a result of his mathematical work on the calculus of variations, whereas Maupertuis had been led to formulate his version of the principle through his work in optics. The German mathematician Samuel Koenig accuses Maupertuis of having plagiarized Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's work in this principle. In the ensuing controversy, Leonhard Euler supports Maupertuis, but Voltaire, (once a supporter of Maupertuis) satirizes the "earth flattener" so mercilessly that Maupertuis leaves Berlin in 1753. | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
256 YBN [1744 AD] | 2058) | Paris, France (presumably) |
256 YBN [1744 AD] | 2059) | Paris, France (presumably) |
256 YBN [1744 AD] | 2060) | Paris, France (presumably) |
256 YBN [1744 AD] | 2121) | |
256 YBN [1744 AD] | 2962) Georg Mathias Bose (CE 1710-1761), German physicist, publishes "Die Electricität nach ihrer Entdeckung und Fortgang, mit poetischer Feder entworffen" where describe in poetic form Bose's experiments with electricity, including the electrification of an isolated human body. | (University of Wittenberg)Wittenberg, Germany |
256 YBN [1744 AD] | 2964) Joseph Priestley comments that the best rubber for the globe, as well as the tube, is long after this, still thought, by all electricians, to be the human hand, dry and free from moisture. In 1746 Winckler transmits electric signal a short distance without wires. At the University of Leipzig, in 1739 Winckler is appointed Professor of Philosophy, in 1741 as Professor of Classical Languages, and then in 1750 as Professor of Physics.. Johann Heinrich Winckler is Bach's colleague at the St. Thomas School and writes the traditional text of the cantata "Froher Tag, verlangte Stunden" (BWV Anh 18) (the music for this cantata has been lost). Winckler contributes and is associated with Bach: Both Johann Christoph Gottsched and Johann Heinrich Winckler, prominent exponents of the university, write texts for Bach. | (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
255 YBN [11/04/1745 AD] | 1972) Von Kleist studied at the University of Leyden in the 1720's and while a student there may have encountered the demonstrations in experimental physics of Professor Gravesande who was involved in electricity at Leyden. Von Kleist apparently acquired his interest in science while at the University of Leyden. One source states that von Kleist discovers that electricity can be stored in a glass bottle if both the inner and outer surfaces of the bottle are covered with a metallic foil, and a metallic rod is placed in the middle of the bottle.Von Kleist who studied law in the Dutch university of Leiden, informs his friends of his discovery. A Dutch physician, Pieter van Musschenbroek, then publishes the first scientific paper regarding the Kleist bottle, which is then given the name "Leyden jar". (Just as a comment, there are certainly some times when an idea is so obvious that two or more people will independently find it, even around the same time, but I think the more unique, complex or unusual the discovery or invention, the higher the probability of an individual discoverer or inventor. In particular when an invention has two or more claimed discoverers in the same location around the same time, as is the case for the Leyden jar. In some cases, elements of the invention are in place with one or more missing pieces, in which case, the chances of duplication are higher.) | Pomerania?, Prussia (coast of Baltic Sea between Germany and Poland) |
255 YBN [1745 AD] | 1244) | England |
255 YBN [1745 AD] | 1906) De La Mettrie is a student of Hermann Boerhaave. | Paris, France (presumably) |
255 YBN [1745 AD] | 1989) Émilie du Châtelet (so TlA) (full name: Gabrielle Émikle le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet) (CE 1706-1749) translates Newton's "Principia" from Latin into French at the request of Voltaire. Chatelet publishes a book titled "Institutions de Physique" ("Lessons in Physics", 1740) in 1740 which is attempts to integrate Cartesian, Newtonian, and Leibnizian ideas. On the philosophic side the themes she discusses are free will, God's power and role, and the nature of space, matter, and force. Châtelet's "Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu" ("Dissertation on the nature and the propagation of fire", 1744) Châtelet is one of the few women interested in science at this time. Châtelet is friends with Voltaire and Maupertuis. Voltaire and Chatelet work together on scientific and philosophical questions in addition to having a (sexual) relationship. When Voltaire leaves Chatelet, she begins a relationship with poet Saint-Lambert, and dies in pregnancy. In her "Discours sur le bonheur" Chatelet places equal value on love and intellectual endeavors. | Cirey, France (presumably) |
255 YBN [1745 AD] | 2695) It seems almost that there are two main competing sides throughout the history of modern science, and Boscovich seems to be supporting the conservative side which tends to reject atomism, also as applied to particles of light. (Although) Boscovich is one of the first scientists of continental Europe to accept Isaac Newton's gravitational theory. Boscovich publishes nearly 70 papers on optics, astronomy, gravitation, meteorology, and trigonometry. (See image) This is Boscovich's force-distance curve from his "De viribus vivis" dissertation of 1745. Letters identify 'limit points' where attraction turns into repulsion and vice versa, inflection points, maxima and minima and so on. This dissertation presents many of the concepts in Boscovich's later "Philosophiae naturalis theoria1". | Rome |
255 YBN [1745 AD] | 2965) | (University of Erfurt) Erfurt, Germany |
255 YBN [1745 AD] | 2966) | (University of Erfurt) Erfurt, Germany |
254 YBN [04/20/1746 AD] | 1930) Musschenbroek comes from a family of instrument makers, who at the time of his birth are making telescopes, microscopes and air pumps. In 1715 Musschenbroek earns a medical degree from the University of Leiden and a Ph.D. in 1719. Luigi Galvani will use a Leyden jar to move muscles on frog legs in 1780. | Leiden, Netherlands |
254 YBN [1746 AD] | 1995) Leonhard Euler (OElR) (CE 1707-1783), Swiss mathematician, publishes "Nova theoria lucis et colorum" (A new theory of light and colors) in which Euler rejects Newton's corpuscular theory of light in favor of the view of light as a wave propagated through an aetherial medium similar to sound, and supports the theory that color of light is based on wave-length ("particle spacing"). In 1699, Nicolas Malebranche (CE 1638-1715) was the first to make public the theory that color is based on frequency of light. | Berlin, Germany |
254 YBN [1746 AD] | 2003) | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
254 YBN [1746 AD] | 2022) | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
254 YBN [1746 AD] | 2953) In 1746 the abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet, a physicist who popularizes science in France, discharges a Leyden jar in front of King Louis XV by sending current through a chain of 180 Royal Guards. In another demonstration, Nollet uses wire made of iron to connect a row of Carthusian monks more than a kilometre long; when a Leyden jar is discharged, the white-robed monks reportedly leap simultaneously into the air. In addition to many memoirs Nollet writes "Legons de physique expdrimentale" (1743), "Essai sur l'electricite des corps" (1747), "Recherches sur les causes particulieres des phenomenes eiectriques" (1749 and 1754), "Recueil de lettres sur l'electricite" (1753), "L'Art de faire les chapeaux" (1764) and "L'Art des experiences" (1770). It would seem that if there were two particles combining in a spark that some atom or other form of matter might be formed. Perhaps all the matter is lost to photons. If the atmosphere so clearly felt around objects electrified with static electricity is made of particles, what kind of particles? How do they differ from an electric field from moving current such as around a permanent magnet or wire? What happens when these particles merge? Is all matter released as particles of light, or does some matter remain after? EX: Model particle fields and how they collapse under gravity, forms a line, releases particles? | Paris, France (presumably) |
254 YBN [1746 AD] | 2968) In 1747, Watson transmits an electric spark from his device through a wire strung across the River Thames at Westminster Bridge. | London, England |
254 YBN [1746 AD] | 2969) William Watson (CE 1715â"1787), English physician and scientist, relates that "Upon shewing some Experiments to Dr. Bevis, to prove my Assertion that the Stroke was, caeteris paribus, (other things being equal) as the Points of Contact of Nonelectrics to the Glass, that ingenious Gentleman has very clearly demonstrated it likewise by the following Experiment: He wrapped up two large round-bellied Phials in very thin Lead so close as to touch the Glasses every-where, except their Necks. These were filled with Water, and cork'd, with a Staple of small Wire running through each Cork into the Water. A Piece of strong Wire about 5 Inches long, with an Eye at each End, was provided, and at each End of this hung one of the Phial of Water by the small Staple running through the Cork. A small Wire Loop then was fasten'd into the Lead at the Bottom of each Phial, and into these Loops was inserted a Piece of strong Wire like the former. If then these Phials were hung across the Gun-barrel and electrified, and a Person standing upon the Floor touched the bottom Wire with one Hand, and the Gun barrel with the other, he received a most violent Shock through both his Arms, and across his Breast." | London, England |
254 YBN [1746 AD] | 2977) In this year Jean-Antoine Nollet (CE 1700-1770) publishes "Recherches sur les Causes Particulieres des Phenomenes Electriques, l'Abbe Nollet", (1753) a detailed treatise on electricity, and "Lettres sur l Electricite, l'Abbe Nollet" (1753) which counters Franklin's one-fluid theory of electricity. | Paris, France (presumably) |
253 YBN [07/11/1747 AD] | 1981) Franklin writes "The impossibility of electrising one's self though standing on wax by rubbing the tube, and drawing the fire from it; and the manner of doing it, by passing the tube near a person or thing standing on the floor, &c., had also occurred to us some months before Mr Watson's ingenious Sequel came to hand, and these were some of the new things I intended to have communicated to you But now I need only mention some particulars not hinted in that piece with our reasonings thereupon; though perhaps the latter might well enough be spared. 1 A person standing on wax and rubbing the tube and another person on wax drawing the fire they will both of them provided they do not stand so as to touch one another appear to be electrised to a person standing on the floor; that is he will perceive a spark on approaching each of them with his knuckle. 2 But, if the persons on wax touch one another during the exciting of the tube, neither of them will appear to be electrised. 3 If they touch one another after exciting the tube and drawing the fire as aforesaid, there will be a stronger spark between them than was between either of them and the person on the floor. 4 After such strong spark neither of them discover any electricity. These appearances we attempt to account for thus: We suppose, as aforesaid, that electrical fire is a common element, of which every one of the three persons above mentioned has his equal share, before any operation is begun with the tube. A, who stands on wax and rubs the tube, collects the electrical fire from himself into the glass; and his communication with the common stock being cut off by the wax, his body is not again immediately supply'd. B, who stands on wax likewise passing his knuckle along near the tube, receives the fire which was collected by the glass from A; and his communication with the common stock being likewise cut off, he retains the additional quantity received. To C, standing on the floor, both appear to be electrised: for he having only the middle quantity of electrical fire, receives a spark upon approaching B, who has an over quantity; but gives one to A, who has an under quantity. If A and B approach to touch each other the spark is stronger, because the difference between them is greater: After such touch there is no spark between either of them and C, because the electrical fire in all is reduced to the original equality. If they touch while electrising, the equality is never destroy'd, the fire only circulating. Hence have arisen some new terms among us: we say, B, and bodies like circumstanced is electrised positively; A, negatively. Or rather, B is electrised plus; A, minus. And we daily in our experiments electrise bodies plus or minus, as we think proper. To electrise plus or minus no more needs to be known than this, that the parts of the tube or sphere that are rubbed, do, in the instant of the friction, attract the electrical fire, and therefore take it from the thing rubbing: the same parts immediately, as the friction upon them ceases, are disposed to give the fire they have received, to any body that has less. Thus you may circulate it, as Mr Watson has shewn; you may also accumulate or subtract it upon, or from any body, as you connect that body with the rubber, or with the receiver, the communication with the common stock being cut off. We think that ingenious gentleman was deceived when he imagined in his Sequel that the electrical fire came down the wire from the deling to the gun barrel, thence to the sphere, and so electrised the machine and the man turning the wheel, &c., We suppose it was driven off, and not brought on through that wire; and that the machine and man, &c., were electrised minus, i.e. had less electrical fire in them than things in common.". This book will go through five English editions, three in French, and one each in Italian and German in the 1700s. Asimov says Franklin views the earth and sky as being a large Leyden jar. Possibly electricity is caused by gravity, combined with physical restrictions caused by atoms occupying space (like the Pauli exclusion principle, how only one photon can occupy the quantity of space a photon can occupy), in other words, electric attraction and repulsion may be a collective effect of the gravity of many particles in addition to the physical structure of atomic lattices. Possibly electrons are actually photons or combinations of photons held together by gravity, since when an electron and positron collide and are separated into source matter in the form of finite short duration quantities of photons (check and more specific, how many photons?). We should not rule out new ideas and interpretations, in particular, for phenomena we cannot directly observe. On August 14th, 1747, Franklin sends Peter Collinson a third letter stating "SIR, I have lately written two long Letters to you on the Subject of Electricity; one by the Governor's Vessel, the other per Mesnard. On some further Experiments since, I have observ'd a Phenomenon or two, that I cannot at present account for on the Principle laid down in those Letters, and am therefore become a little diffident of my Hypothesis, and asham'd that I have express'd myself in so positive a manner. In going on with these Experiments, how many pretty Systems do we build which we soon find ourselves oblig'd to destroy! If there is no other Use discover'd of Electricity this however is something considerable, that it may help to make a vain man humble. I must now request that you would not Expose those Letters; or if you communicate them to any Friends you would at least conceal my Name. I have not Time to add but that I am Sir, Your obliged and most hum Serv B FRANKLIN" | Philadelphia, PA (English colonies) USA (letter to London, England) |
253 YBN [09/01/1747 AD] | 2970) Franklin writes "The non electric contain'd in the bottle differs when electrised from a non electric electrised out of the bottle, in this: that the electrical fire of the latter is accumulated on its surface, and forms an electrical atmosphere round it of considerable extent; but the electrical fire is crowded into the substance of the former, the glass confining it. (Later Franklin observes that the "fire" is in the glass, not the non-electric) At the same time that the wire and the top of the bottle, &c. is electrised positively or plus, the botttom of the bottle is electrised negatively or minus, in exact proportion; i.e., whatever quantity of electrical fire is thrown in at the top (inside), an equal quantity goes out of the bottom (outside). To understand this, suppose the common quantity of electricity in each part of the bottle, before the operation begins, is equal to 20; and at every stroke of the tube, suppose a quantity equal to 1 is thrown in; then, after the first stroke, the quantity contained in the wire and upper part of the bottle will be 21, in the bottom 19; after the second, the upper part will have 22, the lower 18, and so on, till, after 20 strokes, the upper part will have a quantity of electrical fire equal to 40, the lower part none; and then the operation ends; for no more can be thrown into the upper part, when no more can be driven out of the lower part. If you attempt to throw more in, it is spued back through the wire, or flies out in loud cracks through the sides of the bottle.". | Philadelphia, PA, (English Colonies) USA(London, England) |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 1192) The École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) ("National school of Bridges and Roads") is formed in Paris. | Paris, France |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 1907) De La Mettrie is a student of Hermann Boerhaave. | ?, Netherlands |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 1982) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 2012) | Göttingen, Germany |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 2020) Today sugar is made from beets in many countries all over the earth. | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 2031) Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (lumunOSuF) (CE 1711-1765) Russian chemist and writer, publishes in Latin, "Meditationes de Caloris et Frigoris Causa" (1747; "Cause of Heat and Cold") in which Lomonosov expresses anti-phlogistic views supporting the theory of heat as a form of motion as Rumford will do.. | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 2055) Lind observes on a ten-week cruise (in 1746) that 80 of the 350 semen get scurvy. Lind is viewed as the father of naval hygiene. | England |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 2056) | England (presumably) |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 2963) | (University of Wittenberg)Wittenberg, Germany |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 2986) | Paris, France (presumably) |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 3452) George William Richman (CE 1711-1753) describes the effect of evaporating fluids producing cold. This phenomenon is also known as "adiabatic temperature change". Adiabatic is defined as: occurring without gain or loss of heat (opposite of diabatic, which is defined as occurring with an exchange of heat). (This must refer to no external heat being added in the case of gas expansion and compression, since there is a gain or loss of heat in the expansion or compression of gases.) | (Academy of Petersburg) Petersburg, Russia |
253 YBN [1747 AD] | 4483) | Paris, France |
252 YBN [01/01/1748 AD] | 1960) During the 1720s Bouguer makes some of the earliest measurements in astronomical photometry (the measurement of light intensity), comparing the apparent brightness of celestial objects to that of a standard candle flame. In 1730 Bouguer is made professor of hydrography (geographer of waters of earth) at Le Havre (in France) succeeding his father. Bouguer devotes much of his life to the study of nautical problems such as naval maneuvers, navigation and ship design. | ??, France (presumably) |
252 YBN [02/14/1748 AD] | 1932) In 1748 Bradley is awarded the Copley medal for his finding of "nutation". | Kew, England |
252 YBN [1748 AD] | 2032) Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (lumunOSuF) (CE 1711-1765) Russian chemist and writer, publishes in Latin, "Tentamen Theoriae de vi Aëris Elastica" (1748; "Elastic Force of Air"). | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
252 YBN [1748 AD] | 2045) In 1768, Needham is the first Roman Catholic clergyman to become a fellow of the Royal Society of London. | London, England (presumably) |
252 YBN [1748 AD] | 2954) | Paris, France (presumably) |
252 YBN [1748 AD] | 2955) Nollet designs and builds globes. | Paris, France (presumably) |
252 YBN [1748 AD] | 4537) | Berlin, Germany |
251 YBN [04/29/1749 AD] | 2971) In this letter Franklin describes how they ignite alcohol from one side to the other side of the Delaware river, using only the water as a conductor, which amazes many people. A wire is connected to a spoon in alcohol and run over the river and wrapped around the outside of the Leyden jar, the hook of the Leyden jar is connected to a 3 foot metal rod driving around the margin of the water, when the hook is charged, the charge is sent over the river through the water to a second 3 foot metal rod driven into the margin of the water on the other side which has a thick wire bent near the alcohol, and the spark completes the circuit igniting the alcohol. | Philadelphia, Pennsylviania, (English Colonies) USA (and London, England) |
251 YBN [1749 AD] | 1877) | London, England (presumably) |
251 YBN [1749 AD] | 1961) | ??, France (presumably) |
251 YBN [1749 AD] | 1997) | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
251 YBN [1749 AD] | 2024) | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
251 YBN [1749 AD] | 2046) Interesting events in the life of Denis Didderot: The Encyclopedia Britannica states that Diderot "progressed relatively slowly from Roman Catholicism to deism and then to atheism". In the "Supplément au voyage de Bougainville Diderot", by discussing the mores people on islands in the South Pacific, Diderot emphasizes his vision of a free society based on tolerance and develops his views on sexual freedom. | Paris, France (presumably) |
250 YBN [01/01/1750 AD] | 2040) | Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
250 YBN [1750 AD] | 1212) William Cullen (April 15, 1710 - February 5, 1790), a Scottish physician and chemist, tries bleeding as a cure for "insanity". | Scotland, UK |
250 YBN [1750 AD] | 1245) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
250 YBN [1750 AD] | 1921) | Paris, France (presumably) |
250 YBN [1750 AD] | 1969) Pierre de Maupertuis (moPARTUE) (CE 1698-1759) publishes "Essai de cosmologie" (1750), which puts forward a mechanistic view of the universe. | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
250 YBN [1750 AD] | 2025) Wright has a speech impediment. Wright's father burns his astronomy books thinking them frivolous. This idea of the Milky Way as an flat layer of stars will be taken up and elaborated by Immanuel Kant in his "Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven". | |
250 YBN [1750 AD] | 2063) | London, England |
250 YBN [1750 AD] | 2092) The "bluestockings", form started by Elizabeth Vesey, as a group of women who attempt to replace social evenings spent playing cards with something more intellectual by having "conversations" to which they invite men of letters and members of the aristocracy with literary interests. Terribly and sadly, and as an indication of the popularity of forces against science and women's rights, the word "bluestocking", will come to be applied derisively to a woman who has literary or learned interests. | London, England |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 1211) Richard Mead (August 11, 1673 - February 16, 1754), an English physician, prints a medical text on "insanity" in which he advocates assault and torture against those believed to be insane, writing that an insane person should be "tied down and even beat, to prevent his doing mischief to himself or others." | England |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 1949) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) publishes the "Micromégas" (1752), which emphasizes the littleness of man compared to the scale of the universe. "Micromégas", is written in the style of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", in which an eight-league-tall traveler from Sirius comes to inspect the earth. The visitor from Sirius is divided between horror at the pettiness and cruelness of humanity and admiration for modern science. | Paris, France (published) |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 1953) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) publishes "Siècle de Louis XIV" (1751), a History of King of France Louis XIV. | Berlin, Germany |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 1968) | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 1974) Charles Marie de La Condamine (loKoNDuMEN) (CE 1701-1774), French geographer publishes "Journal du voyage fait par ordre du roi a l'équateur" (1751; "Journal of a Voyage to the Equator Made by Order of the King") in addition to a scientific account of his ten year exploration of South America. | Paris, France (presumably) |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 1984) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790), just before his death in 1790, signs a memorial requesting that the Congress abolish slavery in the United States. This memorandum provokes some congressmen into angry defenses of slavery, which Franklin expertly mocks in a newspaper piece published a month before he dies. | London, England |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 2002) | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 2047) In 1745 a book seller, André Le Breton approached Diderot wanting a French translation of Ephraim Chambers' English "Cyclopaedia" (1728 ), after two other translators had withdrawn from the project. Diderot undertook the task with the mathematician Jean Le Rond d'Alembert as coeditor, but soon changed the nature of the publication into a bigger and different project: to commission the best scholars in France to write articles on every facet of the new learning of Newton and his followers. Some scholar suggest that the encyclopedia may have inspired the French Revolution in 1789 five years after Diderot's death. Asimov states that if true perhaps the French government had been right to fear the industrious scribbler. | Paris, France |
249 YBN [1751 AD] | 2070) | |
248 YBN [01/03/1752 AD] | 2009) In a letter sent from Geneva on February 2, 1753 to the astronomer royal, James Bradley, Melvill suggests that light rays of different colors traveling at different velocities might account for their differing refraction through a prism, and that this can be confirmed if the satellites of Jupiter are seen to change slightly in color as they occult and emerge. This letter was read before the Royal Society on March 8 and the telescope maker James Short is instructed to make the necessary observations. Short reports that no such effect could be seen. In a second letter to Bradley, dated June 2, Melvill (wrongly) suggests that the rate of light travel concerned in aberration might be affected by the humors of the eye itself. Melvill dies in Geneva in December 1753 at the age of twenty-seven. (The speed of photons appears to be very uniform, although possibly not always the same as the Pound-Rebka experiment may be evidence of. The various colors photons produce is most likely because of the interval of space between the photons, the photon interval, or so-called wavelength of a beam of light.) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
248 YBN [02/20/1752 AD] | 2976) | London, England |
248 YBN [1752 AD] | 1922) | Paris, France (presumably) |
248 YBN [1752 AD] | 1983) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
248 YBN [1752 AD] | 2054) Jean Étienne Guettard (GeToRD) (CE 1715-1786), French geologist , upsets the neptunism theories of Abraham Werner and his followers by identifying the Auvergne mountains of central France to be of volcanic origin (are they?). Werner's theory states that all volcanic activity is recent, so no volcanoes as ancient as the Auvergne ones should exist. Guettard publishes this findings in his memoir, "On Certain Mountains in France which once have been Volcanoes" (1752). In addition Guettard is the first to identify several fossil species from the Paris area. | France |
248 YBN [1752 AD] | 2064) | London, England (presumably) |
248 YBN [1752 AD] | 2987) | (Petersberg Academy) St Petersberg, Russia |
247 YBN [02/17/1753 AD] | 2658) | Scotland, Great Britain (presumably) |
247 YBN [07/26/1753 AD] | 2985) | St Petersberg, Russia |
247 YBN [12/??/1753 AD] | 2972) | London, England |
247 YBN [1753 AD] | 1927) A solar eclipse in 1706 interests Delisle in astronomy. Delisle works at the Paris Observatory. Peter I (The Great) invites Delisle to build an astronomy in Russia. Delisle intending to be in Russia only 4 years, but stays for 22 and trains the first generation of Russian astronomers. Delisle returns to Paris in 1747, and is appointed geographic astronomer to the naval department. (In Paris) Delisle installs an observatory in the Hôtel Cluny. | Paris, France |
247 YBN [1753 AD] | 1964) | London, England (presumably) |
247 YBN [1753 AD] | 1994) | Berlin, Germany |
247 YBN [1753 AD] | 1998) | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
247 YBN [1753 AD] | 2013) | Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
247 YBN [1753 AD] | 2957) | London, England |
246 YBN [1754 AD] | 2021) | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
246 YBN [1754 AD] | 2050) Denis Diderot (DEDrO) (CE 1713-1784), French writer , publishes "Pensées sur l'interprétation de la nature" ("Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature"), a short treatise on the new experimental methods in science. | Paris, France |
246 YBN [1754 AD] | 2120) | Geneva, Switzerland |
245 YBN [01/25/1755 AD] | 1370) Kant Russian State University is technically the oldest university in Russia, when Russia took possession of Kaliningrad (Lithuanian: Karaliaučius; German Königsberg, Polish: Królewiec) after World War 2, which includes the German East-Prussian Albertina University of Königsberg founded in 1544. | Moscow, Russia |
245 YBN [05/01/1755 AD] | 3249) | (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
245 YBN [11/??/1755 AD] | 1528) | Corsica |
245 YBN [1755 AD] | 1214) John Monro (1715-1791) superintendant of Bethlehem Asylum, records giving one prisoner 61 vomit inducing emetics (a medicine or object that induces vomiting) in 6 months. | London, England |
245 YBN [1755 AD] | 1990) | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
245 YBN [1755 AD] | 2026) Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (lumunOSuF) (CE 1711-1765) Russian chemist and writer, writes a book on Russian grammer ("Rossiyskaya grammatika") that reforms the language. Lomonosov is the first to record the freezing of mercury (40 degree below zero (celsius?)) in a very cold Russian winter. Lomonosov is the first to prepare an accurate map of Russia. Lomonosov is the son of a fisherman, and moves to Moscow at age 19. In 1736 Lomonosov is one of sixteen students selected to continue their studies at the newly established secular university at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The Academy sends Lomonosov to study in Germany, from 1736 to 1741, first at the University of Marburg, where he learns the basic sciences, and later at the famous mining academy at Freiburg. In this time German people monopolize science in Russia and look down on the native Russian people (such as Lomonosov), until the 1900s. Lomonosov writes poetry about science. Lomonsov writes a hymn that lampoons the theologians who stand in the way of scientific progress. On one occasion, Lomonosov is sent to jail as a result of complaints by foreign colleagues regarding his abusive language at scientific sessions of the Academy. Lomonosov is friends with the celebrated German mathematician Leonhard Euler. A friend of Lomonosov is killed when they try to repeat Franklin's kite experiment. Lomonosov supports atomist views. | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
245 YBN [1755 AD] | 2072) In 1781 Kant will publishes his popular (philosophical) work "Critique of Pure Reason". Kant is funded by Frederick II of Prussia. | Königsberg, Germany |
245 YBN [1755 AD] | 2089) Black is professor of chemistry at Glasgow (1756-66) and from 1766 at Edinburgh. | Edinburgh, Scotland |
245 YBN [1755 AD] | 2979) | Peking, China (sent to St. Petersberg Academy) |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 1215) Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in what is now the United States, is opened to care for the sick-poor and mentally ill of Philadelphia. This is also the first psychiatric hospital in what will be the USA. People are kept in cells watched by other people with whips, are beat, regularly chained, and put in "madd-shirts" (straight jackets). Care of the mentally ill will be removed to West Philadelphia in 1841 with the construction of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, later known as The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital. | Pennsylviania, USA |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 1954) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) publishes "Essai sur l'histoire générale et sur les murs et l'esprit des nations" (7 vol., 1756; tr. 1759), the first attempt at writing a history of the world as a whole. Voltaire lays as much emphasis on culture and commerce as on politics and war, and avoids national (prejudice). | Geneva, Switzerland |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 2016) | Gottingen, Germany |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 2033) Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (lumunOSuF) (CE 1711-1765) Russian chemist and writer, publishes in Latin, "Theoria Electricitatis" (1756; "Theory of Electricity"). | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 2034) Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (lumunOSuF) (CE 1711-1765) Russian chemist and writer, publishes "Slovo o proiskhozhdeni sveta" (1756; "Origin of Light and Colours"). Lomonosov supports a wave theory of light as Young will do (state nature of wave theory, aether based, sine wave, amplitude, like sound?). | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 2061) | Paris, France (presumably) |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 2066) | London, England (presumably) |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 2090) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
244 YBN [1756 AD] | 2252) | Bologna, Italy |
243 YBN [1757 AD] | 2039) Lacaille will use Clairaut's calculations of perturbations to improve his tables of Sun positions published in 1758. | Paris, France |
243 YBN [1757 AD] | 2041) Lacaille gives away copies of his chart to any people who ask even though poor. | Paris, France (presumably) |
243 YBN [1757 AD] | 2697) | Rome?, Italy |
243 YBN [1757 AD] | 2981) | (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
243 YBN [1757 AD] | 3250) | (University of Erlangen) Erlangen, Germany |
242 YBN [10/21/1758 AD] | 4538) | Bath, England |
242 YBN [11/14/1758 AD] | 2038) | Paris, France |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 1203) | England |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 1216) William Battie writes "A Treatise on Madness" which describes "cures" for "insanity". But "insanity" has never been clearly defined. I think insanity can be reduced to having inaccurate views, or doing unusual behavior. But many people that simply cannot get a job, or feed themselves are labeled insane and locked in psychiatric hospitals which serve as a primative social program of free room and food. Battie owns psychiatric hospitals, and a truth that is rarely if ever mentioned, is that by creating more nonexistent and or trivial diseases, more people may be tricked into believing that they have a disease and need to buy drugs and pay a doctor for treatment, which generates more money for those who own the psychiatric hospitals and get money from the modern snake-oil industry of psychology. In addition, the widely believed myth and fear of insanity allows an illegal method for permanently jailing, for example, political enemies of those in power, without the victim being charged with violating a law, without receiving a trial, tortured, drugged, experimented on, operated on, and jailed without finite sentence. Interestingly psychology is the only remaining health-based fraud (with the passing of phrenology), other frauds such as astrology, psychics, tarot, and religion are not health based and generate money strictly from the fraudulent myth. In its role as a primitive social program, unwanted relatives (many times unskilled poor female spouses) are imprisoned in psychiatric hospitals owned by individual people such as Battie. William Battie owns psychiatric hospitals/prisons in Islington and Clerkenwell and will die with 100,000-200,000 pounds from this business. | England |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 1999) | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 2048) | Paris, France |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 2071) Cronstedt also makes a detailed analysis of calcium tungstate, a previously unknown mineral of high relative density (specific gravity), and studies the properties of gypsum and a hydrous mineral Cronstedt names zeolite. | Sweden (presumably) |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 2110) King Louis XV calls Messier the comet ferret. Asimov relates that at this time the true grandeur of the universe (that the nebulae are actually other galaxies) was not yet known but is only suspected by people like Lambert and Kant. There is a slow and very gradual acceptance that the estimate of the size of the universe by the majority of people on earth continues to increase, until finally the majority will probably accept that the universe is either unknowingly, or infinitely large in size and age and scale. | Paris, France (presumably) |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 2174) | Turin, Italy |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 2696) The primary elements of matter for Boscovich are indivisible, non-extended points. In contrast with Newton's hypothesis, direct contact of these points is not allowed because for impenetrable particles this would imply a discontinous change in velocity at the moment of contact. Therefore particles actually never touch: at very short distances the mutual force between them is repulsive, and increases indefinitely as the distance is diminished. At great distances, particles attract through the gravitational force. Over the intermediate range the force is alternatively attractive and repulsive, with one or more oscillations. Boscovich represents his theory graphically through a force-distance curve (see image): forces above the horizontal axis are repulsive, those below it are attractive. His law of interaction can be considered as the first interatomic model. (interesting, Newton never hypothesized about gravity between atoms?) It seems almost that there are two main competing sides throughout the history of modern science, and Boscovich seems to be supporting the conservative side which tends to reject atomism, also as applied to particles of light. I accept the idea of light as the basis of all matter and as taking the form of a particle, perhaps spherical. This view seems logical to me in recognizing that planets and stars are spherical material objects, and that galaxies, ultimately are made of these discrete-unit or point-like objects. However, perhaps something may be learned from alternative interpretations of the universe, and people certainly should have every freedom to theorize and to think and believe whatever they want to. | Vienna |
242 YBN [1758 AD] | 3649) | (lecture at U of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
241 YBN [02/01/1759 AD] | 2973) | London, England (presumably) |
241 YBN [1759 AD] | 1938) | London, England |
241 YBN [1759 AD] | 1939) In 1753 a pocket watch was made for Harrison, to his design, by watchmaker John Jefferys. This watch performed so well that Harrison realized that a longitude solution that uses smaller watches. | London, England |
241 YBN [1759 AD] | 1950) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) publishes "Candide, ou l'Optimisme" (1759) ("Candide, Or All for the Best"), a philosophical fantasy, in which a youth Candide, disciple of Doctor Pangloss (himself a disciple of the philosophical optimism of the deceased Gottfried Leibniz), sees and suffers such misfortune that Candide is unable to believe that (earth is) "the best of all possible worlds." Having retired with his companions to the shores of the Propontis, Candide discovers that the secret of happiness is "to cultivate one's garden," a practical philosophy excluding excessive idealism and nebulous metaphysics. Through the allegory of Candide, Voltaire pokes fun at religion and theologians, governments and armies, philosophies and philosophers. He comprehensively, if not systematically, enumerates all the evils of the world to make fun of the doctrine of Optimism, skewering various other sacred cows along the way. He discusses many evils, but two stand out: the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and the Seven Years' War-both of which inspired Voltaire to write Candide. Voltaire will not openly admit to having written the controversial "Candide" until 1768 (until then he signed with a pseudonym: "Monsieur le docteur Ralph", or "Doctor Ralph"), his authorship of the work is hardly disputed. Immediately after publication, the work and its author are denounced by secular and religious authorities alike. By the end of February 1759, The Great Council of Geneva and the administrators of Paris will have "Candide" banned and orders all copies to be burned. Candide nevertheless succeeded in selling 20,000-30,000 copies by the end of the year in over twenty editions, making it a best-seller. The Duke de La Vallière speculated near the end of January 1759 that Candide might have been the fastest-selling book ever. In 1762, Candide will be listed in the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum", the Catholic Church's list of prohibited books. | Paris, France |
241 YBN [1759 AD] | 2141) Catherine II invites Wolff to Russia. Wolff's name is preserved in several anatomical names in particular the Wolffian body, an early form of of kidney in embryonic animals preceding the true kidney. | Halle, Germany |
241 YBN [1759 AD] | 2156) Euler writes Lagrange on October 2, 1759 an enthusiastic letter about the problem of isoperimetry which Lagrange has in these works solved, and which Euler had long been working on. Unlike the ordinary calculus, which analyzes the point characteristics of specific functions, the calculus of variations deals with the extremum characteristics of functions as a whole. The work quickly attracts the attention of Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (CE 1698â"1759), president of the Berlin Academy, who uses it to support his "principle of least action" against numerous critics. Lagrange is the only child of eleven to survive. In 1755 Lagrange sent Euler a letter on the "calculus of variations" so impressive that Euler holds back his own work on the subject to allow Lagrange to publish first. In 1758 Lagrange helps to found a society which will later became the Turin Academy of Sciences. The Paris Academy of Sciences awards Lagrange prizes for his essays on the libration of the moon (1764), the satellites of Jupiter (1766), and the three-body problem (1772). On the recommendation of Euler and D'Alembert, Frederick II appoints Lagrange to succeed Euler as director of mathematics at the Berlin Academy of Sciences at age 40, saying "the greatest king in Europe" ought to have the "greatest mathematician in Europe" at his court. Lagrange says Newton is the luckiest man in the world because the system of the universe can only be worked out once, and Newton was the person who did it. (Asimov cites Einstein as proof that there is room for improvement, while I don't cite Einstein for anything other than possibly an equivalent system of visualizing the force of gravity in 3D with gravity representing the y dimension (after modifications such as viewing photons as matter and removing time and space dilation), I think there is definitely space for improvement, and I am not entirely sure Newton's laws are the final word on all the matter in the universe in particular in photon models.) Lagrange lives in France through the Terror even though he is friends with Marie Antoinette. In 1793 Lagrange is appointed to head a commission that will in 1795 create the metric system. The metric system will come to be the universal language of scientists, although (the majority in the) USA (and Great Britain) still use the English system. In 1794 when the École Centrale des Travaux Publics (later renamed the École Polytechnique) is opened, Lagrange becomes, with Gaspard Monge, the school's leading professor of mathematics. Napoleon makes Lagrange a senator and a count. | Turin, Italy |
241 YBN [1759 AD] | 2157) | Turin, Italy |
241 YBN [1759 AD] | 3011) | St. Petersberg, Russia |
240 YBN [1760 AD] | 2027) | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
240 YBN [1760 AD] | 2029) | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
240 YBN [1760 AD] | 2052) Denis Diderot (DEDrO) (CE 1713-1784), French writer , writes "La Religieuse" which is about a woman placed in a convent against her will which contains a sequence that deals examines female homosexuality. | Paris, France (presumably) |
240 YBN [1760 AD] | 2074) In this work Michell gives the conclusions of his study of the disastrous Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Michell shows that the focus of that earthquake was underneath the Atlantic Ocean, and proposes erroneously that the cause of earthquakes was high-pressure steam, created when water comes into contact with subterranean fires. Michell is one of the founders of seismology, the science of earthquakes. | Cambridge, England |
240 YBN [1760 AD] | 2094) In Berlin Lambert receives the patronage of Frederick the Great. Lambert corresponds with Immanuel Kant. | Augsburg, Germany |
240 YBN [1760 AD] | 2122) Water separated into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. Giovanni Beccaria (CE 1716-1781), Italian physicist, passes electricity sparks through water and observes bubbles (of Hydrogen and Oxygen gas) released from the water but incorrectly supposes that the action of the electric matter promotes the evaporation of water. Beccaria does not recognize that the gases produced are the components of water. Beccaria's main work is the treatise "Dell' Elettricismo Naturale ed Artificiale" (1753,tr 1776). It is interesting that Beccaria mistakes bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen for the bubbles of water gas of boiling water. It is interesting to me that photons in the form of heat only create bubbles of water vapor, where electrons (which may be photons) separate the water molecule into Hydrogen and Oxygen. | Turin, Italy |
239 YBN [1761 AD] | 1217) Jewish people are killed in Nancy, France for host nailing. | |
239 YBN [1761 AD] | 1221) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 - December 5, 1791), at the age of 5 appears as a keyboard performer for the first time. | Salzburg, Germany |
239 YBN [1761 AD] | 1915) Morgagni graduates from the University of Bologna in 1701 . (At the University of Bologna), Morgagni acts as prosector to A.M. Valsalva (one of the distinguished pupils of Malpighi), whom he assists in preparing Valsalva's celebrated "De Aure Humana" (1704; "Anatomy and Diseases of the Ear"). In 1712 Morgagni is professor of anatomy at the University of Padua, at age 30, and will continue to be employed in this position for nearly 60 years. Morgagni publishes this book at the age of 79. An English translation of "De Sedibus" will be made in 1769 by Benjamin Alexander. | Padua, Italy |
239 YBN [1761 AD] | 2028) | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
239 YBN [1761 AD] | 2042) | Paris, France (presumably) |
239 YBN [1761 AD] | 2044) Lacaille uses Clairaut's calculations of the perturbations of the earth to improve these tables of the Sun. | Paris, France (presumably) |
239 YBN [1761 AD] | 2079) Guillaume Le Gentil (lujoNTEL) (CE 1725-1792) French astronomer, goes to India to observe the transit of Venus, but because of Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France La Gentil must stay on his ship and misses the observation, but decides to stay in India to try for the 1769 transit which he also misses because of a cloud. La Gentil returns to France and he was thought to be dead. Le Gentil writes a 2 volume book on India. Le Gentil finds that the duration of the lunar eclipse of 08-30-1765 was predicted by a Tamil astronomer, based on the computation of the size and extent of the earth-shadow (going back to Aryabhata, 5th c.), and was found short by 41 seconds, whereas the charts of Tobias Mayer were long by 68 seconds. | |
239 YBN [1761 AD] | 5958) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his first known compositions at 5 years old (KV 1a-f). (verify) Mozart and his older sister, Maria Anna (CE 1751–1829), are prodigies. At age five Mozart begins to compose and gives his first public performance. Starting in 1763 Leopold tours throughout Europe with his children. Mozart dies at the young age of 35. | Salzburg, Austria |
238 YBN [04/??/1762 AD] | 1955) Jean-Jacques Rousseau (CE 1712-1778) prints "Du Contrat Social, Principes du droit politique" (English: "Of the Social Contract, Principles of Political Right"), which criticizes religion and is banned in both France and Geneva. Rousseau is forced to flee arrest. In this book Rousseau describes government as the servant of the people, and not their master. "Social Contract", "Émile" and other works by Rousseau help to prepare the way for the French Revolution. The first sentence in "Social Contract" is "Man was born free, but he is everywhere in chains" In the Social Contract he claims that true followers of Jesus would not make good citizens. This was one of the reasons for the book's condemnation in Geneva. | Paris, France |
238 YBN [05/??/1762 AD] | 1956) Jean-Jacques Rousseau (CE 1712-1778) publishes "L'Émile ou de l'éducation" (1762) (or "Emile or On Education") a semi-fictitious work detailing the growth of a young boy of that name, presided over by Rousseau himself. Rousseau rejects an education where a child learns only to please the instructor claiming that this produces people fit to be only masters or slaves, not free people. Both "Du contrat social" (1762); and "Émile" (1762), which offend both the French and Genevan ecclesiastic authorities are burned in Paris and Geneva. Émile and its author are condemned for religious unorthodoxy in 1762 by the Parlement de Paris, and Rousseau feels obliged to flee to Switzerland. Rousseau is most controversial in his own time for his views on religion. Rousseau's view that man is good by nature conflicts with the doctrine of original sin and his theology of nature expounded by the Savoyard Vicar in Émile leads to the condemnation of the book in both Calvinist Geneva and Catholic Paris. | Paris, France |
238 YBN [1762 AD] | 1218) Pennsylvia psychiatric hospital charges 4 pence to visit. | |
238 YBN [1762 AD] | 2065) This is evidence against the view of those at the Florentine Academy that water is incompressible. | London, England (presumably) |
238 YBN [1762 AD] | 2187) (John) Hutton uses some of Saussure's data. Saussure leads the second expedition to successfully reach the top of Mount Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps. | Geneva, Switzerland |
238 YBN [1762 AD] | 2715) | (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
238 YBN [1762 AD] | 2975) | Berlin, Germany |
238 YBN [1762 AD] | 2978) There is a conflict between who first understood the principle and who invented an actual electrophorus between Johann Wilcke (1762 or 1764), Cigna (1762), and Volta(1775). | Turin, Italy (presumably) |
237 YBN [1763 AD] | 2000) | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
237 YBN [1763 AD] | 2043) Also published in this year is Lavaille's "Journal historique du voyage fait au cap de Bonne-Esperance" (1763). | Paris, France (presumably) |
237 YBN [1763 AD] | 2080) | France |
237 YBN [1763 AD] | 2128) Maskelyne is a member of the Board of Longitude, which was created in 1714 to decide on the award of the £20,000 prize for a solution to the problem of determining longitude at sea. Possibly Maskelyne's allegience to his lunar method causes him to refuse to recommed the chronometer of John Harrison for the award. | London, England (presumably) |
236 YBN [1764 AD] | 1222) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 - December 5, 1791) composes his first symphony at age 8. | Salzburg, Germany |
236 YBN [1764 AD] | 1947) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) publishes "Encyclopédie, the Dictionnaire philosophique" (1764) ("Philosophical Dictionary"). This work will be enlarged after 1770 as "Questions sur l'Encyclopédie". | Cirey, France |
236 YBN [1764 AD] | 1952) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) publishes "Encyclopédie, the Dictionnaire philosophique" (1764) ("Philosophical Dictionary"). This work will be enlarged after 1770 as "Questions sur l'Encyclopédie". In "Philosophical Dictionary" Voltaire uses an alphabetical format to air his own views on theology, modern religious beliefs, and many other subjects, in a series of short essays. The Dictionary directs criticism against French political institutions, Voltaire's personal enemies, the Bible, and the Catholic Church. Presented in a wryly humorous manner, Voltaire's controversial thoughts are condemned in Paris, Geneva, and Amsterdam. For safety reasons, Voltaire denies his authorship. | Cirey, France |
236 YBN [1764 AD] | 1986) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790) invents bifocals, eyeglasses whose corrective lenses each contain areas with two distinct optical powers. | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
236 YBN [1764 AD] | 2091) | Glasgow, Scotland |
236 YBN [1764 AD] | 2160) | Turin, Italy (presumably) |
235 YBN [05/??/1765 AD] | 2145) Watt's father is the treasurer and magistrate of Greenock, runs a successful ship and house building business. As a young person James Watt uses his father's workshops equipped with tools, bench and forge to make models (for example of cranes and barrel organs) and to become familiar with ships' instruments. In Glasgow, Watt meets many scientists and becomes friend of Joseph Black, who developed the concept of "latent heat". Watt is a member of the Lunar society. In 1757 Watt is established at he University of Glasgow as "mathematical instrument maker to the university". In 1814 Watt is offered a baronetcy, which he declines. Watt's interests in applied chemistry lead him to introduce chlorine bleaching into Great Britain and to devise a famous iron cement. In theoretical chemistry, Watt is one of the first to argue that water is not an element but a compound. | Glasgow, Scotland (presumably) |
234 YBN [01/01/1766 AD] | 2959) | (Academy of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland (presumably) |
234 YBN [04/05/1766 AD] | 3012) Priestley writes "It is now also Mr. Canton's opinion, that electric atmospheres are not made of effluvia from excited or electrified bodies, but that they are only an alteration of the state of the electric fluid contained in, or belonging to the air surrounding them, to a certain distance; that excited glass, for instance, repels the electric fluid from it, and consequently, beyond that distance makes it more dense; whereas excited was attracts the electric fluid existing in the air nearer to it, making it rarer than it was before. This will be best understood by a figure. Let A (Plate I, figure 1) represent unexcited glass or wax. B excited glass, and C excited wax; and let the dots on each side of A represent a line of particles of the electric fluid at their proper distance in a natural state. (Here clearly is the concept of particles of electric fluid, later to be called "electrons") Let B and C be carried about where you will in the air, B will make an atmosphere equally dense, and C an atmosphere equally rare, while the quantity of the electric fluid each of them contains in the same as at first. When any part of a conductor comes within the atmosphere of B, the electric fluid it naturally contains will be repelled by the dense atmosphere, and will recede from it. But if any part of a conductor be brought within the atmosphere of C, the electric fluid it natually contains will be attracted by the rare atmosphere, and move towards it. And thus may the electric fluid contained in any body be condensed or rarefied; and if the body be a conductor, it may be condensed or rarefied in any part of it, and some may be easily drawn out of, or an additional quantity put into it." | London, England |
234 YBN [05/29/1766 AD] | 2113) Hydrogen gas isolated. Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810), English chemist and physicist, produces "inflammable air" (hydrogen) by dissolving metals in acids and "fixed air" (carbon dioxide) by dissolving alkalis in acids, and he collected these and other gases in bottles inverted over water or mercury. An alkali is any of the soluble hydroxides of the alkali metals-i.e., lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium. Alkalies are strong bases that turn litmus paper from red to blue; they react with acids to yield neutral salts; and they are caustic and in concentrated form are corrosive to organic tissues. (show periodic table for this) Cavendish publishes these experiments in a combination of three short chemistry papers on "factitious airs," or gases produced in the laboratory. Cavendish's "inflammible air" will be later named Hydrogen by Lavoisier. The term Cavendish uses "inflammable air" is confusing because inflammable air is flammable and perhaps "flammable air" would have been a better choice of words. Cavendish explains heat as the result of the motion of matter in the 1760s. In 1783 Cavendish will publish a paper on the temperature at which mercury freezes and in that paper make use of the idea of latent heat, although he does not use the term "latent heat" because he believes that it implies acceptance of a material theory of heat. Cavendish will determine the "specific heat" for a number of substances (although these heat constants will not be recognized later. These reactions form equations similar to the equation: metal + acid + water --> salt + inflammable air for example: Zn + 2HCl → ZnCl2 + H2 | London, England |
234 YBN [07/01/1766 AD] | 1951) The 19-year-old Chevalier de La Barre, is tortured, beheaded and his body burnt on a fire along with a copy of Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary", for having insulted a religious procession and damaging a crucifix. Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) tried unsuccessfully to stop the murder of La Barre. It is often said (by Dickens, in "A Tale of Two Cities", among others) that La Barre was executed for not kneeling or removing his hat before a Catholic procession (on the feast of Corpus Christi). In fact the original cause of the inquiry was the mutilation of a cross, a far more serious offense, probably committed by La Barre's friend Gaillard d'Etalonde (who escaped). In France, La Barre is a symbol of Christian religious intolerance, along with Jean Calas and Pierre-Paul Sirven, all championed by Voltaire. Voltaire, at first scared by the attention the affair draws to him, ended up defending La Barre's memory and helping d'Etallonde. The sentence against La Barre will be reversed by the National Convention during the French Revolution in 1794. | Paris, France (presumably) |
234 YBN [1766 AD] | 2014) | Bern, Switzerland (presumably) |
234 YBN [1766 AD] | 2095) | Berlin, Germany |
234 YBN [1766 AD] | 2103) Johann Daniel Titius (TisuS) (CE 1729-1796), German astronomer, suggests that the distance of the planets from the Sun follow the series A=4+(2^n *3), where n=0,1,2,3... this is the series 4,7,10,16,28,52,100... which fits for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, some unknown object, Jupiter and Saturn. In 70 years Neptune will prove this theory wrong, but it does encourage Olbers and others to find the asteroid belt in between Mars and Jupiter, (in addition to inspiring the application of math to physical phenomena). Johann Elert Bode will explore this theory further. | Wittenberg, Germany |
234 YBN [1766 AD] | 2142) Mesmer's dissertation at the University of Vienna (M.D., 1766), (which according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, borrows heavily from the work of the British physician Richard Mead), suggests that the gravitational attraction of the planets affects human health by affecting an invisible fluid found in the human body and throughout nature. In 1775 Mesmer will revise his theory of "animal gravitation" to one of "animal magnetism", wherein the invisible fluid in the body acts according to the laws of magnetism. Mesmer passes magnets over people trying to cure disease. Later Mesmer just uses his hands believing in "animal magnetism". Braid will examine hypnotism 50 years later, when it is still called "mesmerism". (I accept that the power of suggestion, like a placebo, where people think they might be receiving a legitimate cure, might have some tiny measurable health effect, but it seems to me, to be based on trickery in some way, for example, an educated person would know that a person is simply telling them to heal, and then it is useless. It seems to me to have very little scientific content, but it seems with my limited information that hypnotism may be an actual phenomenon for some people, perhaps only a small minority. It's tough to know if hypnotist shows are fraudulent or legitimate. The power of suggestion also relates to how people secretly beam images and sounds on to other people's brains, which is a powerful method to invoke a suggestion in particular in a person who is not aware that some high school drop out skin head in the government military, police or phone company is sending images and sounds onto their brain. This form of suggestion, beaming images and sounds onto brains through neuron activation, is very powerful for those who are not aware of the technology (which sadly is most people). As is the case with many suggestion techniques, once the person receiving the suggestion understands what is being done to them, the suggestion has less effect. But this secret image and sound sending technology has been terribly abused to control people like pawns, to make people kill themselves, to kill other people, to start violent conflict, and countless other terrible uses.) (In addition, this is typical of the idea of health care without any kind of license, in other words, do people stop, fine, or jail people treating people with fraudulent theories or treatments, or do they allow people to freely choose to have health treatments that a majority of people find to be fraudulent or the doctor incompetent?) (Perhaps the origin of Mesmerism in Vienna is only coincidence in being the same birthplace of Freud's theories of psychology. Psychology has grown to be a modern snake-oil cure-all pseudoscience industry without any chemical diagnostic basis inflicted on people without choice at worst and a consensual experimental science at best.) Mesmer believes in a good relationship with his patients and makes his treatment rooms heavily draped, with music playing, and Mesmer appearing in long, violet robes. (Sadly,) Mesmer enjoys a popular following and claims to be able to "channel" magnetic powers in order to cure a variety of ailments, which Mesmer does for public display. The medical establishment of Vienna pressure Mesmer to leave and Mesmer finds favor in Paris at the end of the 1770s. In 1784 King Louis XVI appoints a commission of scientists and physicians to investigate Mesmer's methods. Among the commission's members are Benjamin Franklin and Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. The commission reports that Mesmer is unable to support his scientific claims. Discredited, Mesmer leaves France in 1791 and eventually settles in Switzerland. Mesmer's theories will bring on successors who claim they can tap an unseen magnetic force within the body, and Mesmer is often credited with influencing the development of hypnotism as psychotherapy (and what should potentially be called unconsensual psycho-torture techniques since the word "therapy" may imply consent and or permission from the so-called patient). | Vienna, Austria |
234 YBN [1766 AD] | 2161) This and other planetary model works may be an important source for seeing early views of how Newton's equation is applied for more than one object. I apply Newton's equation iteratively, in other words calculating velocities of all masses for each time unit into the future. I think this is the most simple method, and after a certain number of bodies I think geometric or algebraic solutions are too complex. For example, I think people in the past were trying to use Newton's equation to find algebraic and geometric solutions to the planet moon motions, basing their solutions on the idea of a static pattern that repeats. This method may produce equivalent solutions with the iterative method. An important point is that there are many uncertainties in terms of distribution of matter in planets, the Sun and moons which will probably never be accurately handled and will always be estimations. | Turin, Italy (presumably) |
234 YBN [1766 AD] | 3725) | London, England (presumably) |
233 YBN [1767 AD] | 2075) | Thornhill, Yorkshire, England (presumably) |
233 YBN [1767 AD] | 2131) Priestley compares the two-fluid versus one-fluid with acid-base (alkali) being united and neutral. Priestley states that a full charge of two or three thousand feet of coated glass would give a shock as great as a single flash of light, and that new discoveries can be made by such a power. In 1752 Priestley attended the Dissenting Academy at Daventry, Northamptonshire. Dissenters are named for their unwillingness to conform to the Church of England and are not allowed to enter English universities by the Act of Uniformity (1662). Priestley is a Unitarian minister (the Unitarian's deny the divinity of Jesus). Priestley openly rejects the Calvinist doctrines of original sin and atonement, rejecting (the false and idiotic myth) of the Trinity, viewing humans as being capable of improvement. Priestley openly supports the American colonists revolting against King George III. Priestley is against the slave trade. Priestley is against religious bigotry. Priestley sympathizes with the French Revolution. In 1766 Priestley meets Benjamin Franklin in England, and this may have been what influenced (Priestley) into science. Priestley is the companion of a liberal Lord Shelburne, who lost a government post for sympathizing with the American colonists. Priestley believes the phlogiston theory until death. -July 14, 1791 some Birmingham pro-French Jacobins have a celebration in honor of the second anniversary of the fall of the Bastille (Jacobins are liberals). An angry mob retaliates against the best known Jacobin in the city and burns down Priestley's house. Priestley uses the text for his Sermon: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" Priestley is a member of the Lunar Society. meeting near night of full moon so members can walk home under light of moon. Priestley moves to the USA for the last ten years of his life, turning down an offer to teach at University of Pennsylvania and as Unitarian minister in New York. | Warrington, England |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 1993) | St Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2081) | France |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2082) Nicolas Desmarest (DAmureST) (CE 1725-1815) French geologist, publishes "Géographie physique" (1794; "Physical Geography"). | France |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2093) | Berlin, Germany |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2096) James Cook (CE 1728-1779), English navigator , is chosen by the Royal Society to take command of the ship "Endeavour" on its voyage to the islands of Tahiti to transport the gentlemen of the Royal Society and their assistants to observe a transit of Venus. The second main objective of this voyage is to discover the southern continent, Terra Australis, which is believed to exist in order to symmetrically balance the northern land mass of Eurasia. The leader of the scientists is Joseph Banks, aged 26, who is assisted by Daniel Solander, a Swedish botanist, as well as astronomers (Cook rating as one) and artists to maintain a visual record. Cook carries an early nautical almanac and brass sextants, but no chronometer on the first voyage. Transits of planets are valuable for determining the distance between the Earth and the Sun. | London, England |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2104) This work by Spallanzani is set against the biological theory created by Georges Buffon and John Turberville Needham that all living things contain, in addition to inanimate matter, special "vital atoms" that are responsible for all physiological activities. Buffon and Needham postulated that, after death, the "vital atoms" escape into the soil and are again taken up by plants. Buffon and Needham claim that the small moving objects in pond water (first seen by Leewenhoek) are not living organisms but only "vital atoms" escaping from the organic material. Spallanzani studies various forms of microscopic life and correctly confirms the view of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek that these objects are living organisms. Some people object to Spallanzani's conclusions by arguing that by boiling so long Spallanzani removed some vital principle in the air and that without this principle the microorganisms could not breed. Pasteur's work will remove this objection in a century. Spallanzani's cousin Laura Bassi, is a female professor of physics who has 12 children in her spare time. | Pavia, Italy (presumably) |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2133) | Leeds, England |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2213) Lavoisier is from a wealthy family. Lavoisier gets a degree in law, but instead of practicing law pursues chemical scientific research that will result in his being admitted into the Academy of Sciences in Paris. At this time many natural philosophers still view the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) as the primary substances of all matter. Chemists in this time analyze "mixts" (compounds), such as the salts formed when acids combine with alkalis. At the time, the study of specific airs or gases is called pneumatic chemistry. Lavoisier is viewed as one of the founders of modern chemistry. Some describe Lavoisier as the father of modern chemistry. Asimov states that Lavoisier is the Newton of chemistry stating that Lavoisier does for chemistry what Galileo did for physics two centuries earlier. Lavoisier invested half a million francs in the Ferme Générale ("General Farm"), a private firm hired by the French government to collect taxes, in order to fund his research. The General Farm is a partnership that has a contract with the royal government to collect certain sales and excise taxes, such as those on salt and tobacco. This firm gouges the public because anything they collect over their fixed fee they can keep, and are hated by the public. Lavoisier earns 100,000 francs a year from this. Asimov argues that Lavoisier puts the money back into chemical research which helps the public. In 1771 Lavoisier marries Marie-Anne the daughter of an important executive of the Ferme Générale. She is 14 and beautiful and intelligent and throws herself fully into Lavoisier's work, taking his notes, translating from English (Lavoisier never learns English), and illustrating his books. Lavoisier bans Jean-Paul Marat, a journalist, from membership in the French Academy of Sciences, because the papers Marat offers on the nature of fire are of no value. Marat remembers this and it will contribute to the murder of Lavoisier by guillotine. Lavoisier's work with street lighting introduces him to combustion. In 1760 Lavoisier works on on improved methods of lighting towns. Lavoisier avoids mentioning the help he receives from Priestly. Lavoisier never identifies a new element. Lavoisier implies that the experiment of burning Hydrogen is original to him and not Cavindish. In England, Hutton, Cavendish, and Priestly refuse to abandon the phlogiston theory, but Black accepts it. In Sweden, Bergman accepts the new view, and in Germany Klaproth does. Lavoisier helps Guyton de Morveau with his writing of an article for chemistry for an encyclopedia.(diderots?) | Paris, France (presumably) |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2229) | Paris, France (presumably) |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2667) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 2967) | (Vienna? and) London, England |
232 YBN [1768 AD] | 4482) | London, England |
231 YBN [02/26/1769 AD] | 3013) | Turin, Italy |
231 YBN [03/16/1769 AD] | 2108) Louis Antoine de Bougainville (BUGoNVEL) (CE 1729-1811) French navigator completes the first French journey to sail around the Earth (1766-1769). In 1768 Bougainville was the first to sight the Solomon Islands. Bougainville confirms the existence of marsupials in the eastern islands of Indonesia (something Buffon refuses to believe). Bougainville will publish his widely read account, "Voyage autor du monde" (1771; "A Voyage Round the World", 1772) in 1771. Bougainville was commissioned by the French government to circle the Earth in a voyage of exploration, and set out to sea in December 1766, accompanied by naturalists and other scientists. | Saint-Malo, France |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 1206) The first Self-propelled vehicle. A steam-engine powered automobile. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 - 2 October 1804), a French inventor, builds what may be the first self-propelled vehicle built on earth using a steam engine. Cugnot may be the first to convert the back-and-forth motion of a steam piston into rotary motion (James Watt does this too in 1781 in England). Cugnot is trained as a military engineer. He experiments with working models of steam engine powered vehicles intended for hauling heavy cannons for the French Army, starting in 1765. A functioning version of his "Fardier à vapeur" ("Steam wagon") run in this year, 1769. The following year he builds an improved version. His vehicle is said to be able to pull 4 tons and travel at speeds of up to 4 km per hour. The heavy vehicle has two wheels in the back and one in the front, which supports the steam boiler and was steered by a tiller. | England |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 1940) King George III of England tests this H5 clock and is reported to have declared "By God, Harrison, I will see you righted!", (in support of Harrison getting the full prize money for a timepiece accurate enough to measure longitude at sea). | London, England |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 2069) Bonnet publishes this catastrophe theory in "La Palingénésie philosophique" (1769; "The Philosophical Revival"). The catastrophism theory will be adopted by Georges Cuvier, and strongly influences geological thinking until the 1820s. | Geneva?, Switzerland (presumably) |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 2097) | New Zealand |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 2130) Apart from a completely mechanical loom, Arkwright eliminates all the major obstacles to producing cotton cloth by machine. Because thread production is now completely mechanized, all operations previously conducted separately could be coordinated and carried out under one roof, in a mill, or, as it is increasingly called, a factory. With several partners, Arkwright opens factories at Nottingham and Cromford. Within a few years Arkwright is operating a number of factories equipped with machinery for carrying out all phases of textile manufacturing from carding to spinning. Carding is to cleanse, disentangle, and collect together as fibers by the use of cards in preparation to spin. Lancashire cottonmasters successfully attack Arkwright's patent (in 1781 and 1785). By 1782 Arkwright has capital of £200,000 and employs 5,000 workers. At the time of his death Arkwright has 2.5 million dollars, an enormous sum for this time. Many people are angry with Arkwright, thinking that he is taking away jobs. Some consider Arkwright the "father of the factory system". | |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 2146) | Glasgow, Scotland (presumably) |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 2426) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 2980) Beccaria's main work is the treatise "Dell' Elettricismo Naturale ed Artificiale" (1753,tr 1776). | Turin, Italy (verify) |
231 YBN [1769 AD] | 6323) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes "Te Deum Laudemus". | Salzburg, Austria |
230 YBN [04/19/1770 AD] | 2100) James Cook (CE 1728-1779) claims the coast of Australia for Great Britain. | Australia |
230 YBN [1770 AD] | 2158) | Berlin, Germany |
230 YBN [1770 AD] | 2195) | St. Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
230 YBN [1770 AD] | 2214) | Paris, France (presumably) |
230 YBN [1770 AD] | 2257) Gahn's company fills an emergency order of copper to the colonists in the Revolutionary war. Gahnite (zinc spinel) is named for Gahn. | Uppsala, Sweden |
230 YBN [1770 AD] | 2958) Joseph Priestley writes: "I find by experience that the (Henley) electrometer answers all the purposes I have mentioned, with the greatest ease and exactness. I am now sure of the force of an explosion before a discharge of a jar or battery, which I had no better method of guessing at before, than by presenting to them a pair of Mr. Cantonâs balls and observing their divergence at a given distance" | London, England (presumably) |
229 YBN [07/12/1771 AD] | 2207) In 1761 Banks inherits a considerable fortune from his father. Determined to receive botanical instruction, he paid Cambridge botanist Israel Lyons to deliver a series of lectures at Oxford in 1764. Asimov describes Banks as a rare example of a wealthy person that uses there money to advance science. Banks goes on several major collecting trips, the most famous being the around-the-world voyage aboard the Endeavour on the 1768-71 expedition led by James Cook, a journey that makes marsupials known to the people of Europe. Banks hires a pupil of Linnaeus and four artists. Banks is part of the British mission to observe Venus from Tahiti and then to search for the unknown southern continent and that founds colonies in Australia. (The Australian accent must have evolved from an English accent.) Banks is viewed as a hero upon his return. One ship transporting breadfruits in 1788 is the "Bounty" under William Bligh who had been a ship's master under Cook on Cook's final voyage to the Pacific. The crew of the Bounty mutinied against harsh treatment by the captain and against having to leave Tahiti. Banks' "Florilegium", a collection of engravings of plants compiled by Banks and based on drawings by Swedish botanist Daniel Solander during Cook's 1768-71 voyage, will not be published in full until 1989. In 1805, Banks is the first to suggest the identity of the wheat rust and barberry fungus. Banks is president of the Royal Society from 1778 to 1820. Banks develops an extensive botanical collection which will be donated to the British Museum, and Banks helps establish Kew Gardens in London. Through Banks' efforts Kew Gardens became arguably the pre-eminent botanical gardens in the world. | London (where Banks lives), England |
229 YBN [1771 AD] | 2118) Cavendish measures current by shocking himself and estimating the pain. | London, England |
229 YBN [1771 AD] | 2292) Abraham Gottlob Werner (VRNR or VARNR) (CE 1750-1817), German geologist, establishes the erroneous theory of "Neptunism" that the earth was once all covered with water and that over time all the minerals were precipitated out of the water into distinct layers. This theory is in contrast to the Vulcanists (or Plutonists), who argue that granite and many other rocks are of igneous origin (the result of volcanic magma, (red hot liquid rock)). According to Werner the first layer is made of primitive rocks, such as granite, gneiss, and slates, and contains no fossils. The next strata has shales and graywacke and contains fossilized fish. Above this are the limestones, sandstones, and chalks and then the gravels and sands of the alluvial strata. Lastly, local volcanic activity produced lavas and other deposits. Because this theory does not allow for a molten core, Werner proposes that volcanoes are a recent phenomena caused by the spontaneous combustion of underground coal beds. For many years Werner's theories prevail over those of the plutonists, led by James Hutton, who (correctly) identifies the origin of igneous rocks resulting from (the cooling of) molten material. Neptunism will prevail until Lyell. | Leipzig, Germany |
229 YBN [1771 AD] | 3010) | London, England |
229 YBN [1771 AD] | 5956) | Madrid, Spain (verify) |
228 YBN [10/20/1772 AD] | 2224) | Paris, France (presumably) |
228 YBN [11/01/1772 AD] | 2225) | Paris, France (presumably) |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2049) The completion of the "Encyclopédie" in 1772 leaves Diderot without a source of income. To relieve Diderot of financial worry, Catherine the Great of Russia buys Diderot's library, requesting him to retain the books until she requires them, and then appoints him librarian on an annual salary for the duration of his life. Diderot goes to St. Petersburg in 1773 to thank her for her financial support and is received with great honor and warmth. The Oxford University Press states that the Encyclopédie issues a direct challenge to royal absolutism and the religious supremacy of the Catholic Church throughout Europe. | Paris, France |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2051) Denis Diderot (DEDrO) (CE 1713-1784), French writer , writes "L'Entretien entre d'Alembert et Diderot" (written 1769, published 1830; "Conversation Between d'Alembert and Diderot"), and "Le Rêve de d'Alembert" (written 1769, published 1830; "D'Alembert's Dream"). In these works and his later "Eléments de physiologie" (1774-80) Diderot develops his materialist philosophy, speculates on the origins of life without divine intervention and the cellular structure of matter. | Paris, France |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2078) | Thornhill, Yorkshire, England (presumably) |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2138) Nitrous oxide is one of several oxides of nitrogen, is colorless with pleasant, sweetish odor and taste, which when inhaled produces insensibility to pain preceded by mild hysteria (nervous system excitement, emotion, reaction), and sometimes laughter. Nitrous oxide currently is used mainly as an anesthetic in surgical operations of short duration. Prolonged inhalation of nitrous oxide causes death. Nitrous oxide is also used as a propellant in food aerosols. Nitrous oxide is prepared by the action of zinc on dilute nitric acid, by the action of hydroxylamine hydrochloride (NH2OH×HCl) on sodium nitrite (NaNO2), and, most commonly, by the decomposition of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3). (State method Priestley uses) Priestley reports in his posthumously published memoir that his interest in chemistry is a consequence of living next to a brewery during his ministry at Leeds (1767-1773). For his work on gases, Priestley will be awarded the Royal Society's prestigious Copley Medal in 1773. | Leeds, England |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2140) | Leeds, England |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2162) Lagrange studies situations where three bodies might form stable configurations providing one body is very low mass. These are now sometimes referred to as "trojan" systems. | Berlin, Germany |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2170) Joining in the anticlericalism of the time, in 1763 Morveau publishes a long poem attacking the Jesuits anonymously. In 1787, when spending several months in Paris, Lavoisier convinces Morveau of the accuracy of Lavoisier's oxygen theory of combustion. Guyton De Morveau makes no effort to save his fellow chemist Lavoisier. | ?, France |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2172) | Dijon, France |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2199) Oxygen is a colourless, odourless, tasteless gas. Oxygen is the fifth least dense of all elements. Oxygen is symbol O; at. no. 8; at. wt. 15.9994; m.p. −218.4°C; b.p. −182.962°C; density 1.429 grams per liter at STP; valence −2. Oxygen has an atomic radius of 60 pm. Oxygen has 3 stable isotopes, the most common 16 has 8 neutrons, the other two have 9 and 10 neutrons. In 1757 Scheele is apprenticed to a pharmacist in Göteborg, Sweden. Scheele refuses to work as a court chemist for Frederick II.(detail) Asimov comments that Sweden in proportion to its population has probably produced more first-rate chemists in the last two centuries than any other nation. In his short lifetime, Scheele identifies or helps to identifies more new substances than any other chemist in a similar period of time. Scheele wrote "It is the truth alone that we desire to know and what a joy there is in discovering it!" Scheele dies at 43, which may have been from mercury poisoning. | Uppsala, Sweden |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2215) | Paris, France (presumably) |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2266) Whether this law is pure coincidence is unknown. Bode writes astronomy textbooks in 1766 at age 19. Sagan in the video Cosmos states that in simulations many systems are physically possible, for example large gas giant planets close to Sun and terrestrial planets far away. Planets found by their gravitational effect on a star's Doppler shift indicate that massive planets can be very close to a star, however planets being moved closer to a star by life cannot be ruled out. | Berlin, Germany |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 2285) Nitrogen gas isolated. Daniel Rutherford (CE 1749-1819) Scottish chemist, (is credited with being) the first to isolate nitrogen. | Edinburgh, Scotland |
228 YBN [1772 AD] | 4484) | Thornhill, Yorkshire, England (presumably) |
226 YBN [08/01/1774 AD] | 2139) This is Priestley's most famous chemical discovery. | Calne, England |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 1225) "Act for regulating madhouses, licensing, and inspection" is passed in England. This law requires physicians to certify that a human is "insane". However, since this diagnosis describes a nonexistant, lawful, or trivial condition, this label of "insane" may be used as a way around the due process of the established legal system. | |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2111) | Paris, France (presumably) |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2129) | Schiehallion Mountain, North Perthshireit, Scotland |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2136) | Calne, England |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2137) English chemist Joseph Priestley (CE 1733-1804) writes two volumes of a General History of the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire (in 1790). Four volumes of the later history of the church will appear between 1802 and 1803. | Calne, England |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2200) Chlorine has: atomic number 17; atomic weight 35.453; freezing point −100.98°C; boiling point −34.6°C; relative density (specific gravity) 1.56 (−33.6°C); valence 1, 3, 5, 7. Chlorine is 8th least dense element known. Chlorine is a toxic, corrosive, greenish yellow gas that is irritating to the eyes and respiratory system. Chlorine is two and a half times heavier than air. | Uppsala, Sweden |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2201) | Uppsala, Sweden |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2216) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) shows how material in the air combines with metals when heated, which will end the phlogiston theory of combustion, and demonstrates the conservation of mass. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) heats tin and lead in closed contained with air. Both metals form a layer of calx on the surface. The calx is heavier than the original metal, but the vessel still weighs the same after heating, so Lavoisier concludes that there must be a weight loss elsewhere, possibly in the air or in the vessel. If the air, then a partial vacuum must exist in the vessel, and sure enough air rushes in when Lavoisier opens the vessel, and then the vessel and its contents gain weight. (It is interesting that atoms in air bonding with a solid creates a vacuum, as I suppose any gas chemically combining with a solid in a closed container will create a vacuum of empty space and pressure difference with the atmosphere of Earth.) Lavoisier therefore shows that the calx (now known as oxide) is made of a combination of the metal with air, and that rusting (and combustion) do not involve a loss of phlogiston but a gain of at least a portion of the air. This experiment will finally end the popularity of the phlogiston theory, and establish chemistry on its modern basis (in terms of oxygen combustion). Lavoisier also shows that mass is only shifted from one place to another and cannot be created or destroyed, which is the law of conservation of mass. The mass loss from particles of light in the form of particles of light of various frequencies is apparently too small to be measured and Lavoisier (presumably) misses this concept. One modern view is that electrons are composed of photons and vary in mass depending on their orbit as the Bohr model requires, and in combustion, the photons observed are released from electrons around the oxygen and fuel atoms, the electrons losing mass in the form of photons, while the nucleus of all atoms is still preserved. Another view holds that some atoms completely separate into their source photons in oxygen combustion. | Paris, France (presumably) |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2217) | Paris, France (presumably) |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2226) | Paris, France (presumably) |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2258) Manganese has atomic number 25; atomic weight 54.9380; melting point 1,244°C; boiling point 1,962°C; relative density 7.21 to 7.44; valence 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7. Depending on form manganese has a valence principally +2, +4, or +7. Manganese is a pinkish-gray, chemically active metal. Manganese is the first element in Group 7 of the periodic table. Manganese resembles iron but is harder and more brittle. Manganese is the twelfth most abundant element in the Earth's crust (approximately 0.1%) and occurs naturally in several forms, primarily as the silicate (MnSiO3) but also as the carbonate (MnCO3) and a variety of oxides, including pyrolusite (MnO2) and hausmannite (Mn3O4). Land deposits cause large amounts of manganese oxide to be washed out to sea, where the manganese oxides aggregated into manganese nodules containing 15-30% Mn. Manganese is essential to plant growth and is involved in the reduction of nitrates in green plants and algae. Manganese is also a necessary trace element for higher animals, in which manganese participates in the action of many enzymes. Lack of manganese causes testicular atrophy, however an excess of manganese in plants and animals is toxic. Manganese metal oxidizes superficially in air and rusts in moist air. Manganese metal burns in air (or oxygen) at elevated temperatures, as does iron. | Uppsala, Sweden |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2267) | Berlin, Germany |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2293) Werner classifies minerals as Linnaeus had classified living objects 50 years before. (in this book?) | Leipzig, Germany |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2664) | Switzerland (presumably) |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2841) In 1757 Herschel is German, but escapes to England deserting the Hannoverian army and the Seven Years' War. Herschel is an organist and music teacher Herschel reads Robert Smith's "A Compleat System of Opticks", which introduces Herschel to the techniques of telescope construction and interests Herschel in viewing the night sky. Most astronomer of this time are content to observe the Sun, Moon, and planets but Herschel is determined to see distant celestial bodies too. For this Herschel needs telescopes with larger mirrors to collect enough light, mirror larger than the opticians can supply for a reasonable cost, and so Herschel starts to grind his own mirrors from metal disks of copper, tin, and antimony in various proportions. In 1781 Herschel's needs are larger than the local foundries can produce and so Herschel casts molten metal into disks in his basement. Herschel's telescopes are far superior to even those used at the Greenwich Observatory. Herschel also makes his own eyepieces (from glass), the strongest eyepiece Herschel makes has a magnifying power of 6,450 times. Herschel grinds 200 lens before making one that satisfies him. William, his brother and his sister Caroline all grind many lens together. William's sister Caroline is the first important female astronomer. Caroline reads aloud to William and feeds him bites of food while he grinds for hours. After finding Uranus, Herschel is appointed private astronomer of George III at a salary of 300 guineas a year. (is in England?) After finding Uranus Herschel becomes famous almost overnight. The Royal Society of London awards Herschel the Copley Medal for the discovery of Uranus, and elects Herschel a Fellow. William is appointed as an astronomer to George III, and the Herschels moved to Datchet, near Windsor Castle. Herschel sells many of his telescopes to supplement the income for his family. Herschel meets Laplace and Napoleon, and views Napoleon as pretending to know more than Napoleon really does. Herschel reports 4 other satellites of Uranus that are mistakes. Herschel thinks the moon of Earth and planets are inhabited. Herschel thinks that inside the Sun is a cold solid body that might even be inhabited, thinking sunspots to be holes in the atmosphere through which the cold surface can be seen. (I think it might be possible that sun spots are colder than the rest of the sun, clearly no photons are being emitted there...it could be like small solidified areas, like an earth crust temporarily forming. I think the correct view is that these areas are in fact not as hot as the rest of the surface and that they are formed strictly from the sun magnetic, what I call electric, field. I guess a magnetic field is thought to be a static electric charge, while an electric field is made by moving electric charges.) Herschel stubbornly rejects the accumulating evidence that not all stars are equally bright (or emit the same quantity of photons in the visible spectrum), holding to the belief that differences in apparent brightness (or quantity of visible photons emitted, also related to star size) represent differences in distances. | Bath, England |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 2982) | London?, England |
226 YBN [1774 AD] | 5959) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer,composes his first piano sonata (Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, K. 279). (verify) | Munich, Germany (verify) |
225 YBN [06/10/1775 AD] | 2246) In 1774, Volta becomes professor of physics at the Royal School of Como. In 1779, Volta is appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Pavia. Volta describes the electrophorus first in a letter to Priestly. Galvani sends copies of his papers to Volta, and the two are friends. In 1794, Volta receives the Copley medal from he Royal Society of London before inventing the battery. | Como, Italy |
225 YBN [1775 AD] | 1227) | London, England |
225 YBN [1775 AD] | 2101) James Cook (CE 1728-1779), English navigator , completes three years (1772-1775) of navigating southern waters down to the Antarctic circle and proves that there are no other vast southern continents beside Australia, but does not identify Antarctica itself. Cook charts Tonga and Easter Island, and discovered New Caledonia in the Pacific and the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia Island in the Atlantic. | Southern Pacific Ocean |
225 YBN [1775 AD] | 2143) Bergman gives early encouragement to Karl Scheele, some of whose work Bergman publishes. | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
225 YBN [1775 AD] | 2296) | Göttingen, Germany{2 presumably} |
224 YBN [07/04/1776 AD] | 1532) Thomas Jefferson (CE 1743-1826), American statesman and scholar, 3rd President of the USA, drafts the Declaration of Independence. | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (modern: United States) |
224 YBN [1776 AD] | 2109) | Copenhagen, Denmark (published) |
224 YBN [1776 AD] | 2176) | Bath, England |
223 YBN [1777 AD] | 2165) | Paris?, France |
223 YBN [1777 AD] | 2182) | Bath, England |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 1204) | England |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 2004) Georges Louis Leclerc, comte (count) de Buffon (BYUFoN) (CE 1707-1788), French naturalist, translates Stephen Hales' "Vegetable Statics" (1735) into French. Buffon experiments to try and prove if Archimedes could burn ships with lens and decides that it is possible (modern people have determined it to be possible only for very close ships). Buffon spends much of his life writing a "Natural History" which will reach 44 volumes when complete. In 1739 Buffon is appointed keeper of the Jardin du Roi (Royal Garden, now "Jardin des Plantes"), a job Buffon keeps until his death. Buffon's son is guillotined during the French Revolution. | Montbard, France |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 2102) Cook is killed by native people of Hawaii. | Hawaii |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 2144) Torbern Olof Bergman (CE 1735-1784), Swedish mineralogist publishes "De Analysi Aquarum" (1778; "On Water Analysis") the first comprehensive account of the analysis of mineral waters. | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 2203) Molybdenum is atomic nunmber 42; at. wt. 95.94; m.p. about 2,617°C; b.p. about 4,612°C; rel. dens. (sp. gr.) 10.22 at 20°C; valence +2, +3, +4, +5, or +6. Molybdenum is a hard, malleable, ductile, high-melting, silver-white metal with a body-centered cubic crystalline structure. Molybdenum has the sixth highest melting point of any element. | Köping, Sweden (presumably) |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 2218) | Paris, France (presumably) |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 2236) In 1793, when the Jardin des Plantes is changed to the National Museum of Natural History, Lamarck is made professor of "Insects and Worms" (Carl Linnaeus's terms for invertebrates). By this time Lamarck has a large invertebrate collection of his own. Lamarck (with poor intuition) opposes the new view of Lavoisier. Lamarck publishes "Recherches sur les causes des principaux faits physiques, et particulièrement sur celles de la combustion" (1794, "Research on the Causes of Principal Physical Facts, and Particularly on Those of Combustion"), followed by "Réfutation de la théorie pneumatique, ou de la nouvelle doctrine des chimistes modernes" (1796, "Refutation of the Pneumatic Theory, or of the New Doctrine of Modern Chemists") in which Lamarck opposes Lavoisier's theory of combustion, comparing it with his own theory. (detail on Lamarck's theory) Cuvier opposes Lamarck because of Lamarck's sarcastic references to Cuvier's theories of catastrophism. Lamarck dies blind and in poverty. | Paris, France (presumably) |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 2237) | Paris, France (presumably) |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 2248) Methane is a colorless, odorless gas that is the main component of natural gas, a component of firedamp in coal mines, and a product of the anaerobic bacterial decomposition of vegetable matter under water (from which methane gets the alternate name of "marsh" gas). Methane is the simplest member of the paraffin series of hydrocarbons. Methane's chemical formula is CH4. Methane is lighter than air. Methane has a relative density of 0.554. methane is only slightly soluble in water. Methane burns in air, forming carbon dioxide and water vapor. | Como, Italy |
222 YBN [1778 AD] | 5960) | Paris, France (verify) |
221 YBN [1779 AD] | 2106) This is before the cell theory of 1839 and Spallanzani supports the prevailing view that spermatozoa are parasites within the semen. | Pavia, Italy (presumably) |
221 YBN [1779 AD] | 2112) | London, England |
221 YBN [1779 AD] | 2166) | Paris?, France (presumably) |
221 YBN [1779 AD] | 2188) | Geneva, Switzerland (presumably) |
221 YBN [1779 AD] | 2219) | Paris, France (presumably) |
221 YBN [1779 AD] | 3251) | Berlin, Germany |
220 YBN [1780 AD] | 1208) | Switzerland? |
220 YBN [1780 AD] | 2053) Jean Étienne Guettard (GeToRD) (CE 1715-1786), French geologist , is the first to geologically map France publishing this in his "Atlas et description minéralogiques de la France" ("Mineralogical Atlas and Description of France"). | France |
220 YBN [1780 AD] | 2062) | Paris, France (presumably) |
220 YBN [1780 AD] | 2274) According to Asimov, Laplace is reluctant to give credit to others, for example Lagrange's contributions to their joint work on celestial mechanics. Napoleon makes Laplace minister of interior, but Laplace proves incompetent and is promoted to the purely decorative position of Senator. When Louis XVIII comes to the throne after Napoleon's fall, Laplace is not penalized like Haüy and Chaptal, but instead Louis XVIII makes Laplace a marquis. The Encyclopedia Britannica speculates that because Laplace does not hold strong political views and was not a member of the aristocracy as being probably why Laplace escapes imprisonment and execution during the French Revolution. Napoleon remarks on leafing through Laplace's book that he sees no mention of God, to which Laplace replies "I had no need of that hypothesis". | Paris, France (presumably) |
220 YBN [1780 AD] | 2286) | Canterbury, England |
219 YBN [03/13/1781 AD] | 2840) German-English astronomer, William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) identifies the planet Uranus. This is the first new planet to be discovered since prehistoric times. In recording double stars systematically, on this day, Herschel enters a pair of which "the lowest of the two is a curious either nebulous star or perhaps a comet". Four days later Herschel looks for the object and finds that it has moved. From this time on Herschel regularly observes the object. When enough observations (positions) have been made to calculate an orbit, Hershel and in particular Laplace find that the orbit is nearly circular like a planet instead of elongated like a comet. In addition the orbit of the object is located far outside of Saturn. Herschel then understands that he has found a new planet. This planet is barely visible to the naked eye and has been seen a number of times before this. Flamsteed recorded it as 34 Tauri in the constellation Taurus. Hershel tries to name the planet "Georgium Sidus" ("George's star") after George II, then king of England. Lalande suggests the name "Hershel", but ultimately it is decided to stay with mythological names for the planets, and Bode's suggestion of "Uranus" after the (Roman God who is the) father of Saturn (in Greek "Cronos" t: presumably the Greek version of Uranus). The identification of Uranus caused a large amount of excitement. (in particular to those who think that Newton had left nothing to find). Before this Herschel has made two preliminary telescopic surveys (and catalogs) of outer space, and finds Uranus during a third and most complete survey. Herschel is the first to systematically report on variable stars. Hershel wrongly views the Sun as being near the center of a giant collection of stars in the shape of a grindstone. Harlow Shapley will determine the sun's correct position. Hershel suggests the name "asteroids" (star-like) (in 1802) for the small objects being found in between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter, for example Ceres, because they are too small to appear as discs in the telescope but appear only as points of light. Asimov comments that "asteroids" is not a good name, and "planetoids", or "minor planets" is more accurate and considered preferable. (Perhaps there should be a name for all orbiting objects, orbiting stars, planets, etc. but there would be the problem of two objects orbiting each other with no clear larger one.) | Bath, England |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2123) Darwin is described as a freethinker and radical, who often writes his opinions and scientific treatises in verse. Darwin sympathizes with the French revolutionaries. Darwin's scientific writings are generally well received until the politician George Canning produces a very damaging parody of Darwin's work. This is part of a general campaign by the government against the Lunar Society for its support of the French and American revolutions, as well as the Lunar Society's denouncement of slavery. Darwin's other major works will include "A Plan for the Conduct of Female Education in Boarding Schools" (1797) and "Phytologia, or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening" (1800). | Derby, England (presumably) |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2147) According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Matthew Boulton, the manufacturer of the Soho Works in Birmingham, who funds much of Watt's work, foreseeing a new market in the corn, malt, and cotton mills, urges Watt to invent a rotary motion for the steam engine, to replace the reciprocating action of the original. William Murdoch is generally credited with inventing the sun-and-planet gear which is included in James Watt's patent. | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2196) The radius predicted by Bode's law agreed within two percent of the observed radius. | St. Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2204) | Köping, Sweden (presumably) |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2208) As a priest, Haüy is in danger during the French Revolution, and is jailed for some time. (It is interesting that priests were jailed in the Revolution, perhaps for fraud? My vote is to tolerate total free thought, speech and delusion. To me it is hopeful to see religious people supporting and involved in science.) | Paris, France (presumably) |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2211) Thomas Jefferson (CE 1743-1826), American statesman and scholar, publishes "Notes on the State of Virginia" (1781), which is part travel guide, part scientific treatise, and part philosophical meditation, the only book Jefferson ever publishes. In this work Jefferson advocates ending slavery. Jefferson writes "Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one-half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." Jefferson experiments with new varieties of grain. Jefferson studies and classifies fossils unearthed in New York State. Jefferson is friends with Joseph Priestley. Jefferson is a skillful architect. Asimov comments that Jefferson is the closest to scientist-in-office of all Presidents of the USA (Jefferson is 3rd US President). Jefferson is a strong advocate of separation of Church and State. All accounts of Jefferson in his youth describe him as an obsessive student, often spending 15 hours of the day with his books, 3 hours practicing his violin, and the remaining 6 hours eating and sleeping. | Charlottesville, Virginia, USA |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2263) | Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2304) William Nicholson (CE 1753-1815) English chemist publishes "Introduction to Natural Philosophy" (1781). | London, England (presumably) |
219 YBN [1781 AD] | 2321) Chaptal is one of first to adopt Lavoisier's new view. Chaptal is a strong advocate of science popularization and writing science for the average person. | Montpellier, France |
218 YBN [11/??/1782 AD] | 2348) Goodricke is deaf and mute throughout his life, probably because of an illness in childhood. Despite this handicap, Goodricke is a bright student. Goodricke makes this discovery at age 17. Goodricke reports this to the Royal Society who award Goodricke with a Copley Medal in 1783. Variable stars had been discovered by David Fabricius (1564-1617) nearly 200 years before in the year 1596. Algol, means "blinking demon." John Goodricke's, journal entry November 12, 1782 reads: "This night looked at Beta-Persei (Algol) and was much amazed to find its brightness altered. It now appears to be fourth magnitude... I observed it diligently for about an hour upwards...hardly believing that it changed its brightness, because I had never heard of any star varying so quick in its brightness. I thought it might be perhaps owing to an optical illusion, a defect in my eyes or bad air, but the sequel will show that its change is true and that it was not mistaken." | York Minster, England |
218 YBN [1782 AD] | 2134) | Birmingham, England |
218 YBN [1782 AD] | 2148) | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
218 YBN [1782 AD] | 2149) Watt describes this invention as "one of the most ingenious, simple pieces of mechanism I have contrived". | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
218 YBN [1782 AD] | 2190) Tellurium's electron configuration is: 1s22s22p63s23p63d104s24p64d105s25p4 Tellurium is occasionally found uncombined in nature but is more often found combined with metals, as in the minerals calaverite (gold telluride) and sylvanite (silver-gold telluride). | Transylvania, Romania (was Hungary at time) |
218 YBN [1782 AD] | 2202) Hydrogen cyanide is highly toxic because it inhibits cellular oxidative processes. | Köping, Sweden (presumably) |
218 YBN [1782 AD] | 2220) | Paris, France (presumably) |
218 YBN [1782 AD] | 3387) | Red Clay Creek, Delaware, USA |
217 YBN [05/26/1783 AD] | 2076) The is a problem in thinking a star is so massive that particles of light would return to it, because they would not have sufficient velocity to leave it to begin with. But even if true that some matter was so large that even particle of light from a distance would be attracted to it, that presumes that the most dense matter possible can produce a gravity strong enough to trap a light particle. This idea of a mass so large that particles of light attach to it, and cannot escape seems unlikely to me, but of course it cannot be ruled out. If true, in the visible universe we would notice light beams all bend to the large unseen influential masses, there would be large spaces with no light. On earth, we don't see light bend in any direction, light particles appear to move in the direction they exit from, for example from a flash light. I reject the idea of black-holes as unlikely because time dilation is probably wrong, as is a space-time geometry where time is not the same everywhere, and I doubt that there can be a center of mass so large that even particles of light cannot escape because probably photons cannot be compressed that tightly, and even if they were, that might not be enough mass to stop photons from escaping, because photons take up space, and as a mass grows, it's radius grows, so incoming photons will always be at a distance from the center of mass, and be more effected by the outer mass because it is closer. I want to run some simulations of this. In addition, just to give an idea of how backwards science is right now, we do not even have an estimate of the mass of a photon, it's absurdly backward at least publicly. It's interesting also that Michell appears to be one of those people, right after Newton, who were filling in the blanks that Newton left out, such as the consequences of light corpuscles obeying the laws of gravity. This path started in a good direction, but then apparently was sent astray in the 1800s by the wave theory with an aether medium of light. | Thornhill, Yorkshire, England |
217 YBN [06/04/1783 AD] | 2192) In Paris the Montgolfier brothers fly six miles before a crowd of 300 which includes Benjamin Franklin. The Montgolfiers are the sons of a paper manufacturer. Of the brothers, only Michel will actually fly in the balloon, making an ascent of 3000 feet with seven other people in 1784. | Annonay, France |
217 YBN [07/15/1783 AD] | 2206) Steamboat. The ship moves upstream with a speed of six miles per hour, in the presence of thousands of enthusiastic spectators. Before the pyroscaphe d'Abbans had constructed an experimental boat, and ran it on the River Doubs during June and July, 1776. The system he used then was the palmipede, or web-foot, which proved unsatisfactory. | Saône River, near Lyon, France |
217 YBN [08/27/1783 AD] | 2264) Charles confirms Benjamin Franklin's electrical experiments. | Paris, France (presumably) |
217 YBN [10/15/1783 AD] | 2193) | Paris, France |
217 YBN [11/21/1783 AD] | 2194) Human flight by balloon. During the 25-minute flight using a Montgolfier hot air balloon, the two travel 12 kilometers from the Château de la Muette to the Butte-aux-Cailles, then in the outskirts of Paris, attaining an altitude of 3,000 feet. On June 15, 1785 De Rozier and his companion, Pierre Romain, will be killed when trying to cross the English channel in a balloon. | Paris, France |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 1207) | England |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 1220) Benjamin Rush (December 24, 1745 - April 19, 1813), a US physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence is an early opponent of slavery and capital punishment. Rush is on the faculty of the first medical school in America, "College of Philadelphia", founded in 1765. In the Pennslyvania psychiatric hospital, Rush does replace the hay beds with hair mattresses, however he brutally assaults and tortures people under the excuse of experimentation and treatment. Rush, thinking insanity to be caused by irregular movements of blood in the brain, bleeds humans. Rush writes that "four-fifths of the blood in the body" should be taken. Other doctors call such actions a "murderous dose", and a "dose for a horse". Rush writes "fear, accompanied with pain and a sense of shame, has sometimes cured this disease". Rush uses a spinning device called a "gyrator" to spin humans, thinking there is increased blood flow in brain. Rush uses a "tranquilizer chair" to "cure" "madness". In this chair a prisoner's arms, wrists and feet are strapped, their head put in a wooden container, and a bucket is put beneath the chair for excrement. Some humans are tied in this chair for hours, days, and even months. The "gyrator" and "trainquilizer chair", used and promoted by Benjamin Rush, will eventually be removed from Pennsylvania hospital, and viewed as an instrument of abuse. | |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2114) | London, England |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2155) Watt (CE 1736-1819) defines the unit "horsepower" as 550 foot-pounds per second, finding that a strong horse can raise a 150-pound weight nearly 4 feet in a second. This unit of power is still used, however the metric system uses the Watt in honor of James Watt. 1 horsepower=746 watts. These rotary steam engines replace animal power, and it is natural that the new engine should be measured in terms of the number of horses it replaces. By using measurements that millwrights, who set up horse gins (animal-driven wheels), have determined. Watt finds the value of one "horse power" to be equal to 33,000 pounds lifted one foot high per minute, a value which is still that of the standard American and English horsepower. The (cost) of erecting the new type of (rotary) steam engine is therefore based on its horsepower. | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2173) | France |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2183) | Slough, England |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2189) | Geneva, Switzerland (presumably) |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2221) | Paris, France (presumably) |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2227) | Paris, France (presumably) |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2242) | Paris, France (presumably) |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2287) Asimov states that Caroline Herschel is the first female of record to contribute findings to astronomy. It seems possible that Hypatia may have made astronomical contributions too. Caroline herschel does not receive a formal education. Herschel leads a harsh life until her brother William invites her to live with him in Bath, England. Herschel's mother requires William to give her funds to retain a maid before allowing Caroline to leave. In Bath, Caroline enrolls in voice lessons and learns to play the harpsichord, soon becoming an integral part of William's musical performances at small gatherings. Both Caroline and William are musicians and give their last public musical performance in 1782, when William accepts the private office of court astronomer to George III. Caroline helps grind and polish mirrors. Caroline Herschel executes many of the astronomical calculations (for) William. Herschel uses a telescope her brother William built for her. When William marries, the two women become good friends. In 1787 the king (of England) gives Caroline an annual pension of £50 (to work) as her brother's assistant. This appointment makes Caroline Herschel the first female in England to be honored with a government position. In 1828, at the age of 75, the Royal Astronomical Society awards Herschel a gold medal for her monumental works in science. Ten years later, in 1838 Carloine Herschel is made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society. On her 96th birthday, Herschel is awarded the gold medal of science by the King of Prussia. Herschel dies at age 97. (Perhaps in someway, at this time female humans, certainly in England, were becoming less inhibited and obstructed from social and legal equality.) | Datchet, England |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2311) There are some reports but no evidence that parachutes were used for amusement in the 1100s CE. Apparently Lenormand views parachute as way for people trapped in burning buildings to leap to safety. | ?, France |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 2320) Fausto D'elhuyar writes several volumes on mineralogy and coining. | Vergara, Spain |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 5962) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
217 YBN [1783 AD] | 5964) | Vienna, Austria (verify) |
216 YBN [01/15/1784 AD] | 2115) Cavendish concludes (wrongly) that dephlogisticated air (oxygen) is dephlogisticated water and that hydrogen is either pure phlogiston or phlogisticated water. Cavendish reported these findings to Joseph Priestley, English clergyman and scientist, no later than March 1783, but does not publish them until the following year. The Scottish inventor James Watt published a paper on the composition of water in 1783; Cavendish had performed the experiments first but published second. | London, England |
216 YBN [03/02/1784 AD] | 2309) Jean Pierre François Blanchard (BloNsoR) (CE 1753-1809) and an American physician John Jeffries are the first to float over the English Channel, carrying the first airmail in history, landing near Calais. In 1785 Blanchard successfully uses a parachute, dropping a dog (or cat) in a basket attached to a parachute. Louis-Sébastien Lenormand had demonstrated a parachute in 1783. At age 16, Blanchard constructs a kind of bicycle. | (Dover, England to) Felmores Forest, France. |
216 YBN [1784 AD] | 2152) | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
216 YBN [1784 AD] | 2180) | Datchet, England |
216 YBN [1784 AD] | 5967) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes Piano Concerto in F, k. 459. | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
215 YBN [01/07/1785 AD] | 2310) Jean Pierre François Blanchard (BloNsoR) (CE 1753-1809) and American physician John Jeffries to cross the English Channel in the air, carrying the first airmail in history, landing near Calais. Blanchard throws a dog in a basket attached to a parachute (which lands unhurt). Later Blanchard will parachute himself too. Blanchard tries to use sails to help with propulsion and steering in balloons. (It seems like sails would work for adding propulsion and steering control.) At age 16 Blanchard constructs a kind of bicycle. Blanchard works on the design of heavier-than-air vehicles in the 1770s including one vehicle that uses rowing in the air with oars and tiller. Blanchard takes up ballooning after the Montgolfier brothers hot-air-balloon demonstrations in Annonay, France, in 1783. Blanchard is the first to make balloon flights in England, North America, Germany, Belgium, and Poland. | Calais, France |
215 YBN [02/12/1785 AD] | 2878) | (Chatham-Place) London, England (presumably) |
215 YBN [02/17/1785 AD] | 3463) Horace Richards writes that se was looked upon by fellows as, after Franklin, the foremost scientist of the country. His abilities were highlesteemed abroad, though, as has been seen, the recognition was limited to his astronomical work. On the death of Franklin he was at once elected to the presidency of this (the American Philosophical Society), and when six years later he passed away at the age of sixty-four, his successor, Thomas jefferson, in accepting the same office summed up his character in the words; "Genius, Science, modesty, purity of morals, simplicity of manners, marked him one of Nature's best samples of the Perfection she can cover under the human form. Surely, no Society, till ours, within the same compass of time, ever had to deplore the loss of two such members as Franklin and Rittenhouse.". | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
215 YBN [04/??/1785 AD] | 2184) | Datchet, England |
215 YBN [06/02/1785 AD] | 2116) Air is shown to be a mixture of gases, and not a single element. Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810) shows, by sparking air to make nitric acid, that air is a mixture of gases, not a single element as was thought. Cavendish is the first to recognize that air is composed of around 4 parts nitrogen (at the time called "phlogisticated air") to 1 part oxygen (at the time called "dephlogisticated air"). The current estimate is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. In addition Cavendish observes that air contains a small volume of gas (1/120) that is not nitrogen or oxygen. This will be shown to be argon and other inert gases over 100 years later in 1895 by Rayleigh and Ramsay. Cavendish observes that, when he had determined the amounts of phlogisticated air (nitrogen) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen), there remained a volume of gas amounting to 1/120 of the original volume of common air. Cavendish writes "In Dr. Priestley's last volume of experiments is related an experiment of Mr. Warltire's in which it is said that, on firing a mixture of common and inflammable air by electricity in a closed copper vessel holding about three pints, a loss of weight was always perceived, on an average about two grains, though the vessel was stopped in such a manner that no air could escape by the explosion. (ULSF: Perhaps this could be explained as mass lost from photons emitted from the reaction in infrared and radio frequency.) It is also related, that on repeating the experiment in glass vessels, the inside of the glass, though clean and dry before, immediately became dewy; which confirmed an opinion he had long entertained, that common air deposits its moisture by phlogistication. As the latter experiment seemed likely to throw great light on the subject I had in view ("throw great light" may hint at the private view that all matter is made of light- and "subject" of the monarchy which may limit the flow of truth to the public), I thought it well worth examining more closely. The first experiment also, if there was no mistake in it, would be very extraordinary and curious; but it did not succeed with me; for though the vessel I used held more than Mr. Warltire's namely, 24,000 grains of water, and though the experiment was repeated several times with different proportions of common and inflammable air, I could never perceive a loss of weight of more than one-fifth of a grain, and commonly none at all. It must be observed, however, that though there were some of the experiments in which it seemed to diminish a little in weight, there were none in which it increased. (*Dr. Priestley, I am informed, has since found the experiment not to succeed)" Cavendish uses inflammable air (hydrogen) from zinc for these experiments and goes on to find no change in weight from inflammable air produced from iron. Cavendish starts from an experiment, narrated by Joseph Priestley, in which John Warltire uses electrolysis (passing an electric current through a substance to cause a chemical change), by (burning) a mixture of common air and hydrogen by electricity, with the result that there the volume of air is lowered and moisture is deposited. Cavendish fires, by electric spark, a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen (dephlogisticated air), and finds that the resulting water contained nitric acid, which he argued must be due to the nitrogen present as an impurity in the oxygen ("phlogisticated air with which it {the dephlogisticated air} is debased"). {ULSF: Does electrode material not contaminate the reaction?} Cavendish then proves this theory correct by passing sparks through (plain) air forcing (in modern terms) the nitrogen to combine with the oxygen and dissolving the resulting oxide {ULSF: on the electrode?} in water. Cavendish proves that air is made of nitrogen by showing that when electric sparks are passed through common air there is a shrinkage of volume because of the nitrogen uniting with the oxygen to form nitric acid. Cavendish therefore understands the composition of nitric acid. Adding more oxygen, Cavendish expects to use up all the nitrogen, however a small bubble of gas, amounting to less than 1 per cent of the whole, always remains uncombined. Cavendish speculates that air contains a small quantity of a gas that is very inert and resistant to reaction. We now know that this remaining part of air contains Argon (and the other inert gases). This experiment will not be used for a century until Ramsey repeats it in the 1890s. Michael Faraday will create laws that describe electrolysis in 1832. One way of describing this is that Cavendish performs the opposite of "electrolysis" (using electricity to split a molecule into two or more parts), which might be called "electrofusion", and defined as using electricity to join two or more parts to form a molecule. In showing both air and water not to be single elements, as was believed around the time of Pythagoras, Cavendish takes science a large step forward in improving on a theory that is more than two thousand years old. This work helps to pull science away from an ancient and traditional mind-set. | London, England |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 1239) | England |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 1240) | England |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2083) Hutton is called the father of geology. | Edinburgh, Scotland |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2107) | Pavia, Italy (presumably) |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2132) | Birmingham, England |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2167) | Paris?, France (presumably) |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2168) Charles Augustin Coulomb (KUlOM) (CE 1736-1806) shows that electrical and magnetic attraction and repulsion are both proportional to amount of charge and inversely proportional to distance squared. This will eventually lead to the famous equation now called Coulomb's law: F=kq1q2/r^ 2 (state who is the first to formally state this equation) The quantity of electric charge will be named in honor of Coulomb. In this equation F is the force in Newtons between two charged objects, k is a constant which depends on the medium in which the charged bodies are immersed, q1 and q2 are the two charges in Coulombs, and r is the distance in meters between the centers of the two charged objects. k in a vacuum equals 8.98 x 10^9 Nm^2/C^2 Newton-meters squared per coulombs squared. Coulomb never explicitly states this relationship in the formal equation that will be first created by ?. This view implies to many that there exists a force of electricity, which is similar to, but different from a force of gravity. | Paris?, France (presumably) |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2197) | |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2259) Monge is a close friend of Napoleon, and accompanies Napoleon to Egypt in 1798. Monge serves on the committee of weights and measures that establishes the metric system in 1791. Monge publishes "Géométrie descriptive" (1799, "Descriptive Geometry") and "Application de l'analyse à la géométrie" (1807, "Applications of Analysis to Geometry"). Following Napoleon's fall from power in 1815 and the restoration of monarchy, the Bourbons exclude Monge from the French Academy and deprive Monge of all his honors. | |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2271) Berthollet wrongly thinks chlorine is a compound and contains oxygen. Finding no oxygen in the acids prussic acid or hydrogen sulfide, Berthollet (correctly) remains skeptical about Lavoisier's theory of acidity as the result of oxygen. It has to be fun to find out what some compound substance is made of. In 1798, while in Egypt on a business trip, Berthollet meets Napoleon and teaches Napeleon chemistry. Napoleon makes Berthollet a senator and a count. In 1806 Napoleon also bails Berthollet out with a considerable loan. In 1814 Berthollet signs the Senate's bill deposing Napoleon after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Proust will prove Berthollet wrong in the view that the composition of products of a reaction vary with the masses of the reagents. Berthollet is wrong in viewing heat as a fluid, in opposition to the more accurate theory of Rumford. | Paris, France (presumably) |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2275) | Paris, France (presumably) |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 2983) In 1773, Nairne had produced a electrostatic generator that could produce 13-inch sparks which Franklin thought promising. | Haarlam, Netherlands |
215 YBN [1785 AD] | 5968) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
214 YBN [12/07/1786 AD] | 2960) | London, England (probably) |
214 YBN [1786 AD] | 1209) Winnowing was also done manually by taking a basket of mixed grain and chaff, or using a winnowing fork on a pile of harvested grain and tossing the contents into the air, causing the chaff to blow away while the heavier grains fall back into the basket or ground. | East Lothian, Scotland, United Kingdom |
214 YBN [1786 AD] | 1987) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
214 YBN [1786 AD] | 2135) | Birmingham, England |
214 YBN [1786 AD] | 5965) | Vienna, Austria (verify) |
213 YBN [05/10/1787 AD] | 2988) Bennet writes "The experiment which proves that the electricity is doubled by each operation is this. if the two flips of pendulous leaf gold of the electrometer be made to diverge to a certain distance by the above process, that distance will be nearly doubled by repeating the operation. Another proof of this duplicate accumulation is, that, when the third plate is applied to the first, the divergency of the leaf gold is apparently undiminished, though in this situation their electricity is diffused over double the quantity of surface." | London, England (probably) |
213 YBN [08/22/1787 AD] | 2205) Fitch demonstrates this ship on the Delaware river before a group of delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Fitch goes on to built a larger steamboat to carry passengers and freight. Propelled by paddle wheels, this ship makes regularly scheduled trips between Philadelphia and New Jersey can move 8 mi (12.9 km) per hour. Fitch began to build another steamboat, but its loss in a storm discouraged his funders. Little popularity of steam-powered travel with the public, combined with constant mechanical troubles and uncertain financial backing, results in the failure of Fitch's business. | |
213 YBN [08/27/1787 AD] | 2265) | Paris, France (presumably) |
213 YBN [12/13/1787 AD] | 3252) | Derby, England (presumably) |
213 YBN [1787 AD] | 2171) A few phlogistonists object to the new system. | Paris, France (presumably) |
213 YBN [1787 AD] | 2178) | Old Windsor, England (presumably) |
213 YBN [1787 AD] | 2272) Potassium chlorate KClO3 is a poisonous crystalline compound that is used as an oxidizing agent, a bleach, and a disinfectant and in making explosives, matches, and fireworks. | Paris, France (presumably) |
213 YBN [1787 AD] | 2276) So Laplace explains that the Moon's mean motion is accelerated as long as the Earth's orbit (around the Sun) tends to become more circular, but when (the Earth's orbit around the Sun tends to become more elliptical) the reverse occurs, the Moon decelerates. The inequality is of a period running into millions of years therefore removing the threat of instability. | Paris, France (presumably) |
213 YBN [1787 AD] | 2288) Caroline Herschel is the first woman to discover a comet. | Datchet, England |
213 YBN [1787 AD] | 2325) | Wittenberg, Germany (presumably) |
213 YBN [1787 AD] | 2665) | Madrid (y Aranjuez), Spain |
213 YBN [1787 AD] | 5966) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
212 YBN [06/05/1788 AD] | 2989) (It seems like there must be some balancing between particles on the Earth and those on smaller insulated objects. Perhaps the source of particles or electric potential from Earth is larger than that insulated on a small object.) | London, England (presumably) |
212 YBN [06/21/1788 AD] | 1529) | New Hampshire, USA |
212 YBN [06/26/1788 AD] | 5961) | Vienna, Austria (verify) |
212 YBN [06/26/1788 AD] | 5963) | Vienna, Austria (verify) |
212 YBN [1788 AD] | 1228) There are at this time 22 privately owned psychiatric hospitals in London. | |
212 YBN [1788 AD] | 1229) The Queen of England calls on Francis Willis to cure King George III of "madness". Willis thinks George must be broken like a horse and is put in a straight waist coat, legs tied to a bed, blisters made on the legs, bled with leeches, and emetics are added to his food. | London, England |
212 YBN [1788 AD] | 2015) | Bern, Switzerland (presumably) |
212 YBN [1788 AD] | 2150) | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
212 YBN [1788 AD] | 2163) This book is typically analytic. Lagrange writes in his preface that "one cannot find any figures in this work". This work is published 101 years after Isaac Newton's "Principia" (1687). Lagrange is the first to suggest that a description of mechanical motion can be accomplished in terms of a geometry of four dimensions.(Four dimensions is more easily understood as simply 4 variables.) | Paris, France |
212 YBN [1788 AD] | 5969) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
212 YBN [1788 AD] | 5983) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his 41st Symphony "Jupiter" (k. 551). Jupiter is the last symphony that Mozart composes. (verify) The name of the symphony of "Jupiter" apparently dates from the early 1800s according to Encyclopedia Britannica. (This seems to be a transition from the very Christian music of Bach to more of a polytheistic and perhaps scientific song title and theme.) (It's interesting to think about what Mozart might have composed in his later life, had he not died at so young an age.) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
211 YBN [06/25/1789 AD] | 2984) | London, England (presumably) |
211 YBN [08/28/1789 AD] | 2181) | Slough, England |
211 YBN [1789 AD] | 2177) | Slough, England |
211 YBN [1789 AD] | 2185) | Slough, England |
211 YBN [1789 AD] | 2222) | Paris, France (presumably) |
211 YBN [1789 AD] | 2230) Klaproth is an apothecary (one who prepares and sells drugs or compounds for medicinal purposes) for many years. In 1792 Klaproth becomes lecturer in chemistry at the Berlin Artillery School. Klaproth will be chosen to be professor of chemistry at the newly founded University of Berlin in 1810. Klaproth is an early convert to Lavoisier's theory of oxygen combustion, which is good since Stahl who created the phlogiston theory was German (and national or racial prejudice may have impeded acceptance of the more accurate theory). In addition to more than 200 papers, Klaproth publishes a five-volume chemical dictionary with F.B. Wolff (1807-10) and a four-volume supplement (1815-19). Uranium is a heavy silvery-white metallic element, radioactive and toxic, easily oxidized, and has 14 known isotopes of which U 238 is the most abundant in nature. The Uranium atom occurs in several minerals, including uraninite and carnotite. Uranium is symbol U, atomic number 92; atomic weight 238.03; melting point 1,132°C; boiling point 3,818°C; relative density (specific gravity) 18.95; and can have a valence of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. An isotope of uranium, uranium 235, is (fissionable, splittable and is) the main fuel for nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. Eugene M. Péligot will isolate the element in 1841. | Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
211 YBN [1789 AD] | 2231) The actual zirconium metal will be isolated in 1824 in impure form by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius. The impure metal, even when 99 percent pure, is hard and brittle. The white, soft, malleable, and ductile metal of higher purity will be first produced in quantity in 1925 by the Dutch chemists Anton E. van Arkel and J.H. de Boer. Zirconium is highly transparent to neutrons. Zirconium is symbol Zr; atomic number 40; at. wt. 91.22; m.p. about 1,852°C; b.p. 4,377°C; rel dens. (sp. gr.) 6.5 at 20°C; valence +2, +3, or +4. | Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
211 YBN [1789 AD] | 2269) This paper Jussieu submits to the Académie des Sciences is his first publication. Jussieu's paper reexamines the taxonomy of the Ranunculaceae (crowfoot). Jussieu's uncle Bernard first identifies sea anemones and related creatures as animals instead of plants. | Paris, France |
211 YBN [1789 AD] | 2270) Jussieu's uncle Bernard first identifies sea anemones and related creatures as animals instead of plants. | Paris, France |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 1198) | England |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2077) It's amazing how little info there is on Michell, and not even a portrait. He is described by a contemporary as: "John Michell, BD is a little short Man, of a black Complexion, and fat; but having no Acquaintance with him, can say little of him. I think he had the care of St. Botolph's Church Cambridge, while he continued Fellow of Queen's College, where he was esteemed a very ingenious Man, and an excellent Philosopher. He has published some things in that way, on the Magnet and Electricity." (Cole MSS XXXIII, 156, British Library). | Thornhill, Yorkshire, England (presumably) |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2151) | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2153) The Watt (CE 1736-1819) engine has completely replaced the Newcomen engine by this time. | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2191) Not until Boucher 50 years later will such finds be no longer ignored. | Hoxne, Suffolk, England |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2198) Leblanc is unable to provide enough money for his family on the medical fees he obtains as a surgeon from his patients, and so in 1780 accepts a position as the private physician to the household of the Duke of Orleans, later known as the revolutionary figure Philippe Egalite who will be beheaded in 1793. The Duke agrees to fund Leblanc's research into a chemical method to convert salt to soda ash, on the condition that Darcet, a longtime consultant to the Duke, be included in the process. Leblanc is allowed to set up a laboratory at the College of Paris, and Darcet assigns J. Dize, his assistant, to collaborate with Leblanc. This happens during the French Revolution, and the government awards Leblanc a 15-year secret patent in September 1791 but confiscates his patent and factory three years later with only a small compensation. In addition the government forces Leblanc to make public his method. (My own view is of course that there should be no secrets, in particular in science, but that we should respect and celebrate inventors and all smart people.) Napoleon will return the factory to Leblanc around 1800 however Leblanc cannot raise enough capital to reopen it and takes his own life in 1806. | Paris, France |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2297) | Göttingen, Germany{2 presumably} |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2305) | London, England (presumably) |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2322) | Montpellier, France (presuambly) |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 2876) | Halle, Germany (presumably) |
210 YBN [1790 AD] | 3269) | England |
209 YBN [05/03/1791 AD] | 1530) | |
209 YBN [12/15/1791 AD] | 1531) | Virginia, USA |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 1230) Hannah Mills, a quaker woman, dies of ill treatment and neglect at the York asylum and this leads William Tuke (March 24, 1732 - 1822), an English businessman and philanthropist and other quakers to build "The Retreat at York", to implement a more humaine process for quakers viewed as "mentally ill". The success of this business leads to more stringent legislation in the interests of those diagnosed with mental diseases. This is a positive step on the long road to removing the inhuman torture of restraining people to beds with less movement than a cage provides, and any kind of involuntary treatment, in particular drugging or coercing to take drugs (or so-called "meds"). | York, England |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 2175) Remote neuron activation (remote neuron writing). Muscle contracted remotely by using an electric spark and metal connected to a nerve. Galvani makes an electric pendulum using a frog leg, brass hook and silver box. Imagine Galvani's scalpel reduced in size to the size of a dust fiber, about 1 micrometer, and capable of photon communication can can be swallowed or even breathed in, and then remotely communicated with, and moved around inside a body, made to activate a neuron, or to attach to a bacterium, perhaps to enter a cell and function as the first human-made cellular organelle. Although the use of the scalpel might be interpreted as direct neuron activation, this is a very similar process to a small electronic device inside a body that receives remotely produced photons to directly activate a neuron. Jan Swammerdam had made frog muscle contracted using two different metals in 1678. Early, in Bologna, Floriano Caldani in 1756 and Giambattista Beccaria in 1758 had demonstrated electrical excitability in the muscles of dead frogs. Later an unknown person will focus this principle of remote nerve stimulation to individual nerves without the need for a metal conductor attached to the nerve. When this happens is also unknown, perhaps this invention must wait for the laser. The earliest evidence I am aware of for this remote conductor-less stimulation, is probably the use of the word "suggest" by Felix Savery in 1826, and Andre Ampere in 1827, who uses the French form of "suggest" and "muscle contraction" in the same sentence. This remote neuron activation may advance to making an individual neuron fire even as far back as the 1800s, and still is a secret from the public. Luigi Galvani (GoLVonE) (CE 1737-1798) publishes the results of his using electricity to make frog leg muscles contract in "De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius" ("Commentary on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion"). Luigi Galvani (GoLVonE) (CE 1737-1798) finds that twitching of frog muscles can occur during a lightning storm or with the aid of an electrostatic machine, but can also occur with only a metallic contact between leg muscles and the nerves leading to them. Galvani finds that two different specific kinds of metals connected together connecting the nerves and the muscle connected to the nerve can serve as a substitute for the electrostatic machine. Galvani has found the basic design of an electrical battery, but wrongly concludes that the electricity comes from the from leg as "animal electricity". Alessandro Volta will prove that the electricity comes from the metal several years later. This find will form the basis of and lead directly to the first electric battery (voltaic pile) by Volta in 1800 and to the remote contraction of muscles, by whom, when and where is still unknown to the public. Galvani wrongly concludes that animal tissue contains an "animal electricity", that activates nerve and muscle when metal probes connect nerve and muscle causing muscle to contract. Galvani supposes that this electricity is different from the "natural" electricity of lightning or eels, and the "unnatural" electricity from static electricity generating machines. Galvani and Volta enter into a friendly disagreement, Galvani supporting his view of animal electricity, with Volta holding the view that the two different metals are the source of electricity, calling it "metallic electricity". Galvani and Volta will be shown to be both partly right and partly wrong. Galvani is correct in attributing muscular contractions to an electrical stimulus but wrong in identifying it as an "animal electricity." Volta is correct in denying the existence of an "animal electricity" but is wrong in implying that every electrophysiological effect requires two different metals as sources of current. Galvani is influenced by Franklin's "one fluid theory", where electrical phenomena are thought to be caused by an electric fluid that results in positive electricity, while negative electricity is the absence of this fluid. Franklin explained the Leyden jar as accumulating positive electricity on the inner conductor while the outer conductor becomes negatively charged. Galvani views the brain as the most important organ which secretes "electric fluid" and views the nerves as conductors of the fluid to the nerve and muscle. Galvani views the tissues of nerves and muscles as being analogous to the outer and inner surfaces of the Leyden jar. Galvani writes in "De Viribus Electricitatis" (translated from Latin): " In my desire to make that which, with no inconsiderable expenditure of pains, after many experiments, I have succeeded in discovering in nerves and muscles, so far useful that both their concealed properties might be revealed, if possible, and we might be able more surely to heal their diseases, nothing seemed more suitable for fulfilling such a wish than if I should simply publish my results, just as they are, for general judgment. For learned and eminent scholars, by reading my discoveries, will be able, through their own meditations and experiments, not only to amplify and extend them, but also to attain that which I indeed have attempted, but perhaps have not fully achieved. It was also my desire not to publish this work in a crude and barely incipient form, even though not perfect and complete, which perhaps I should never have been able to do. But since I realized that I had neither time nor leisure nor ability sufficient to accomplish that, I preferred rather to fall short of my own very reasonable desire than to fail the practical value of the work. I thought, therefore, that I should be doing something worth while, if I reported a brief and accurate account of my discoveries and findings in the order and relation in which partly chance and fortune presented and partly diligence and industry revealed them to me; not so much lest more be attributed to me than to fortune, or more to fortune than to me, but that either I might hand on a torch to those who had wished to enter this same pathway of experiment, or might satisfy the honest desire of scholars who are wont to be interested in things which contain some novelty either in origin itself or in principle. But to the description of the experiments I will add some corollaries, and some conjectures and hypotheses, primarily with this purpose, that I may smooth the way for understanding new experiments, whereby, if we cannot attain the truth, at least a new approach thereto may be opened. The affair began at first as follows: Part One THE EFFECTS OF ARTIFICIAL ELECTRICITY ON MUSCULAR MOTION I dissected and prepared a frog, as in Fig. 2, Tab. I, and placed it on a table, on which was an electrical machine, Fig. 1, Tab. 1, widely removed from its conductor and separated by no brief interval. When by chance one of those who were assisting me gently touched the point of a scalpel to the medial crural nerves, DD, of this frog, immediately all the muscles of the limbs seemed to be so contracted that they appeared to have fallen into violent tonic convulsions. but another of the assistants, who was on hand when I did electrical experiments, seemed to observe that the same thing occurred whenever a spark was discharged from the conductor of the machine, (Fig. I, B). He, wondering at the novelty of the phenomenon, immediately apprised me of the same, wrapped in thought though I was and pondering something entirely different, Hereupon I was fired with incredible zeal and desire of having the same experience, and of bringing to light whatever might be concealed in the phenomenon. Therefore I myself also applied the point of a scalpel to one or other crural nerve at a time when one or other of those who were present elicited a spark. The phenomenon always occurred in the same manner: violent contraction in individual muscles of the limbs, just as if the prepared animal had been seized with tetanus, were induced at the same moment of time in which sparks were discharged. But fearing lest these very motions arose rather from the contact of the point, which perchance acted as a stimulus, than from the spark, I again tested the same nerves in the same way in other frogs, and even more severely, but without any spark being elicited at that time by anyone; but no motions were seen at all. Hence it occurred to me that perhaps for the induction of the phenomenon both the contact of some body and the passage of a spark were simultaneously required. Wherefore I applied the edge of the scalpel again to the nerves and held it motionless, both at the time when a spark was being elicited and when the machine was perfectly quiet. but the phenomenon appeared only when the spark was produced. We repeated the experiment, always employing the same scalpel; but not without our surprise, sometimes, when the spark was produces, the aforesaid motions occurred, sometimes they were lacking. Aroused by the novelty of the circumstance, we resolved to test it in various ways, and to experiment, employing nevertheless the same scalpel, in order that, if possible, we might ascertain the causes of the unexpected difference; nor did this new labor prove vain; for we found that the whole thing was to be attributed to the different part of the scalpel by which we held it with our fingers: for since the scalpel had a bone handle, when the same handle was held by the hand, even though a spark was produced, no movements resulted, but they did ensue, if the fingers touched either the metallic blade or the iron nails securing the blade of the scalpel. Now, since dry bones possess a non-conductile, but the metallic blade and the iron nails a conductile nature, we came into this suspicion, that perhaps it happened that when we held the bony handle with our fingers, then all access was cut off from the electric current, in whatever way it was acting on the frog, but that it was afforded when we touched the blade or the nails communicating therewith. Therefore, to place the matter beyond all doubt, instead of a scalpel we used sometimes a slender glass cylinder H, Fig. 2, wiped clean from all moisture and dust, and sometimes an iron cylinder G. With the glass cylinder we not merely touched but rubber the crural nerves, when the spark was elicited, but with all our effort, the phenomenon never appeared, though innumerable and violent sparks were elicited from the conductor of the machine, and at a short distance from the animal; but it appeared when the iron cylinder was even lightly applied to the same nerves and scanty sparks elicited. ...". Galvani goes on to describe numerous other experiments. Having tested positive electricity, they test negative electricity, concluding "...the same contractions were obtained, whether the spark was elicited from the crook of the Leyden jar at the same time when the said jar, as they say, was being charged, or in the same place in which it was charged, or elsewhere, and far removed from the machine.". Galvani finds that "These phenomena, moreover, occurred when the frogs were equipped not only with a nerve-conductor, but merely with a muscle-conductor...". They contract the frgo muscle through glass by containing the frog and conductor in a jar. They test the crural nerve with a live frog exposing the crural nerve in the thigh with the conductor applied and find that "...contractions ensued on the passage of the spark in the corresponding leg alone, only less, as it seemed to us, than in the dead animal.". Galvani confirms that the contraction works when the frog is contained in a airless vacuum jar. Galvani writes "These experiments were all performed in animals wihch are called cold-blooded. These things having been tested and discovered, nothing was more in my desires than to perform the same or similar experiments in warm-blooded animals, as for example in hens and in sheep. The experiment having been tried, the result was the same in the latter as in the former. but there was need of a different preparation in the latter; for it was necessary first to expose the crural nerve, not inside the abdomen, but externally in the thigh itself, and to separate it from the other parts and bring it to the surface, than apply the conductor to it, and then elicit the spark from the conductor of the machine, with the leg either attrached to the living animal or resected from it as soon as possible; for otherwise, if the customary manner of preparing frogs were employed, the phenomenon was wholly lacking, perhaps because the power of self-contraction of the muscles was lacking beforehand, which that long and complex preparation can release.". Galvani concludes this section by writing: " but indeed, in this kind of experiments, whether in warm or in cold animals, there are some things at the end, and these peculiar and, as I think, not unimportant to note, which never presented themselves to us. One was that prepared animals were more suitable for these phenomena, the more advanced they were in age, and also the whiter their muscles were and the more they were deficient in blood, and therefore perhaps the muscular contractions were propter and easier and could be excited much longer in cold than in warm animals; for the former, in comparison with the latter, have more dilute blood, more difficult to coagulate, and therefore flowing much more easily from the muscles: another was that prepared animals, in whom these electric experiments were undertaken, decay and rot much more quickly than those who have suffered no electric force: finally that even if the phenomena which we have described thus far as occurring did so in the way we stated, animals prepared for experiment fail differently. For if the conductors are applied not to the dissected spinal cord or to the nerves, as we have been accustomed, but are applied or even attached to the brain or the muscles, or if nerve conductors are extended or prolonged, or if nerves according to custom are in the least detached from surrounding parts, the contractions are wither none or very slight. Many accepted things certainly, which we have discovered from these experiments, we refer chiefly to this method of preparing and separating nerves.". Galvani then writes "Part Two THE EFFECTS OF ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY ON MUSCULAR MOTION Having discovered the effects of artificial electricity on muscular contractions which we have thus far explained, there was nothing we would sooner do than to investigate whether atmospheric electricity, as it is called, would afford the same phenomena, or not: whether, for example, by employing the same devices, the passage of lightning, as of sparks, would excite muscular contractions. Therefore we erected, in the fresh air, in a lofty part of the house, a long and suitable conductor, namely an iron wire, and insulated it, Fig. 7, and to it, when a storm arose in the sky, attached by their nerves either prepared frogs, or prepared legs of warm animals, as in Fig. 20, 21, Tab. IV. Also we attached another conductor, namely another iron wire, to the feet of the same, and this as long as possible, that it might extend as far as the waters of the well indicated in the figure. Moreover, the thing went according to our desire, just as in artificial electricity; for as often as the lightning broke out, at the same moment of time all the muscles fell into violent and multiple contractions, so that, just as the splendor and flash of the lightning are wont, so the muscular motions and contractions of those animals preceded the thunders, and, as it were, warned of them; nay, indeed, so great was the concurrence of the phenomena that the contractions occurred both when no muscle conductor was also added, and when the nerve conductor was not insulated, nay it was even possible to observe them beyond hope and expectation when the conductor was placed on lower ground, Fig. 8, particularly if the lightnings either were very great, or burst from clouds nearer the place of experimentation, or if anyone held the iron wire F in his hands at the same time when the thunderbolts fell. ...". Galvani concludes by noting that northern lights produces no contractions. Galvani continues with "Part Three THE EFFECTS OF ANIMAL ELECTRICITY ON MUSCULAR MOTION The effects of stormy atmospheric electricity having been tested, my heart burned with desire to test also the power of peaceful, everyday electricity. Wherefore, since I had sometimes seen prepared frogs placed in iron gratings which surrounded a certain hanging garden of my house, equipped also with bronze hooks in their spinal cord, fall into the customary contractions, not only when the sky was lightning, but also sometimes when it was quiet and serene, I thought these contractions derived their origin from the changes which sometimes occur in atmospheric electricity. hence, not without hope, I began diligently to investigate the effects of these changes on these muscular motions in various ways. Wherefore at different hours, and for many days, I inspected animals, appropriately adjusted therefor; but there was scarceley any motion in their muscles. Finally, weary with vain expectation I began to press the bronze hooks, whereby their spinal cords were fixed, against the iron gratings, to see whether by this kind of device they excited muscular contractions, and in various states of the atmosphere, and of electricity whatever variety and mutation they presented; not infrequently, indeed, I observed contractions, but bearing no relation to varied state of atmosphere or of electricity. Nevertheless, since I had not inspected these contractions except in the fresh air, for I had not yet experimented in other places, I was on the point of seeking such contractions from electricity of the atmosphere, which had crept into the animal and accumulated in him and gone out rapidly from him in contact of the hook with the iron grating; for it is easy in experimentation to be deceived, and to think one has seen and discovered what we desire to see and discover. But when I had transported the animal into a closed chamber and placed him on an iron surface, and had begun to press against it the hook fixed in his spinal cord, behold the same contractions and the same motions! Likewise continuously, I tried using other metals, in other places, other hours and days; and the same result; except that the contractions were different in accordance with the diversity of metals, namely more violent in some, and more sluggish in others. Then it continually occurred to me to employ for the same experiment other bodies, but those which transmit little or no electricity, glass for example, gum, resin, stone, wood, and those which are dry; nothing similar occurred, it was not possible to observe any muscular motions or contractions. Results of this sort both brought us no slight amazement and began to arouse some suspicion about inherent animal electricity itself. Moreover both were increased by the circuit of very thin nervous fluid which by chance we observed to be produced from the nerves to the muscles, when the phenomenon occurred, and which resembled the electric circuit which is discharged in the Leyden jar. ...". Galvani prepares the frog on a hook fixed to its spinal cord and its feet rest on a silver box. In this way, Galvani finds that, with one hand on the frog and the other a metal object touching the silver box, the frog leg contracts. Galvni then gets an assistant, and finds that with the assistant holding the frog while Galvani touched the box again, there is no contraction. However, a contraction does occur if their other hands are connected. Galvani then describes his electric pendulum: " ...if a frog is held in the fingers so suspended by one leg that a hook fixed in the spinal cord touches a silver surface and the other leg freely falls into the same plane, Fig. 11, Tab. III, as soon as this same leg touches the surface itself immediately the muscles contract, wherefore the leg rises and is drawn up, but soon relaxes of its own accord and again falls to the surface, and as soon as it comes into contact with it, is again elevated for the same reason, and so it continues thereafter to rise and fall alternatively, so that, like an electric pendulum, the same leg seems to imitate the other, not without admiration and pleasure on the part of the beholder. ...". Galvani describes how using an arc or hook of iron and conducting surface of iron, contractions either fail or are very scanty, but if one is iron and the other bronze, or much more for silver, contractions will occur continuously and far greater and far longer. Galvani confirms that contractions occur even when the frog is immersed in water, but fails immersed in oil. Galvani covers nerves with metal foil, "preferably of tin, no less than the physicists are accustomed to accomplish in their magic square and Leyden jar", Fig. 9, Tab. III, and finds that the muscular contractions grow much stronger, so that even without an arc, but with a single contact of a body either conducting or even non-conducting, these "armatured nerves", as Galvani calls them contract the connected muscle. However, covering muscle in metal foil causes no difference in contraction, nor for covering the denuded spinal cord. Galvani finds that with the nerve and muscle removed from the body, that far fewer contractions take place, however, that contractions arise far more easily and promptly if the arc is applied to an armatured nerve. Galvani finds that wrapping the nerves in insulation such as silk and then touching the nerve with the arc causes no contraction. Galvani describes the way nerves share electricity, finding that two nerves with the arc applied to one each cause both connected muscles to contract. Galvani writes "...But perhaps nothing is more suitable for demonstrating powers of cooperation than if the crural nerves are prepared according to custom, and the spinal cord and head remain intact, and the upper limbs intact in nature and position. For then, if either the crural nerve or the vertebral column is armatured, and the arc aplied partly to the armatured part of the crural nerve and partly to the corresponding limb, not only the lower limbs contract, but the upper ones move also, the eyelids move, and other parts of the head move, so that on this account, the electric fluid, aroused by nervous contact of the arc, for the most part flows from the indicated place of the nerves to the muscles, but partly also through the nerves seeks the higher regions and is carried as far as the brain, and seems to carry such effect into it that thence, for whatever reason, motions of other muscles are excited. Galvani writes: " moreover, the experiments having been performed, in birds and quadrupeds, not once but again and again, not only the principal phenomena appeared, according to desire, as in cold-blooded animals, namely frogs and turtles, but they both appeared more easily and were far more conspicuous. it was possible also to observe this peculiarity in both the living and the dead animal, Figs. 20 and 21, for example that in a lamb or a chick, with a crural nerve dissected and covered with metal foil and extended on an armatured glass surface, contractions were obtained without the device of an arc, but solely by the contact of some conducting body with the same surface; but they are never obtained when the nerve is extended on a metallic surface, unless an arc is applied to the animal according to custom.".. Galvani states his belief that "animal electricity, discovered by us, ... corresponds not a little with common electricity.", and "...those who have devoted themselves to this kind of experiments may the better recognize the use and utility of the arc...". Galvani dedicates his last chapter, part 4 to "CONJECTURES AND SOME CONCLUSIONS". In this part, Galvani states numerous conjectures, theories and ideas for future research. In particular Galvani argues in favor of "animal electricity" as being different from common electricity. Volta is credited with disproving this theory. Galvani writes: "From what is known and explored thys far, I think it is sufficiently established that there is electricity in animals, which, with Bartholinus and others, we may be permitted to call by the general name of animal electricity.". Galvani then goes on to theorize that two kinds of electricity, positive and negative, cause muscle contraction. Galvani writes "...it would perhaps be a not inept hypothesis and conjecture, nor altogether deviating from the truth, which should compare a muscle fibre to a small Leyden jar, or other similar electric body, charged with two opposite kinds of electricity; but should liken the nerve to the conductor, and therefore compare the whole muscle with an assemblage of Leyden jars.". Galvani theorizes on the three different methods of contracting muscles: 1) from the internal surface of a Leyden jar, 2) by an arc, and 3) by the production of a spark from an electric machine. Galvani discusses the torpedo fish and how it can kill or stupefy other bodies. Galvani writes "...but already we have shown above that electric fluid is carried through the nerves of muscles; therefore it will be carried through all: therefore from one common source, namely the cerebrum, they will drain it, from the source and origin of all: for otherwise there would be as many sources as there are parts in which nerves terminate; and although these are very different in nature and construction, they do not seem suited for the elaboration and secretion of one and the same fluid. Therefore we believe it equally true that electricity is prepared by action of the cerebrum, and that it is extracted from the blood, and that it enters the nerves, and that it runs through them within, whether they are hollow and free, or whether, as seems more probable, they carry a very thin lymph, or some other peculiar similar thin fluid, secreted, as many think, by the cortical cerebrum.". Galvani distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary motions. Galvani tries to explain how a spark can cause a muscle contraction writing: "For at the passage of a spark, electricity breaks out both from the layers of air surrounding the conductor of the machine and from the nerve-conductors communicating with the same layers; and negative electricity results on account of them. Hence the intrinsic positive electricity of muscles runs to the nerves both with its own strength and with strength from extrinsic electricity, more abundant whether you borrow it from artificial or natural, as received from their conductors, and flowing through them, failing both in them and in the shortly hirtherto mentioned layers of air, it will renew the electricity and establish itself at equilibrium therewith; not otherwise than as, in a Leyden jar, the positive electricity of the internal surface in the production of a spark flows more abundantly to the conductor of the former, for the same reasons, and goes out therefrom, just as the form of a luminous electric pencil openly declares.". Galvani suggests that just as electricity can damage a nerve, possibly self generated electricity might damage a nerve. Galvani does not explicitly mention the possibility of a person remotely causing a muscle to move without having to touch the nerve directly, for example with a piece of metal. This work of Galvani's is really an epochal work. There are many sciences that grow from this work. In particular, the very interesting science, of the difference between life and death, and in particular the role of electricity in living objects. Related to this, is the science of resuscitation and reviving back to living a body that has been dead for a period of time. Beyond this is the major science of using electricity to cause remote muscle contraction, which develops secretly - it seems very likely, around the early 1800s. In addition, is the science of radio communication - which involves his use of electric induction which may be simply the photoelectric effect. This technology of moving (human muscles) is the focus of much secret research. Some time, perhaps around 1912, some person figured out how to remotely cause neurons to fire. Who figured this out first is publicly not known, nor is the location on earth where this was first found publicly known, not is the precise method known. Possibly molecules in a neuron absorb certain frequencies of photons, by making the molecule (which could be even the water molecule, but may be more specific to neurons) absorb photons, the neuron may be made to fire. Perhaps the neurons of squid were first used being much larger than the neurons of other species. When this process of making neurons fire remotely was understood, many new possibilities were realized. In particular by remotely causing the correct neuron to fire, any muscle in any body with a muscular system can be made to contract. Sadly, this technology is being terribly abused by the people, mostly conservative military people who control it, to cause people's muscles to move in ways which may cause them damage, for example, to cause a person to drive off a road, or simply to murder people by stopping their lung or heart muscle. Clearly the amazing potential of being able to control muscles from a distance is a very powerful tool. This technology could be used to stop pain felt in surgery without having to use anesthesia, to send images, sounds, and smells to each other just by thought, to stop a person in the act of violence, for example, many useful purposes. Ultimately this movement of muscles is a way a person can possibly completely control all the thoughts and muscles of another body. A person's body may be made to think and/or move in a way without any choice. This secret technology opens many new ideas previously never thought about. Sadly, as will be the case for seeing thought in 1910, and hearing thought in 1911, uneducated, greedy, powerhungry wealthy people that control the government and media will usurp this technology for themselves, continually giving the excuse of "national security", and the advantage keeping the technology secret from other people gives them. In addition, other major excuses involve the financial panic or collapse that might happen if information is freely exchanged by all people, that people will not be able to "handle" the new reality of the machines and may seek to destroy or otherwise limit the use of the technology. This remote neuron activation, image, sound and muscle moving technology is probably one of the most important scientific advances in the history of earth, and is one of the major science and technology secrets of the early 1900s. Those include: 1: Detecting status of neurons 1) Seeing the images the eyes see (October 25?, 1910, Michael I Pupin, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA) 2) Seeing the images the brain generates (October 25?, 1910, Michael I Pupin, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA) 3) Hearing the sounds the ears hear (1911?, DP?, Columbia University?) 4) Hearing the sounds the brain generates (1911?, DP?, Columbia University?) 5) Detecting smells being smelled 6) Detecting tastes being tasted 7) Detecting touches being felt 8) Detecting feelings of heat 9) Detecting feelings of pain (from neuron receptors of pain sensors in skin) 10) Detecting movement of muscles 11) Detecting gland activity 12) Detecting sexual stimulation 2: Remote Neuron activation (1912?, CIP?, Columbia? California?) 1) Sending images to appear in front of eyes 2) Sending images to appear on internal thought screen (the thought screen, a second screen used in the brain, where dreams are seen, and internal visualizations are drawn, used to plant suggestions in people's minds such as an image of a food product) 3) Sending sounds to be heard as if outside body 4) Sending sounds to be heard as if from thoughts (used {many times as their own voice} to plant suggestions in people's minds) 5) Sending smells 6) Sending tastes (same neurons as smell?) 7) Sending touches (remotely activating nerve receptors in brain that receive signals from touch sensors in skin) 8) Sending feeling of heat (one of the few remote stimulations I have not felt to my knowledge) 9) Sending pain 10) Sending muscle moves (to neurons that control muscle contraction) 11) causing glands to secret hormones 12) causing sexual stimulation 3: public but used secretly: causing cancer with photons in microwave 4: secret networks of hidden microphones and cameras by telephone companies, which must have developed to be microscopic perhaps even as early as 1920. 5: transmutation: forming different atoms, building atoms up using particles to convert H to He, He to Li, Li, Be, C, N, ...Au, Ag, Converting common atoms into useful atoms such as hydrogen and oxygen. Potentially making gold from mercury through particle accelerators. (State who is the first to clearly publish the possibility of a person moving the muscles of another body remotely without having to touch the other body. State any for both science publication, or science fiction.) This will lead to the development of technology that can read from and write to neurons, which will enable the remote recording of images of thought, the sounds of thought, the images a brain sees, the sounds a brain hears, smells, touches, tastes, and even the writing to neurons, perhaps with roentgen rays (x-rays, or X particles), which allow a muscle to be contracted from a remote distance using invisible particle beams. This is one of the earliest reports of the phenomenon of the electric radiation which will be the basis of wireless communication using light particles (one form of which is radio). | Bologna, Italy |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 2243) | Paris, France (presumably) |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 2289) Dolomieu is a member of the order of Malta since infancy, and is pardoned from a sentence of death at age 19 for killing a brother knight in a duel. Dolom ieu accompanies Napoleon to Egypt in 1798 and is captured and imprisoned on the return (to France). | Alps, Northern Italy |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 2290) | Alps, Northern Italy |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 2295) | |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 2342) An unknown mechanism in plants may use titanium to stimulate the production of carbohydrates and encourage growth. This may explain why most plants contain about 1 part per million (ppm) of titanium, food plants have about 2 ppm and horsetail and nettle contain up to 80 ppm. | Cornwall, England |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 2343) Richter publishes his measurement of how much of a given acid is required to neutralize a given base in "Anfangsgriinden der Stochiometrie oder Messkunst chemischer Elemente" (1792-94), and "Ober die neueren Gegenstande in der Chemie" (1792-1802). | ?, Germany |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 2908) | Pressburg (Bratislava), Slovakia |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 3380) | ?, England |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 5954) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
209 YBN [1791 AD] | 5970) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
208 YBN [09/21/1792 AD] | 1534) | Paris, France |
208 YBN [1792 AD] | 2164) | London, England (presumably) |
208 YBN [1792 AD] | 2232) | Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
208 YBN [1792 AD] | 2251) This device is named a battery because any group of similar objects working as a unit may be called a battery. Volta will improve on this device, making things less messy, watery and more compact by using small round plates of copper and zinc and discs of salt soaked cardboard. (What kind of voltage and current can be produced by such a device, and what voltages and currents did Volta measure with his devices?) | Pavia, Italy |
208 YBN [1792 AD] | 2254) I think the science of psychology needs to be made consensual treatment only, no more people locked in hospitals without consent, and/or against their objection. Just as no person should be allowed to remove a lung from a person, no person should be able to drug or operate on another person without consent. In other words, delusion must be legal. People must never be jailed for holding beliefs or views different from the majority or in apparent disagreement with observed reality. Some clear changes needed are: 1) no tying to bed (restraints) or restricting a person from bodily movement, no straight jackets 2) no lobotomies 3) no electroshock, 4) no drugging, forced, or coerced. As always these things can be done if a person consents and even then, my advice to people out there is to object, and to presume that most average people do not want to be restrained. I would define psychology as an experimental science that seeks to understand and consensually-only try to solve problems of the brain for which the cause is unknown, generally using methods such as consensual experimental drugs, touching, talking, etc. I honestly think that more and more as we continue into the future, psychology is going to be viewed as mostly pseudoscience in particular once treatment is made consensual only by law, and neurology the study of the physiology of the brain will probably be the legitimate science of the brain and so-called mind which Pupin revealed is nothing more than the remembering of images, sounds and other sensory data in addition to sequences of muscle contractions. Beyond this I would say that we should seek to make prisons for nonviolent people, nice, clean and safe environments. We should focus on trying to show people in prison where they are going wrong in violating laws, explain science, evolution, atheism, and history to them, and to try to help them understand and obey the laws using consensual-only methods. We should generally try to apply consensual nonviolent honest methods to get people to obey laws, focusing on locking violent people in jail as opposed to nonviolent people, although those who repeat nonviolent crimes which are a nuisance to the majority should be jailed for small amounts of time. I can see a possible exception for a person with a communicable virus, bacteria or protist that causes death, damage or severe and permanent illness, being contained to a volume of space. Unfortunately, what has happened is that the majority is imposing their beliefs on to minorities by imprisonment, drugging and torture, and this was precisely what the founders of freedom of religion sought to oppose. As is the case for the military, in the psychiatric system, people should never be locked in a hospital or prison without having violated a law, without an opportunity to defend the charge against them, without receiving a democratic trial, without receiving a sentence, and they should never be drugged, restrained or tortured. It is wrong to jail a person simply because you think their beliefs are unrealistic, or not based in fact. A perfect example are the religions, who claims are clearly in contradiction to physical reality. Those people should not be jailed simply for holding unrealistic beliefs, and the same is true for those who have nonreligious inaccurate beliefs. One difficult aspect to accept is when a person may be harming themselves. It is difficult to accept but since a person must own their own body, they must be allowed to damage their own body. This extends to drug addiction, to self mutilation, to suicide, to starvation, to obesity, and similar forms of unhealthy or self hurting activities. In such cases, it is my opinion that consensual-only help and services may be provided, for example, providing starving people with food, giving obese people advice in how to lose weight, helping to clean people's rooms that choose not to clean them themselves, etc. Currently, at this time there is a very frightening reality, and that is that because of the psychiatric system that is in place, any person or group of people can be locked in psychiatric hospitals indefinitely, without a trial, with no appeals, no phone calls, nobody allowed to know where they are, and that is a simple fact. People should realize that there are humans who have been locked in psychiatric hospitals for years, some for decades, without ever having violated any single law, never having received any trial, and what is those people's crime? How many of them would like to be released? How many of them broke a law but never went to jail? How many broke a violent law, but didn't go to jail for it? All these questions should concern the average person I think. In addition, there is something highly unethical being done by those in the psychiatric industry. When people can be locked in hospitals without having violated a law, and taxpayers must pay, the psychiatric hospital owners are guaranteed income by law. When people must be given psychiatric treatment by law, the psychiatric doctors are guaranteed income, and when people are forced by law to take drugs for the most trivial and experimental psychiatric diseases that guarantees massive income for the drug companies. So in violating a human's basic right to body, to trial, etc. all these people are getting guaranteed income from taxpayers and the victims themselves who are forced by law the buy these drugs and services even if they don't need or more importantly don't want them. The irony is that here people viciously jail those who consensually use recreational drugs, while simultaneously legally forcing people to use drugs that they don't want to use. Many of these psychiatric victims do "just say no", as the classic logo states, but it doesn't matter, as they are still drugged unconsensually anyway. Any discussion of psychology cannot fail to mention that there exists a massive mistaken belief, not only in the claims of religions, but in the pseudoscience claims of psychology. Harmless, realistic, lawful people are outcast and imprisoned because of this massive mistaken belief. For example, the theories of psychosis, neurosis and schizophrenia are completely fraudulent, because there is no known physical, diagnostic test which can detect these so-called diseases, but yet the label of "psycho" causes terror and fright in people, even if a person has never been violent or violated a single law, and so it is with "heretic" or "witch" even though there is no justification for any fear since the claims of "psycho", "heretic" and "witch" are not based on physical fact. Many times a person who murdered may be labeled a psycho, heretic or witch to try to associate violence with the label. People must recognize that violence is what we should fear, and we should dismiss explanations such as psychosis, witchcraft and heresy as being the cause of violence. Curiously there is no disease of "violent", perhaps because people have supported and tolerated violence for many centuries. But even if there is a disease of "violent" we should never allow unconsensual treatment. So the important point to understand is that there simply is no basis for many of the psychological "diseases" in particular psychosis, neurosis and schizophrenia. Many of these labels can be reduced to labeling a person with "inaccurate opinions", or "unusual opinions" or "unusual behavior" all of which should be completely legal. Many of the so-called diseases coming out of psychology are potentially true, but trivial, such as attention deficit disorder, where certainly many people have small attention spans, but that is trivial and not a cause for tremendous concern, and certainly, no matter what the alleged disease, only consensual treatments should ever be administered. At the current time, many people are being misled by terrible people that control image and sound sending to brains (ie the secret Pupin thought sending technology), and many of them are being punished for correctly claiming that "people hear their thoughts". | Paris, France |
208 YBN [1792 AD] | 2282) Delambre turns his interest to science when he is 36. | Pairs, France |
208 YBN [1792 AD] | 2312) In 1777 Murdoch is hired into the engineering business of Matthew Boulton and James Watt in Birmingham, England. Murdoch joins the Lunar society. Around 1784 Murdoch builds the first model of an oscillating (steam?) engine.(detail how works) In 1786 Murdoch builds a steam carriage (or road locomotive) that is unsuccessful. In 1799 he invented the long D slide valve.(detail: what is and how works?) Around 1799, Murdoch returns to Birmingham and perfects practical methods for making, storing, and purifying gas. | Redruth, Cornwall, England |
208 YBN [1792 AD] | 2318) Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy (FURKrWo) (CE 1755-1809), French chemist, publishes "The Philosophy of Chemistry" (1792, tr. 1795). Fourcroy is an early convert to Lavoisier and helps to establish the new chemical nomenclature. Fourcroy is a member of the French government and takes a leading part in the establishment of schools for both primary and secondary education, proving in particular for scientific studies. According to Asimov, Fourcroy is a violent partisan of the radicals that succeed to the seat previously held by the murdered Marat. Fourcroy does not use his influence to help Lavoisier, but does use his influence to save other scientists. | Paris, France |
208 YBN [1792 AD] | 2442) Gauss works on number theory established by Fermat. Gauss is reluctant to publish anything that could be regarded as controversial, so some of his most brilliant work is found only after his death. (It is hard to believe that anything in math could be controversial, but I suppose anything that might be interpreted as false might be controversial.) Gauss recognizes that all numbers are of the form a + ib and represents such numbers by points in a plane. Gauss has unpublished insights into the nature of complex functions and their integrals. Gauss offers a new definition for a prime number, in which the number 3, for example, remains a prime, while the number 5 becomes composite, since it can be expressed as a product of complex factor (1 + 2i)(1 − 2i). As a result of Gauss' survey work, in 1827 Gauss publishes a memoir in which the geometry of a curved surface is developed in terms of intrinsic, or Gaussian, coordinates. Gauss works out a non-Euclidean geometry, a geometry based on axioms different from those of Euclid, but hesitates to publish. Lobachevski and Bolyai will publish first. Gauss is the only child of poor parents. Gauss is a child prodigy, at age 3 correcting his fathers sums. Gauss is a calculating prodigy and retains the ability to do elaborate calculations in his head most of his life. Gauss' unusual mind is recognized and he is educated at the expense of Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick. From 1795-8 Gauss studies mathematics at the University of Göttingen. From 1818 to 1832 Gauss makes a survey of Hannover. A statue of Gauss stands on a pedestal in the shape of a 17-pointed star. Some people rank Gauss with Archimedes and Newton as one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time. | Brunswick, Germany |
207 YBN [04/??/1793 AD] | 2359) Whitney graduates from Yale College in 1792. Perhaps out of guilt in seeing people get rich using the cotton gin (which is simple to copy) and Whitney and his partner Phineas Miller not able to win lawsuits against the farmers, some southern US governments award Whitney and Miller about $90,000. In the end Whitney and Miller gain practically nothing.. When Congress refuses to renew the patent, which expires in 1807, Whitney (writes) that "an invention can be so valuable as to be worthless to the inventor". Whitney chooses not to patent his later inventions, including a milling machine. (My own view is that inventors should be recognized, but I don't think people should try to restrict the free-flow and in particular copying of ideas and information, even so-called intellectual property and invention designs.) | Mulberry Grove, Georgia (presumably) |
207 YBN [05/30/1793 AD] | 2403) Young is born of Quaker parents. Young is a child prodigy, able to read at age 2. Youn g (is reported to have) read through the Bible twice by the age of four, to be reading and writing Latin at six, and by 14 to have knowledge of at least five languages. Young learns Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Ethiopian. Youn g can play a variety of musical instruments. Young is called "Phenomenon Young" at Cambridge. In 1799 Young sets up a medical practice in London. From 1801-3 Young lectures while professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution in London. Henry Brougham, a baronet, and influential literary reviewer, according to Asimov, expresses enmity towards Young's work. (see Young book) Brougham wrongly relies more on criticisms of Young's character and less on physical phenomena. In England Newton's particle theory is most popular so Young's wave theory initially is opposed by the majority of intellectuals. Wollaston supports Young vigorously. For a person who changed the popular paradigm of light from particle to wave, which still stands for the most part today, there is surprising little information on Young's works. There is only one book "Miscellaneous Works of the Late Thomas Young" published in 18 | London, England |
207 YBN [08/08/1793 AD] | 2228) All the (educational) societies, including the Academy of Sciences, are suppressed in France, for being to aristocratic. The Jardin des Plantes is transformed into the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (National Museum of Natural History). (on this date too?) | Paris, France (presumably) |
207 YBN [1793 AD] | 2291) When his book is not well received, Sprengel becomes depressed and does not publish the results of his other botanical research. Charles Darwin praises Sprengel's book 50 years later in 1841. | Spandau, Germany |
207 YBN [1793 AD] | 2372) Dalton attends John Fletcher's Quaker grammar school in Eaglesfield. When Dalton is only 12 years old, Fletcher turns the school over to Dalton's older brother, Jonathan, who asks the younger Dalton to teach. As a result, Dalton teaches at a Quaker school at age 12. Some of the students are as old as Dalton and present disciplinary problems. Two years later the Dalton brothers purchase a school in Kendal, where they teach around 60 students. Dalton learns from Elihu Robinson and John Gough who were also amateur meteorologists. Starting in 1787, Dalton keeps daily records of the weather (atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind, and humidity) for 57 years to the day he dies, recording some 200,000 observations. Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century are destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. In 1793 Dalton moves to Manchester to teach mathematics at a dissenting academy, the New College. In 1801, Dalton publishes "Elements of English Grammar". In 1810 Dalton refuses an invitation to join the Royal Society but is finally elected in 1822 without his knowledge. In 1825 Dalton receives a medal (which?) from the Royal Society for his work on the atomic theory. In 1831 Dalton helps to found the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1832, (Dalton is awarded) a doctor's degree from Oxford, at which time Dalton is presented to King William IV. In 1838 the Royal Society rejects Dalton's paper "On the Arseniates and Phosphates" which Dalton has printed privately, noting bitterly that Britain's chemistry elites, "Cavendish, Davy, Wollaston, and Gilbert are no more". During most of his life Dalton has little money. | Manchester, England |
206 YBN [05/08/1794 AD] | 2223) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794), his father-in-law, and 26 other Tax Farmers are killed with a guillotine. Althought a reformer and political liberal, in 1792 Lavoisier is forced to resign from his post on the Gunpowder Commission and to move from his house and laboratory at the Royal Arsenal. On November 24, 1793, the arrest of all the former tax gatherers is ordered. Mar at now a powerful revolutionary leader accuses Lavoisier of ridiculous plots such as "adding water to the peoples' tobacco" and wildly demanding his death. Marat is killed in July 1793, (however the trial of Lavoisier and the other tax farmers continues). Lavoisier's wife and chemical disciples circulate letters and petitions to show how much the "father of French chemistry," as he is contemporarily called, has been useful to the Revolution. The tax farmers are formally brought to trial on this day May 8, 1794, and convicted with summary justice of having plundered the people and the treasury of France, of having adulterated the nation's tobacco with water, and of having supplied the enemies of France with huge sums of money from the national treasury. Lavoisier objects that he is a scientist and the judge reportedly states that "the republic has no need of scientists" (Chaptal and Leblanc prove how wrong this is). The Reign of Terror falls only three months later when the radicals are overthrown. Asimov comments that Lavoisier was the single biggest loss of the revolution. Joseph-Louis Lagrange comments, "It took them only an instant to cut off that head, and a hundred years may not produce another like it." Within two years of Lavoisier's death, the regretful French people will unveil busts of him. | Paris, France (presumably) |
206 YBN [08/15/1794 AD] | 1895) | France |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 2086) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 2249) | Pavia, Italy |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 2255) | Paris, France |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 2260) The École Polytechnique in Paris, France is established by the National Convention as the "École Centrale des Travaux Publics" ("Central School of Public Works") under the leadership of Lazare Carnot and Gaspard Monge (moNZ) (CE 1746-1818). | Paris, France |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 2298) This book is widely adopted in Europe and in the USA where it is translated. This book contains many misleading attempts to defend the parallel postulate. Ac cording to Asimov Laplace, who Asimov characterizes as small minded, expresses enmity towards Legendre. | Paris, France(presumably) |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 2327) Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (KloDnE) (CE 1756-1827) is one of the first to claim that meteors (found on earth) fall from the sky, but this is not believed since meteorites are thought to be of volcanic origin until Jean Baptiste Biot proves this in 1803. In this book, Chladni suggests that meteorites are the debris of an exploded planet. | Wittenberg, Germany (presumably) |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 2336) | (was Åbo is now)Turku, Finland |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 2373) Dalton's brother also is color blind. Colorblindedness is also called "Daltonism". | Manchester, England |
206 YBN [1794 AD] | 3376) | ?, England |
205 YBN [1795 AD] | 2084) | Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
205 YBN [1795 AD] | 2085) | Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
205 YBN [1795 AD] | 2233) Titanium is a silvery-gray, lightweight, high-strength, low-corrosion structural metal and is used in alloy form for parts in high-speed aircraft. | Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
205 YBN [1795 AD] | 2645) | England |
205 YBN [1795 AD] | 5971) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, publishes his first Sonata (opus 2). Beethoven lives through the end of the Classical era and the beginning of the Romantic era of music which is around 1800. | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
204 YBN [01/28/1796 AD] | 3321) Henry Brougham publishes a paper defending Newton's interpretation of inflexion" (as opposed to explaining inflexion as simple particle reflection). | London, England (presumably) |
204 YBN [07/01/1796 AD] | 2280) At the age of 13 is apprenticed to a nearby surgeon, and completes his apprenticeship at age 21. Jenner prepares and arranges zoological specimens collected by Captain Cook after his first voyage to the Pacific. Jenner refuses an offer as naturalist on Cook's second voyage. Jenner receives worldwide recognition and many honors (for cowpox vaccination), but makes no attempt to enrich himself through his discovery. | Berkeley, England (presumably) |
204 YBN [1796 AD] | 2124) Darwin declines the offer to be physician of George III. Erasmus Darwin is the grandfather of the naturalist Charles Darwin (by his first wife) and the biologist Francis Galton (by his second wife). | Derby, England (presumably) |
204 YBN [1796 AD] | 2126) | Derby, England (presumably) |
204 YBN [1796 AD] | 2277) | Paris, France (presumably) |
204 YBN [1796 AD] | 2330) Gall gives lectures and charges admission. Emperor Francis I stops Gall thinking his philosophy is subversive of religion. Like Mesmer, a committee appraises Gall's phrenology and reports unfavorably. | Vienna, Germany |
204 YBN [1796 AD] | 2339) | London, England (presumably) |
204 YBN [1796 AD] | 2390) | Paris, France |
204 YBN [1796 AD] | 5953) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
203 YBN [06/15/1797 AD] | 3839) | (read aloud in:) London, England |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 1231) Jean-Baptiste Pussin (1745-1811) replaces iron shackles with strait-jackets at Bicêtre Hospital in Paris. Shackles provide more freedom of bodily movement, straight-jackets leave a person helpless to move their arms even for example to itch themselves. However, this is viewed as being a more humaine treatment, and it does represent a change in approach to the prisoners in psychiatric hospitals. | Paris, France |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2159) | Paris, France |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2306) | London, England (presumably) |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2331) Olbers is a physician that converts the upper portion of his house into an observatory. | Bremen, Germany |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2338) James Hall is President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. | |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2344) Chromium is a hard, steel-gray metal that takes a high polish and is used in alloys to increase strength and corrosion resistance. Chromium is added to iron and nickel to produce alloys that have high resistance to corrosion and oxidation (these have about 70 percent chromium). Used in small amounts, chromium hardens steel. Stainless steels are alloys of chromium and iron in which the chromium content is between 10 to 26 percent. Chromium is atomic number 24; atomic weight 51.996; melting point 1,890°C; boiling point 2,482°C; specific gravity 7.18; valence 2, 3, 6. The green colour of emerald, serpentine, and chrome mica and the red colour of ruby are due to chromium. Chromium is a relatively abundant element in the Earth's crust. The son of a farm laborer, Vauquelin went to work in an apothecary shop where he befriends Antoine-François Fourcroy who makes Vanquelin his laboratory assistant from 1783â"91. Vauquelin lives with Fourcroy's sisters, who never marry, and Vauquelin returns their care for him when young by caring for them when they are old. Vauquelin starts publishing his own work in 1790 and is associated with 376 scientific papers. Vauquelin will fund Louis-Jacques Thenard, another peasant's son who will go on to become a famous chemist. | Paris, France |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2385) In 1798, Cuvier refuses an invitation to become a naturalist on Napoleon's expedition to Egypt (1798-1801). Cuvier has a library of 19,000 books Asimov claims he supposedly virtually memorized the contents of all of them. (doubt) | Paris, France |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2398) Trevithick's schoolmaster describes him as "disobedient, slow and obstinate". Trevithick's father, a mine manager views young Richard as a loafer. However Trevithick has an extraordinary talent in engineering and because of this ability Trevithick is hired as an engineer to several Cornish ore mines in 1790 at the age of 19. In all, Trevithick builds 30 (high-pressure) engines. These engines are so compact that they can be transported in an ordinary farm wagon to the Cornish mines, where they are known as "puffer whims" because they vent their steam into the atmosphere. Trevithick has trouble making his steam-engine trains a financial success, just as Fitch was to Fulton, so Trevithick is to Stephenson. Trevithick dies a poor man and is buried in an unmarked grave. | Cornwall, England (presumably) |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2443) This proof is given as Gauss' doctoral thesis. The Encyclopedia Britannica biographer comments that "Gauss's proof, though not wholly convincing, was remarkable for its critique of earlier attempts", which shows that math proofs can be interpreted differently and widely sometimes. | Göttingen, Germany |
203 YBN [1797 AD] | 2666) | London, England (presumably) |
202 YBN [01/25/1798 AD] | 2234) | Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
202 YBN [05/14/1798 AD] | 2281) Jenner goes to London seeking volunteers for vaccination but (finds none) in a stay of three months. At the time, pure cowpox vaccine is not always easy to obtain, preserve or transmit. | Berkeley, England (presumably) |
202 YBN [06/02/1798 AD] | 1233) | Egypt |
202 YBN [07/14/1798 AD] | 2360) Whitney builds a water‐powered (gun building) factory in Hamden. There is some disagreement about whether Whitney's muskets had interchangeable parts. However, Encyclopedia Britannica states that "Finally, he (Whitney) overcame most of the skepticism in 1801, when, in Washington, D.C., before President-elect Thomas Jefferson and other officials, he demonstrated the result of his system: from piles of disassembled muskets they picked parts at random and assembled complete muskets." | Hamden, Connecticut, USA |
202 YBN [07/25/1798 AD] | 1234) | Egypt |
202 YBN [08/07/1798 AD] | 1236) The British navy under the command of Nelson, destroy 13 of 17 French war ships, and form a blockade of Egypt (in the Battle of the Nile). Napoleon and 55,000 men are in Egypt and have no way to get supplies from France. On the morning of getting the news from Aboukir Bay, Napoleon says "It seems you like this country. That is very lucky, for we now have no fleet to carry us back to Europe." | Egypt |
202 YBN [08/??/1798 AD] | 1235) Napoleon founds an institute in Cairo based on the Institute de France in Paris, to coordinate the research of 150 scientists. Mathematician Gaspard Monge is president, with Napoleon as Vice President. In jealously the military officers call the scientists "pekinese dogs", viewing them only as lap-dog servants to Napoleon. Of these scientists, Berthollet studies the making of indigo. Villoteau studies arab music. Larrey strudies opthalmia. Savigny uncovers new species of water lily. Saint-Hilaire studies the ostrich, crocodile, and polypterus, a species of nile fish only found in the Nile. Saint-Hilaire studies mummified ibises, and is the first human to follow the development of a species through more than 1000 years. Dominique-Vivant Denon, scetches much of Egypt including the chapel of Amenophis III at Aswan, and this is the only drawing that has ever been found. | Egypt |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 1935) This star map is more extensive and accurate than that of Flamsteed. F. W. Bessel's catalog in 1818, with 3,000 star positions, will be largely based on Bradley's observations. The publication of Bradley's observations are delayed by disputes about their ownership; but are finally issued by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in two folio volumes (1798, 1805). | Oxford, England |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2117) The gravitational constant, and the mass, and density of the Earth is measured. Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810) measures Newton's gravitational constant by using a modified torsion balance created by John Michell. Using this constant Cavendish calculates the mass and density of the planet Earth. That the (average) density of earth is larger than a stone implies a (dense) core. Michell suggested this experiment. Cavendish suspends a rod with a lead ball on each end. A light force applied to the balls will cause the rod to twist. Cavendish measures how large a twist is produced by various small forces. Cavendish puts a large lead ball on each side of the lighter lead balls and from the amount of twist the gravitational force between the two pairs of balls can be measured. Cavendish calculates the attraction between the balls from the period of oscillation of the torsion balance. (more detail, show how, units) Knowing the mass of each ball, their distance from center to center, (and the force of attraction between them), the only unknown is the Gravitational constant which Cavendish calculates (as=?). From this constant, Cavendish calculates the mass of the earth to be 6.6e21 tons and to have a density of about 5 and a half times that of water. (Asimov claims that Newton guessed this value a century before.) (find Newton's estimate, how did Newton create his estimate?) Cavendish succeeds in measuring a gravitational attraction that is only 1/50,000,000 of the weight of the lead balls. The result that Cavendish obtains for the density of the Earth is within 1 percent of the currently accepted density. Humans are still waiting to calculate a mass estimate for a light particle which may be the basis of all matter in the universe. Is the gravitational constant the same even for photons? Perhaps if we use a different set of quantities, such as "number of photons" and "number of photon spaces" we might be able to find a physics without any need for constants such as the gravitational constant. Cavendish publishes his results in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London as "the Experiments to Determine the Density of the Earth". Cavendish never explicitly measures the gravitational constant, and his aim is to measure the mass and density of earth relative to water through the precise measurement of gravitational interaction. I think there is a lot of room for error in this kind of precise measurement of a quantity so small. People should definitely continue to perform this experiment, in particular between different size masses and temperatures, in low gravity such as in orbit of Earth. | London, England |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2253) | Paris, France |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2278) | Paris, France (presumably) |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2279) | Paris, France (presumably) |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2303) Thompson receives only 2 years of formal education and at age 13 is apprenticed to a local merchant. At the age of 19, while teaching in Concord, New Hampshire, Thompson marries a wealthy widow, 14 years older than he and therefore acquires an extensive estate and social and political influence. (Did the female have the right to own the property and money or did she legally have to surrender it to her husband?) Thompson is on the side of England in the Revolutionary War, and spies on the colonialists. When the British troops leave Boston, Thompson goes with them leaving his wife and child behind. Like Franklin, Thompson refuses to patent his inventions. In 1793 while living in Munich, Bavaria, Thompson is made a count of the Holy Roman Empire and chooses as his title "Count Rumford", Rumford being the original name of Concord, New Hampshire, USA. In 1804 Thompson moves to Paris and in 1805 marries Lavoisier's widowed wife but the marriage only lasts two years. In some way, the heat as a fluid called "caloric" theory, i think will ultimately be seen to be closer to the correct path, and more intuitive, since there is a strong identity between caloric and photons, photons are not a fluid, and may or may not be thought of as heat itself...it depends if you think the photon is the cause of heat, or the movement of the photon (in addition to the photon itself) is the cause of heat, but otherwise I think the caloric was an good intuitive theory. The term "calorie" is still used, but may be replaced my Gigaphotons per second or similar units. In someway Thompson was partially correct in that, probably the movement of the photon is a necessary component (although in addition to the photon itself) to record a measurement of heat. Thompson writes: "And, in reasoning on this subject, we must not forget to consider that most remarkable circumstance, that the source of the heat generated by friction, in these experiments, appeared evidently to be inexhaustible. It is hardly necessary to add, that any thing which any insulated body, or system of bodies, can continue to furnish without limitation, cannot possibly be a material substance: and it appears to me to be extremely difficult, if not quite impossible, to form any distinct idea of any thing, capable of being excited, and communicated, in the manner the heat was excited and communicated in these experiments, except it be MOTION. I am very far from pretending to know how, or by what means, or mechanical contrivance, that particular kind of motion in bodies, which has been supposed to constitute heat, is excited, continued, and propagated, and I shall not presume to trouble the Society with mere conjectures; particularly on a subject which, during so many thousand years, the most enlightened philosophers have endeavored, but in vain, to comprehend." | Bavaria, Germany (presumably) |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2337) | (was Åbo is now)Turku, Finland |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2345) Beryllium is initially called "glucinum" because of the sweetness of its compounds, and will be renamed "beryllium" in 1957. Beryl is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminum silicate, Be3Al2(SiO3)6. Beryl is a silicate. The silicates make up about 95 percent of the Earth's crust and upper mantle. Silicates are the major constituents of most igneous rocks and are found in sedimentary and metamorphic rock too. Silicates are important parts of rock from the moon of Earth, meteorites, most asteroids, and rocks on the surface of Mercury, Venus, and Mars. The basic structural unit of all silicate minerals is the silicon tetrahedron in which one silicon atom is surrounded by and bonded to four oxygen atoms, each at the corner of a regular tetrahedron. Beryllium is a high-melting, lightweight, corrosion-resistant, rigid, steel-gray metallic element used as an aerospace structural material, as a moderator and reflector in nuclear reactors, and in a copper alloy used for springs, electrical contacts, and nonsparking tools. Beryllium has atomic number 4; atomic weight 9.0122; melting point 1,278°C; boiling point 2,970°C; specific gravity 1.848; valence 2. Beryllium is highly permeable to X-rays, and neutrons are liberated when beryllium is hit by alpha particles, for example alpha particles from radium or polonium (about 30 neutrons/million alpha particles). Beryllium emitting neutrons from collision with alpha particles will lead to the discovery of the neutron by Chadwick in 1932. Neutrons will prove to be very useful in separating atoms and transmuting less useful and more common atoms to more useful and less common atoms, and will open the door to the very useful process of nuclear fission. (In particular there may already secretly or in the future be a way to use neutrons to extract large quantities of hydrogen and other gases which float free from any atoms, which can then by used as fuel by oxygen combustion). | Paris, France |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2353) Senefelder accepts an offer from a music publisher, Johann Anton André, to set himself up at Offenbach and train others in Senefelder's lithographic process. Senefelder develops lithography all over Europe, with the music publisher Johann Anton André of Offenbach, in London and in Vienna. In 1800 Senefelder founds a lithography press in London and soon after this is granted patents in Scotland, England, Ireland and Austria. | Munich, {Bavaria, now} Germany |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2361) Malthus has a cleft palate that interferes with his speech. This work causes some amount of controversy. In 1803, Malthus publishes a second and larger edition, converting his original pamphlet into a book with the help of demographic data from European countries. In this second edition Malthus admits that "moral restraint" in the form of delayed marriage and (asexuality) might counter the increase in population. In 1805 Malthus becomes a professor of history and political economy at the East India Company's college at Haileybury, Hertfordshire. In 1820, Malthus publishes "Principles of Political Economy" (1820), on economics. Malthus will continue publishing later editions until the final and massive sixth edition of 1826. (On the topic over overpopulation, what is frustrating to me is that even now, people have trouble recognizing anything beyond the earth. For example, there is nothing but endless space and matter in the universe, countless stars, planets and empty space, and even our own star system is huge. There is far more matter and space than we will ever possibly be able to make use of. It seems clear that overpopulation, as long as there is space on the moon and other planets is not going to be a problem, if we are smart and provide paths for life to grow. We as humans on Earth are failing to accommodate the growth of life mainly because of the stupid traditions of religions, antisexuality, tolerance of violence, secrecy, lack of free info, lack of full democracy and not embracing the method of science and honesty. As I have said many times, there is more than enough space and matter in the universe for all of life of earth and our descendants and this is obvious, but not if we do nothing but stay here on earth, not bothering to even talk about moving to other stars and planets let alone proceeding to build ships (such as star ship one) and humanoid robots like Honda, Sony, and Toyota have done to start that inevitable future.) (My own feeling about the idea of allowing humans to reproduce as often as they want to, theoretically making hundreds of new humans, is that people should promote birth control for unwanted pregnancy, but provide a minimum standard of living for all living humans. The key is to start developing the Moon, Mars, the matter of this star system, and of other stars to allow humans to reproduce and grow at a regular rate. There is a reality, for example, like bacteria in an agar dish; there are finite limits on how much matter can be converted to living objects. In particular if ever humans figure out how to stop aging, the population of humans will increase much faster. In that event, I can see people voting to put limits on how many new humans can be made. In addition, people may vote to nonviolently, without prison, and without violating a person's body, punish those who produce more than a few new humans or more humans than they can financially keep from starvation. Perhaps those people who have produced more humans than allowed by the majority will be physically prevented from being impregnated or impregnating, or forced to move to the outer newly developed star systems.) (Malthus' claim that disease and war occur as a result of overpopulation I think is inaccurate {although starvation, or cannibalism I can see occurring as a result of overpopulation}. I see war and first strike violence as completely unnecessary in a smart and logical population. I think tolerating first strike violence whether on the small scale and on the large scale is a path to chaos, disorder and threatens continued survival of life of Earth.) (This view of overpopulation as being the cause of all problems may influence the popularity of the brutal eugenic theories that the Nazis and others used to justify murdering people based on their race, income, and opinions. It may be that Malthus was the first to publicly and more explicitly apply the idea of natural selection as described by Hutton to the human species.) | Surrey, England (presumably) |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2421) From 1790 to 1793 Buch studies at the Freiberg School of Mining under Abraham Werner. | Mount Vesuvius, Italy |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 2877) A quote by Taylor is: "Mythology is the natural measure of the unenlightened mind; it contains the aspirings of the soul after higher objects, which are beyond its reach, and its efforts to realize the dim images faintly formed in the mind, as the man wandering in darkness strives to give shape to the objects indistinctly seen to connect them together." ("its efforts to realize the dim images faintly formed in the mind" only coincidence? or awareness of people trying to follow this science , or possibly this was understood in the 1800s and a hint of frustration or concern about the massive idiocy and injustice of keeping seeing thought secret?) | London, England (presumably) |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 3253) | Geneva, Switzerland (presumably) |
202 YBN [1798 AD] | 5972) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his Piano Sonata Number 8 in C ("Pathétique") (opus 13). | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
201 YBN [06/??/1799 AD] | 2392) (Over the course of his life), Humboldt collects 60,000 plants including thousands of species never described before. Humboldt experiments with electricity in nerves and muscles, erroneously backing Galvani (as opposed to Volta). During a short stay in the United States at the end of his journey, Humboldt is received by US President Thomas Jefferson. Humboldt is friends with King Louis Philippe of France. Humboldt is in favor of the French Revolution. Humboldt writes against human slavery. In 1828 Humboldt organizes in Berlin one of the first international scientific conferences, which is evidence of Humboldt's organizational skills since such large gatherings of potentially liberal-minded people are frowned on by governments in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and the associated rise of democratic expectations. Humboldt has a voluminous correspondence: about 8,000 letters remain. | South America |
201 YBN [08/23/1799 AD] | 1238) Napoleon runs the English blockade" and sails for France. | Egypt |
201 YBN [08/??/1799 AD] | 1237) | Rashid, Egypt |
201 YBN [1799 AD] | 2283) | France |
201 YBN [1799 AD] | 2315) Proust provides evidence that that relative quantities of elements in any compound remain the same no matter what the source used to make the compound or method of preparation. Proust shows that copper carbonate contains definite proportions by weight of copper, carbon and oxygen no matter how the copper carbonate is prepared or how it is isolated from nature. The preparation is always 5 of copper, 4 of oxygen, and 1 of carbon. Proust then shows that this same principle applies for a number of compounds. A compound is any substance with identical molecules made of more than one element. From these experiments Proust formulates the generalization that all compounds contain elements in certain definite proportions with no exceptions regardless of conditions of production. Proust maintains that all compounds are made of components that combine in fixed proportions by weight. Proust's law of definite proportions comes under attack in 1803 by the eminent French chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet who claims that chemicals do not always combine in definite proportions. Proust shows how Berthollet is misled by inaccurate analysis and by products Berthollet did not purify enough. Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius will establish the conceptual relationship between Proust's law and Dalton's theory in 1811. This finding helps to persuade Dalton that elements must occur in the form of atoms. Dalton's chemical atomic theory in 1801 will eventually settle this dispute between Berthollet and Proust in favor of Proust and atomism. This is evidence that the photons emitted from atomic and molecular reactions may not be completely separated atoms, but only photons that result in atoms of less mass. But even if entire atoms are destroyed into photons in two atoms contacting or reacting with each other, the law of definite proportions is still true, even if some atoms are destroyed into photons, since the composition of any specific molecule is always the same. | Segovia, Spain |
201 YBN [1799 AD] | 2451) Thénard is the son of poor peasants who work to send him to school. Thénard studies chemistry in Paris under conditions of semi-starvation until Vauquelin, himself the son of a peasant, befriends Thénard. In 1802, Thénard beomces professor at the Collège de France. Thénard works with lifelong friend Gay-Lussac. Thénard becomes chancellor of the University of Paris. | Paris, France (presumably) |
201 YBN [1799 AD] | 2483) Davy also discovers hydrogen telluride, and hydrogen phosphide (phosphine). (chronology) Davy's collected works (9 vol, 1839-40; repr. 1972) include a biographical memoir by his brother, John Davy. Davy is the elder son of middle-(income) parents. In 1795 Davy is apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary. Davy (writes that) when you he has plans for a volume of poems, but in 1797 when he begins the serious study of science, Davy's interest in poetry "fled before the voice of truth". Davy befriends Davies Giddy (later Gilbert; president of the Royal Society, 1827-30) and Giddy recommends Davy for a job at the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. From 10/1799-03/1801 Davy works at the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. In 1800, the account of Davy's work (at the Pneumatic institution) published as "Researches, Chemical and Philosophical" (1800) quickly establishes Davy's reputation (as a good scientist). In 1801 Davy moves to London and is invited to lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain newly founded by Joseph Banks and Benjamin Thompson (Rumford) in 1799. Davy's brilliant lectures attract a fashionable and intellectual audience. (open to the public?) In 1802 Davy becomes professor of chemistry (at the Royal Institution). In 1805 Davy receive the Copley Medal for his researches on voltaic cells, tanning, and mineral analysis. In 1807 Davy is a charter member of Geological Society of London. Davy wins an award for the best work in electricity established by Napoleon, says that while the governments might be at war but the scientists are not. Davy does not accept Dalton's atomic theory. Wollaston tries to convert him. In 1811 Davy hires Michael Faraday as an assistant. In 1812 Davy damages his eyes in a nitrogen trichloride explosion. Faraday skillfully prepared, but Davy allows it to explode. From 1820-1827 Davy is president of the Royal Society. Davy's assistant is Faraday. In 1824 Davy tries to block Faraday's membership into the Royal Society. Davy twice opposes the election of Faraday to fellowship in the Royal Society. At one point Davy objects to honoring Faraday for achieving the first liquefication of chlorine, claiming that he himself deserves credit for the feat. Another time, Davy says his opposition is due to his belief that William Wollaston (1766-1828) had preceded Faraday in discovering electromagnetic rotation. Perhaps Davy is envious of the success of his former assistant. Faraday does finally become a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1824. In his will Davy leaves funds to establish a medal to be given annually to chemists. | Bristol, England |
200 YBN [03/20/1800 AD] | 2250) Volta finds that not only will two dissimilar metals in contact produce a small electrical (current), but metals in contact with certain fluids also produces electrical . Volta's first battery uses copper and tin or zinc metal strips in a bowl of salt water to produce an electric potential (or differential) and current. Volta improves on this device, making things less messy, watery and more compact by using small round plates of copper and zinc and discs of salt soaked cardboard. Volta connects these plates in order of copper, zinc, cardboard, copper, zinc, cardboard, and so on. When a wire is attached to the top and bottom of this Voltaic pile an electric current passes through it if the circuit is closed. This "voltaic pile" consisted of alternating zinc and silver disks separated by layers of paper or cloth soaked in a solution of either sodium hydroxide or salt water (brine). This battery is the basis for all wet-cell batteries. (What kind of voltage and current can be produced by such a device, and what voltages and currents did Volta measure with his devices?) Volta's battery is instantly popular because for the first time there is a device capable of producing a steady, continuous flow of electricity. All electrical machines before this, including Volta's electrophorus, can only produced short bursts of static electricity. The use of constant current will open up many new inventions and discoveries. Within a short time the voltaic cell will be put to practical use by William Nicholson and this leads to the electrical work of Davy (and Faraday and much of the electrical revolution). Experiments performed with the voltaic pile will lead Michael Faraday to create the laws of electrochemistry (around 1834), which establish the relationship between quantity of electrode material and amount of electric power. The unit of electromotive force, the driving force that moves the electric current, will be named the volt in 1881 in honor of Alessandro Volta. Volta performs experiments to try to show that the electricity of a voltaic pile can produce the same results as the static electricity of a Leyden jar, and that the electricity is the same exact kind of fluid. Volta uses a "condensatore" (a condensing device, basically a capacitor) and measures the deflection of a gold leaf in an electroscope. Volta concludes that in order to produce a large deflection of perhaps 35 degrees, Volta would need a pile with 1800-2000 pairs of copper-zinc elements. (Large sparks will be shown to be the result mainly of very large voltage differential, in particular when the phenomenon of the transformer is understood and the induction coil in built. In my view the comparison of electric particles moving as current, in static electricity, and in permanent magnets is important and has yet to reveal a deeper truth connecting all three. Perhaps in which each is explained by a single force such as gravity.) | Pavia, Italy |
200 YBN [03/27/1800 AD] | 2179) This is the first known identification of invisible light. In the following year Ritter will extend the visible spectrum in the other direction. (to me that is so interesting, that is a major find. This finding is apparently required to see thought 110 years later by Michael Pupin. Looking at light in unseen frequencies will open up an enormous amount of new images and information about other stars, and even objects on earth.) | Slough, England |
200 YBN [05/02/1800 AD] | 2307) William Nicholson (CE 1753-1815), English chemist, separates water into hydrogen and oxygen gas using electric current. Nicholson copies Volta and builds the first voltaic pile in England. Nicholson attaches the wire on both ends of the voltaic pile into water and finds that the water breaks up into hydrogen and oxygen, which collect separately forming bubbles at the submerged ends of the wires. Nicholson "electrolyzed" water, breaking up the molecules into the individual elements. Nicholson and friend Anthony Carlisle, a London surgeon, use platinum electrodes and separate tubes to collect the gases evolved at each electrode. Hydrogen gas bubbles from around the cathode and oxygen gas from around the anode in the ratio of two volumes of hydrogen for every one volume of oxygen. In 1760, Giovanni Beccaria (CE 1716-1781), Italian physicist, was the first of record to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen gases using electricity created with a static generator. In 1785, Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810) shows that air is a mixture of gases by using static electricity electrolysis. In 1789 Troostwyk and Deiman repeat Beccaria's experiment of separating water into hydrogen and oxygen using static electricity. | London, England (presumably) |
200 YBN [06/27/1800 AD] | 3254) | Manchester, England |
200 YBN [06/??/1800 AD] | 3597) | (Royal Military Academy at Woolwich) Woolwich, England |
200 YBN [09/17/1800 AD] | 2436) From 1791-5, Ritter is a pharmacist in Liegnitz, Silesia. Starting in 1796, Ritter studies medicine at the University of Jena, and teaches there. Ritter tries to revive the phlogiston theory. Ritter is interested in "dowsing", (an inaccurate belief that water, metals, gem stones and hidden objects can be found by using a y shaped stick, rod or pendulum). In Munich Ritter becomes involved with experiments with dividing rods and pendulums which he claims have hidden electricity. Ritter claims that he has discovered a different form of electrical polarity of the earth than that caused by magnetic polarity and that this newly discovered effect can be demonstrated by suspending a gold needle properly. Oersted fails to successfully copy Ritter's experiment. Ritter's work at the end of 1805 is questioned by scientists, and during the last part of Ritter's life he gains a reputation of being unreliable. Ritter's entry into occult science influences his later work and such experiments destroy Ritter's science reputation as a competitive scientist. Because of these experiments and his unsubstantiated claims, historians have ignored Ritter's work between 1806 and 1810. In spite of the criticism leveled toward him Ritter continues experimenting, but his science career was finished. (Perhaps this means, his ability to publish the results of his experiments? Clearly he was never let go from his teaching job.) Ritter only lives 34 years. | Jena, Germany (presumably) |
200 YBN [09/??/1800 AD] | 3598) | (Royal Military Academy at Woolwich) Woolwich, England |
200 YBN [11/??/1800 AD] | 2437) | Jena, Germany (presumably) |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 2154) 500 Watt (CE 1736-1819) engines are working in England. | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 2386) | Paris, France |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 2401) Bichat studies anatomy and surgery under Marc-Antoine Petit, the chief surgeon at the Hôtel Dieu in Lyon. Bichat is an extreme vitalist who (wrongly) rejects that physics or chemistry can possibly aid in the understanding of life. Bichat does not use a microscope. In 1800 Bichat becomes physician at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. From 1799 on Bichat abandons surgery and does only research in anatomy, performing as many as 600 autopsies in a single year. Bichat dies at 30, faints and falls down stairs in laboratory. Asimov states that had Bichat lived longer Bichat may have surpassed Laënnec as the most distinguished physician of the early 1800s. | Paris, France |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 2473) Davy writes that he "breathed 16 quarts of the gas in seven minutes" and became "completely intoxicated" with it. Davy persuades his scientific and literary friends, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and P.M. Roget, to report the effects of inhaling nitrous oxide. Davy nearly loses his own life inhaling water gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide sometimes used as fuel. (I have tried nitrous oxide I think in the form of a so-called "whip-it" small gas container used as a propellant for whip cream. The feeling is not very pleasant in my opinion, sounds become very distant sounding. My memories are that the feeling is not really understanding what people are saying, I remember my head feeling very dense or cloudy. It might be fun for people to try just once to see what the effect is. As I remember, the effect is not very pleasant to me, but to others perhaps the feeling is pleasant. Perhaps the quantity used makes a difference in the quality of the effect. It is good to know that prolonged inhalation of nitrous oxide causes death, although more specific info in terms of quantity and duration and actual research done are needed.) | Bristol, England |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 3233) Howard continues "I was led to this discovery, by a late assertion, that hydrogen is the basis of the muriatic acid: (hydrochloric acid) it induced me to attempt to combine different substances with hydrogen and oxygen. With this view, I mixed such substances with alcohol and nitric acid, as I thought might (by predisposing affinity) favour, as well as attract, an acid combination, of the hydrogen of the one, and the oxygen of the other. The pure red oxide of mercury appeared not unfit for this purpose; it was therefore intermixed with alcohol, and upon both, nitric acid was affused. The acid did not act upon the alcohol so immediately as when these fluids are alone mixed together, but first gradually dissolved the oxide: however, after some minutes had elapsed, a smell of ether was perceptible, and a white dense smoke, much resembling that from the liquor fumans of Libavius, was emitted with ebullition. The mixture then threw down a dark coloured precipitate, which by degrees became nearly white. This precipitate I separated by filtration; and, observing it to be crystallized in small acicular crystals, of a saline taste, and also finding a part of the mercury volatilized in the white fumes, I must acknowledge I was not altogether without hopes that muriatic acid had been formed, and united to the mercurial oxide. I therefore, for obvious reasons, poured sulphuric acid upon the dried crystalline mass, when a violent effervescence ensued, and, to my great astonishment, an explosion took place.". After being injured a second time with the fulminate of mercury Howard turns to other projects. Howard determine the chemical composition of meteorites, showing them all to contain nickel, and more nickel in higher quantities than earthly minerals other than those minerals in nickel ore. This helps to establish the extra-terrestrial origin of meteorites. Howard is awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for this discovery. | London, England (presumably) |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 4121) | (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 4541) | unknown |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 4542) | unknown |
200 YBN [1800 AD] | 6324) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his first Symphony. | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
199 YBN [01/01/1801 AD] | 2261) In 1787 with the aid of the viceroy of Sicily, Pizzi founds the government Observatory of Palermo where he makes his observations. Piazzi names Ceres after the Roman goddess of agriculture, once widely worshiped in Sicily. Piazzi meets Hershel, and falls off the ladder to Herschel's reflector telescope and breaks his arm. Piazzi also establishes a government observatory at Naples in 1817. Piazzi "Lezioni elementari di astronomia" in 1817. | Palermo, Sicily |
199 YBN [06/??/1801 AD] | 2368) | London, England |
199 YBN [11/12/1801 AD] | 2405) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) determines frequencies and wavelengths (particle intervals) of light, uses glass diffraction gratings, and puts forward a theory of light interference. Young puts forward the theory of light wave interference (to explain lines of diffraction). This theory states that two (or more) light waves interfere with each other, where light waves can add together and subtract or cancel each other out, similar to the way two sound waves can add to or cancel each other out to produce silence. Young supports the theory of light as a wave in an aether medium (aether being like air for sound), which Grimaldi, Huygens, Hooke, Malebranche, Euler and others supported. Young refers to this theory as the "undulatory" theory. Young proposes that instead of the retina containing an infinite number of particles each capable of vibrating in unison with every possible color, there is only a need for one sensor for each principle color red, yellow and blue. Young publishes these propositions in "On the theory of light and colors". Albert Michelson will use this principle of interference to create an interferometer. I reject a wave theory for light, in favor of a light as a particle that moves in straight lines. However, this principle of color determined by photon interval is still a very important truth without an aether or wave interpretation. I think that what is being called light interference may be the result of particle reflection. There are particle explanations for light interference. The theory that two rays of light combine to destroy each other violates the conservation of matter (and energy for those who believe in energy); that matter would disappear into empty space, and seems to me unlikely. There are particle explanations for light interference, one is the photons fall into orbit around each other, another is that photons collide with each other, another is that photons reflect of the sides of the slits, and finally another is that photons reflect at different angles depending on atomic structure of the material reflecting the photons. State what humans offered particle explanations for interference if any. This key concept, can light cancel itself out like sound, will be divided between the two already existing schools of particle or wave interpretation of light. Even after the theory of an aether medium for light falls with the Michelson-Morley experiment, this concept of light destruction will continue for wave supporters. I reject the idea that photons can ever be created or destroyed, and so I reject the idea that two beams of photons can cancel each other out since in the view I support no photon can ever be destroyed. The theory of an aether goes back to Aristoteles to the 4th century BCE, over 2000 years before this time. The Michelson-Morley experiment will finally end the popularity of the belief in an aether. Young realizes that in terms of color perception that there is not need for a separate mechanism in the eye for every color, instead that only 3 mechanisms are necessary one each for the color red, yellow and blue. This concept is developed later by the German physicist Hermann L.F. von Helmholtz and is known as the Young-Helmholtz three-color theory. Color photography, televisions and LCD displays all use this three color principle. I think the photon detectors in an eye, perhaps neurons, cannot possibly be sensitive enough to detect a single beam of photons. Photon detectors in the eye are much larger than the size of a photon, and may themselves also be composed of photons in the form of atoms. So many millions of beams are needed to "see" light. A neuron might fire at a rate that is the sum of two separate frequency beams colliding on the same neuron surface. Another problem with the idea of light beams canceling each other out into empty space, is that if you think that light is made of matter than it is a violation of the conservation of matter, and even if you think that light is energy, as is the current view, light canceling itself out into empty space is a violation of the conservation of energy. Matter, and in the popular "modern" view, energy, cannot simply disappear into empty space without the equivalent quantity of energy appearing in some other form. In the example of two sound waves canceling each other into silence, the velocities of the particles in the medium (air or sound) oppose each other and result in no motion, however for light no medium has ever been observed, and in my view, there cannot be a wave without a medium. Given this intuitive piece of evidence, that conservation of matter and velocity should be observed, every alternative particle interpretation should be explored in my view. Equating interference patterns based on color, to determine frequency of light is a major scientific contribution, and this contribution is still accurate for a particle theory of light too. | London, England |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 1232) Philippe Pinel (April 20, 1745 - October 25, 1826), a French physician, publishes "Traité médico-philosophique sur l'aleniation mentale; ou la manie". This books will be translated into English in 1806 as "Treatise on Insanity", and will have an enormous influence on both French, English and American psychiatrists during the 1800s. The profession of psychiatrists will grow into a large industry similar to chiropracters and accupuncturers, mostly benign light-weight science of talk or touch-based therapies, however with psychiatry there is attached to the payer the illogical stigma of mental incompetence or unpredictable and/or violent behavior. Pinel explains that insanity not due to "lesion of the brain", but that humans have delusions because of shocks of life, for example disappointed love, business failure, and poverty. Psychology will come to be viewed as distinctly different from neurology which is the study of nervous system disorders with physically measurable causes, while most of psychology is pseudoscience being mostly filled with meaningless abstract "diseases" (such as psychosis, neurosis, schitzophrenia) and/or overly trivial "diseases" (manic depression, delusions of grandeur, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) without clear definitions or symptoms most of which can be reduced to simply inaccurate beliefs or delusion. In his book Pinel defines 5 specific types of "insanity". While at Bicêtre Hospital Pinel does away with bleeding, purging, and blistering in favor of a therapy that involves close contact with and careful observation of the patient-prisoners. Pinel visits each prisoner, often several times a day, and takes careful notes over two years. He engages them in lengthy conversations. His objective is to assemble a detailed case history and a natural history of each person's supposed illness. This is after the French Revolution which brings more moral "treatment" of those people locked in psychiatric hospitals. Two years before in 1795, Pinel was appointed chief physician of the Hospice de la Salpêtrière by the new republic government, a post that he retains for the rest of his life. The Salpêtrière is, at the time, like a large village, with seven thousand women. Pinel misses Pussin, and in 1802 secures Pussin's transfer to the Salpêtrière. Pinel creates an inoculation clinic in his service at the Salpêtrière in 1799 and the first vaccination in Paris is given there (perhaps without consent) in April 1800. Inspired by Pussin, Pinel takes a more humane view of people that are brought to the hospital. Pinel is skeptical of treatments in medical texts, which he describes as "rarely useful and frequently injurious" methods formed from "prejudces, hypotheses, pedantry" (condescending and overly detailed opinions)", ignorence, and the authority of celebrated names." However, Pinel condones the use of threats and chains when other means fail. Pinel like many others fails to distinguish clearly between violent and nonviolent people, mixing the two together instead of requesting to move the violent to a prison or establishing a more restricted violent-only section within the psychiatric hospital, and indeed he inflicts assaults on the prisoners himself. | Paris, France |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2127) In 1751 Lalande goes to Berlin to measure the parallax of the moon in conjunction with Lacaille at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1798 Lalande makes a balloon ascension. Lalande suggests improvements to the parachute. Lalande is openly anti-Jacobin and saves many threatened by the Reign of Terror. The Jacobin club is the most famous political group of the French Revolution, which will become identified with extreme egalitarianism (belief in human equality) and violence and which leads the Revolutionary government from mid-1793 to mid-1794, dominated at one point most famously by Maximilien Robespierre. Lalande opposes the war policies of Napoleon Bonaparte. Other works by Lalande are "Traité d'astronomie" (1764; "Treatise on Astronomy"), and "Bibliographie astronomique" (1803; "Astronomical Bibliography"). | Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2169) | Paris?, France (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2209) | Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2238) | Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2256) | Paris, France |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2268) | Berlin, Germany |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2319) Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy (FURKrWo) (CE 1755-1809), publishes "A General System of Chemical Knowledge" (11 vol., 1801-2; tr. 1804). | Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2349) Del Rio is chosen by Charles III to learn about mining in France, England, and Germany in order to develop and modernize the mining industry for the Spanish Empire. In 1794, Del Rio is sent to Mexico City to become a professor of mineralogy at the School of Mines set up by Fausto D'Elhuyar. Del Rio is forced into exile from 1829-34 after Mexico's war of independence but returns. (What is the routine of chemists to analyze ores? How does Del Rio know that he may have a new element?) Vanadium is a bright white, soft, ductile metallic element found in several minerals, notably vanadinite and carnotite. 4 dict] Vanadium is used to make rust-resistant steels, and as a catalyst. Vanadium is atomic number 23; atomic weight 50.942; melting point 1,890°C; boiling point 3,000°C; specific gravity 6.11; valence 2, 3, 4, 5. | Mexico City, Mexico (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2350) Niobium is a silvery, soft, ductile metallic element that occurs primarily in columbite-tantalite and is used in steel alloys, arc welding, and superconductivity research. Niobium is atomic number 41; atomic weight 92.906; melting point 2,468°C; boiling point 4,927°C; specific gravity 8.57; valence 2, 3, 5. Hatchett is the son of a wealthy coach builder in London, who builds coaches for royalty. The young Hatchett is said to have turned down an offer from his father of £3,000 and a seat in Parliament to give up chemistry. In 1950, the name Niobium will be chosen as the official name for this element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. | |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2357) Fulton submits plans to (the government of) France for a submarine which Fulton argues can help France overcome Britain's naval supremecy. Fulton builds the Nautilus in 1800, and the submarine works better than any previous submarine, although much of the submarine is modeled on one designed by David Bushnell in 1776. The Nautilus is reconstructed and improved in 1801, but the French government still rejects the project. Benjamin Franklin poses for Fulton who paints his portrait. Fulton is in the process of building a steam warship when he dies. Fulton is a member of the 1812 commission that recommends building the Erie Canal. In 1813-15 Fulton adapts a catamaran steam ship into the first steam warship or "steam battery", but the War of 1812 ends before the ship is used. | |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2374) It seems unlikely to me that some atoms of gas being larger would exert more pressure, occupying more space, in addition to offering more matter to collide with. Perhaps atoms are too small for any difference to be measured, or perhaps Dalton's law is true and size and mass does not affect pressure. | Manchester, England |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2399) | Cornwall, England (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2404) | London, England |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2438) | Jena, Germany (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2444) | Göttingen, Germany |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2445) In his teens Gauss worked out the method of least squares, advancing the work of Legendre and this is the method Gauss uses to calculate the orbit of Ceres. | Göttingen, Germany |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 2508) Hare is the son of a prominent businessman and state senator. Hare is educated at home, then studies chemistry under James Woodhouse. Hare's father owns a brewery but the war of 1812 causes the brewery to fail. Hare teaches briefly at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. From 1818-1847 Hare is professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1854, Hare writes a large book on communicating with spirits and claims that Benjamin Franklin's spirit (from the dead) had validated his electrical theories. | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 3382) | Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 3388) | Philadelphia, PA, USA |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 4543) | unknown |
199 YBN [1801 AD] | 5973) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
198 YBN [03/??/1802 AD] | 2332) | Bremen, Germany |
198 YBN [07/01/1802 AD] | 3296) | London, England |
198 YBN [08/03/1802 AD] | 2845) Here is the translation of the second more detailed report: "Gazzetta di Rovereto (13 August, 1802 ) The Counsellor, Giandomenico de Romagnosi, living in Trento, known to the republic of letters by his learned productions, hastens to communicate to the physicists of Europe an experiment showing the action of the galvanic fluid on magnetism. Having constructed a voltaic pile, of thin discs of copper and zinc, separated by flannel soaked in a solution of sal-ammoniac, he attached to one of the poles one end of a silver chain, the other end of which passed through a short glass tube, and terminated in a silver knob. This being done, he took an ordinary compass-box, placed it on a glass stand, removed its glass cover and touched one end of the needle with the silver knob, which he took care to hold by its glass envelope. After a few seconds contact the needle was observed to take up a new position, where it remained even after the removal of the knob. A fresh application of the knob caused a still further deflection of the needle, which was always observed to remain in the position to which it was last deflected, as if its polarity were altogether destroyed. In order to check this result he approached to the magnetic needle at the smallest possible distance (without touching it) either a watch spring or other iron objects, which before attracted the magnetic needle very strongly at a distance four times larger; but now, under the action of galvanism, had no effect at all. To ensure success to the experiment, one needs the following precautions: not all the galvanic piles are good for the experiment, but only the ones whose discs have at least a thickness of a 'linea' and are two inches of diameter; it is convenient to use an insulated pile, and not for a long time in order to avoid rapid oxidation at the surface of the discs; it is convenient to keep the chains suspended in such a way that they do not touch any body conducting electricity and to handle them with the glass tube; sometimes in order to ensure rapid success to the experiment it is convenient to touch the point of the needle with both knobs and then to make it deviate with one of them; and not forgetting before that to handle the chains with bare hands in order to excite the apparatus, since the galvanic flux has often some interruptions. (clearly here there are two chains connected to opposite sides of the voltaic pile, and the presumption is that current is flowing through them.) The needle used by Mr. Romagnosi was only one inch of length and one "linea" of width in the greatest extension near the pin. It was made of a watch spring well equilibrated and suspended on a steel pin. In order to restore the polarity, Romagnosi took the compass box between his fingers and thumbs, and held it steadily for some seconds. The needle then returned to its original position, not all at once, but little by little, advancing like the minute or second hand of a clock. He then put the needle under the action of Electricity, both vitreous and resinous, using a tube of rubbed glass or sealing-wax ("cera di Spagna""). The needle was strongly attracted and at some distance from the pipe, while with the knob it did not move. After removing the tubes the needle returned to the previous polar direction, while in the ex- periment with galvanism it remained in the same deflected position. The magnetic action of a piece of iron, which under the action of the galvanic fluid had no effect on the nee- dle, was stronger than the opposite force of electricity that was simultaneously applied. This experience was made in the month of May, and repeated in the presence of a few spectators. In that occasion he also observed very easily the electrical attraction at a very sensitive distance. He used a thin thread soaked in a solution of sal-ammoniac, and it fastened it to a glass pipe, he then approached the silver chain to the thread at the distance of a "linea" and saw the thread flying and remaining attached to the knob as in typical electrical experiments. Mr. Romagnosi believes it is his duty to publish this experiment that should be- come part of a treatise on Galvanism and Electricity in which he plans to discuss an atmospheric phenomenon that takes place every year near the Brenner and that strongly affects the local population which feels all the effects of galvanism." (see also Govi's translation) | Trento, Italy |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2186) | Slough, England |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2239) | Paris, France (presumably) |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2245) | Paris, France (presumably) |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2365) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) identifies dark spectral lines in the spectrum of light from the Sun, however wrongly interprets them as the natural boundaries of each color. Wollaston reports this as "A Method of Examining Refractive and Dispersive Powers, by Prismatic Reflection" in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1802. In this paper Wollaston describes his experiment: "If a beam of day-light be admitted into a dark room by a crevice of 1/20 an inch broad, and received by the eye at the distance of 10 or 12 feet, through a prism of flint-glass, free from veins, held near the eye, the beam is seen to be separated into the four following colours only, red, yellowish-green, blue, and violet; in the proportions represented in Fig 3." Wollaston goes on to describe the discontinuous spectrum of light from a source other than the Sun, writing "By candle-light, a different set of appearances may be distinguished. When a very narrow line of the blue light at the lower part of the flame is examined alone, in the same manner through a prism the spectrum ,may be seen divided into five images, at a distance from each other. The first is broad red, terminated by a bright line of yellow; the 2nd and 3d are both green; the 4th and 5th are blue, the last of which appears to correspond with the division of blue and violet in the solar spectrum, or the line D of Fig 3. When the object viewed is a blue line of electric light, I have found the spectrum to be also separated into several images; but the phenomena are somewhat different from the preceding. It is, however, needless to describe minutely, appearances which vary according to the brilliancy of the light, and which I cannot undertake to explain." It is interesting to note that the spectral "lines" are due to the way light of different frequencies separates in a prism (or when reflected off a diffraction grating), and the line is the image of the light passing through a slit separated into many identical slit copies over the spectrum. So by isolating a single frequency by viewing only one line of the spectrum, a person can see the universe at a very specific frequency of light only. in fact, the universe can be viewed only seeing the light emitted at many frequencies and any specific frequency just by only viewing the light of one spectral line (although the image has a very high vertical to horizontal aspect ratio, it can be spread out farther after initial separation). For example, the Sun can be seen in many different colors (frequencies) simply by viewing different spectral lines or spectral dots by using a pinhole instead of a slit. Each dot is a distinct image of the Sun. (If seeing eyes and thought was first done in 1810, William, or "Bill" Wollaston may have played an important part in the secret unpublished development. That would put Wollaston and this finding within the time range to be the originator of this finding if in 1810. It seems to me and no doubt to many other outsiders that do not see, hear or send thought images or sounds, that this would be too far in the past, and Pupin in 1910 or earlier seems more likely. But what is all the talk about "ten" before 1910? For example, Faraday refers to things not being "tenable", but most obviously in a major obituary in the Proceedings of the Royal Society for Charles Wheatstone, the word "tenement" is used near the end. This has to be beyond coincidence, but does it refer to the year 1810? And then, what happened in the year 1810 that was so important and was so closely related to Charles Wheatstone? Wheatstone's obituary also ends with "Better World" ("BW") which might refer to Bill Wollaston, but it is purely a guess.) | London, England |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2377) Tantalum is a very hard, silver-gray metal of Group Vb of the periodic table, characterized by its high density, extremely high melting point, and excellent resistance to all acids except hydrofluoric at ordinary temperatures. Tantalum has atomic number 73; atomic weight 180.948; melting point 2,996°C; boiling point 5,425°C; relative density 16.6; valence 2, 3, 4, 5. Tantalum is relatively rare, about as abundant as uranium. Tantalum capacitors have the highest capacitance per unit volume of any capacitors and are used extensively in miniaturized electrical circuitry. Tantalum is quite inert to acid attack except by hydrofluoric acid. For some time Tantalum is confused with niobium. | Uppsala, Sweden |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2439) | Gotha, Germany |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2464) In 1805 and 1806 Gay-Lussac travels with Humboldt measuring terrestrial magnetism. Napoleon funds Gay-Lussac and his long-time friend and co-worker Thénard to build a powerful battery to compete with Davy in England who is finding new elements through the action of electricity. Gay-Lussac approaches the study of matter as volume-centered as opposed to mass-centered as English contemporary John Dalton does. In Gay-Lussac's publications are found the first use of the chemical terms burette, pipette, and titrate. Titration is a method or the process of determining the concentration of a dissolved substance in terms of the smallest amount of a reagent of known concentration required to bring about a given effect in reaction with a known volume of the test solution. For example, Gay-Lussac estimates (the quantity) of silver in solution (1832), which Gay-Lussac titrates with a solution of sodium chloride of known strength. Gay-Lussac is the son of a judge who is imprisoned during the French Revolution. Gay-Lussac's mathematical ability enables him to pass the entrance examination for the newly founded École Polytechnique, where students' expenses are paid by the state (and tuition?). In 1801 Gay-Lussac becomes chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet's research assistant at Arcueil. Gay-Lussac works with Berthollet's son in a factory where chlorine is used to bleach linen. In 1808 Gay-Lussac is granted a professorship in physics at the Faculty of Science in Paris upon its founding. In 1810 Gay-Lussac receives a professorship in chemistry at the École Polytechnique. In 1831 Gay-Lussac is elected to French Chamber of Deputies under the new regime of Louis-Phillippe. In 1839 Gay-Lussac enters the upper house, the Chamber of Peers. | Arcueil, France (presumably) |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2484) | London, England |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 2819) | London, England |
198 YBN [1802 AD] | 5974) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his Piano Sonata 17 in D minor, "Tempest" (opus 31). | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
197 YBN [02/27/1803 AD] | 3599) | Calais, France |
197 YBN [10/21/1803 AD] | 2375) John Dalton (CE 1766-1844) shows that atoms of different elements vary in size and mass, and makes the first table of elements by atomic mass. Dalton theorizes that each chemical element has distinct atoms, and begins to work out the atomic structures of compounds. Dalton claims that atoms of different elements vary in size and mass. Before this, supporters of atomic theory from the times of Democritos to the 1700s Ruggero Boscovich all believed that atoms of all kinds of matter are alike, (that is that all atoms are the same size and mass). Many people believe that having so many different fundamental particles, with each element having its own kind of atom appear to go against a view of the simplicity of nature. Dalton focuses on determining the relative mass of each different kind of atom, a process that Dalton claims can be accomplished by considering the number of atoms of each element contained in different chemical compounds. In a memoir read to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, "On the Absorption of Gases by Water and Other Liquids", Dalton describes his method of measuring the masses of various elements according to the way each element combines with fixed masses of each other. For these measurements of masses to be meaningful, the elements have to combine in fixed proportions as the French chemist Joseph-Louis Proust claimed (against the opposition of Claude-Louis Berthollet). In the last section of the paper is the first table of atomic weights giving Hydrogen a value of 1. Dalton creates the "Law of Multiple Proportions", which is when two elements form more than one compound, the masses of one element that combine with a fixed mass of the other are in a ratio of small whole numbers. For example using elements A and B, various combinations between A and B happen according to the mass ratios A to B being 1 to 1, 1 to 2, 2 to 1, etc. Proust had shown in 1788 with the law of definite proportions that compounds only consist of elements in integer ratios by weight, for example 4 to 1, never 4.1 to 1 or 3.9 to 1. Dalton finds this for methane (carbon:hydrogen= 3:1) and ethylene (carbon:hydrogen = 6:1) and with various oxides of nitrogen. Dalton supposes that carbon monoxide consists of one particle of carbon united with one particle of oxygen, and that the oxygen particle is 4/3 as heavy as the carbon particle, while carbon dioxide is composed of a particle of carbon combined with two oxygen particles. This will later be proven to be true. Understanding the similarity of this theory to that advanced by Democritos (and Leukippos) 21 centuries earlier, he therefore calls these tiny particles by Democritos' own term "atoms". However, where Democritos' theory was a logical deduction based on speculation, Dalton's theory is based on 150 years of chemical experimentation. Dalton's theory is a chemical theory not a philosophical theory. Dalton is the first to advance a quantitative atomic theory, describing that all elements are composed of tiny indestructible atoms, and that all substances are composed of combinations of these atoms. One substance can be turned into another by breaking up a particular combination and forming a new one. All the atoms of one element are identical but differ from the atoms of other elements only in mass. Knowing the ratios of each elements mass cannot be used to determine the actual number of elemental atoms in each compound. For example, methane contains twice as much hydrogen as ethylene and so Dalton decides that methane has one carbon and two hydrogen atoms and ethylene has one carbon and one hydrogen atom. Now people know that the methane molecule (CH4) has one carbon and 4 hydrogen atoms, while the ethylene molecule (C2H4 has two carbons and 4 hydrogen atoms. Since Dalton does not understand that Hydrogen usually exists as a two atom molecule, Dalton views the mass ratio of methane as 1 carbon to 2 (not 1 to 4), and ethylene as 1 carbon to 1 hydrogen (not 2 to 4). Note that in giving the "ultimate particles" (as Dalton describes them) various masses, the concept of the atom is applied to the elements Hydrogen, and Oxygen, etc, instead of to the light particles those elements are made of, which are perhaps more accurately called "atoms", being, in theory indivisible. What we call "atoms" and "subatomic particles" currently are clearly compounds of light particles. | Manchester, England |
197 YBN [11/24/1803 AD] | 2406) In terms of the double slit experiment, I have not been able to duplicate a double-slit causing so-called interference, however I have gotten a single slit to produce bands of colors, using even a single piece of aluminum or steel on one side of a cardboard box hole, with scratches on the metal clearly reflecting spectra of colors from Sun light. In addition I have never seen the double-slit light interference performed, for example on video. I was also unable to produce light interference using a kit ordered from a science hobby store. In the high school I went to, this experiment was demonstrated using water waves not light. However, it seems clear that what works for one slit (via a metal with scratches and Sun light) should also work for two or more slits. Again, in my opinion this effect is an effect of reflection of light off the inside of the slit. For an experiment that changed the popular paradigm for over a century, like Fitzgerald, Lorentz's and Einstein's theory of time-dilation, there are surprisingly few examples of video showing explicit proof of the phenomena. Michelson will make great use of so-called light interference. Michelson's use of half-silvered mirrors is evidence for the phenomenon of light interference. But in terms of the double-slit experiment, I think it should be duplicated and shown to all people on video. It may be that, like me, people were unable to duplicate the double-slit interference pattern, and were too embarrassed to mention it, or believed they simply did the experiment incorrectly. Some interesting experiments that result from this conclusion that light particles reflect off the inside of the slit are: 1) Try various machined curves for the inside of the slits and see how this effects the distribution of photons/light (for example, triangular cut, round cut, flat cut, 4-sided, 5-sided cuts, etc.). 2) Put absorbing and reflecting material on the sides of the slits, is there a difference in the intensity of the so-called "diffracted" light? 3) Are the "double intensity" lines actually double the intensity or simply the original intensity? If double then this could be the result of two beams sent to the same location by reflection like the way a lens or mirror focuses light to a higher intensity and smaller space, but if the same, then clearly no doubling is happening. have there been experiments to verify this in the 200 years since Young first found this (1803)?. This view of light as a wave and not a particle, gains popular using the double-slit experiment, and light interference as proof, and eventually the particle theory loses favor. This will set back science for 200 years as people reject the idea of light as a particle until Planck (and secondarily Einstein who still views light as massless - Planck sees light as massless too?). Currently my feeling is that most likely light are beams of particles with frequencies, point-waves without amplitude, in other words straight lines. I am one of the only people to support a light as a particle only theory, however there probably are many people who secretly years before me understood that light is most likely a particle, is matter, and is the basis of all matter in the universe, a view rejected publicly by most people in science even today. That all matter is made of photons is claimed not only by me. For example James H.L. Lawler at http://users.owt.com/flesher/photonics/photon1.html views the photon as the basis of all matter, although Lawler views photons as being made of two different charged particles, and supports an expanding universe theory. Probably many people have figured out over the years that light particles are probably the basis of all matter, although secretly, not publicly. In addition finding the belief that the photon is the basis of all matter is very difficult to find on the Internet or in archived publications. As an all encompassing statement about this project. I don't have all the answers, and in my view there are many things in the universe and in science that have yet to be explained correctly. I think this is the case for the double-slit experiment, and how white light spreads into its component frequencies (or colors). I think a light-as-a-particle explanation will be the most accurate explanation, but I can only offer my computer simulations which show that what Grimaldi named diffraction is likely the result of light reflection off the inside of the walls of the opening which Grimaldi nor Young accounted for in their diagrams. In my own experiments, I produced a colored band of light from Sun-light reflected off a single piece of metal covering part of a hole in a cardboard box (Newton and others found a similar result), Priestley's describes Dechales experiment of finding colored bands reflected off of scratches in polished metal, and this is evidence that the band of colors thought to be from light bending is more likely reflection and not diffraction or refraction, even as far back as 1674. It seems clear that the light is spread into colors because of reflection on the inside sides of the slits. But this question in particular still needs to be fully explained and modeled to the majority's satisfaction: What is it about a physical groove, for example on the back of a CD that causes beams of white light to be spread into finer beams of different frequencies of particles? It seems to me that: 1) the substance of the reflecting material is important, it must be mirror like (true?) 2) the shape of the substance is important, it must have at least one slit/groove, perhaps in a triangle or other shape. 3) perhaps the reflection is due to some characteristic of photons, perhaps mass, velocity, and/or frequency. We shouldn't rule these things out. The mechanical reason why photons are emitted and absorbed in the same frequency by a certain atom or molecule needs to be thoroughly explored and explained in terms of light as beams of particles. In addition, knowing that there has been at least 100 years of secret research into seeing, hearing and sending thought images, sounds and muscle movements, with what seems like millions of microscopic lasers in everybody's house and apartments, how much has been learned about light but kept secret? How divergent is the story known to the most informed insiders versus the story known to the outsider public? Is this separation one of more than 100 years? One question is: Are the photons that separate into blue and red, always the same photons that separate into blue and red? Or can a photon that forms a red frequency later be part of a blue frequency? Clearly red and blue shifted light is evidence that a photon can be part of beams with a variety of frequencies. Why do photons with a closer blue frequency bend more than photon beams with a more spread out red frequency? Is light made of individual beams of distinct frequencies? Is white light composed of a variety of single frequency beams that each occupy their own line in space, separate from each other and remain microscopically offset from each other when spread out by a prism or grating, or are all beams combined into one line in space and then spread out by a prism or grating? It seems clear that even the most small detectors could not be small enough to detect a single beam of light particles apart from adjacent neighborings rays. A simple light that changes from yellow to green is an example of how individual beams must change frequency. It's interesting to think that a single beam might have an irregular frequency. In other words a frequency that changes every photon, it would probably look like a constant changing of colors. Star light, and sodium light appear to be much more regular. Perhaps when a photon is detected or received is not important, only when the second photon is received, and the beginning of a frequency is what defines a color or wavelength of light. Michelson wrote about coherence, that some beams of monochromatic light do not have exact frequency over time. | London, England |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2125) In "Temple of Nature" Darwin writes "Organic life beneath the shoreless waves/Was born and nurs'd in ocean's pearly caves;/ First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,/ Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;/ These, as successive generations bloom,/ New powers acquire and larger limbs assume;/ Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,/ And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing." | Derby, England (presumably) |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2235) Cerium is the most abundant of the rare-earth metals of the lanthanoid series. Cerium rapidly reacts with water to yield hydrogen, and burns brilliantly when heated. Ceria, the second rare earth to be discovered (yttria was first), will be shown to be a mixture of oxides from which seven elements will be separated during the course of the next century. These other elements are the lighter rare-earth metals, from lanthanum (atomic number 57) to gadolinium (atomic number 64), with the exception of promethium. Cerium occurs in many minerals. Cerium is also found among the fission products of uranium, plutonium, and thorium. Cerium is named after the asteroid Ceres, which was discovered in 1801. | Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2244) | Paris, France (presumably) |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2273) In the long preface to the French translation of British chemist Thomas Thomson's "System of Chemistry" (1809), which explains atomic theory, Berthollet (wrongly) objects to the view that all chemical reactions constantly combine in definite proportions. At Arcueil Berthollet equips a private laboratory where he forms an informal Société d'Arcueil where he invites young scientists to meet with him and his neighbor Pierre-Simon Laplace, and which forms a center of chemical research. | Arcueil, France |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2314) It is interesting that gas combustion guns like hand held laser guns are not publicly acknowledged but probably exist. Most gun powder guns will be surpassed by the laser which uses photons and is therefore the fastest gun ever invented, although photon guns, lasers cannot penetrate as much as a more massive projectile can. | England |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2400) In 1808 Trevithick publicises his steam railway locomotive expertise by building a new locomotive called 'Catch me who can' and charges one shilling admission to the "steam circus" which includes a ride which is intended to show that rail travel is faster than by horse. | South Wales, England |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2416) Jean Baptiste Biot (BYO) (CE 1774-1862), French physicist, reports on a meteorite fall which convinces scientists for the first time that rocks fall from the sky. Biot with French physicist François Arago measure properties of gases.(more detail) In 1793, after graduating from the college of Louis-le-grand in Paris, Biot joins the army. In 1795 Biot takes part in a street riot (biot in a riot?) (as a royalist) during what is called the "White Terror" attempting to overthrow the Convention (the group that proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the republic), which is crushed by the young general Napoleon Bonaparte on 13 Vendémiaire, year IV (October 5, 1795). This marks the end of the French Revolution. As a result Biot is imprisoned for awhile. Monge pleads successfully for the release of Biot. In 1797, Biot is appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Beauvais. In 1800, Biot becomes professor of mathematical physics at the Collège de France in 1800. Biot obtains the favor from Laplace of reading the proof sheets of the "Mecanique celeste". According to Asimov, Biot works out an ingenious mathematical treatment of the particle theory of light that greatly pleases his old sponsor Laplace. (state paper title) From 1809-49, Biot is professor of of astronomy at the Sorbonne. Biot produces many works, the larger works being: "Traité de géometrie analytique", 1802 (8th ed., 1834); "Traité de physique expérimentale et mathématique", 4 vols., 1816; "Précis de physique", 2 vols., 1817; "Traité d'astronomie physique" ("Elementary Treatise on Physical Astronomy"), 6 vols. with atlas, 1850; "Mélanges scientifiques et littéraires", 3 vols., 1858 which is a compilation of many of Biot's critiques, biographies, and accounts of voyages. Arago changes to support the wave theory of light and Biot and Arago lose their friendship. Biot is atheist most of his life but returns to Catholicism in 1846 (at age 72). Biot is one of the last to uphold the light is a particle (corpuscular) theory until Planck and Einstein. It's interesting that corpuscular supporters completely disappear at some point around this time in history, as far as I can see - either they do not exist, do not publicly reveal their belief in a corpuscular theory; or any support of a corpuscular theory is not published until Planck, and even then, the corpuscular theory, of light as matter is still not the majority view and still not published. In fact, physics research in the field of explaining light as particles and explaining optics in terms of light particles, for example, explaining how particles of light enter into atomic lattices, etc. for which progress was being made (as Priestley, for example describes in his history of optics), completely stops until Planck. | Paris, France (presumably) |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2490) Berzelius is an early Swedish supporter of the new chemistry proposed a generation earlier by Lavoisier. Berzelius is one of first to accept Dalton's atomic theory. Berzelius does not appreciate Avogadro's hypothesis, and has some confusion distinguishing between atoms and molecules. Berzelius develops electrical theories of molecular structure which are wrong, but will maintain a hold on chemical thinking for decades because of Berzelius' popularity. Berzelius grows conservative in his old age, and is on the wrong side of almost all controversies. Berzelius introduces many terms in chemistry such as "catalysis", "isomer", "polymer", "allotrope", "halogen", "protein". (Berzelius recognizes proteins?) Over the course of his life, Berzelius publishes more than 250 original papers and many textbooks. Berzelius id the son of a clergyman-school-master. From 1796-1802 Berzelius studies medicine at Uppsala University. Berzelius then studies chemistry at the Stockholm School of Surgery. From 1807-1832 Berzelius is professor of medicine and pharmacy at the Karolinska Institute, just outside Stockholm in Solna, Sweden. In 1835 at age 56 Berzelius marries a fine-looking 24 year old female. | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
197 YBN [1803 AD] | 2502) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
196 YBN [01/01/1804 AD] | 1533) | Haiti |
196 YBN [02/22/1804 AD] | 3596) Don Francisco Sálva Campillo reads a paper before the Academy of Sciences at Barcelona, in which he describes using the decomposition of water with a voltaic pile for the purpose of telegraphy. This paper is called "The Second Treatise on Galvanism applied to Telegraphy". | Barcelona, Spain |
196 YBN [04/??/1804 AD] | 2551) Audubon is the son of a French merchant, planter, and slave trader and a Creole woman of Saint-Domingue. In 1794, Audubon and his half sister are legalized by a regular act of adoption by his father and his wife. Audubon's father fought at Yorktown in alliance with George Washington. Audubon moves to America to take care of his father's farm and to avoid Napoleon's draft. Neither the farm nor any of Audubon's other business interests succeed and Audubon is declared bankrupt in 1819 and imprisoned. Audubon works as a taxidermist for some amount of time, makes portraits and teaches drawing, while his wife works (in child care). By 1820 Audubon decides to publish his own collection of animals and birds and spends four years traveling through Louisiana and Mississippi shooting specimens. Audubon develops the new technique of inserting wires into the bodies of freshly killed birds in order to manipulate them into natural positions for his sketching. Critics of Audubon's work have pointed to certain fanciful (or even impossible) poses and inaccurate details. In 1886 a bird preservation organization takes Audubon's name and eventually evolved into the National Audubon Society. | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
196 YBN [1804 AD] | 2362) Wollaston earns a medical degree from Cambridge in 1793 and practiced medicine until 1799 when Wollaston goes into chemistry. In 1800 Wollaston forms a business partnership with Smithson Tennant, a friend of Wollaston's from Cambridge, to create and sell chemical products. Wollaston incorrectly rejects Columbium as a new element. In 1819 the royal commission Wollaston is on disapproves of adopting the decimal system of weights and measures (the metric system), and as a result England and the USA will use the less logical English or common system of weights and measures. (Asimov states that Britain adopts the metric system but the USA holds out.) Wollaston supports Young's wave theory of light. Wollaston creates the Wollaston annual award from the interest on £1000 to be awarded annually by the Geological Society, London, for outstanding research into the mineral structure of the Earth. Wollastonite, a mineral compound of calcium, silicon, and oxygen, is named in his honor. | London, England |
196 YBN [1804 AD] | 2363) Palladium has atomic number 46; atomic weight 106.4; melting point 1,552°C; boiling point 3,140°C; relative density 12.02 (20°C); valence 2, 3, 4. Palladium is a precious, silver-white metal that resembles platinum chemically, is extremely ductile and easily worked and can be beaten into thin leaf. Palladium has a face-centered cubic crystalline structure. Palladium dissolves in aqua regia. Palladium forms many compounds, including oxides, chlorides, fluorides, sulfides, phosphides, and several complex salts. Palladium has a great ability to absorb hydrogen; when finely divided, one volume of palladium absorbs as many as 900 volumes of the gas. | London, England |
196 YBN [1804 AD] | 2417) This shows a certain amount of reckless and risky daring on the part of Biot and Lussac to participate in such a dangerous activity. | Paris, France (presumably) |
196 YBN [1804 AD] | 2440) | {France and}Paderborn, Germany |
196 YBN [1804 AD] | 3767) | Calais, France |
196 YBN [1804 AD] | 5975) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major ("Waldstein") Opus 53. | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
196 YBN [1804 AD] | 5977) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his Symphony 3. The work is to have been dedicated to Napoleon, a hero to Beethoven, but Beethoven strikes out the dedication on hearing that Napoleon takes the title of emperor. Outraged in his republican principles, Beethoven changes the title to "Eroica" and added the words "for the memory of a great man.". (Beethoven was apparently in favor of majority rule and opposed to monarchy.) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
195 YBN [10/??/1805 AD] | 2411) In 1800 Banks recommends Brown for the post of naturalist on the Investigator in an expedition to survey the coast of New Holland (Australia). From 1806 to 1822 Brown is librarian of the Linnean Society. In 1810 Banks appoints Brown as his librarian. In 1820 when Banks dies Brown is left in charge of Banks' house, library and collection of plants. In 1827, Brown transfers everything to the British Museum and remains head of a newly formed botanical department. | London, England (presumably) |
195 YBN [1805 AD] | 2364) Rhodium has atomic number 45; atomic weight 102.905; melting point 1,966°C; boiling point 3,727°C; relative density 12.41; valence 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Rhodium is a transition metal and one of the group of platinum metals (ruthenium, osmium, rhodium, iridium, palladium, and platinum) that share similar chemical and physical properties. The terrestrial abundance of rhodium is exceedingly low; it is estimated to be 0.4 parts per billion in the Earth's crust. It is found as a single isotope, 103Rh. Rhodium is a precious, silver-white metal mainly used as an alloying agent for platinum. Rhodium has a face-centered cubic crystalline structure. Rhodium is insoluble in most acids, including aqua regia, but is dissolved in hot concentrated sulfuric acid. Rhodium compounds include halides, oxides, sulfates, sulfites, a nitrate, and a sulfide. The salts form rose-colored aqueous solutions. | London, England |
195 YBN [1805 AD] | 2468) | Paris, France (presumably) |
195 YBN [1805 AD] | 3223) Forsyth receives a patent in April 1807. | Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (presumably) |
195 YBN [1805 AD] | 3389) | Philadelphia, PA, USA |
195 YBN [1805 AD] | 6249) | Philadelphia, PA, USA |
194 YBN [1806 AD] | 2299) | Paris, France(presumably) |
194 YBN [1806 AD] | 2301) Legendre finds a connection between the question "Does the integer p leave a square remainder on division by q?" and the question "Does the integer q leave a square remainder on division by p?". Legendre finds that when p and q are primes, both questions have the same answer unless both primes are of the form 4n - 1. Because this observation connects two questions in which the integers p and q play mutually opposite roles, it becomes known as the law of quadratic reciprocity. (perhaps quadratic should be replaced by "squared" or "second order"). Legendre also gave a method of extending his law to cases when p and q are not prime. | Paris, France(presumably) |
194 YBN [1806 AD] | 2346) | Paris, France |
194 YBN [1806 AD] | 2474) For this lecture Davy receives the Napoleon Prize from the Institut de France, despite the fact that England and France are at war. Davy accepts the award saying that the governments may be at war but the scientists are not. (An enlightened view, but clearly scientists will start to keep very important secrets in particular in the early 1900s, of course the Pupin seeing eyes, and CP remotely firing neurons, secrets being the worst cases, but clearly there must be many secrets, generally kept more from the public than government scientists, but as an outsider, as to what happened, and what is currently happening on the tiny Earth we can only guess.) | London, England |
194 YBN [1806 AD] | 2488) Benjamin Silliman (CE 1779-1864) US chemist, introduces Priestley's soda water to America. Silliman's report on the potential uses of crude-oil products gives impetus to plans for drilling the first producing oil well, near Titusville, Pennsylviania. Silliman has a degree in law, but is asked by the president of Yale to teach chemistry since there are no chemists to appoint. Silliman accepts and gets training at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1807 Silliman observes a meteorite fall with a colleague, but (because of backward religious view the majority of people treat meteor stories as unrealistic). Thomas Jefferson states that it is easier to believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven. (Interesting that English settlers had only been in the USA for a century or two and already there was territorial division.) | New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
194 YBN [1806 AD] | 2491) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
194 YBN [1806 AD] | 2504) The vessel Nadezhda ("Hope") commanded by Krusenstern, completes the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth. | ?, Russia |
193 YBN [03/29/1807 AD] | 2333) | Bremen, Germany |
193 YBN [08/17/1807 AD] | 2358) This is the first commercially successful steamboat in the U.S. | Albany, New York, USA |
193 YBN [10/06/1807 AD] | 2476) Potassium is a soft, silver-white, highly or explosively reactive metallic element that occurs in nature only in compounds. Potassium is obtained by electrolysis of its common hydroxide and found in, or converted to, a wide variety of salts used especially in fertilizers and soaps. Potassium has atomic number 19; atomic weight 39.098; melting point 63.65°C; boiling point 774°C; relative density 0.862; valence 1. Potassium is extremely reactive, and more reactive than sodium. Potassium combines so readily with oxygen that Potassium is usually stored submerged in kerosene or some other hydrocarbon, out of contact with air (Kerosene is flammable, is that the safest liquid to use?). (Show chemical equation of potassium and oxygen). Potassium reacts violently with water to form potassium hydroxide, KOH, releasing hydrogen, which usually ignites. Like the other alkali metals, potassium reacts violently with water producing hydrogen. The reaction is notably more violent than that of lithium or sodium with water, and is sufficiently exothermic that the evolved hydrogen gas ignites. 2K(s) + 2H2O(l) → H2(g) + 2KOH(aq) Potassium combines directly with the halogens, sulfur, and other nonmetallic elements (except nitrogen). The metal has limited use since it so closely resembles sodium, which is readily available at lower cost. Potassium is the second least dense metal; only lithium is less dense. It is a soft, low-melting solid that can easily be cut with a knife. Freshly cut potassium is silvery in appearance, but in air it begins to tarnish toward grey immediately. Potassium must be protected from air for storage to prevent disintegration of the metal from oxide and hydroxide corrosion. Potassium and its compounds emit a violet color in a flame. This fact is the basis of the flame test for the presence of potassium in a sample. (Interesting that the atom emits the same color perhaps after separating from some compound molecule?) | London, England |
193 YBN [10/13/1807 AD] | 2477) Sodium is a soft, light, extremely malleable silver-white metallic element that reacts explosively with water, is naturally abundant in combined forms, especially in common salt, and is used in the production of a wide variety of industrially important compounds. Sodium has atomic number 11; atomic weight 22.99; melting point 97.8°C; boiling point 892°C; relative density 0.971; valence 1. Sodium is a dietary essential mineral, whose requirements are usually satisfied by the normal diet. Sodium deficiency is rare, but it can occur if losses from heavy sweating are not replaced. A deficiency leads to nausea and muscular cramps. Sodium oxidizes rapidly in air and reacts violently with water, liberating hydrogen (which may ignite) and forming the hydroxide. Sodium must be stored out of contact with air and water and should be handled carefully. Sodium combines directly with the halogens. Sodium metal is usually prepared by electrolysis of the fused chloride (the Downs process); formerly, the chief method of preparation was by electrolysis of the fused hydroxide (the Castner process). Metallic sodium has limited use. Metallic sodium is used in sodium arc lamps for street lighting; pure or alloyed with potassium, and is used as a heat-transfer liquid, for example in certain nuclear reactors. Sodium compounds are used through many industries. (Show equations for oxygen and water) Compared with other alkali metals, sodium is generally less reactive than potassium and more reactive than lithium. | London, England |
193 YBN [11/23/1807 AD] | 2407) (probably put complete text from light lecture here) "THE nature of light is a subject of no material importance to the concerns of life or to the practice of the arts, but it is in many other respects extremely interesting, especially as it tends to assist our views both of the nature of our sensations, and of the constitution of the universe at large. The examination of the production of colours, in a variety of circumstances, is intimately connected with the theory of their essential properties, and their causes; and we shall find that many of these phenomena will afford us considerable assistance in forming our opinon (known error) respecting the nature and origin of light in general. It is allowed on all sides, that light either consists in the emission of very minute particles from luminous substances, which are actually projected, and continue to move with the velocity commonly attributed to light, or in the excitation of an undulatory motion, analogous to that which constitutes sound, in a highly light and elastic medium pervading the universe; but the judgments of philosophers of all ages have been much divided with respect to the preference of one or the other of these opinions. There are also some circumstances which induce those, who entertain the first hypothesis, either to believe, with Newton (Ph. Tr. vii. 5087), that the emanation of the particles of light is always attended by the undulations of an etherial medium, accompanying it in its passage, or to suppose, with Boscovich (Dissertatio de Lumine, Part II. 1748; and Theoria Philosophia Naturalis, 410, Venice, 1763, p. 230.), that the minute particles of light themselves receive, at the time of their emission, certain rotatory and vibratory motions, which they retain as long as their projectile motion continues. These additional suppositions, however necessary they may have been thought for explaining some particular phenomena, have never been very generally understood or admitted, although no attempt has been made to accommodate the in any other manner to those phenomena. We shall proceed to examine in detail the manner in which the two principal hypotheses respecting light may be applied to its various properties and affections; and in the first place to the simple propagation of light in right lines through a vacuum, or a very rare homogeneous medium. In this circumstance there is nothing inconsistent with either hypothesis; but it undergoes some modifications, which require to be noticed, when a portion of light is admitted through an aperture, and spreads itself in a slight degree in every direction. In this case it is maintained by Newton that the margin of the aperture possesses an attractive force, which is capable of inflecting the rays: but there is some improbability in supposing that bodies of different forms and of various refractive powers should possess an equal force of inflection, as they appear to do in the production of these effects; effects and there is reason to conclude from experiments, that such a force, if it existed, must extend to a very considerable distance from the surfaces concerned, at least a quarter of an inch, and perhaps much more, which is a condition not easily reconciled with other phenomena. In the Huygenian system of undulation, this divergence or diffraction is illustrated by a comparison with the motions of waves of water and of sound, both of which diverge when they are admitted into a wide space through an aperture, so much indeed that it has usually been considered as an objection to this opinion, that the rays of light do not diverge in the degree that would be expected if they were analogous to the waves of water. But as it has been remarked by Newton, that the pulses of sound diverge less than the waves of water, so it may fairly be inferred, that in a still more highly elastic medium, the undulations, constituting light, must diverge much less than either. (Plate XX. Fig. 266.) With respect, however, to the transmission of light through perfectly transparent mediums of considerable density, the system of emanation labours under some difficulties. It is not to be supposed that the particles of light can perforate with freedom the ultimate atoms of matter, which compose a substance of any kind ; they must, therefore, be admitted in all directions through the pores or interstices of those atoms ; for if we allow such suppositions as Boscovich's, that matter itself is penetrable, that is, immaterial, it is almost useless to argue the question further. It is certain that some substances retain all their properties when they are reduced to the thickness of the ten millionth of an inch at most, and we cannot therefore suppose the distances of the atoms of matter in general to be so great as the hundred millionth of an inch. Now if ten feet of the most transparent water transmits, without interruption, one half of the light that enters it, each section or stratum of the thickness of one of these pores of matter must intercept only about one twenty thousand millionth, and so much must the space or area occupied by the particles be smaller than the interstices between them, and the diameter of each atom must be less than the hundred and forty thousandth part of its distance from the neighbouring particles ; so that the whole space occupied by the substance must be as little filled as the whole of England would be filled by a hundred men, placed at the distance of about thirty miles from each other. This astonishing degree of porosity is not indeed absolutely inadmissible, and there are many reasons for believing the statement to agree in some measure with the actual constitution of material substances ; but the Huygenian hypothesis does not require the disproportion to be by any means so great, since the general direction and even the intensity of an undulation would be very little affected by the interposition of the atoms of matter, while these atoms may at the same time be supposed to assist in the transmission of the impulse, by propagating it through their own substance. Euler indeed imagined that the undulations of light might be transmitted through the gross substance of material bodies alone, precisely in the same manner as sound is propagated ; but this supposition is for many reasons inadmissible. A very striking circumstance, respecting the propagation of light, is the uniformity of its velocity in the same medium. According to the projectile hypothesis, the force employed in the free emission of light must he about a million million times us great as the force of gravity at the earth's surface ; and it must either act with equal intensity on all the particles of light, or must impel some of them through a greater space than others, if its action be less powerful, since the velocity is the same in all cases; for example, if the projectile force is weaker with respect to red light than with respect to violet light, it must continue its action on the red rays to a greater distance than on the violet rays. There is no instance in nature besides of a simple projectile moving with a velocity uniform in all cases, whatever may be its cause, and it is extremely difficult to imagine that so immense a force of repulsion can reside in all substances capable of becoming luminous, so that the light of decaying wood, or of two pebbles rubbed together, may be projected precisely with the same velocity as the light emitted by iron burning in oxygen gas, or by the reservoir of liquid fire on the surface of the sun. Another cause would also naturally interfere with the uniformity of the velocity of light, if it consisted merely in the motion of projected corpuscles of matter ; Mr Laplace has calculated (Zachs Geographische Ephemeriden, iv. 1.), that if any of the stars were 250 times as great in diameter as the sun, its attraction would be so strong as to destroy the whole momentum of the corpuscles of light proceeding from it, and to render the star invisible at a great distance ; and although there is no reason to imagine that any of the stars are actually of this magnitude, yet some of them are probably many times greater than our sun, and therefore large enough to produce such a retardation in the motion of their light as would materially alter its effects. It is almost unnecessary to observe that the uniformity of the velocity of light, in those spaces which are free from all material substances, is a necessary consequence of the Huygenian hypothesis, since the undulations of every homogeneous elastic medium are always propagated, like those of sound, with the same velocity, as long as the medium remains unaltered. On either supposition, there is no difficulty in explaining equality of the angles of incidence and reflection ; for these angles are equal as well in the collision of common elastic bodies with others incomparably larger, as in the reflections of the waves of water and of the undulations of sound. And it is equally easy to demonstrate, that the sines of the angles of incidence and refraction must be always in the same proportion at the same surface, whether it be supposed to possess an attractive force, capable of acting on the particles of light, or to be the limit of a medium through which the undulations are propagated with a diminished velocity. There are however some cases of the production of colours, which lead Us to suppose that the velocity of light must be smaller in a denser than in a rarer medium ; and supposing this fact to be fully established, the existence of such an attractive force could no longer be allowed, nor could the system of emanation be maintained by any one. (Arago put this remark to the test, Annales de Chimie, lxxi. 49.) The partial reflection from all refracting surfaces is supposed by Newton to arise from certain periodical retardations of the particles of light, caused by undulations, propagated in all cases through an ethereal medium. The mechanism of these supposed undulations is so complicated, and attended by so many difficulties, that the few who have examined them have been in general entirely dissatisfied with them ; and the internal vibrations of the particles of light themselves, which Boscovich has imagined, appear scarcely to require a serious discussion. It may, therefore, safely be asserted, that in the projectile hypothesis this separation of the rays of light of the same kind by a partial reflection at every refracting surface, remains wholly unexplained. In the undulatory system, on the contrary, this separation follows as a necessary consequence. It is simplest to consider the ethereal medium which pervades any transparent substance, together with the material atoms of the substance, as constituting together a compound medium denser than the pure ether, but not more elastic ;(Some modern writers have adopted the contrary hypothesis, that the ethereal medium which pervades a substance is of the same density as it is in void space, but that its elasticity is different. See Neumann, Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin, vol. xxii. for 1835, and Annalen der Physik, xxv. 418.) and by comparing the contiguous particles of the rarer and the denser medium with common elastic bodies of different dimensions, we may easily determine not only in what manner, but almost in what degree, this reflection must take place in different circumstances. Thus, if one of two equal bodies strikes the other, it communicates to it its whole motion without any reflection ; but a smaller body striking a larger one is reflected, with the more force as the difference of their magnitude is greater ; and a larger body, striking a smaller one, still proceeds with a diminished velocity ; the remaining motion constituting, in the case of an undulation falling on a rarer medium, a part of a new series of motions which necessarily returns backwards with the appropriate velocity ; and we may observe a circumstance nearly similar to this last in a portion of mercury spread out on a horizontal table ; if a wave be excited at any part, it will be reflected from the termination of the mercury almost in the same manner as from a solid obstacle. The total reflection of light, falling, with a certain obliquity, on the surface of a rarer medium, becomes, on both suppositions, a particular case of refraction. In the undulatory system, it is convenient to suppose the two mediums to be separated by a short space in which their densities approach by degrees to each other, in order that the undulation may lie turned gradually round, so as to be reflected in an equal angle ; but this supposition is not absolutely necessary, and the same effects may be expected at the surface of two mediums separated by an abrupt termination. The chemical process of combustion may easily be imagined either to disengage the particles of light from their various combinations, or to agitate the elastic medium by the intestine motions attending it : but the operation of friction upon substances incapable of undergoing chemical changes, as well as the motions of the electric fluid through imperfect conductors, afford instances of the production of light in which there seems to be no easy way of supposing a decomposition of any kind. The phenomena of solar phosphori appear to resemble greatly the sympathetic sounds of musical instruments, which are agitated by other sounds conveyed to them through the air : it is difficult to understand in what state the corpuscles of light could be retained by these substances so as to be reemitted after a short space of time ; and if it is true that diamonds are often found, which exhibit a red light after having received a violet light only, it seems impossible to explain this property, on the supposition of the retention and subsequent emission of the same corpuscles. The phenomena of the aberration of light agree perfectly well with the system of emanation ; and if the ethereal medium, supposed to pervade the earth and its atmosphere, were carried along before it, and partook materially in its motions, these phenomena could not easily be reconciled with the theory of undulation. But there is no kind of necessity for such a supposition : it will not be denied by the advocates of the Newtonian opinion that all material bodies are sufficiently porous to leave a medium pervading them almost absolutely at rest ; and if this be granted, the effects of aberration will appear to be precisely the same in either hypothesis. The unusual refraction of the Iceland spar has been most accurately and satisfactorily explained by Huygens, on the simple supposition that this crystal possesses the property of transmitting an impulse more rapidly in one direction than in another; whence he infers that the undulations constituting light must assume a spheroidical instead of a spherical form, and lays down such laws for the direction of its motion, as are incomparably more consistent with experiment than any attempts which have been made to accommodate the phenomena to other principles. It is true that nothing has yet been done to assist us in understanding the effects of a subsequent refraction by a second crystal, (See additional remarks at the end of this Lecture.) unless any person can be satisfied with the name of polarity assigned by Newton to a property which he attributes to the particles of light, and which he supposes to direct them in the species of refraction which they are to undergo : but on any hypothesis, until we discover the reason why a part of the light is at first refracted in the usual manner, and another part in the unusual manner, we have no right to expect that we should understand how these dispositions are continued or modified, when the process is repeated. In order to explain, in the system of emanation, the dispersion of the rays of different colours by means of refraction, it is necessary to suppose that all refractive mediums have an elective attraction, acting more powerfully on the violet rays, in proportion to their mass, than on the red. But an elective attraction of this kind is a property foreign to mechanical philosophy, and when we use the term in chemistry, we only confess our incapacity to assign a mechanical cause for the effect, and refer to an analogy with other facts, of which the intimate nature is perfectly unknown to us. It is not indeed very easy to give a demonstrative theory of the dispersion of coloured light upon the supposition of undulatory motion; but we may derive a very satisfactory illustration from the well known effects of waves of different breadths. The simple calculation of the velocity of waves, propagated in a liquid perfectly elastic, or incompressible, and free from friction, assigns to them all precisely the same velocity, whatever their breadth may be : the compressibility of the fluids actually existing introduces, however, a necessity for a correction according to the breadth of the wave, and it is very easy to observe, in a river or a pond of considerable depth, that the wider waves proceed much more rapidly than the narrower. We may, therefore, consider the pure ethereal medium as analogous to an infinitely elastic fluid, in which undulations of all kinds move with equal velocity, and material transparent substances, on the contrary, as resembling those fluids, in which we see the large waves advance beyond the smaller; and by supposing the red light to consist of larger or wider undulations and the violet of smaller, we may sufficiently elucidate the greater refrangibility of the red than of the violet light (See Cauchy, Memoire sur la Dispersion de la Lumiere, Prague, 1835. Powell, Ph. Mag. vi. 16, 107, 189, 262. Ph. Tr. 1835, p. 249, &c.; and Essay on the Undulatory Theory, as applied to the Dispersion of Light. Challis. Ph. Mag. viii. Kelland, Trans. Camb. Ph. Soc. vi. 153. Difference of colour was referred to difference of velocity by Melvil, Ph. Tr. 1753, p. 262, and Essays, ii. 12.). It is not, however, merely on the ground of this analogy that we may be induced to suppose the undulations constituting red light to be larger than those of violet light : a very extensive class of phenomena leads us still more directly to the same conclusion; they consist chiefly of the production of colours by means of transparent plates, and by diffraction or inflection, none of which have been explained upon the supposition of emanation, in a manner sufficiently minute or comprehensive to satisfy the most candid even of the advocates for the projectile system; while on the other hand all of them may be at once understood, from the effect of the interference of double lights, in a manner nearly similar to that which constitutes in sound the sensation of a beat, when two strings forming an imperfect unison, are heard to vibrate together. Supposing the light of any given colour to consist of undulations of a given breadth, or of a given frequency, it follows that these undulations must be liable to those effects which we have already examined in the case of the waves of water and the pulses of sound. It has been shown that two equal series of waves, proceeding from centres near each other, may be seen to destroy each other's effects at certain points, and at other points to redouble them ; and the beating of two sounds has been explained from a similar interference. We are now to apply the same principles to the alternate union and extinction of colours. (Plate XX. Fig. 267.) In order that the effects of two portions of light may be thus combined, it is necessary that they be derived from the same origin, and that they arrive at the same point by different paths, in directions not much deviating from each other. This deviation may be produced in one or both of the portions by diffraction, by reflection, by refraction, or by any of these effects combined ; but the simplest case appears to be, when a beam of homogeneous light falls on a screen in which there are two very small holes or slits, which may be considered as centres of divergence, from whence the light is diffracted in every direction. In this case, when the two newly formed beams are received on a surface placed so as to intercept them, their light is divided by dark stripes into portions nearly equal, but becoming wider as the surface is more remote from the apertures, so as to subtend very nearly equal angles from the apertures at all distances, and wider also in the same proportion as the apertures are closer to each other. The middle of the two portions is always light, and the bright stripes on each side are at such distances, that the light coming to them from one of the apertures, must have passed through a longer space than that which comes from the other, by an interval which is equal to the breadth of one, two, three, or more of the supposed undulations, while the intervening dark spaces correspond to a difference of half a supposed undulation, of one and a half, of two and a half, or more. From a comparison of various experiments, it appears that the breadth of the undulations constituting the extreme red light must be supposed to be, in air, about one 36 thousandth of an inch, and those of the extreme violet about one 60 thousandth; the mean of the whole spectrum, with respect to the intensity of light, being about one 45 thousandth. From these dimensions it follows, calculating upon the known velocity of light, that almost 500 millions of millions of the slowest of such undulations must enter the eye in a single second. The combination of two portions of white or mixed light, when viewed at a great distance, exhibits a few white and black stripes, corresponding to this interval: although, upon closer inspection, the distinct effects of an infinite number of stripes of different breadths appear to be compounded together, so as to produce a beautiful diversity of tints, passing by degrees into each other. The central whiteness is first changed to a yellowish, and then to a tawny colour, succeeded by crimson, and by violet and blue, which together appear, when seen at a distance, as a dark stripe; after this a green light appears, and the dark space beyond it has a crimson hue; the subsequent lights are all more or less green, the dark spaces purple and reddish; and the red light appears so far to predominate in all these effects, that the red or purple stripes occupy nearly the same place in the mixed fringes as if their light were received separately. The comparison of the results of this theory with experiments fully establishes their general coincidence; it indicates, however, a slight correction in some of the measures, on account of some unknown cause, perhaps connected with the intimate nature of diffraction, which uniformly occasions the portions of light proceeding in a direction very nearly rectilinear, to be divided into stripes or fringes a little wider than the external stripes, formed by the light which is more bent. (Plate XXX Fig. 442, 443.) When the parallel slits are enlarged, and leave only the intervening substance to cast its shadow, the divergence from its opposite margins still continues to produce the same fringes as before, but they are not easily visible, except within the extent of its shadow, being overpowered in other parts by a stronger light; but if the light thus diffracted be allowed to fall on the eye, either within the shadow or in its neighbourhood, the stripes will still appear; and in this manner the colours of small fibres are probably formed. Hence if a collection of equal fibres, for example a lock of wool, be held before the eye when we look at a luminous object, the series of stripes belonging to each fibre combine their effects, in such a manner, as to be converted into circular fringes or coronae. This is probably the origin of the coloured circles or coronae sometimes seen round the sun and moon, two or three of them appearing together, nearly at equal distances from each other and from the luminary, the internal ones being, however, like the stripes, a little dilated. It is only necessary that the air should be loaded with globules of moisture, nearly of equal size among themselves, not much exceeding one two thousandth of an inch in diameter, in order that a series of such coronae, at the distance of two or three degrees from each other, may be exhibited. (Plate XXX. Fig. 444.) If, on the other hand, we remove the portion of the screen which separates the parallel slits from each other, their external margins will still continue to exhibit the effects of diffracted light in the shadow on each side; and the experiment will assume the form of those which were made by Newton on the light passing between the edges of two knives, brought very nearly into contact; although some of these experiments appear to show the influence of a portion of light reflected by a remoter part of the polished edge of the knives, which indeed must unavoidably constitute a part of the light concerned in the appearance of fringes, wherever their whole breadth exceeds that of the aperture, or of the shadow of the fibre. The edges of two knives, placed very near each other, may represent the opposite margins of a minute furrow, cut in the surface of a polished substance of any kind, which, when viewed with different degrees of obliquity, present a series of colours nearly resembling those which are exhibited within the shadows of the knives: in this case, however, the paths of the two portions of light before their incidence are also to be considered, and the whole difference of these paths will be found to determine the appearance of colour in the usual manner: thus when the surface is so situated, that the image of the luminous point would be seen in it by regular reflection, the difference will vanish, and the light will remain perfectly white, but in other cases various colours will appear, according to the degree of obliquity. These colours may easily be seen, in an irregular form, by looking at any metal, coarsely polished, in the sunshine; but they become more distinct and conspicuous, when a number of fine lines of equal strength are drawn parallel to each other, so as to conspire in their effects. (Young's Introduction to Medical Literature, 1813, p. 559.) It sometimes happens that an object, of which a shadow is formed in a beam of light, admitted through a small aperture, is not terminated by parallel sides; thus the two portions of light, which are diffracted from two sides of an object, at right angles with each other, frequently form a short series of curved fringes within the shadow, situated on each side of the diagonal, which were first observed by Grimaldi, (Physico-Mathesis de Lumine, Coloribus et Iride, Bonon. 1665.) and which are completely explicable from the general principle, of the interference of the two portions encroaching perpendicularly on the shadow. (Plate XXX. Fig. 445.) But the most obvious of all the appearances of this kind is that of the fringes which are usually seen beyond the termination of any shadow, formed in a beam of light, admitted through a small aperture: in white light three of these fringes are usually visible, and sometimes four; but in light of one colour only, their number is greater; and they are always much narrower as they are remoter from the shadow. Their origin is easily deduced from the interference of the direct light with a portion of light reflected from the margin of the object which produces them, the obliquity of its incidence causing a reflection so copious as to exhibit a visible effect, however narrow that margin may be; the fringes are, however, rendered more obvious as the quantity of this reflected light is greater. Upon this theory it follows that the distance of the first dark fringe from the shadow should be half as great as that of the fourth, the difference of the lengths of the different paths of the light being as the squares of those distances; and the experiment precisely confirms this calculation, with the same slight correction only as is required in all other cases; the distances of the first fringes being always a little increased. It may also be observed, that the extent of the shadow itself is always augmented, and nearly in an equal degree with that of the fringes: the reason of this circumstance appears to be the gradual loss of light at the edges of every separate beam, which is so strongly analogous to the phenomena visible in waves of water. The same cause may also perhaps have some effect in producing the general modification or correction of the place of the first fringes, although it appears to be scarcely sufficient for explaining the whole of it. (Plate XXX. Fig. 446.) A still more common and convenient method of exhibiting the effects of the mutual interference of light, is afforded us by the colours of the thin plates of transparent substances. The lights are here derived from the successive partial reflections produced by the upper and under surface of the plate, or when the plate is viewed by transmitted light, from the direct beam which is simply refracted, and that portion of it which is twice {editor: or more times} reflected within the plate. The appearance in the latter case is much less striking than in the former, because the light thus affected is only a small portion of the whole beam, with which it is mixed; while in the former the two reflected portions are nearly of equal intensity, and may be separated from all other light tending to overpower them. In both cases, when the plate is gradually reduced in thickness to an extremely thin edge, the order of colours may be precisely the same as in the stripes and coronae already described; their distance only varying when the surfaces of the plate, instead of being plane, are concave, as it frequently happens in such experiments. The scale of an oxid (oxide- typo?), which is often formed by the effect of heat on the surface of a metal, in particular of iron, affords us an example of such a series formed in reflected light; this scale is at first inconceivably thin, and destroys none of the light reflected, it soon, however begins to be of a dull yellow, which changes to red, and then to crimson and blue, after which the effect is destroyed by the opacity which the oxid acquires. Usually, however, the series of colours produced in reflected light follows an order somewhat different: the scale of oxid is denser than the air, and the iron below than the oxid; but where the mediums above and below the plate are either both rarer or both denser than itself, the different natures of the reflections at its different surfaces appear to produce a modification in the state of the undulations, and the infinitely thin edge of the plate becomes black instead of white, one of the portions of light at once destroying the other, instead of cooperating with it. Thus when a film of soapy water is stretched over a wine glass, and placed in a vertical position, its upper edge becomes extremely thin, and appears nearly black, while the parts below are divided by horizontal lines into a series of coloured bands; and when two glasses, one of which is slightly convex, are pressed together with some force, the plate of air between them exhibits the appearance of coloured rings, beginning from a black spot at the centre, and becoming narrower and narrower, as the curved figure of the glass causes the thickness of the plate of air to increase more and more rapidly. The black is succeeded by a violet, so faint as to be scarcely perceptible; next to this is an orange yellow, and then crimson and blue. When water or any other fluid, is substituted for the air between the glasses, the rings appear where the thickness is as much less than that of the plate of air, as the refractive density of the fluid is greater; a circumstance which necessarily follows from the proportion of the velocities with which light must, upon the Huygenian hypothesis, be supposed to move in different mediums. It is also a consequence equally necessary in this theory, and equally inconsistent with all others, that when the direction of the light is oblique, the effect of a thicker plate must be the same as that of a thinner plate, when the light falls perpendicularly upon it; the difference of the paths described by the different portions of light precisely corresponding with the observed phenomena. (Plate XXX. Fig. 447...449.) Sir Isaac Newton supposes the colours of natural bodies in general to be similar to these colours of thin plates, and to be governed by the magnitude of their particles. If this opinion were universally true, we might always separate the colours of natural bodies by refraction into a number of different portions, with dark spaces intervening; for every part of a thin plate which exhibits the appearance of colour, affords such a divided spectrum, when viewed through a prism. There are accordingly many natural colours in which such a separation may be observed; one of the most remarkable of them is that of blue glass, probably coloured with cobalt, which becomes divided into seven distinct portions. It seems, however, impossible to suppose the production of natural colours perfectly identical with those of thin plates, on account of the known minuteness of the particles of colouring bodies, unless the refractive density of these particles be at least 20 or 30 times as great as that of glass or water; which is indeed not at all improbable with respect to the ultimate atoms of bodies, but difficult to believe with respect to any of their arrangements constituting the diversities of material substances. The colours of mixed plates constitute a distinct variety of the colours of thin plates, which has not been commonly observed. They appear when the interstice hetween two glasses nearly in contact, is filled with a great number of minute portions of two different substances, as water and air, oil and air, or oil and water; the light which passes through one of the mediums, moving with a greater velocity, anticipates the light passing through the other; and their effects on the eye being confounded and combined, their interference produces an appearance of colours nearly similar to those of the colours of simple thin plates, seen by transmission; but at much greater thicknesses, depending on the difference of the refractive densities of the substances employed. The effect is observed by holding the glasses between the eye and the termination of a bright object, and it is most conspicuous in the portion which is seen on the dark part beyond the object, being produced by the light scattered irregularly from the surfaces of the fluid. Here, however, the effects are inverted, the colours resembling those of the common thin plates seen by reflection; and the same considerations on the nature of the reflections are applicable to both cases. (Plate XXX. Fig. 450.) The production of the supernumerary rainbows, which are sometimes seen within the primary and without the secondary bow, appears to be intimately connected with that of the colours of thin plates. We have already seen that the light producing the ordinary rainbow is double, its intensity being only greatest at its termination, where the common bow appears, while the whole light is extended much more widely. The two portions concerned in its production must divide this light into fringes; but unless almost all the drops of a shower happen to be of the same magnitude, the effects of these fringes must be confounded and destroyed; in general, however, they must at least cooperate more or less in producing one dark fringe, which must cut off the common rainbow much more abruptly than it would otherwise have been terminated, and consequently assist the distinctness of its colours. The magnitude of the drops of rain, required for producing such of these rainbows as are usually observed, is between the 50th and the 100th of an inch; they become gradually narrower as they are more remote from the common rainbows, nearly in the same proportions as the external fringes of a shadow, or the rings seen in a concave plate.(Young's Exp. and Obs. relative to Physical Optics, Ph. Tr. 1804, p. 1. Potter, Math. Considerations on the Rainbow, Tr. Camb. Ph. Soc. vi. 141.). (Plate XXX. Fig. 451.) The last species of the colours of double lights, which it will be necessary to notice, constitutes those which have been denominated, from Newton's experiments, the colours of thick plates, but which may be called, with more propriety, the colours of concave mirrors. The anterior surface of a mirror of glass, or any other transparent surface placed before a speculum of metal, dissipates irregularly in every direction two portions of light, one before and the other after its reflection. When the light falls obliquely on the mirror, being admitted through an aperture near the centre of its curvature, it is easy to show, from the laws of reflection, that the two portions, thus dissipated, will conspire in their effects, throughout the circumference of a circle, passing through the aperture; this circle will consequently be white, and it will be surrounded with circles of colours very nearly at equal distances, resembling the stripes produced by diffraction. The analogy between these colours and those of thin plates is by no means so close as Newton supposed it; since the effect of a plate of any considerable thickness must be absolutely lost in white light, after ten or twelve alternations of colours at most, while these effects would require the whole process to remain unaltered, or rather to be renewed, after many thousands or millions of changes. (Plate XXX. Fig. 452.) It is presumed, that the accuracy, with which the general law of the interference of light has been shown to be applicable to so great a variety of facts, in circumstances the most dissimilar, will be allowed to establish its validity in the most satisfactory manner. The full confirmation or decided rejection of the theory, by which this law was first suggested, can be expected from time and experience alone; if it be confuted, our prospects will again be confined within their ancient limits, but if it be fully established, we may expect an ample extension of our views of the operations of nature, by means of our acquaintance with a medium, so powerful and so universal, as that to which the propagation of light must be attributed.". (very interesting comment that light cannot penetrate an atom, my own view is that light particles can penetrate atoms and of course atoms are composed strictly of light particles. Also the reference to Laplace's calculation of a star so massive that particles of light emitted cannot escape, and the comparison to light waves with would, presumably, not be affected by gravity. As pertains to a particle explanation of color dispersal and light interference, I think that possibly particles of the same frequency may collide with each other through reflection, sending them in different directions based on their frequencies. In double refraction, passages in the crystal may follow the cleavage and also go straight through the crystal, making two clear major pathways for light particles to be transmitted through the crystal and back which explain why polarizer filter which may only allow beams in one plane can be used to filter each image. In some sence the concept of diffraction may be interpreted by later historians as a comedy of errors in that Grimaldi misinterpreted the reflection phenomenon creating the very unlikely concept of bending of light around the slit, and then even Newton did not recognize that this is reflection, finally Young missed this simple reflection, and this simple mistake continues to this day. So interference and color dispersion are real phenomena, but I think diffraction is probably only reflection - as is interference, however for interference I think photons may reflect off themselves.) ======== ENERGY In a later lecture describing energy Young writes "The velocity of a body descending along a given surface, is the same as that of a body falling freely through an equal height, not only when the surface is a plane, but also when it is a continued curve, in which the body is retained by its attachment to a thread, or is supported by any regular surface, supposed to be free from friction. (Principia, i. 40) We may easily show, by an experiment on a suspended ball, that its velocity is the same when it descends from the same height, whatever may be the form of its path, by observing the height to which it rises on the opposite side of the lowest point. We may alter the form of the path in which it descends, by placing pins at different points, so as to interfere with the thread that supports the ball, and to form in succession temporary centres of motion; and we shall find, in all cases, that the body ascends to a height equal to that from which it descended, with a small deduction on account of friction. (Plate II. Fig. 23.) Hence is derived the idea conveyed by the term living or ascending force; for since the height to which a body will rise perpendicularly, is as the square of its velocity, it will preserve a tendency to rise to a height which is as the square of its velocity whatever may be the path into which it is directed, provided that it meet with no abrupt angle, or that it rebound at each angle in a new direction without losing any velocity. The same idea is somewhat more concisely expressed by the term energy, which indicates the tendency of a body to ascend or to penetrate to a certain distance, in opposition to a retarding force.". (So the modern concept of "energy" is based on the example given by Leibniz of a falling body reaching the same height. The one flaw is that, the return distance is not the same as the fall distance, because on return, the Earth's acceleration decelerates the velocity of the object. However, perhaps the view is that this loss of energy is accounted for, being lost because of the acceleration caused by Earth. Does the Earth absorb this lost energy?) | London, England |
193 YBN [1807 AD] | 2313) Lighting by gas combustion will be replaced by the electric light, although gas is still used for heating and cooking. | London, England |
193 YBN [1807 AD] | 2323) | Montpellier, France (presuambly) |
193 YBN [1807 AD] | 2352) | Chalon-sur-Saône, France (presumably) |
193 YBN [1807 AD] | 2366) | London, England |
193 YBN [1807 AD] | 2380) In 1798 Fourier with Monge and others accompanies Napoleon on Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. In 1808 Fourier is created a baron by Napoleon. After the fall of Napoleon, Fourier's opposition to Napoleon after Napoleon's return from Elba offsets Fourier's long service under Napoleon. Fourier believes heat to be essential to health and always keeps his dwelling place overheated and covers himself in layer upon layer of clothes. Fourier dies of a fall down stairs. | Grenoble, France |
193 YBN [1807 AD] | 3270) | England |
193 YBN [1807 AD] | 3385) | ?, Switzerland |
192 YBN [06/21/1808 AD] | 2465) Following Humphry Davy's isolation of minute amounts of sodium and potassium, Gay-Lussac and Thénard in 1808 prepare both sodium and potassium metals in reasonable quantities. During experiments with potassium as a reagent Gay-Lussac blows up his laboratory, temporarily blinding himself. Boron has symbol B; atomic number 5; atomic mass: 10.81; m.p. about 2,300°C; sublimation point about 2,550°C; relative density 2.3 at 25°C; valence +3. Boron is a nonmetallic element existing as a dark brown to black amorphous powder or as an extremely hard, usually jet-black to silver-gray, brittle, lustrous, metal-like crystalline solid. In the naturally occurring compounds, boron exists as a mixture of two stable isotopes with atomic weights of 10 and 11. | Paris, France (presumably) |
192 YBN [06/??/1808 AD] | 2393) Charles Darwin, among others admires this work. | Paris, France |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 1224) | Vienna, Austria |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2308) | London, England (presumably) |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2371) | London, England |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2376) | Manchester, England |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2378) Bouvard is astronomer and director of the Paris observatory. | Paris, France (presumably) |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2382) | Paris, France |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2428) Malus' father was an official in the government before the French Revolution. Malus is in the street riot with Biot. Malus serves as a military engineer in Napoleon's expedition to Egypt and Syria. In 1811, despite the war between England and France, Malus is awarded the Rumford medal of the Royal Society of London. Malus dies at 37 of tuberculosis. | Paris, France |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2446) | Göttingen, Germany |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2478) Barium is a soft, silvery-white alkaline-earth metal, used to deoxidize copper and in various alloys. Barium has atomic number 56; atomic weight 137.33; melting point 725°C; boiling point 1,140°C; relative density 3.50; valence 2. Barium is a chemically active, poisonous metal with a face-centered cubic crystalline structure. Barium is an alkaline-earth metal in Group 2 of the periodic table. Barium's principal ore is barite (barium sulfate); Barium also occurs in the mineral witherite (barium carbonate). The pure metal barium is obtained by the electrolysis of fused barium salts or, industrially, by the reduction of barium oxide with aluminum. Strontium is a soft, silver-yellow metal, easily oxidized, that ignites spontaneously in air when finely divided. (Interesting that only when finely divided) Strontium is used in pyrotechnic compounds and various alloys. Strontium has atomic number 38; atomic weight 87.62; melting point 769°C; boiling point 1,384°C; relative density 2.54; valence 2. Strontium has three allotropic crystalline forms (see allotropy). It is an alkaline-earth metal; in its physical and chemical properties it resembles calcium and barium, the elements above and below it in Group 2 of the periodic table. Since strontium reacts vigorously with water and quickly tarnishes in air, it must be stored out of contact with air and water. Strontium has many compounds. (Strontium is one product of uranium fission.) Calcium is a silvery, moderately hard metallic element that constitutes approximately 3 percent of the earth's crust and is a basic component of most animals and plants. Calcium occurs naturally in limestone, gypsum, and fluorite, and its compounds are used to make plaster, quicklime, Portland cement, and metallurgic and electronic materials. Calcium has atomic number 20; atomic weight 40.08; melting point 842 to 848°C; boiling point 1,487°C; relative density 1.55; valence 2. Calcium is crucial to all physiological function. It must be obtained from the diet, but since an intake of only about 1 g per day is adequate, shortage is rare. The average human body contains just over 1 kg of calcium, more than 99% of it in the skeleton (and teeth). Calcium is a malleable, ductile, silver-white, relatively soft metal with face-centered, cubic crystalline structure. Chemically Calcium resembles strontium and barium; calcium is classed with them as an alkaline-earth metal in Group 2 of the periodic table. Calcium is chemically active; calcium tarnishes rapidly when exposed to air and burns with a bright yellow-red flame when heated, mainly forming the nitride. Calcium reacts directly with water, forming the hydroxide. Calcium combines with many other elements forming many compounds. Lime (calcium oxide) has been known since ancient times. Calcium metal is usually prepared by electrolysis of fused calcium chloride to which a little calcium fluoride has been added. Magnesium is a light, silvery-white, moderately hard metallic element that in ribbon or powder form burns with a brilliant white flame. It is used in structural alloys, pyrotechnics, flash photography, and incendiary bombs. Magnesium has atomic number 12; atomic weight 24.305; melting point 649°C; boiling point 1,090°C; relative density 1.74 (at 20°C); valence 2. Magnesium is an essential mineral; present in all human tissues, especially bone. Magnesium is involved in the metabolism of ATP. Magnesium is present in chlorophyll and so in all green plant foods, and therefore generally plentiful in the diet. A magnesium deficiency in human beings leads to disturbances of muscle and nervous system; in cattle, to grass tetany. Magnesium-deficient plants are yellow (or chlorosed). Magnesium is a ductile, silver-white, chemically active metal with a hexagonal close-packed crystalline structure. Magnesium is malleable when heated. Magnesium is one of the alkaline-earth metals in Group 2 of the periodic table. magnesium reacts very slowly with cold water. Magnesium is not affected by dry air but tarnishes in moist air, forming a thin protective coating of basic magnesium carbonate, MgCO3·Mg(OH)2. When heated, magnesium powder or ribbon ignites and burns with an intense white light and releases large amounts of heat, forming the oxide, magnesia, MgO. A magnesium fire cannot be extinguished by water, since water reacts with hot magnesium and releases hydrogen. Magnesium reacts with the halogens and with almost all acids. It is a powerful reducing agent and is used to free other metals from their anhydrous halides. Magnesium forms many compounds. | London, England |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 2554) Alexander Wilson (CE 1766-1813) starts publishing "American Ornithology" (9 vol, 1808-14), drawings of North American birds. | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
192 YBN [1808 AD] | 5978) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his 6th Symphony "Pastoral" in F opus 68. | Vienna, Austria |
191 YBN [11/16/1809 AD] | 6341) | London, England |
191 YBN [1809 AD] | 2240) | Paris, France (presumably) |
191 YBN [1809 AD] | 2302) Appert uses the 12,000 francs to establish the first commercial cannery business, the "House of Appert", at Massy, which operates from 1812 until 1933, however Appert dies poor. | Paris, France (presumably) |
191 YBN [1809 AD] | 2367) | London, England |
191 YBN [1809 AD] | 2466) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) finds that in forming compounds gases combine in proportions by volume that can be expressed in small whole numbers. For example, two parts of hydrogen unite with one part nitrogen to form ammonia. This law is worked out with help from Humboldt. This relationship by volume of elements in a compound is used to determine atomic weights, which Berzelius goes on to do. Dalton refuses to accept Gay-Lussac's results and stays firmly to the principle of composition be weight only and his atomic weights continue to be wrong. Avogadro's hypothesis will provide an explanation for Gay-Lussac's law but is ignored for 50 years. Dalton rejects this law and seeks to discredit Gay-Lussac's experimental methods. | Paris, France (presumably) |
191 YBN [1809 AD] | 2481) | London, England |
191 YBN [1809 AD] | 2529) Magendie performs experiments that prove wrong the prevailing view that absorption takes place only through the lymphatic system, by introducing a poison into an animal's system through either a blood vessel or quill, Magendie demonstrates that absorption is instead achieved through the bloodstream and the skin. Magendie is viewed as the founder of experimental physiology. Magendie's father is among the French revolutionaries. Magendie is strongly antivitalist. Magendie gains an unpleasant reputation as a vivisector, for his use of live animals in his experiments. On a visit to England in 1824, for instance, his public presentations of his experiments on the cranial nerves of living dogs caused a public outcry and a demand for the protection of animals. In 1837, Magendie is president of the Academy of Sciences. Magendie wrongly believes cholera to not be contagious. Magendie wrongly objects to the use of ether as anesthetic. | Paris, France (presumably) |
191 YBN [1809 AD] | 2669) The Munich Academy of Science receives a paper from an inventor named Samuel Thomas von Sömmering (CE 1755-1830) that describes a telegraph containing thirty-five wires, one for each letter of the (German) alphabet and one for each number. At the transmitting end, arrangements are provided for passing currents through any one of the wires. At the receiving end the electrodes are immersed in acidulated water. Completing the circuit causes bubbles of hydrogen to form in tubes, each one corresponding to a letter or a number. Don Francisco Salva Campillo read a paper before the Academy of Sciences at Barcelona, On February 22, 1804, in which he describes using the decomposition of water with a voltaic pile for the purpose of telegraphy. | Munich, Germany |
190 YBN [1810 AD] | 2369) | London, England |
190 YBN [1810 AD] | 2370) | London, England |
190 YBN [1810 AD] | 2388) | Paris, France |
190 YBN [1810 AD] | 2412) Brown is disappointed by the low sales of this first volume selling only 24 of 250 printed copies and so does not complete a second volume of other plant families from Australia. | London, England (presumably) |
190 YBN [1810 AD] | 2480) | London, England |
190 YBN [1810 AD] | 2482) Davy publishes the first part of the Elements of Chemical Philosophy, which contains much of his own work, however Davy's plan is too ambitious and he doesn't print subsequent volumes. Swedish chemist J.J. Berzelius comments that had this book been completed is would have "advanced the science of chemistry a full century". I am sure this book is helpful to those studying chemistry, although probably many ideas are outdated, perhaps other advances kept secret or mistaken later theories might be exposed in this book. But also probably a good book to understand the historical context and foundation of modern chemistry. This is an interesting and simple idea that Davy mentions about a substance gaining weight when gaining heat. For the theory that heat is due to the absorption of photons by atoms, photon mass is very small, and difficult to measure. For example, in increasing volume, does mercury also increase mass? But perhaps in increasing mass, mercury then increases volume to maintain the same density. It's interesting. | London, England |
190 YBN [1810 AD] | 5976) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
189 YBN [06/??/1811 AD] | 2396) | Paris, France |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 658) | London, England (presumably) |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2334) | Bremen, Germany |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2432) The concept of molecules. In this year Amedeo Avogadro (count of Quaregna) (oVOGoDrO) (CE 1776-1856), Italian physicist, publishes his famous hypothesis in the Paris "Journal de physique" under the title "Essai d'une manière de déterminer les masses relatives des molecules élémentaires des corps, et les proportions selon lesquelles elles entrent dans ces combinaisons." ("Essay on a Manner of Determining the Relative Masses of the Elementary Molecules of Bodies, and the Proportions in Which They Enter into These Compounds" Journal de Physique 73, 58-76 (1811) (Alembic Club Reprint No. 4]) in French. Northern Italy is occupied by the French under Napoleon at the time. Avogadro hypothesizes that equal volumes of all gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules. Avogadro is inspired from the finding of Gay-Lussac that all gases expand to the same extent with a rise in temperature and Avogadro uses his hypothesis to explain Gay-Lussac's law of combining volumes. Avogadro beings by describing the discovery by the French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac that when gases combine, they combine in simple integral proportions by volume. Gay-Lussac shows that two volumes of ammonia (NH3) are composed of one volume of nitrogen and three volumes of hydrogen, and cites many other examples of similar cases of (gases combining in) simple, integral proportions. The basis of Avogadro's hypothesis is that all gases contain the same number of particles (atoms, molecules, ions, or other particles) per unit volume. Avogadro specifies that these particle may not necessarily be atoms but might be combinations of atoms (which Avogadro calls "molecules"), and Avogadro is the first to distinguish between atoms and molecules. Avogadro does not actually use the word "atom" and considered that there are three kinds of "molecules," including an "elementary molecule" (the modern "atom"). To distinguish between atoms and molecules, Avogadro uses the terms "molécule intégrante" (the molecule of a compound (such as H2O)), "molécule constituante" (the molecule of an element (such as H2)), and "molécule élémentaire" (atom (such as C)). Avogadro views gaseous elementary molecules as predominantly diatomic, but also recognizes the existence of monatomic, triatomic, and tetratomic elementary molecules. (What atoms are tetratomic?)(How does Avogadro reach the conclusion about diatomic molecules? What physical observations cause Avogadro to conclude that atoms of gas are diatomic?) Avogadro concludes that the number of "integrant molecules" in all gases is always the same for equal volumes. Avogadro writes that it is very well conceivable that the distance between molecules does not vary, in other words, that the number of molecules contained in a given volume cannot being different. Avogadro writes (translated into English): "Setting out from this hypothesis, it is apparent that we have the means of determining very easily the relative masses of the molecules of substances obtainable in the gaseous state, and the relative number of these molecules in compounds; for the ratios of the masses of the molecules are then the same as those of the densities of the different gases at equal temperature and pressure, and the relative number of molecules in a compound is given at once by the ratio of the volumes of the gases that form it. For example, since the numbers 1.10359 and 0.07321 express the densities of the two gases oxygen and hydrogen compared to that of atmospheric air as unity, and the ratio of the two numbers consequently represents the ratio between the masses of equal volumes of these two gases, it will also represent on our hypothesis the ratio of the masses of their molecules. Thus the mass of the molecule of oxygen will be about 15 times that of the molecule of hydrogen, or, more exactly as 15.074 to 1. In the same way the mass of the molecule of nitrogen will be to that of hydrogen as 0.96913 to 0.07321, that is, as 13, or more exactly 13.238, to 1. On the other hand, since we know that the ratio of the volumes of hydrogen and oxygen in the formation of water is 2 to 1, it follows that water results from the union of each molecule of oxygen with two molecules of hydrogen. Similarly, according to the proportions by volume established by M. Gay-Lussac for the elements of ammonia, nitrous oxide, nitrous gas, and nitric acid, ammonia will result from the union of one molecule of nitrogen with three of hydrogen, nitrous oxide from one molecule of oxygen with two of nitrogen, nitrous gas from one molecule of nitrogen with one of oxygen, and nitric acid from one of nitrogen with two of oxygen." Avogadro's hypothesis allows for the calculation of the molecular weights of gases relative to some chosen standard. Avogadro and his contemporaries typically use the density of hydrogen gas as the standard for comparison. Therefore they use the relationship: Weight of 1 volume of gas or vapor Weight of 1 molecule of gas or vapor -------- --------------------------- = ------------------------------------ Weight of 1 volume of hydrogen Weight of 1 molecule of hydrogen Using this hypothesis, Avogadro determines the correct molecular formula for water, nitric and nitrous oxides, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen chloride. When Ritter (and Cavendish before Ritter) electrolyzed water and the hydrogen and oxygen collected separately, the volume of hydrogen is always twice the volume of oxygen. Avogadro then uses his hypothesis to explain that the water molecule contains two hydrogen atoms for each atom of oxygen. Then if oxygen weighs eight times as much as hydrogen, the individual oxygen atom is sixteen times as heavy as the individual hydrogen atom (not eight times as Dalton has suggested). Later physicists and chemists determined the value of "Avogadro's Number," the number of gas molecules in one mole (the atomic or molecular weight in grams), as 6.022 x 1023. The number of atoms or molecules present in an amount of substance that has a mass of its atomic (or molecular) weight in grams is called "Avogadro's number". For example, carbon dioxide has a molecular weight of 44, therefore 44 grams of carbon dioxide contains Avogadro's number of molecules, which is 6.0221367×10 molecules per mole) (molecules or atoms/mole). (Some people might think 44 grams of anything should contain the same number of atoms as 44 grams of anything else. But because atomic masses {weights} are different, an atom of hydrogen contains only 1 proton, where an atom of iron contains 44 protons. So 44 grams of anything should equal the same number of photons, and the same number of nucleons {protons and neutrons} but not the same number of atoms since each atom represents a different mass in other word each atom contains a different number of protons. The concept of an "atom" is simply a way of containing protons into groups.) Where Hydrogen has a molecular weight of approximately of 1 g/mol and so only 1 gram of Hydrogen = Avogadro's number in atoms. (But the same number of photons {and protons} are in 1 gram of Hydrogen as there are in 1 gram of Iron, or any other substance {it is he number of atoms that is different}.) Avogadro's hypothesis is ignored for the most part until after his death, for one reason because the distinction between atoms and molecules is not well understood. In addition, the concept of polyatomic elementary molecules appears unlikely to contemporaries because similar atoms are thought to repel each another. Avogadro's hypothesis implies a sequence of chemical reactions for which there is no decisive evidence in favor of at the time. For example, Dalton postulated that water is formed by the simple addition of the element hydrogen to the element oxygen, in other words H + O → HO, where Avogadro's hypothesis describes this reaction as 2H2+ O2 (in the molecular form) → 2H2O. Ampère accepts this theory, but Dalton rejects it and Berzelius ignores it. Stanislao Cannizzaro will build on this theory and reduce the confusion between atoms and molecules in 1858. (What are Dalton's reasons for rejecting Avogadro's theory?) Avogadro's hypothesis is now accepted as true, and the value known as "Avogadro's number" (6.0221367 x 10 molecule, or mole, of any substance, is a fundamental constant of science. Perhaps the first accurate calculation of the quantity of molecules in a gram-mole is made by Johann Josef Loschmidt in 1865 who computes the number of particles in one cubic centimeter of gas in standard conditions. (Did Avogadro estimate a number for number of particles per mole?) (The question still remains as to whether atomic size effects volume. I think we should experiment with very large molecules in gas and large quantities to see if there can be measured any difference in volume between a gas with small particles and a gas with large particles. It would seem logical that molecules with more mass would provide more surface area for collisions and therefore more pressure. I think the concept of pressure is important in Avogadro's hypothesis. For example, do gases of different mass but same volume exert different pressure? I tend to believe that molecule size has little or no effect in the volume of a gas, but then volume of a gas is measured based on the container since gas can take the size and shape of any container.) One important idea to understand clearly is that: the same volume of different gases have different masses. Two different gases may occupy the same space, in for example water, but those quantities of gas weigh differently. (Who first showed this? Priestley? Lavoisier? Cavendish? Dalton?) (In addition the question of, does the same volume of two different mass gases exert different pressure? If yes, that might affect the volume of the gas.) (In terms of the claim that all gases contain the same number of particles per unit volume: Apparently this claim is extended to liquids and solid. Does this same principle apply to liquids and solids? Do all liquids and solids contain the same number of atoms or molecules per unit volume? If no, then this hypothesis may not be true for gases. Maybe particles are too small to measure any difference. This conclusion would be more logical if the particles are all the same size.) (As always, with a new paradigm, I think it is very important to thoroughly research, understand, and explain every aspect of the finding, hypothesis, experimental data, etc. because such transitions are very important in defining our understanding of the universe.) (Is Avogadro the first to use the word "molecule"?) (Avogadro certainly coins the word "molecule")(State origin of word molecule. It is interesting the way that matter is clumped together with atoms and molecules, what groupings are larger than molecule? I guess: common multi-molecules, radicals, perhaps then there is just lattices, tissues, etc.) (It's hard to believe that molecule size and mass doesn't matter to volume or pressure of a gas, liquid or solid, because more mass must occupy more space. Maybe an affect is only observed for very compressed matter where space is important and mostly occupied with matter.) | Vercelli, Italy |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2441) Courtois is apprenticed to a pharmacist and subsequently studies at the Ecole Polytechnique under Antoine Fourcroy. Courtois' father's saltpeter business runs into difficulties because saltpeter can be manufactured more cheaply in India, and Courtois returns to Dijon to help his father. When the Napoleonic Wars end, and the need for gunpowder decreases, (the) Coutois' salt-peter factory fails. Courtois turns to producing iodine but dies in poverty. (This shows how sadly, provoking and conjuring war is one evil way explosives and weapons producing companies can use to stay in business, although perhaps that is too criminal for most weapons manufacturing companies to involve themselves in, in addition to simply being against war even at the expense of going into poverty or some other business.) symbol I, atomic number 53, relative atomic mass 126.9045, Iodine is a nonmetallic element, with symbol I; atomic number 53; atomic mass. 126.9045; m.p. 113.5°C; b.p. 184.35°C; sp. gr. 4.93 at 20°C; valence −1, +1, +3, +5, or +7. Iodine is a dark-gray to purple-black, lustrous, solid, volatile element with a rhombic crystalline structure. iodine is the heaviest of the naturally occuring halogens and least active of the halogens, which are found in Group 17 of the periodic table. Iodine is normally diatomic (2 iodine atoms in each molecule), in the solid, liquid (is there a liquid state?), and vapor (gas) states. When heated it passes directly from the solid to the vapor state (sublimation), the vapor having an intense violet color and a characteristic irritating odor. Iodine occurs widely, although rarely in high concentration and never in elemental form. Despite the low concentration of iodine in sea water, certain species of seaweed can extract and accumulate the element. Iodine is an essential ingredient of thyroid hormone, which helps to regulate growth, development, and metabolic rate. The Reference Nutrient Intake for adults is 140 micrograms each day. An excess of iodine can be poisonous; a deficit leads to an underactive thyroid gland. Goiter, a swelling of the thyroid, is often a symptom of inadequate iodine in the diet. When heat is applied, iodine crystals sublime (change straight from a solid to a gas). Any gas that settles on a cold surface will crystallize as the solid, because iodine cannot exist as a liquid. | Dijon, France |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2467) | Paris, France (presumably) |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2510) Over the course of his life, Braconnot publishes 112 works. | Nancy, France |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2519) In 1808 Poisson publishes "Sur les inégalités des moyens mouvements des planètes" in which Poisson looks at the mathematical problems which Laplace and Lagrange had raised about perturbations of the planets. Poisson's other publications include "Théorie nouvelle de l'action capillaire" (1831, "A New Theory of Capillary Action") and "Théorie mathématique de la chaleur" (1835, "Mathematical Theory of Heat"). In 1798 Poisson begins studying mathematics at the École Polytechnique in Paris under the mathematicians Pierre-Simon Laplace and Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who become Poisson's lifelong friends. In 1802 Poisson becomes a professor at the École Polytechnique. In 1808 Poisson is made an astronomer at the Bureau of Longitudes. In 1809 Poisson is appointed a professor of pure mathematics at the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Paris when it is founded. Poisson writes more than 300 papers on mathematics, physics, and astronomy. | Paris, France |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2522) Brewster starts studying for the ministry at Edinburgh University but after completing the course abandons the Church for science. Brewster earns his living by editing various journals and spends much time popularizing science. In 1807 Brewster is editor of the newly projected Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, of which the first part appears in 1808, and the last not until 1830. The work is strongest in the scientific department, and many of its most valuable articles are from Brewster himself. At a later period Brewster is one of the leading contributors to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (seventh and eighth editions), the articles on Electricity, Hydrodynamics, Magnetism, Microscope, Optics, Stereoscope, Voltaic Electricity, and others being from Brewster. Around 1815 Brewster rediscovers the kaleidoscope, a scientific toy. Brewster wins the Copley medal. In 1816 the French Institute awards Brewster one-half of the prize of three thousand francs for the two most important discoveries in physical science made in Europe during the two preceding years. In 1818 Brewster receives the Rumford Medal for Brewster's Law. In 1824 Brewster starts the Edinburgh Journal of Science. In 1831 Brewster helps found the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1831, Brewster writes "A Treatise on Optics" (1831). In 1855, Brewster writes "Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton". In 1859 Brewster becomes principal of the University of Edinburgh. Brewster publishes almost 300 papers, mainly concerning optical measurements. Brewster never fully accepts the wave theory of light, and so finds his experimental work marginalized. Brewster has a daughter after age 75. | Edinburgh, Scotland |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2536) | London, England |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2548) Other papers by Dulong are concerned with "New determinations of the proportions of water and the density of certain elastic fluids" (1820, with Berzelius); the property possessed by certain metals of facilitating the combination of gases (1823 with Thenard); the refracting powers of gases (1826); and the specific heats of gases (1829). In 1830 Dulong publishes a research, undertaken with Arago for the academy of sciences, on the elastic force of steam at high temperatures. For the purposes of this determination Dulong creates a continuous column of mercury, constructed with 13 sections of glass tube each 2 meters long and 5 mm in diameter, in the tower of the old church of St Genevieve in the College Henri IV. The apparatus is first used to investigate the variation in the volume of air with pressure, and the conclusion is that up to twenty-seven atmospheres, the highest pressure attained in the experiments, Boyle's law is true (that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely related). Dulong begins as a doctor in one of the poorest districts of Paris, where Dulong hands out medicine without charge and treats the poor for free, but soon abandons (health for chemical) research. After acting as assistant to Berthollet, Dulong becomes professor of chemistry at the faculty of sciences and the normal and veterinary schools at Alfort. In 1820 Dulong is professor of physics at the Ecole Polytechnique, and appointed director in 1830. | Paris, France (presumably) |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2558) Arago is educated at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. In 1809 Arago is elected to the Académie des Sciences and receives the chair of analytical geometry at the Ecole Polytechnique. In 1830 Arago succeeds J. B. J. Fourier as the permanent secretary of the Ecole Polytechnique. Arago is a vigorous defender of A. J. Fresnel's wave theory of light against the criticisms of Laplace and Biot, who both supported the corpuscular theory. Because Arago is converted to the wave theory of light and Arago loses Biot's friendship. (Rejecting the idea of light as a particle in favor of light as a wave in a medium is not intuitive, but after Young had shown how color is explained by frequency, perhaps the wave theory appeared to be more modern since the corpuscular group fails to offer a competing explanation for color such as that color is determined by frequency of corpuscle.)(A difference in scientific opinion is no reason to break a friendship.) In 1838 Arago describes an experiment to determine the speed of light in air with the speed of light in a denser medium. Shortly before Arago's death, Léon Foucault and Armand Fizeau will prove that the speed of light is slower in a denser medium, (and since Newton had theorized that as a corpuscle, light would move faster through water), many people think this fact supports a wave interpretation for light. (Surprisingly, the idea that accepting that Newton was wrong, and that particles of light might be delayed because of collisions in a denser medium is either not argued or in any event, does not win popularity if argued.) Arago is the first French person to receive Royal Society's Copley medal. Arago participates in revolutions on the side of the Republicans in 1830 and 1848. In the Second Republic (1848-1852) Arago serves in the cabinet and is instrumental in having slavery abolished in the French colonies. In 1852 Arago resigns his post when President Napoleon makes himself Emperor Napoleon II and demands an oath of allegiance. But Napoleon refuses to accept Arago's resignation, and does not insist on an oath. (I wonder if this is from some frequencies of light reflecting off the last atom in one direction and others in the opposite direction, since with the light-as-a-particle theory it seems possible that particles would bounce off in at least two directions if colliding inside a refractive object. In this theory, double refraction is the result of some photons reflecting off atoms like a pachinko game, exiting at two different angles depending on the last reflection.) | Paris, France (presumably) |
189 YBN [1811 AD] | 2564) Chevreul writes books on the history and philosophy of science in 1860, 1866, and 1878. Chevreul attends the Collège de France (1803). In 1809 Chevreul is an assistant to Antoine François de Fourcroy. In 1810 Chevreul is assistant at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle. From 1813 to 1830 Chevreul is professor of physics at the Lycée Charlemagne. In 1824 Chevreul becomes director of the dyeworks for the Gobelins Tapestry, where Chevreul discovers hematoxylin in logwood, quercetin in yellow oak, and prepares the reduced colorless form of indigo. Chevreul also investigates the science and art of color with special application to the production of massed color by aggregations of small monochromatic dots, as in the threads of a tapestry. In 1830, Chevreul succeeds Vauquelin as professor of chemistry at the (French Academy of Sciences) Museum (in Paris). Chevreul lives to 103 years old. Both his father and mother live to be over 90. (Perhaps living to old age is inherited. It would be naturally selected for since the longer a person lives the more chance of reproduction.) | Paris, France (presumably) |
188 YBN [03/09/1812 AD] | 2520) | Paris, France |
188 YBN [1812 AD] | 1241) Benjamin Rush (December 24, 1745 - April 19, 1813) publishes "Medical Inquires and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind", the first psychology book to be printed in the USA. | Pennsylvania, PA |
188 YBN [1812 AD] | 1242) Joseph Mason Cox (1763-1818) in his "Practical Observations on Insanity", promotes the use of his invention the "swinging chair" as a treatment for insanity. Humans are rotated until obedient. These devices will be banned by people in a number of European governments. | Pennsylvania, PA |
188 YBN [1812 AD] | 2316) | London, England |
188 YBN [1812 AD] | 2347) Glucose (also called Dextrose), is one of a group of carbohydrates known as simple sugars (monosaccharides). Glucose (from Greek glykys; "sweet") has the molecular formula C6H12O6. Glucose is found in fruits and honey and is the major free sugar circulating in the blood of higher animals. Glucose is the source of energy in cell function, and the regulation of glucose in a body is very important. Molecules of starch, the major carbohydrate of plants, are made of thousands of glucose units, as are molecules of cellulose. Glycogen, the reserve carbohydrate in (most) cells is also made of glucose. | St Petersburg?, Russia? |
188 YBN [1812 AD] | 2389) | Paris, France |
188 YBN [1812 AD] | 2402) Mohs studies at Halle and at the Freiberg Mining Academy under Abraham Werner. In 1812 Mohs becames curator of the mineral collection at the Johanneum in Graz. (It seems logical to me that there is a relationship between molecular and or atomic density and hardness. This relates back to Leukippos and Demokritos naming the atom as some object that is too dense to be cut; some densest uncuttable object.) | Graz, (Austria now:) Germany |
188 YBN [1812 AD] | 2518) | Yorkshire, England |
188 YBN [1812 AD] | 5979) | Vienna, Austria |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2453) | Paris, France (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2458) In 1796 Candolle arrives in Paris and becomes friends with the French naturalists Georges Cuvier and Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. In 1802 Candolle becomes an assistant to Cuvier at the Collège de France. Candolle prepares revisions of Lamarck's "Flore française" (1805, 1815). From 1806-1812, at the request of the French government Candolle makes a botanical and agricultural survey of France. Candoll e also writes monographs (scholarly essays) of 100 plant families. In 1808 Candolle becomes professor of botany at the University of Montpellier. From 1817-41 Candolle is the chair of natural history at the Université de Genève (1817-41), where Candolle is the first director of the botanical gardens. | Montpellier, France (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2459) Augustin Pyrame de Candolle (KonDOL) (CE 1778-1841), publishes "Regni Vegetabilis Systema Naturale" (2 vol, 1818-21, "Natural Classification for the Plant Kingdom") which develops Candolle's system of classification. | Montpellier, France (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2460) | Montpellier, France (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2475) | London, England |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2492) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2503) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2531) François Magendie (mojoNDE) (CE 1783-1855), demonstrates the largely passive role of the stomach in vomiting in addition to describing the the mechanism of swallowing. | Paris, France (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2596) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2739) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, first has the idea of mechanically calculating mathematical tables. From 1820-1822, Babbage makes a small calculator that can perform certain mathematical computations to six or eight decimals. Charles Babbage is the son of Benjamin Babbage, a wealthy banking partner of the Praeds who owns the Bitton Estate in Teignmouth and Betsy Plumleigh Babbage. Babbage receives instruction from several elite schools and teachers during the course of his elementary education. In 1814, Babbage graduates from St Peter's College, Cambridge. In 1812 Babbage helps found the Analytical Society, along with Sir John Herschel, George Peacock (and Whewell ) who labor to raise the standard of mathematical instruction in England, and especially endeavor to supersede the Newtonian by the Leibnizian notation in the infinitesimal calculus. In 1814, the same year he takes his degree, Babbage marries Georgiana Whitmore. They have eight children, only three of whom survive to maturity. From 1828 to 1839 Babbage serves as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. In 1830 Babbage writes a controversial book which denounces the Royal Society as having grown moribund. (Notice how Babbage works with people in the Government as Morse did, which may imply development of secret technology for government military.) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2818) | Paris, France (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 2846) | Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 3235) Howard turns down an offer of 40,000 pounds and instead licenses his process. | London, England |
187 YBN [1813 AD] | 3323) | London, England (presumably) |
186 YBN [03/27/1814 AD] | 2485) | Florence, Italy |
186 YBN [1814 AD] | 2262) | Palermo, Sicily |
186 YBN [1814 AD] | 2409) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) begins studying the Rosetta stone. After obtaining additional hieroglyphic writings from other sources, Young succeeds in providing a nearly accurate translation within a few years and this contributes heavily to deciphering the ancient Egyptian language. Young will write an an authoritative article on Egypt in 1818, laying the ground work for Champollion. | London, England |
186 YBN [1814 AD] | 2433) | Vercelli, Italy |
186 YBN [1814 AD] | 2571) Joseph von Fraunhofer (FroUNHoFR or HOFR) (CE 1787-1826), German physicist and optician, invents a spectroscope (using a theodolite) by using a telescope as opposed to paper and maps 576 spectral lines. Theodolites were designed and used exclusively for surveying before this. In testing glasses to measure the index of refraction (to make achromatic lenses), Fraunhofer finds that the solar spectrum contains numerous dark lines. Fraunhofer finds that even slight imperfections in the prism would have reduced the sharpness of the image enough to blur out the lines (and perhaps this explains why Newton may have missed seeing these lines (I have never seen these lines with the tiny prisms I own). Wollaston had observed only seven lines, 12 years earlier (1802), but Fraunhofer observes nearly six hundred. People now have identified about ten thousand lines (including beyond the narrow visible region of light). Fraunhofer maps these lines (using the letter A to K to describe the main lines, (a system still used today) and determines their wavelength. (How does Fraunhofer determine wavelength?) Fraunhofer puts a prism at the focal point of a telescope and finds that light from a star has dark lines in the spectrum that do not match the pattern of those in sunlight. (Kirchhoff will develop the understanding of these spectrum lines further.) Fraunhofer plots hundreds of spectral lines, and by measuring their wavelengths (or photon intervals - however there is no calculation of wavelength but only position on spectrum) Fraunhofer finds that the relative positions of the lines in the spectra of elements are constant, whether the spectra are produced by the direct rays of the Sun, by the reflected light of the Moon and planets, by a gas (flame), or by (the light of) a heated metal in the laboratory. Fraunhofer's first assignment at the Untzschneider Optical Institute is making achromatic lenses for telescopes. This work requires the production of highly homogeneous silicates. Fraunhofer's communication on the results of his research appears in the Denkschriften (Memoirs) for 1814-1815 of the Academy of Sciences in Munich. The paper contains a description of the first use of the dark lines of the solar spectrum as reference points for the measurement of refraction indexes. These lines are (sometimes referred to as) Fraunhofer lines. (may only be dark lines in Sun according to EB verify) This work sets the stage for the development of spectroscopy. 50 years later Gustav Kirchhoff will determine the elementary composition of the stars by showing that lines in the solar spectrum result from characteristic absorption by elements in the atmosphere of the Sun.(Kirchhoff will show that these lines are from absorption as opposed to simply absence of light in the frequency. It seems logical that there must be some very tiny frequencies as a person divides time into smaller units, which would not contain photons emitted by the Sun.) (Understanding the concept that light moves in beams of many different frequencies is important to isolating specific wavelengths of light as Michael Pupin will do in 1910 in seeing thought; the first image of a human memory.) Fraunhofer publishes these findings in the journal "Denkschriften der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München", (1814), 15 Band v, pp 193-226. This work is translated from German into English as "On the Refractive and Dispersive Power of different Species of Glass in reference to the improvement of Achromatic Telescopes with an Account of the Lines or Streaks which cross the Spectrum By JOSEPH FRAUENHOFER" in two parts in the "Edinburgh Philosophical Journal", (1823) vol IX, pp296 and in "Edinburgh Philosophical Journal", (1824), vol X, p26. (It is interesting that the atoms in the prisms or gratings apparently do not influence the spectra of the source. Perhaps for the prism the photons are not absorbed but transmitted or more likely reflected through with many collisions, and for the grating they are not absorbed but reflected.) Fraunhofer writes that "In every case, the white light which passed through (the refracting medium) was still decomposed into all its colours, with this difference only, that in the spectrum, the colour peculiar to the glass or the fluid was more brilliant than the rest. Even the coloured flames obtained by burning alcohol, sulphur, &c, seen through a prism, do not yield a homogeneous light corresponding to the colour. These flames, however, such as that of a lamp, particularly that of a candle, and in general, the light produced by the flame of a fire, exhibit between the red and yellow of the spectrum a clear and well marked line, which occupies the same place in all the spectra. This line will become more important in the sequel, and it was one of great utility to me. It appears to be formed by rays which are not decomposed by the prism, and which consequently are homogeneous. In the green space we perceive a similar line, but it is weaker, and less distinct, so that it is often very difficult to find.". Fraunhofer finds a double yellow line in the light of a flame (which kind?) that corresponds exactly to the spectrum of the Sun (later shown to be from sodium). Fraunhofer writes "As the lines of the spectrum are seen with every refracting substance of uniform density, I have employed this circumstance for determining the index of refraction of any substance for each coloured ray. This could be done with the greater exactness, as most of the lines are very distinct and well marked. For this purpose, I selected the largest lines, because with substances of low refractive power, or with prisms of small refracting angles, the lines of less magnitude could scarcely be perceived with a strong magnifying power. The lines which I chose were those marked B, C, D, E, F, G, H, in Fig. 5 of Plate VII. (Vol. IX.) I made no use of the line b, because it is too near F, and I endeavoured to use the middle one between D and F.". So in this way Fraunhofer creates a detailed map of the newly discovered lines in the spectrum of the Sun. Fraunhofer goes on to explain that the lines disappear if the aperture (opening) is too large. If the angle of the width of the aperture is greater than that of the width of the line then the image of the same line will be projected several times parallel to itself will become indistinct and disappear when the aperture is too large. Fraunhofer thinks that the lines may be the result of an illusion caused by "inflection" (diffraction) by the narrow opening of the slit, and performs an experiment to verify that (diffraction or) interference is not the cause of the spectral lines. Fraunhaofer states "Various experiments and changes to which I have submitted these lines convince me that they have their origin in the nature of the light of the sun, and that they cannot be attributed to illusion, to aberration, or any other secondary cause.". Fraunhofer examines the spectra of planet Venus writing: "In the spectrum formed by this light I found the same lines such as they appeared in the light of the sun. That of Venus however, having little intensity compared with that of the sun reflected from a mirror, the brightness of the violet and the exterior red rays is very feeble. On this account we perceive even the strongest lines in these two colours with some difficulty, but in the other colours they are easily distinguished. I have seen the lines D E b F (Fig 6) very well terminated and I have recognised that those in b are formed of two, namely a fine and a strong line. The weakness of the light however prevented me from seeing that the strongest of these two lines consisted of two and for the same reason the other finer lines could not be distinguished. By an approximate measure of the lines DE and EF I am convinced that the light of Venus is in this respect of the same nature as that of the sun." Fraunhofer observes the spectra of other stars writing "With the same apparatus I have also made several observations on some of the brightest fixed stars. As their light was much fainter than that of Venus, the brightness of their spectra was consequently still less. I have nevertheless seen without any illusion in the spectrum of the light of Sirius three large lines which apparently have no resemblance with those of the sun's light. One of them is in the green, and two in the blue space. Lines are also seen in the spectrum of other fixed stars of the first magnitude." Fraunhofer examines the spectra of electric light and the light from burning hydrogen, alcohol and sulfur. Fraunhofer writes "The electric light is, in relation to the lines of the spectrum, very different from the light of the sun and of a lamp (must be alcohol lamp). In this spectrum, we meet with several lines, party very clear, and one of which, in the green space, seems very brilliant, compared with the other parts of the spectrum. Another line, which is not quite so bright, is in the orange, and appears to be of the same colour as that in the spectrum of the light of a lamp; but, in measuring its angle of refraction, I find that its light is much more strongly refracted, and nearly as much as the yellow rays of the light of a lamp.". Fraunhofer describes the spectral lines of flames of various substances writing: "Whether the aperture through which the light of the lamp passes is wide or narrow, if we cover the point of the flame, and the lower blue extremity of it, the red line appears less clear, and is more difficult to be distinguished. hence it appears that this line derives its origin principally from the light of the two extremities of the flame, particularly the inferior one. The reddish line is, in relation to the other parts of the spectrum, very bright in the spectra of light produced by the flame of hydrogen gas and alcohol. In the spectrum of the flame of sulphur, it is seen with difficulty." Fraunhofer examines the spectra of light produced by electricity writing "In order to obtain a continuous electrical light I brought to within half an inch of each other two conductors and I united them by a very fine glass thread. One of the two was connected with an electrical machine and the other communicated with the ground. In this manner the light appeared to pass continuously along the glass fibre which consequently formed a fine and brilliant line of light." "The electric light is in relation to the lines of the spectrum very different from the light of the sun and of a lamp. In this spectrum we meet with several lines partly very clear and one of which in the green space seems very brilliant compared with the other parts of the spectrum. Another line which is not quite so bright is in the orange and appears to be of the same colour as that in the spectrum of the light of a lamp, but in measuring its angle of refraction, I find that its light is much more strongly refracted, and nearly as much as the yellow rays of the light of a lamp. Towards the extremity of the spectrum we perceive in the red a line of very little brightness, yet its light has the same refrangibility as that of the clear line of the light of a lamp. In the rest of the spectrum we may still easily distinguish other four lines sufficiently bright." Fraunhofer publishes this as (translated from German) "DETERMINATION OF THE REFRACTIVE AND THE DISPERSIVE POWER OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF GLASS WITH REFERENCE TO THE PERFECTING OF ACHROMATIC TELESCOPES." | Benedictbeuern (near Munich), Germany |
186 YBN [1814 AD] | 2609) In 1805 Cauchy finds a simple solution to the problem of Apollonius; to describe a circle touching three given circles. In 1811 Cauchy discovers his generalization of Euler's theorem on polyhedra. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Cauchy's greatest contributions to mathematics, characterized by the clear and rigorous methods that he introduces, are embodied predominantly in his three great treatises: "Cours d'analyse de l'École Royale Polytechnique" (1821, "Courses on Analysis from the École Royale Polytechnique"); "Résumé des leçons sur le calcul infinitésimal" (1823, "Résumé of Lessons on Infinitesimal Calculus"); and "Leçons sur les applications du calcul infinitésimal à la géométrie" (1826-28, "Lessons on the Applications of Infinitesimal Calculus to Geometry"). (This needs more info about specific contributions) In optics, Cauchy develops the wave theory, and Cauchy's name is associated with the simple dispersion formula. (show) In elasticity, Cauchy originates the theory of stress, and Cauchy's results are nearly as valuable as those of S. D. Poisson. Augustin Louis Cauchy was born in Paris in 1789, 38 days after the fall of the Bastille. Cauchy's father, Louis François, was a parliamentary lawyer, lieutenant of police, and ardent royalist. Sensing the political wind, Cauchy's father moves the family to his country cottage at Arcueil, where they lived for nearly 11 years. Here young Cauchy receives a strict religious education from his mother and an elementary classical education from his father, who writes his own textbooks in (poetic?) verse. By 1800 the political situation is stabilized and the family moved back to Paris. In 1816, when Gaspard Monge is expelled from the Academy of Sciences (because of Monge's close friendship with Napoleon), Cauchy is appointed to fill the vacancy. The same year Cauchy wins the grand prix of the Institute of France for a paper on wave propagation, now accepted as a classic in hydrodynamics. The Revolution of 1830 sends Charles X into exile and Cauchy refuses to give an oath of allegiance to the new king, Louis Philippe, is stripped of all his positions, and moves to Switzerland, leaving his family in Paris until they join him in Prague in 1834. After the Revolution of 1848, the oath is abolished, and Cauchy resumes his old professorship at the Polytechnique. Louis Napoleon reinstates the oath in 1852, but Cauchy is specifically exempted. Among Cauchy's nearly 800 publications are works on the theory of waves (1815), algebraic analysis (1821), elasticity (1822), infinitesimal calculus (1823, 1826-28), differential calculus (1827), and the dispersion of light (1836). Cauchy's collected works, "Oeuvres complètes d'Augustin Cauchy" (1882-1970), are published in 27 volumes. According to Asimov Cauchy is aggressively ultraconservative both in politics and religion. Answers biography writes that Cauchy, is as rigidly ultraroyalist in politics as Cauchy is ultra-Catholic in religion. | Paris, France |
185 YBN [01/03/1815 AD] | 3837) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
185 YBN [07/08/1815 AD] | 2597) | Paris, France |
185 YBN [10/??/1815 AD] | 2589) Fresnel starts studying optics in 1814 and is one of the major supporters of the wave theory of light. Fresnel works on interference, at first being unaware of the work of Thomas Young, and produces a number of devices for giving interference effects. Fresnel's biprism is a single prism formed of two identical narrow-angled prisms base-to-base. Placed in front of a single source Fresnel's biprism splits the beam into two parts, which can produce interference fringes. (This claim of interference I would like to verify on video for all.) Initially, Fresnel believes that light is a longitudinal wave motion (like sound), but later decides that light must be a transverse wave to account for the phenomenon of polarization. I think that because the frequency of light determines color, and that this find came from those who viewed light as a wave (starting with Nicolas Malebranche (CE 1638-1715) in 1699 ) makes the wave interpretation look more accurate or modern to contemporary people. The corpuscular supporters completely fail to theorize that frequency of corpuscle determines color, thinking color is determined by corpuscle size, mass or density. Then the speed of light not being faster in a denser medium as Newton had predicted set back faith in the corpuscular theory even though in my mind corpuscles taking more time in a denser medium seems logical since there is more matter to collide with. Another interesting point is that wave functions and equations work for light beams for either particle or wave interpretation because of the periodic nature of light rays, which are composed of either evenly spaced particles or evenly spaced vibrations.] (What is the current wave view? I think it is that of Maxwell but minus the ether. So presumably the light wave is composed only of light energy in a sine wave shape? This is like having a conversation with an old person that cannot hear well, because, I want to say...for a wave interpretation...the prevailing popular theory...you need the medium...and that appears to have been removed back in early 1900....do you have some kind of medium for the light? The current view of light is very mixed up as there has been a compromise between particle and wave groups. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines light as "electromagnetic radiation" stating that " In its simplest form, quantum theory describes light as consisting of discrete packets of energy, called photons. However, neither a classical wave model nor a classical particle model correctly describes light; light has a dual nature that is revealed only in quantum mechanics. This surprising wave-particle duality is shared by all of the primary constituents of nature {e.g., electrons have both particle-like and wavelike aspects}". I think this is basically what Planck left in place in the 1940s. In my opinion, although I have never used any of Planck's equations, I think the quantum can probably be interpreted as a photon and the basis of all matter. For a wave interpretation there needs to be a medium, and Michelson-Morley showed that there simply is no detectable medium. My own vote is for a particle-only interpretation, and recognizing that a wave interpretation functions as a mathematical equivalent, but probably does not represent the true phenomena.) (Wouldn't it seem reasonable to believe that scientists would actively put forward experimental tests to demonstrate both views and attempt to settle the debate between particle and wave? Perhaps creating incentives such as monetary rewards for best experimental evidence for either side. But this was not done.) (One thing that is interesting is that an atomic lattice reflects its shape in light. if it has horizontal rows, light reflecting off it has horizontal rows, if it has a series of V shapes, photons are reflected in V shapes, etc. A sine wave structure creates a reflected sine wave shaped beam.) Perhaps coincidence that: Fresnel is born in Broglie, France, and years later Louis-Victor-Pierre-Raymond, 7th duc de Broglie will show how an electron can be represented mathematically using wave equations, in a way uniting the wave theory to all matter as particle theories. The wave theory may appeal to those who rejected the theory of atoms, in particular after Dalton. In the view I support the ultimate atom is a particle of light. Fresnel enters the École Polytechnique at age 16. In 1814, when Napoleon returns from Elba (03/01/1814), Fresnel supports the royalists and loses his job as a result. Fresnel uses a period of house arrest in 1814 to develop the mathematics of light waves, polarization, birefringence, and diffraction and therefore prepares the ground for Maxwell's work on electromagnetism. In 1817 Arago obtains for Fresnel a permanent assignment in Paris which gives Fresnel the time and resources to pursue his research on the wave theory. Fresnel is awarded the Rumford medal from the Royal Society. Brewster rejects the wave theory based on the necessity of an ether. Cauch y will promote the wave theory of light. Fresnel dies at the age of 39 of tuberculosis. | Paris, France |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2241) | Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2324) McAdam recommends that roads should be raised for good drainage and covered with large rocks, then with smaller stones, and finally with fine gravel or slag, then the road is compacted with a roller.{4 spotlight} McAdam manages the British Tar Company. (but doesn't use tar on road?) Paving of a road is still sometimes called to "macadamize". McAdam documents his work in "Remarks on the Present System of Road-Making" (1816) and "Practical Essay on the Scientific Repair and Preservation of Roads" (1819). | Bristol, England |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2419) | Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2469) | Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2470) | Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2471) | Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2479) The Davy lamp is the result of Davy's efforts after being asked by a group of clergymen to study the problem of providing illumination in coal mines without exploding the methane found in mines. This lamp will save many lives. Stephenson will claim priority in the invention. Davy writes in 1816 (in response to an inquiry about patenting his invention): "No, my good friend, I never thought of such a thing; my sole object was to serve the cause of humanity, and if I succeeded I am amply rewarded in the gratifying of having done so". | London, England |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2511) Henri Braconnot (BroKunO) (CE 1781-1855), describes that fats are formed of a solid part ("absolute tallow") and an oily compound ("absolute oil"). Braconnot reaches this conclusion after pressing fats in the cold between filter papers (Ann Chimie 1815, 93, 225). Furthermore, after saponification and acidification Braconnot separates a solid fraction similar to "adipocire" described by Fourcroy (1806), but Braconnot does not observed the solid fraction's acid properties which leads Chevreul to discover stearic acid in 1820. Saponification is a reaction in which an ester is heated with an alkali, such as sodium hydroxide, producing a free alcohol and an acid salt, especially alkaline hydrolysis of a fat or oil to make soap. Saponification is hydrolysis of fat into its constituent glycerol and fatty acids by boiling with alkali. The fatty acids will be present as the sodium salts or soaps.(state founder of saponification process) | Nancy, France |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2515) Because Stephenson's curiosity is aroused by the Napoleonic war news, he enrolls in night school in order to learn to read and write. | Newcastle, England (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2532) | Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2544) Prout is the son of a tenant farmer. In 1811, Prout graduates with a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh. Prout's life is spent as a practising physician in London, but he also occupies himself with chemical research. | London, England (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2565) Chevreul attends the Collège de France (1803). In 1809 Chevreul is an assistant to Antoine François de Fourcroy. In 1810 Chevreul is assistant at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle. From 1813 to 1830 Chevreul is professor of physics at the Lycée Charlemagne. In 1830, Chevreul succeeds Vauquelin as professor of chemistry at the (French Academy of Sciences) Museum (in Paris). Chevreul lives to 103 years old. Both his father and mother live to be over 90. (Perhaps living to old age is inherited. It would be naturally selected for since the longer a person lives the more chance of reproduction.) | Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2634) George Peacock (PEKoK) (CE 1791-1858), English mathematician, with Babbage, and John Herschel use the nomenclature of Leibniz, (instead of the notion of Newton's fluxions for calculus). This group translates and publishes S. F. Lacroix's "Differential Calculus" in 1816. While still an undergraduate Peacock forms a league (society?) with John Herschel and Charles Babbage, which they call the Analytical Society, to support the use of the continental calculus notation of Leibniz in the famous struggle of "d-ism versus dot-age", (the battle between notation to use for calculus, that of Leibniz {d'ism, (a play on "Deism"?)} or Newton {dotism}). This ends in the introduction into Cambridge of the continental notation (that of Leibniz) in the infinitesimal calculus to the exclusion of the fluxional notation of Isaac Newton. I think, like the fonetik alphabet, the more logical, more simple notation and/or nomenclature will eventually win, or will eventually be more popular. Only having used Leibniz's notation I cannot give my own opinion about which is easier to use. One question is why "exclude" the Newton notation as opposed to personally not using or teaching it? Perhaps these three simply advised using Leibniz's notation? A person can reject the notation of fluxions and still accept Newton's other contributions, however, many people have binary yes/no true/false philosophies where all the works of a single person are rejected because of political or scientific differences. Again I think an important idea is that differences in scientific opinion should not result in anger but simply a difference in opinion. (Some) mathematicians follow J. L. Lagrange in using both these notations. The analytical society formed in 1813 publishes various memoirs, and translates S. F. Lacroix's "Differential Calculus" in 1816. One Encyclopedia Britannica article describes this as replacing the cumbersome symbolism of Newton with the more efficient type invented by Leibniz. Asimov states that English math had suffered because of the popularity of Newton, however, I think in retrospect, knowing that Newton's view of light being a particle, made of matter, is probably the more accurate when compared to light as a wave which dominates during the 1800s and 1900s and even now in the 2000s. Peacock is a vigorous supporter of Thomas Young's work, publishing a memoir of Thomas Young (1855), and the first two volumes of Young's collected works in three volumes. Perhaps relevant is that Peacock's father is an Anglican clergyman that might express conservative religious and traditional views. Certainly some credit is due to Thomas Young for computing the frequencies of various colors of light. So I am left to wonder if there was a philosophical opposition to Newton, perhaps a jealousy, perhaps a political opposition, a religious opposition, or all of these factors combined to cover the truth of light as a particle and the basis of all matter. It seems like almost an anti-Newton backlash happens around this time in history, and this backlash lasts until Planck but is still being felt. Perhaps this anti-Newton backlash is part of a larger battle between science and religion, which dates back to the debate of the existence of deities, and then to the divinity of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, that is being played out still even now. In 1809 Peacock enters Trinity College, Cambridge, where Peacock is "second wrangler" (places second in exams) in 1812 (Sir J. F. W. Herschel being senior). Peacock is elected fellow of his college in 1814, becomes assistant tutor in 1815 and full tutor in 1823. | Cambridge, England |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 2784) Borax (also called Tincal), is a soft and light, colorless crystalline substance. Borax is used as a cleaning compound, hydrated sodium borate, (sodium tetraborate decahydrate) Na2B4O7·10H2O, and as an anhydrous sodium borate in the manufacture of glass and various ceramics. Borax is used as a component of glass and pottery glazes in the ceramics industry, as a solvent for metal-oxide slags in metallurgy, as a flux in welding and soldering, and as a fertilizer additive, a soap supplement, a disinfectant, a mouthwash, and a water softener. The American Chemical Society's Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division has established an annual award in his honor, the Anselme Payen Award. In 1835, Payen becomes professor of industrial and agricultural chemistry at the Central School of Arts and Manufactures, Paris. | Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN [1815 AD] | 3224) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (presumably) |
184 YBN [02/29/1816 AD] | 3838) | Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
184 YBN [1816 AD] | 2351) In 1813 lithography becomes popular in France. Lithography is the process of printing from a plane surface (such as a smooth stone or metal plate) on which the image to be printed is ink-receptive and the blank area ink-repellent usually because it is painted with an oil-based material which repels the water-based ink. In 1813, Niépce begins to experiment with lithography. Unskilled in drawing, and unable to get lithographic stone locally, Niépce tries to find a way to create images automatically (from light). Niépce coats pewter with various light-sensitive substances to try and capture an image from superimposed engravings in sunlight. In April 1816, Niépce starts experimenting with photography using a camera. Niépce calls photography "heliography" (sundrawing). Niépce records a view from his workroom window on paper covered with silver chloride but can only partially fix the image. Niépce then tries the light-sensitive material "bitumen of Judea", a kind of asphalt that hardens on exposure to light. Using this material Niépce succeeds in 1822, in making a photographic copy of an engraving superimposed on glass. In 1826/27, using a camera, Niépce makes a view from his workroom on a pewter plate and this is the first permanently fixed image (on Earth). In 1826 Niépce makes another heliograph from an engraved portrait by the Paris engraver Augustin-François Lemaître. Lemaitre who makes two prints. So Niépce not only solves the problem of reproducing nature by light, but invents the first photomechanical reproduction process. In 1829 Niépce, unable to reduce the exposure times, gives in to the repeated requests of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, a Parisian painter, to form a partnership to perfect heliography. Niépce died without seeing any further advance, but, building on his knowledge, and working with his materials, Daguerre will eventually succeeded in reducing the exposure time by discovering a chemical process for developing (making visible) the latent (invisible) image formed from a brief exposure. | Chalon-sur-Saône, France |
184 YBN [1816 AD] | 2384) Smith has to sell his fossil collection to the British Museum for money and in 1819 Smith spends 10 weeks in debtor's prison. In 1831 Smith is the first recipient of the Wollaston medal from the Geological Society of London. | |
184 YBN [1816 AD] | 2487) Oken (not to be confused with William of Ockham (oKuM) (CE c1285-1349)) is originally named Ockenfuss. | Rudolstadt, Germany |
184 YBN [1816 AD] | 2509) Laënnec writes "In 1816, I was consulted by a young woman labouring under general symptoms of diseased heart, and in whose case percussion and the application of the hand were of little avail on account of the great degree of fatness. The other method just mentioned {the application of the ear to the chest} being rendered inadmissible by the age and (gender) of the patient, I happened to recollect a simple and well-known fact in acoustics, and fancied, at the same time, that it might be turned to some use on the present occasion." Laennec's recollection alluded to the way in which sound is amplified when transmitted through certain solid objects. Laënnec proceeds to roll up a quire (24 sheets of paper) into a cylindrical tube and place one end of it to the woman's chest. Laënnec writes, " was not a little surprised and pleased to find that I could thereby perceive the action of the heart in a manner much more clear and distinct than I had ever been able to do by immediate application of the ear." Laënnec names the new instrument "stethoscope," based on the Greek words "stethos" (meaning chest) and "skopos" (observer). Laënnec is a pupil of Jean-Nicolas Corvisart des Marets, whom he succeeds (1823) as physician at the Hôpital de la Charité in Paris. In 1822, Laënnec is appointed professor at the Collège de France. Laënnec dies (at age 45) from Tuberculosis, probably from person he was treating. | (Hospital Necker) Paris, France |
184 YBN [1816 AD] | 2611) In December 1813, the French Académie des Sciences announces a mathematical prize competition on surface wave propagation on liquid of indefinite depth. In July 1815, 25-year-old Augustin-Louis Cauchy submits his entry, and, in August, Siméon D. Poisson, one of the judges, deposits a memoir of his own to record his independent work (Dalmedico 1988). Cauchy is awarded the prize in 1816, Poisson's memoir is published in 1818, and Cauchy's work eventually appears in 1827, with an astonishing 188 pages of additional notes. (People of this time should have realized that in the absence of an aether than can be seen or measured, they should not presume that an aether exists.) (Generally, certainly in France at the time of the change from corpuscular to wave theory, it appears that conservatives support the erroneous wave theory, while liberals support the more accurate corpuscular theory. There are clear sides, the conservatives that support a religion, are either fooled by the ridiculous claims of a religion, or dishonestly play along to be accepted, and the other side which understands that the ridiculous claims of religions are probably wrong and is more interested in truth and progress. So there is probably no coincidence that people who support the lies of religion, are comfortable supporting a scientific lie. So it perhaps should not be a surprise that like many unintuitive theories, such as intelligent design versus the theory of evolution, the big bang versus an infinite universe, time-dilation versus time everywhere the same, that people with corrupted values and inaccurate or dishonest beliefs support the less accurate scientific theory or claim.) | Paris, France |
184 YBN [1816 AD] | 2668) | London, England |
184 YBN [1816 AD] | 5984) | Naples, Italy |
183 YBN [02/10/1817 AD] | 2594) The Academy of Sciences in Paris creates a prize contest for the best paper to explain the phenomenon of inflexion (diffraction). Fresnel will win this award in March 1819 for a paper that uses a wave theory for light, even though many of the people on the judging commission, Biot, Laplace, Poisson, Arago and Gay-Lussac are corpuscular theory supporters. After the Institute had pronounced in favor of Fresnel's wave theory, the interference explanation of diffraction has to be acknowledged by French corpuscular supporters. Hauy in the 1821 edition of his "Traite'de physique", and Biot in the third edition of his "Pre'cis expe'rimentale de Physique" in 1824, both give a wave explanation of diffraction where neither had in earlier editions. (I think one key component of believability in a theory is strictly if there is a math formula to explain the phenomenon that is said to express some theoretical concept of what is actually happening. So in that sense, applying math to the diffraction phenomena or interpreting the wave math from a corpuscular view might move science ahead in understanding physical phenomena. My feeling is that Biot and other corpuscular supporters didn't take the time or have the creativity necessary to understand the so-called double-slit experiment. I know I do not have the time or money to pursue a particle explanation, and to study the interference phenomenon in as much detail as I want to.) | Paris, France |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2284) | Pairs, France |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2294) | Leipzig, Germany |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2317) | London, England |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2387) | Paris, France |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2408) | London, England |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2431) Cadmiun is a silvery-white ductile metal with a faint bluish tinge. Cadmium is softer and more malleable than zinc, but slightly harder than tin. Ca dmium is a relatively rare element. Cadmiun has symbol Cd, atomic number 48, closely related to zinc, with which it is usually associated in nature. Cadmium has an atomic weight of 112.40 and a relative density of 8.65 at 20°C (68°F). Cadmium's melting point of 321°C (610°F) (this seems a low melting point for a metal) and boiling point of 765°C (1410°F) are lower than those of zinc. There are eight naturally occurring stable isotopes, and eleven artificial unstable radio isotopes have been reported. Cadmium is the middle member of group 12 (zinc, cadmium, and mercury) in the periodic table. At one time an important commercial use of cadmium was as an electrodeposited coating on iron and steel for corrosion protection. Nickel-cadmium batteries are the second-largest application, with pigment and chemical uses third. Cadmiu m is used in alkaline nickel-cadmium electric storage cells (interesting name for batteries), which have a greater storage capacity than an equal weight of lead-acid storage cells. ultimately one goal of battery making is the lightest battery for the most and longest prolonged emission of electrons. Because of cadmium's great neutron-absorbing capacity, especially the isotope 113, cadmium is used in control rods and shielding for nuclear reactors. Cadmium is reportedly toxic, and cadmium poisoning is a recognized industrial disease. (More info, what is evidence of toxicity? It must be tough to prove, but perhaps other species have been tested on.) | Göttingen, Germany |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2493) Selenium exhibits allotropy, appearing in a number of forms The three most important forms are the amorphous (noncrystalline), which is red when in powder form and black when in vitreous (glassy) form; the red crystalline; and the gray metallic, which is also crystalline. Of the three, the metallic form is the most stable under ordinary conditions; the other forms very slowly convert to the metallic form at room temperature. Selenium has atomic number 34; atomic weight 78.96; melting point (of gray selenium) 217°C; boiling point (gray) 684.9°C; relative density (gray) 4.79; (vitreous) 4.28; valence 2, 4, or 6. Selenium is directly below sulfur in Group 16 of the periodic table. In chemical activity and physical properties it resembles sulfur and tellurium. Selenium is a metalloid (an element intermediate in properties between the metals and the nonmetals) that is widely distributed throughout the world, but only in small quantities. (Selenium is also a semiconductor.) Selenium occasionally occurs uncombined, usually in conjunction with free sulfur. (Again elements found together that are not only a neutron or helium nucleus away, but are directly above and below each other.) Selenium is more commonly found together with the sulfides as the selenides in ores of such metals as iron, lead, silver, and copper. When any of the selenium-containing sulfide minerals is roasted, selenium appears as a by-product in the flue dusts. Selenium is also extracted from the anode slimes that remain after the electrolytic refining of copper. A remarkable property (discovered by Willoughby Smith in 1873) of the gray metallic form of selenium is that its electrical conductivity is greater in light than in darkness, and the electrical conductivity increases as the illumination increases. This property has led to use of the metallic form in the junction rectifier and as a cathode in the photoelectric cell rectifier. Electrical conductivity of metallic selenium increases when light collides with it and selenium can also convert light directly into electricity. For these reason selenium is used in photoelectric cells, solar cells, and photographic exposure meters. Selenium is also used extensively in rectifiers because selenium can convert alternating electric current to direct current. (Selenium is the first element used in the invention of the electric camera. The electric camera {using the cathode ray tube display} will greatly reduce the size of cameras, in addition to the time and effort needed to retrieve and develop film. Selenium therefore plays a large role in the secret history of cameras that see thought and secretly distributed throughout many people's houses.) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2533) | Paris, France (presumably) |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2537) Bessel uses a "heliometer", which Bessel designs and Fraunhofer builds to measure the tiny displacements of 61 Cygni. A heliometer is an instrument designed for measuring the apparent diameter of the Sun. In 1804 the young Bessel writes a paper on Halley's Comet in which Bessel calculates the orbit from observations made in 1607. Bessel sends this paper to the astronomer Wilhelm Olbers, who is so impressed that Olbers arranges for the paper to be published in the important German technical journal "Monatliche Correspondenz" and proposes Bessel as assistant at the Lilienthal observatory of the celebrated lunar observer J.H. Schröter. Bessel is appointed by King Frederick William III of Prussia to supervise the construction of the observatory at Königsberg and Bessel remains as director of this observatory from 1810 until he dies. | Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2584) Pelletier studies and teaches at the Ecole de Pharmacie in Paris until his retirement in 1842. | Paris, France |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2590) | Paris, France |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2600) This book will be translated into English for the Cavendish Society from 1848 to 1859. Gmelin's great uncle was the German explorer Johann Georg Gmelin (GumAliN) (CE 1709-1755). Gmelin studies medicine and chemistry at Göttingen, Tubingen and Vienna. From 1817-1851 Gmelin is the first chair of chemistry at Heidelberg. | Heidelberg, Germany |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 2783) Pander investigates Palaeozoic rock strata and is the first to describe the remains of the ancient, primitive creatures known as conodonts. The research begun by Pander is continued by his associate, another Baltic scientist Karl Ernst von Baer (1792-1876). Pander works on his estate at Carnikava, near Riga. | Carnikava (near Riga), Latvia |
183 YBN [1817 AD] | 3307) Döbereiner is a coachman's son an so (does not receive) formal schooling, but is apprenticed to an apothecary, reads widely, and attends science lectures. Döbereiner attends the University of Jena. In 1810, Döbereiner becomes an assistant professor at the University of Jena. | Jena, Germany |
182 YBN [11/26/1818 AD] | 2340) | Marseilles, France |
182 YBN [11/26/1818 AD] | 2341) | Marseilles, France |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2391) In 1793 Geoffroy becomes professor of vertebrate zoology at the National Museum of Natural History, the chair of invertebrate zoology is held by Lamarck. (This shows that the French Revolution may have contributed a stimulus to the theory of evolution, and to the sciences of anatomy, and paleontology.) In 1798 Geoffroy accompanies Napoleon on his conquest of Egypt and contributes to the 24 volumes of the "Description de l'Egypte" (1809-28, "Description of Egypt"). | Paris, France |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2447) | Hannover, Germany |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2452) | Paris, France (presumably) |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2489) Benjamin Silliman (CE 1779-1864) founds the "American Journal of Science and Arts" which is influential in developing American science. | New Haven, Connecticut, USA (presumably) |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2512) | Nancy, France |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2538) | Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2547) | London, England (presumably) |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2549) | Paris, France (presumably) |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2585) The nux vomica tree of India is the main commercial source of strychnine. Strychnine has a molecular formula of C21H22N2O2. Strychnine is practically insoluble in water and is soluble only with difficulty in alcohol and other common organic solvents. Strychnine has an exceptionally bitter taste. Strychnine has been used in rodent poisons and in smaller doses as a stimulant in veterinary practice. Strychnine increases the reflex irritability of the spinal cord, which results in a loss of normal inhibition of the body's motor cells, causing severe contractions of the muscles; arching of the back is a common symptom of poisoning. Strychnine rapidly enters the blood, whether taken orally or by injection, and symptoms of poisoning usually appear within 20 minutes. The symptoms begin with cramps and soon culminate in powerful and agonizing convulsions that subside after a minute but recur at a touch, a noise, or some other minor stimulus. Death is usually due to asphyxiation resulting from continuous spasms of the respiratory muscles. (In my opinion death by strychnine sounds too painful and long in duration to be a form of murdering an organism, in particular when neuron activation and other painless quick methods must exist.) | Paris, France |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2593) Biot publishes this in "Me'moire sur les rotations que certaines substances impriment aux axes de polarisation des rayons lumineux", with the Academie des Sciences. | Paris, France (presumably) |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2712) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) begins a series of successful experiments on alloys of steel. Later work on steel alloys is based on Faraday's work. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 2790) This find is published in Ehrenberg's doctoral thesis, which describes 250 species of fungi from the Berlin district, of which sixty-two were new to science. | Berlin, Germany |
182 YBN [1818 AD] | 5981) Nicolò Paganini (CE 1782-1840), Italian violinist and composer, composes "Caprice No. 24 in A minor", Op. 1. (verify) | Italy |
181 YBN [12/??/1819 AD] | 2768) In 1821 Mitscherlich becomes professor of chemistry at the University of Berlin. | Berlin, Germany |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2212) Thomas Jefferson (CE 1743-1826), American statesman and scholar, founds the University of Virginia and designs its initial buildings. | Charlottesville, Virginia, USA |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2429) Naphthalene is a white crystalline compound, C10H8, derived from coal tar or petroleum and used in manufacturing dyes, moth repellents, and explosives and as a solvent. Naphthalene is also called tar camphor. Kidd is appointed professor of chemistry at Oxford two years after getting his MD there. This shows how health and chemistry were linked for many years, a link that is no longer apparent. | London, England (presumably) |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2430) As a female, the main higher education institutions are closed to Germain, however she gets the lecture notes of the mathematician J. L. Lagrange, which he had delivered at the newly founded Ecole Polytechnique. Germain also begins to correspond with prominent mathematicians using the pseudonym Le Blanc and allows them to assume that she is a man. Germain sends in a report using a male pseudonym, (M. Le Blanc) Lagrange is astonished at the value of the report and even after finding that the author is a woman sponsors (more detail) Germain's work from then on. In 1804 Germain initiates a correspondence with Gauss under her male pseudonym. Gauss learns of Germain's true identity when a family friend locates Gauss to verify his safety at Germain's request during the French occupation of Hannover in 1807. In 1809 the French Academy of Sciences offers a prize for a mathematical account of the phenomena of vibrating plates described by the German physicist Ernst F.F. Chladni (and Hooke before Chladni). Germain submits a paper each of three times, and finally wins on the third try in 1816. Germain publishes her work (on the vibrating plates) privately in 1821 as "Recherches sur la théorie des surfaces élastiques" ("Researches on the Theory of Elastic Surfaces"). Germain is the first woman not related to a member by marriage to attend Academie des Sciences meetings, and is also the first woman invited to sessions at the Institut de France. Gauss arranged for Germain to be awarded an honorary degree from Göttingen but Germain dies before the degree can be awarded. Fermat's last theorem states that there is no solution for the equation x = z Germain proves the special case in which x, y, z, and n are all relatively prime (have no common divisor except for 1 (and self, needs more explanation)) and n is a prime smaller than 100. Germain does not publish her work and her result will first appear in 1825 in a supplement to the second edition of Legendre's "Théorie des nombres". Fermat's last theoren will be proved for all cases by the English mathematician Andrew Wiles in 1995. | Paris, France (presumably) |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2513) | Nancy, France |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2574) In 1819 Purkinje earns an MD from the University of Prague. From 1823-1850 Purkinje is chair of physiology and pathology at the University of Breslau, Prussia. In 1832, Purkinje acquires a compound microscope. At the University of Breslau, Purkinje creates the planet's first independent department of physiology in 1839 and the first official physiological laboratory, known as the Physiological Institute in 1842. From 1850-1869 Purkinje is professor of physiology at the University of Prague. | Prague, (now:) Czech Republic |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2586) Pierre Joseph Pelletier (PeLTYA) (CE 1788-1842) and Bienaimé Caventou (KoVoNTU (1795-1877), isolate brucine, C23H26N204, an alkaloid from "false Angustura" bark. Brucine crystallizes in prisms with four molecules of water; when anhydrous brucine melts at 178° (C). Brucine is very similar to strychnine, both chemically and physiologically. Brucine, a poisonous white crystalline alkaloid, (is most commonly, like strychnine) derived from the seeds of nux vomica and closely related plants and used to denature alcohol. Brucine is named after the Scottish explorer James Bruce (1730-1794). | Paris, France |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2598) | Paris, France |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2719) In 1835 Encke's comet passes close enough to Mercury to allow the mass of Mercury to be determined for the first time. t: Since the mass of the comet has only a little effect on Mercury being much smaller than Mercury, the equation is simply the a=GMmerc/r^2, although how is the distance between the two calculated? Perhaps the distance between was extrapolated according to perspective?) Encke establishes methods for calculating the orbits of minor planets and orbits of double stars. Encke is educated at Hamburg and the University of Göttingen, where Encke works under the direction of Carl Friedrich Gauss. | (Seeberg Observatory near) Gotha, Germany |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2720) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 2728) John Herschel is the only child of William Herschel. In 1809 Herschel enters the University of Cambridge in the company of Charles Babbage, mathematician and inventor of the computer, and George Peacock, also a mathematician and later a theologian. In 1812 Herschel, Babbage and Peacock found the Analytical Society of Cambridge to introduce continental methods of mathematical calculus into English practice. Also in 1812, Herschel submits his first mathematical paper to the Royal Society. In 1813 Herschel earns first place in the university mathematical examinations. In 1820 Gerschel is among the founders of the Royal Astronomical Society. | London, England (presumably) |
181 YBN [1819 AD] | 3682) | (Royal Institution in) London, England (presumably) |
180 YBN [01/01/1820 AD] | 1248) Forty psychiatric hospitals (mad-houses) are in business in London, up from twenty, 32 years before in 1788, and this shows the rising popularity of this trade. | |
180 YBN [04/21/1820 AD] | 2454) (In what has become a classic story in the history of science), Ørsted is lecturing during a class, and decides to demonstrate the experimental evidence in support of his conjecture of the possible electric discharge on a magnetic needle placed near the circuit. During this experiment is when Ørsted notices that the compass needle moves under a wire with current. This is the first connection between electricity and magnetism. This is the beginning of the study of electromagnetism (electricity and magnetism joined together). According to Asimov, Scientists had long suspected that there might be some connection between electricity. When this finding is announced in 1820, (like many initial science advances) it sets off an explosion of activity. From this Michael Faraday will create the electric motor, and electric generator, Carl Gauss and independently Joe Henry will create the telegraph from this finding. Ørsted shows that the force of the current on the needle makes itself felt through glass, metals, and other nonmagnetic substances. In 1823 Ampere theorizes that magnetism may in fact be electricism, and that a permanent magnet has a constant current running through it that causes an electric field. This logical view that magnetism (a magnetic field) is simply the result of electric current (is an electric field) is surprisingly rejected by the majority of people in science even to this day. It seems clear that ultimately, the entire concept of magnetism, including electromagnetism, will remain in the past, replaced by the more simple and accurate concept of electricity. In an 1812 book Oersted publishes in Berlin, Oersted proposes experiments with galvanic electricity to find out "whether electricity in its most latent state has any action on a magnet". Ørsted will publish a condensed account of his of his experiments in Latin on 07/21/1820. Ørsted writes (translated from Latin (give title in Latin)): "Experiments on the Effect of a Current of Electricity on the Magnetic Needle The first experiments respecting the subject which I mean at present to explain, were made by me last winter, while lecturing on electricity, galvanism, and magnetism, in the University. It seemed demonstrated by these experiments that the magnetic needle was moved from its position by the galvanic apparatus, but that the galvanic circle must be complete, and not open, which last method was tried in vain some years ago by very celebrated philosophers. But as these experiments were made with a feeble apparatus, and were not, therefore, sufficiently conclusive, considering the importance of the subject, I associated myself with my friend Esmarck to repeat and extend them by means of a very powerful galvanic battery, provided by us in common. Mr. Wleugel, a Knight of the Order of Dannebord, and at the head of the Pilots, was present at, and assisted in, the experiments. There were present likewise Reinhardt, Professor of Natural History, Mr. Jacobsen, Professor of Medicine, and that very skillful chemist, Mr. Zeise, Doctor of Philosophy. I had often made experiments by myself; but every fact which I had observed was repeated in the presence of these gentlemen. The galvanic apparatus which we employed consists of twenty copper troughs, the length and height of each of which was 12 in.; but the breadth scarcely exceeded 2 1/2 in. Every trough is supplied with two plates of copper, so bent that they could carry a copper rod, which supports the zinc plate in the water of the next trough. The water of the troughs contained one-sixtieth of its weight of sulphuric acid, and an equal quantity of nitric acid. The portion of each zinc plate sunk in the water is a square whose side is about 10 in. in length. A smaller apparatus will answer provided it be strong enough to heat a metallic wire red hot. The opposite ends of the galvanic battery were joined by a metallic wire, which, for shortness sake, we shall call the uniting conductor, or the uniting wire. To the effect which takes place in this conductor and in the surrounding space, we shall give the name of the conflict of electricity. Let the straight part of this wire be placed horizontally above the magnetic needle, properly suspended, and parallel to it. If necessary, the uniting wire is bent so as to assume a proper position for the experiment. Things being in this state, the needle will be moved, and the end of it next the negative side of the battery will go westward. If the distance of the uniting wire does not exceed three-quarters of an inch from the needle, the declination of the needle makes an angle of about 45°. If the distance is increased, the angle diminishes proportionally. The declination likewise varies with the power of the battery. The uniting wire may change its place, either towards the east of west, provided it continue parallel to the needle, without any other change of the effect than in respect to its quantity. Hence the effect cannot be ascribed to attraction; for the same pole of the magnetic needle, which approaches the uniting wire, while placed on its east side, ought to recede from it when on the west side, if these declinations depended on attractions and repulsions. The uniting conductor may consist of several wires, or metallic ribbons, connected together. The nature of the metal does not alter the effect, but merely the quantity. Wires of platinum, gold, silver, brass, iron, ribbons of lead and tin, a mass of mercury, were employed with equal success. The conductor does not lose its effect, though interrupted by water, unless the interruption amounts to several inches in length. The effect of the uniting wire passes to the needle through glass, metals, wood, water, resin, stoneware, stones; for it is not taken away by interposing plates of glass, metal or wood. Even glass, metal, and wood, interposed at once, do not destroy, and indeed scarcely diminish the effect. The disc of the electrophorus, plates of prophyry, a stoneware vessel, even filled with water, were interposed with the same result. We found the effects unchanged when the needle was included in a brass box filled with water. It is needless to observe that the transmission of effects through all these matters has never before been observed in electricity and galvanism. The effects, therefore, which takes place in the confluct of electricity are very different from the effects of either of the electricities. If the uniting wire be placed in a horizontal plane under the magnetic needle, all the effects are the same as when it is above the needle, only they are in an opposite direction; for the pole of the magnetic needle next the negative end of the battery declines to the east. That these facts may be the more easily retained, we may use this formula-the pole above which the negative electricity enters is turned to the west; under which, to the east. If the uniting wire is so turned in a horizontal plane as to form a gradually increasing angle with the magnetic meridian, the declination of the needle increases, if the motion of the wire is towards the place of the disturbed needle; but it diminishes if the wire moves further from that place. When the uniting wire is situated in the same horizontal plane in which the needle moves by means of the counterpoise, and parallel to it, no declination is produced either to the east or west; bu an inclination takes place, so that the pole, next which the negative electricity enters the wire, is depressed when the wire is situated on the west side, and elevated when situated on the east side. If the uniting wire be placed perpendicularly to the plane of the magnetic meridian, whether above or below it, the needle remains at rest, unless it be very near the pole; in that case the pole is elevated when the entrance is from the west side of the wire, and depressed, when from the east side. When the uniting wire is placed perpendicularly opposite to the pole of the magnetic needle, and the upper extremity of the wire receives the negative electricity, the pole is moved towards the east; but when the wire is opposite to a point between the pole and the middle of theneedle, the pole is moved towards the west. When the upper end of the wire receives positive electricity, the phenomena are reversed. If the uniting wire is bent so as to form two legs parallel to each other, it repels or attracts the magnetic poles according to the different conditions of the case. Suppose the wire placed opposite to either pole of the needle, so that the plane of the parallel legs is perpendicular to the magnetic meridian, and let the eastern leg be united with the negative end, the western leg with the positive end of the battery in that case the nearest pole will be repelled either to the east or west according to the position of the plane of the legs. The eastmost leg being united with the positive, and the westmost with the negative side of the battery, the nearest pole will be attracted. When the plane of the legs is placed perpendicular to the place between the pole and the middle of the needle, the same effects recur, but reversed. A brass needle, suspended like a magnetic needle, is not moved by the effect of the uniting wire. Likewise needles of glass and of gum lac remain unacted on. We may now make a few observations towards explaining these phenomena. The electric conflict acts only on the magnetic particles of matter. All non-magnetic bodies appear penetrable by the electric conflict, while magnetic bodies, or rather their magnetic particles, resist the passage of this conflict. Hence they can be moved by the impetus of the contending powers. It is sufficiently evidence from the preceding facts that the electric conflict is not confined to the conductor, but dispersed pretty widely in the circumjacent space. From the preceding facts we may likewise infer that this conflict performs circles; for without this condition it seems impossible that the one part of the uniting wire, when placed below the magnetic pole, should drive it towards the east, and when placed above it towards the west; for it is the nature of a circle that the motions in opposite parts should have an opposite direction. Besides, a motion in circles, joined with a progressive motion, according to the length of the conductor, ought to form a conchoidal or spiral line; but this; unless I am mistaken, contributes nothing to explain the phenomena hitherto observed. All the effects on the north pole above-mentioned are easily understood by supposing that negative electricity moves in a spiral line bent towards the right, and propels the north pole, but does not act on the south pole. The effects on the south pole are explained in a similar manner, if we ascribe to positive electricity a contrary motion and power of acting on the south pole, but not upon the north. The agreement of this law with nature will be better seen by a repetition of the experiments than by a long explanation. The mode of judging of the experiments will be much facilitated if the course of the electricities in the uniting wire be pointed out by marks or figures. I shall merely add to the above that I have demonstrated in a book published 5 years ago that heat and light consist of the conflict of the electricities. From the observations now stated, we may conclude that a circular motion likewise occurs in these effects. This I think will contribute very much to illustrate the phenomena to which the appellation of polarization of light has been given.". Oersted leaves three accounts of how he made his famous discovery which all agree but conflict other accounts in which the discovery is described as an accident. The first account of the discovery as an accident is given in German by Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert, the editor of the Annalen der Physik who writes "What every search and effort had not produced, came to Professor Oersted in Copenhagen by an accident during his lectures on electricity and magnetism in the past winter". Another account describing the discovery as an accident is given in a letter to Michael Faraday by Professor Hansteen's 37 years after the discovery. Hansteen writes that "...Once, after the end of his lecture, as he had used a strong galvanic battery in other experiments he said, 'Let us now once, as the battery is in activity, try to place the wire parallel to the needle'; as this was made, he was quite struck with perplexity by seeing the needle making a great oscillation (almost at right angles with the magnetic meridian). Then he said: 'Let us now invert the direction of the current' and the needle deviated in the contrary direction. Thus the great detection was made; and it has been said, not without reason, that 'he tumbled over it by accident'. He had not before any more idea than any other person that the force should be transversal. But, as Lagrange has said of Newton on a similar occasion, 'Such accidents only meet persons who deserve them'.". Oersted reviews the background of his discovery in his historical sketch of 1821 in order to express his explicit denial that the discovery was made by accident. This account from Oersted is sometimes ignored in favor of the two other versions which historian R. C. Stauffer states cannot survive critical scrutiny. Oersted writes in his first of three accounts as follows: " Since for a long time i had regarded the forces which manifest themselves in electricity as the general forces of nature, I had to derive the magnetic effects from them also. As proof that I accepted this consequence completely, I can cite the following passage from my Recherches sur l'identite des forces chimiques et electriques printed in Paris 1813. 'It must be tested whether electricity in its most latent state has any action on the magnet as such.' I wrote this during a journey so that I could not easily undertake the experiments; not to mention that the way to make them was not at all clear to me at that time, all my attention being applied to the development of a system of chemistry. I still remember that, somewhat inconsistently, I expected the predicted effect particularly from the discharge of a large electric battery and, moreover, only hoped for a weak magnetic effect. Therefore I did not pursue with proper zeal the thoughts I had conceived; I was brought back to them through my lectures on electricity, galvanism and magnetism in the spring of 1820. The auditors were mostly men already considerably advanced in science; so these lectures and the preparatory reflections led me on to deeper investigations than those which are admissible in ordinary lectures. Thus my former conviction of the identity of electrical and magnetic forces developed with new clarity, and I resolved to test my opinion by experiment. The preparations for this were made on a day in which I had to give a lecture the same evening. I therefore showed Canton's experiment on the influence of chemical effects on the magnetic state of iron. I called attention to the variations of the magnetic needle during a thunderstorm, and at the same time I set forth the conjecture that an electric discharge could act on a magnetic needle placed outside the galvanic circuit. I then resolved to make the experiment. Since I expected the greatest effect from a discharge associated with incandescence, I inserted in the circuit a very fine platinum wire above the place where the needle was located. The effect was certainly unmistakable, but it seemed to me so confused that I postponed further investigation to a time when I hoped to have more leisure. At the beginning of July these experiments were resumed and continued without interruption until I arrived at the results which have been published.". (Notice the use of the word "thought", possibly evidence, although very weak, of seeing eyes by this time.) Gian Domenico Romagnosi (1761-1835) had published an account of a relationship between electricity and magnetism in 1802. The unit of magnetic field strength is named the "oersted" in his honor in 1934. | Copenhagen, Denmark |
180 YBN [07/21/1820 AD] | 2457) | Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
180 YBN [09/18/1820 AD] | 2423) French mathematician and physicist, André Marie Ampère (oMPAR) (CE 1775-1836) relates direction of current in a wire to magnetic force. Ampère (oMPAR) creates the "right hand screw rule". The right hand is imagined holding the wire with the thumb pointing in the direction of the current. The fingers then indicate the direction in which the north pole of a magnet will be deflected. One can imagine a magnetic force circling the wire. This is the beginning of the concept of "lines of force" that Faraday will generalize. The direction of current had to be determined and Ampère decides wrongly to use Franklin's guess of an excess of "electrical fluid" moving from positive to negative, which is now known to be backward; electrical fluid (electrons) moves from negative to positive. So technically in terms of current, this rule should be the "left hand screw rule". | Paris, France |
180 YBN [09/25/1820 AD] | 2424) In this way, Ampère shows that attraction and repulsion in a current carrying wire does not need a magnet or iron fillings to be visualized. Ampère also works with magnetic fields made by currents flowing through a circular wire. Ampère and Arago both recognize that in theory, wire in a spiral (helix) shape, a wire curved into a spring shape will behave like a bar magnet. Ampère calls this kind of helix a solenoid. Sturgeon will put this into practice (inventing the first inductor), and Henry will refine this idea.(chronology) This property of a spiral of wire will fuel many of the inventions such as the telegraph, electric motor, and telephone. Ampère's experiments names the science of electric currents in motion as "electrodynamics" and introduces the term "electrostatics" for the older study of stationary electric charges. (Although, in my mind, there is basically the field of electronics or electricity, also known as electrical science or electrical engineering.) (chronology) (Who is first to measure force of attraction or repulsion between moving current in a wire and static electricity? Perhaps Weber and Kohlrausche in measuring a ratio of static to moving {dynamic} electric charge {or the measure of force causing mechanical movement} in 1854.) Biot and Savart had interpreted Oersted's discovery as showing that the electric current had magnetized the wire it was moving in and then interacted with the magnetic needle in a similar way of two usual magnets. Ampere viewed Oersted's discovery differently as being the interaction between currents, which means that there should exist microscopic currents within permanent magnets. To prove this point, only a week after Arago had demonstrated Oersted's discovery, Ampere shows at the Academy, that two parallel wires carrying currents attract one another if the currents are in the same direction, and repel each other if the currents are in the opposite directions. Ampere then spends 7 years immersed in experimental research to identify the correct mathematical expression describing the force between current elements. Ampère theorizes that a magnet owes its power to elementary current loops perpendicular to its axis, in other words that all magnetism can be attributed to electric currents. So current flowing forward in a spiral direction is viewed to be the reason for a magnetic field in a current carrying wire. In modern terms, the magnetic field is made of electrons in the current extending outside the visible wire. According to Asimov, contemporaries of Ampère are very skeptical of this idea. Augustin Jean Fresnel (FrAneL) (CE 1788-1827) claims that the materials that can be made into magnets, iron and steel are poor conductors, and current moving through a poor conductor causes heat and so all magnets would always be warm. (find original source)(But possibly the current is so small that the heating is not noticeable.) This is the first understanding that a magnetic field is the same as an electric field, and that a magnetic field is probably caused by current moving in a permanent magnet, which eliminates the concept of "magnetism" and a "magnetic field" altogether as being "electrism" and an "electric field". However, Maxwell and others still view a magnetic field as a separate phenomenon, different from an electric field. This mistaken belief of magnetism (or magneticity) being different from electrism (or electricity) has lasted even to this day. If this theory is true, even a needle deflected by a permanent magnetic field is measuring the strength of a current. (EX: Perhaps a permanent magnet can be created by wiring a very long complete circuit insulated wire around a cylinder of wood with a hole running through the center.) The historian R. Tricker writes of this paper: "At this stage Ampere is obviously thinking of macroscopic currents rather than the molecular currents which he later proposed. The particles of the steel bar of a magnet acted like the elements of an electric pile and drove a current round the bar producing a solenoidal electric current. He had arrived at this idea from a similar postulate about the earth's currents by means of which he explained terrestrial magnetism. In this case he imagined that the different rocks and minerals in the earth's crust acted like a pile generating currents in planes parallel to the equator. he even suggested that the heat of earth might be caused by such currents.". Ampere will later theorize that the currents in a magnet must be distributed throughout its volume, describing these currents as molecular currents. (I think this is similar to my own view - that the currents flow in a helix, perhaps with an excess of negative particles at one pole and an excess of positive particles at the other pole.) | Paris, France |
180 YBN [10/30/1820 AD] | 2418) | Paris, France (presumably) |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2455) | Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2486) | Halle, Germany |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2505) After Bellingshausen's voyage, the world's ice-free ocean is completely explored, all that remains is the frozen polar wastes and continental interiors. | Antarctica |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2559) | Paris, France (presumably) |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2587) Asimov explains that around this time chemistry is moving from analysis of naturally occurring molecules to analysis of synthetic molecules. Quinine (KWIniN, KWInEN) is a white crystalline alkaloid with a bitter taste. Quinine has the chemical formula: C20H24N2O2. Quinine is obtained from cinchona bark and is used as a drug mainly in the treatment of malaria. The treatment of malaria with quinine will mark the first successful use of a chemical compound in combating an infectious disease. Cinchonine, like quinine, is an alkaloid, C19H22N2O, derived from the bark of various cinchona trees and used as an antimalarial agent. Colchicine is a poisonous, pale-yellow alkaloid, C22H25NO6, obtained from the autumn crocus and used in plant breeding to induce chromosome doubling and in medicine to treat gout. | Paris, France |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2591) In 1819 Fresnel was nominated a commissioner of lighthouses for which Fresnel was the first to construct compound lenses as substitutes for mirrors. | Paris, France |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2628) John Frederic Daniell (CE 1790-1845), English chemist, invents a dew-point hygrometer (a device that indicates atmospheric humidity) (Quar. Journ. Sci., 1820), which is widely used. Daniell's "Essay on Artificial Climate Considered in Its Applications to Horticulture" shows the importance of humidity in greenhouses. Danielle's hygrometer is made with two thin glass bulbs that are hung from a base and joined with a glass tube. One of the glass bulbs holds ether and a thermometer that collects and dissipates dew when the other bulb is slowly cooled and reheated. The condensing temperature is produced by evaporation of the ether. Daniell's hygrometer, as it is called, enables the easy determination of vapor that exists in a given mass of atmosphere. The average temperature recorded by the device is the dew point. (make clearer) In 1831 Daniell becomes the first professor of chemistry at the newly founded King's College in London. In 1839 Daniell publishes "Introduction to the Study of Chemical Philosophy". In 1841, Daniell becomes a founding member and vice president of the Chemical Society of London. Daniell authors many papers that are published in journals of science. | London, England (presumably) |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2635) George Peacock (PEKoK) (CE 1791-1858), publishes "A Collection of Examples of the Application of the Differential and Integral Calculus" which aids the movement to use the "Continental" calculus notion of Leibniz as opposed to the fluxion notion of Newton. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 2698) Faraday has an electrical unit of charge named after him (a Faraday is an amount of electricity measured during electrolysis) and the unit of capacitance, the farad is named after Faraday. Faraday wears no wig as wigs had passed out of popularity by the beginning of the 1800s. Instead Faraday wears a black neck tie, vest and blazer every day, the neck tie and blazer are still popular today. Faraday is one of four children of a blacksmith who moves with his family to London in 1791 to look for work. Faraday later recalls being given one loaf of bread that had to last him for a week. Faraday's family belongs to a Christian sect called the Sandemanians, a sect that no longer exists. Faraday receives only the rudiments of an education, learning to read, and write in a church Sunday school. At an early age Faraday earns money by delivering newspapers for a book dealer and bookbinder. In 1805, at age 14, Faraday is apprenticed to the bookbinder and bookseller, and Faraday is therefore exposed to many books. Faraday is particularly fascinated by the article on electricity in the third edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and reads Lavoisier's textbook on chemistry. (there are other examples of people working with books that go on to achieve in science. (name examples) I think there is the potential for a relationship between access to books (and videos, etc) and wisdom. Now with the Internet, we should see collective wisdom grow much faster and larger in scale.) (In some sense we can thank the public science lecture for the electric motor.) Faraday uses old bottles and lumber to make a crude electrostatic generator with which Faraday does simple experiments. Faraday also builds a weak voltaic pile with which he performs experiments in electrochemistry. In 1812 a customer gives Faraday tickets to attend the lectures of Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. Faraday takes careful notes with colorful diagrams. Faraday ends with 386 pages which he binds in leather and sends to Banks, the president of the Royal Society, in the hope of getting a job that will bring him into closer contact with science. Getting no answer he sends others (he made copies?) to Davy himself along with an application for a job as an assistant. Davy is enormously impressed, and when Davy fires his assistant for brawling (brawling? those are some tough assistants.), Davy offers Faraday the job. Davy follows the advice of a trustee of the Royal Institution who says "Let him wash bottles. If he is any good, he will accept the work; if he refuses, he is not good for anything.". In 1813 Faraday accepts Davy's offer of a job as assistant at a salary smaller than the one Faraday is getting as a bookbinder and washes bottles. Faraday's first assignment is to accompany Davy and his wife on a tour of Europe, during which Faraday sometimes has to be a personal servant to the wife of Davy. There is a saying that "Faraday was Davy's greatest discovery", however I think Davy's contributions to science (identifies and isolates potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, calcium and magnesium, chlorine, that chlorine support combustion, that hydrochloric acid contains no oxygen and so hydrogen not oxygen is characteristic of acids) place Davy near the top of best scientists of history although Faraday probably ranks higher and Davy's jealousy and/or anger towards Faraday is stupid. Faraday as Davy's assistant sees Napoleon, Volta and Vauquelin. In 1820 Faraday's second apprenticeship, under Davy, ends, and by this time Faraday has learned chemistry as thoroughly as anyone alive. In a court of law, under oath, Faraday points out some flaws in Davy's invention of the miner's safety lamp. In 1821 Faraday married Sarah Barnhard. In 1825 Faraday becomes director of the laboratory. In 1833 Faraday becomes professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. Faraday gives enormously popular lectures in the style of Davy. Faraday's reputation as an analytical chemist leads to his being called as an expert witness in legal trials and to the building up of clients whose fees help to support the Royal Institution. (Royal Institution must have taken part of Faraday's fees or rented Faraday out?) In 1839 the Encyclopedia Britannica states that Faraday's "health broke down" and Faraday for six years does little creative science. Asimov claims that Faraday suffers a nervous breakdown, which is in my view an inaccurate/fraudulent theory. The theories of psychology, I think are highly doubtful. I think that people have moments of stress, but there is no single thing that makes a person suddenly get some kind of disease of the kinds claimed in psychology, and always the disease or "breakdown" is not easily described, seldom are specific "symptoms" given and then many times symptoms given are indicative only of an unusual view or behavior, many times only mildly unusual but inflated to appear more important. The most I can guess is that a person changes dramatically, and adopts a very inaccurate view of the universe. I doubt the phenomenon of "nervous breakdown", but I can accept the phenomenon of extreme stress resulting in passing out, temporary unconsciousness, and I can accept that people have periods of belief in a theory with highly inaccurate claims. In 1824 Faraday is elected into the Royal Society with Davy casting the only negative vote. Faraday strongly favors a more important role for science in education, but is too gentle to say anything. Babbage is more vocal. In 1825 Faraday becomes director of the laboratory. In 1833 Faraday is made Fullerian professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. In 1844 Faraday, after agonizing, decides to accept the invitation to have dinner with Queen Victoria on a Sunday when he is due at the small church he attends. The congregation excommunicates him and he can not be reinstated until undergoing considerable penance. (what could that involve?) In the 1850s when asked to head a project to prepare poisonous gas for use on the battlefield, Faraday admits that the project is feasible but wants nothing to do with it. Faraday keeps a daily record of his 42 years of scientific labors (1820-62) which is published in 1932 in 7 volumes. Every year on Christmas Day, Faraday presents his "Faraday Lectures for Children" which are crowded with interested listeners. The Royal Institution Christmas lectures for children, begun by Faraday, continue to this day. In 1855, According to Asimov, Faraday loses his ability to think clearly some postulate because of chronic mercury poisoning. The Encyclopedia Britannica authors expresses a similar view stating "From about 1855, Faraday's mind began to fail. He still did occasional experiments, one of which involved attempting to find an electrical effect of raising a heavy weight, since he felt that gravity, like magnetism, must be convertible into some other force, most likely electrical. This time he was disappointed in his expectations, and the Royal Society refused to publish his negative results. More and more, Faraday began to sink into senility." (The concept that all forces are the result of a single force is a logical theory, and certainly one worth exploring experimentally and theoretically. I happen to think all forces are the result of gravity, matter occupying space, and collision.) (Faraday is up there with Newton for best in science. Galileo too, Aristarchos, Edison and many others.) In 1857 Faraday declines the presidency of the Royal Society. Queen Victoria rewards Faraday's lifetime of devotion to science by granting Faraday the use of a house at Hampton Court and and a knighthood. Faraday accepts the cottage but rejects the knighthood; saying that he would remain plain Mr. Faraday to the end. That Faraday rejects knighthood may imply that he is against the concept of royalty and possibly monarchy or singular rule by heredity. To me, many knighthoods, baronships, etc are all based on wealth, many times, without significant contribution to science or life, and represent an empty distinction other than "wealthy person" in that sense, although clearly there are exceptions where people do deserve a societal reward for their contribution to life, but then I think simply a monetary award is better than a change in name. Maybe Faraday had a similar opinion. It would be interesting to see Faraday's recorded reasons if any. In 1865 Faraday writes about psychic phenomena "They who say these things are not competent witnesses of facts". To an invitation to attend the first séance of the Davenport brothers Faraday returns the answer, "If spirit communications, not utterly worthless, should happen to start into activity, I will trust the spirits to find out for themselves how they can move my attention. I am tired of them.". When Sir William Crookes asks Faraday how Faraday reconciles science with religion, Faraday replies that he keeps his science and religion strictly apart. Some of Faraday's works are collected as "Experimental Researches in Electricity" (3 vol., 1839-55) and "Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics" (1859). Tyndall, says of Faraday, "Taking him for all and all, I think it will be conceded that Michael Faraday was the greatest experimental philosopher the world has ever seen; and I will add the opinion, that the progress of future research will tend, not to dim or to diminish, but to enhance and glorify the labours of this mighty investigator." The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica states: "We have given a few examples of the concentration of his efforts in seeking to identify the apparently different forces of nature, of his far-sightedness in selecting subjects for investigation, of his persistence in the pursuit of what he set before him, of his energy in working out the results of his discoveries, and of the accuracy and completeness with which he made his final statement of the laws of the phenomenon." In my own opinion, Michael Faraday is perhaps the number one contributor to science in the entire history of Earth, or perhaps second to Isaac Newton. There are certainly other excellent people, but no other person in science discovered and explained as many great and important truths. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
180 YBN [1820 AD] | 3374) To me it is very interesting that Reverend Cecil sees part of his role in life as building and explaining devices such as combustion engines, in other words, for actively participating in science, engineering and education, in some sense, to understanding the principles of the universe, which appears to be for Cecil a natural inclination, but is perhaps an unusual interpretation of purpose for many and perhaps most reverends. (Perhaps the gas combustion is more accurately called the gas explosion engine. The gas combustion phenomenon, like many explosive phenomena form a similar group of reactions where molecules and/or atoms are separated into their source light particles - the force comes from the escaping light particles, as far as I understand it. These are all "exothermic" phenomena, far more particles are emitted than absorbed.) | (Magdalen College) Cambridge, England |
179 YBN [06/??/1821 AD] | 2595) | Paris, France |
179 YBN [07/05/1821 AD] | 2883) Davy writes "Imperfect conducting fluids do not give (magnetic) polarity to steel when electricity is passed through them; but electricity passed through air produces this effect. Reasoning on this phaenomenon, and on the extreme mobility of the particles of air, I concluded, as M. Arago had likewise done from other considerations, that the voltaic current in air would be affected by the magnet. I failed in my first trial, which I have referred to in a note to my former paper, and in other trials made since by using too weak a magnet; but I have lately had complete success; and the experiment exhibits a very striking phaenomenon. Mr. Pepys having had the goodness to charge the great battery of the London Institution, consisting of two thousand double plates of zinc and copper, with a mixture of 1168 parts of water, 108 parts of nitrous acid, and 25 parts of sulphuric acid, the poles were connected by charcoal, so as to make an arc, or column of electrical light, varying in lenth from one to four inches, according to the state of rarefaction of the atmosphere in which it was produced; and a powerful magnet being presented to this arc or column, having its pole at a very acute angle to it, the arc, or column, was attracted or repelled with a rotatory motion, or made to revolve, by placing the poles in different positions, according to the same law as the electrified cylinders of platinum described in my last paper, being repelled when the negative pole was on the right hand by the north pole of the magnet, and attracted by the south pole, and vice versa. It was proved by several experiments that the motion depended entirely upon the magnetism, and not upon the electrical inductive power of the magnet, for masses of soft iron, or of other metals, produced no effect. The electrical arc or column of flame was more easily affected by the magnet, and its motion was more rapid when it passed through a dense than through rarified air; and in this case, the conducting medium or chain of aeriform particles was much shorter. I tried to gain similar results with currents of common electricity sent through flame, and in vacuo. They were always affected by the magnet; but it was not possible to obtain so decided a result as with voltaic electricity, because the magnet itself became electrical by induction, and that whether it was insulated, or connected with the ground." It's not clear that Davy observes the illuminated glow produced by a high electric differential through a vacuum and the deflection of that florescent beam by a magnet as Gassiot, Plucker and others will illuminate. The battery Davy uses is large for the time with 2000 copper-zinc plate pairs (but what voltage is that?). Clearly enough to produce an arc four inches long. Davy publishes this in "Farther Researches on the Magnetic Phaenomena Produced by Electricity; With Some New Experiments on the Properties of Electrified Bodies in Their Relations to Conducting Powers and Temperature" (1821). This is related to using magnets to move beams of electrons in a Cathode Ray Tube, which leads to the television. (Does static electricity move the electrical current in air?) | London, England |
179 YBN [09/03/1821 AD] | 2607) Redfield helps to found the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (chronology) | New York, USA |
179 YBN [09/07/1821 AD] | 1535) | |
179 YBN [09/11/1821 AD] | 2701) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) invents the first electric motor, which creates sustained mechanical motion from electricity. An electric motor is a device that converts electrical energy to mechanical energy. The electric motor is based on the principle that like poles of a magnet repel one another. In 1820 Hans Christian �rsted had announced the discovery that the flow of an electric current through a wire produces a magnetic field around the wire. Andr�-Marie Amp�re showed that the magnetic force is a circular one, producing a cylinder of magnetism around the wire. Faraday understands that if a magnetic pole can be isolated, it ought to move constantly in a circle around a current-carrying wire because of this circular force. Davy and William Hyde Wollaston had tried to design an electric motor but had failed. Faraday, discusses the problem with Davy and Wollaston. Faraday publishes his results without acknowledging his debt to Wollaston and Davy (and this causes controversy). In 1821, a year after Oersted deflected a magnetic needle with an electric current, Faraday creates an electric motor. Faraday converts electrical and magnetic force into continuous mechanical movement.(again most likely the same phenomenon, although not overwhelmingly proven or popularly accepted yet.) Faraday uses two vessels filled with mercury, each attached to a battery by a metal rod entering from the bottom of each vessel. The upper levels of the mercury are connected by a curved metal bar which forms a complete circuit. (note that mercury is a liquid metal that conducts electricity.) One end of the curved bridge is fixed in the center of the Mercury container and on the lower rod a movable magnet (bar or circular magnet?) is attached that can rotate around the fixed upper rod. On the other end of the curved bridge the upper rod ends in a hinged wire (which can move freely in a circle) that hangs into the mercury and is able to rotate around the bottom fixed rod which extends a fixed magnet upward. When Faraday turns on the current the movable wire rotates around the fixed magnet while the movable magnet rotates around the fixed wire. (I will need a visual image for this.) Faraday successfully converts electrical and magnetic forces into continuous mechanical movement. Faraday publishes this in 1821 as "History of the Progress of Electro-Magnetism". Davy claims that Faraday got the idea from a conversation between Davy and Wollaston, but Faraday claims that the conversation only turned his attention to the problem and that his device is nothing like the one discussed. In addition, Wollaston had expected the wire to rotate on an axis rather than rotate around another wire. The electric generator would be useless without some way of putting it to work which the electric motor provides. The electric motor is like the opposite of the electric generator. In an electric generator mechanical force turns a wheel and produces electricity. In a motor, electricity turns a wheel and produces mechanical force. The electric motor is used in vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, computers, robots, video cameras, windshield wipers, windows, doors, thousands of devices. (The electric motor is even now still being applied to make many things in life automated.) In 1821 Faraday shows a simple case of rotation produced between a magnet and a current of electricity. Some historians credit Anianus Jedlik, Hungarian priest and teacher, with the first electromagnet armature motor and commutator by 1928. In 1831 Henry, and 1833 Ritchie also constructs a motor with an electromagnet armature. William Sturgeon will build a motor with a commutator in 1832. In 1839 Jacobi will propel a boat on the Neva river at 2 1/4 miles per hour with an electromagnetic engine of about 1 horse-power, using a battery of 64 large Grove's cells. In 1883 Nikola Tesla will invent an alternating current motor (Induction motor). In a simple form of electric motor, a wire-wound armature, in which a magnetic field can be induced by an electric current, is mounted on a rotating shaft and balanced next to a magnet (the "field" magnet). As one pole of the magnet repels the similarly induced pole of the armature, the opposite pole on the similar side of the armature will likewise be repelled by the similar pole of the magnet. This repulsion will produce a torque on the the armature and it will start revolving. The repulsion between like poles is supplemented by the attraction between unlike poles, and the armature will continue revolving in an effort to bring its north pole in line with the south pole of the field magnet, and its south pole in line with the north pole of the field magnet. . Just as this conjunction is reached, the action of the commutator - a conductor on the rotating armature shaft- reverses the current in the armature windings. The north and south poles in the armature are then reversed. Momentum carries the armature past the dead center and the reversed forces of attraction and repulsion send the armature around to its former position, where the commutator again reverses the current continuing the motion. (Describe later progress to more practical electric motors, including the AC motor and step motor.) (EX: Prove that a permanent magnet has current running through it. Maybe increase resistance and look for change in magnetic strength? ) (It may be that an electric motor is only transferring motion from particles in electric current to a rotor by particle collision.) (A magnetic field is a "dynamic" or moving electric field, which is different from a static of unmoving electric field.) (Was the electric motor actually found much earlier and kept secret, like neuron reading? If true then Faraday was either an excluded who reinvented the motor, or an included who got permission to go public with the motor. Perhaps the electric motor is one of the rare cases where a scientific invention or innovation is made public very close to the time of it's creation.) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
179 YBN [12/20/1821 AD] | 2882) Davy states "few sagacious reasoners, who think that our present data are sufficient to enable us to decide on such very abstruse and difficult parts of corpuscular philosophy." (clearly showing a preference for corpuscular versus undulatory theory in 1821) | London, England |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2379) | Paris, France (presumably) |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2397) In 1802 Seebeck earns an MD from the University of Göttingen but prefers scientific research. | Berlin, Germany |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2427) | London, England |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2434) | Turin, Italy (presumably) |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2534) | Paris, France (presumably) |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2572) In this paper Fraunhofer comments: "T Young had already observed that the colored fringes which are seen in the interior of the shadow of a hair vanish if one edge is covered so that the beams of light going by both edges must combine to produce the interior color bands.". | Benedictbeuern (near Munich), Germany (presumably) |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2583) | Switzerland |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2588) Caffeine is a bitter white alkaloid, C8H10N4O2. Alkaloids are substances that have marked physiological effects. Caffeine occurs in tea, coffee, guarana, maté, kola nuts, and cacao. Caffeine has a stimulating effect on the central nervous system, heart, blood vessels, and kidneys. It also acts as a mild diuretic (increases the excretion of urine). | Paris, France |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2610) Cauchy tries to provide the logical foundations for calculus. Bishop Berkeley had criticized Newton-Leibniz calculus by suggesting that the faulty reasoning of the calculus leads to correct results because of compensating errors. Maclaurin and Lagrange accepted this criticism and made efforts to construct a logical justification for the methods of the differential calculus unsuccessfully. Cauchy is also unsuccessful, but approaches the problem by examining the concept of limit. Cauchy defines "limit" as: "When the values successively assigned to the same variable indefinitely approach a fixed value, so as to end by differing from it as little as desired, this fixed value is called the limit of all the others.". (In this work?) | Paris, France |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2907) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), exhibits the "enchanted lyre". This acoustical trick features a lyre suspended by a thin steel wire from the soundboard of pianos and other instruments in the room above, and which appears to play 'of itself' by sound conduction and sympathetic resonance of its strings. | London, England (presumably) |
179 YBN [1821 AD] | 2909) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), builds the human speech device describe by Wolfgang von Kempelen (CE 1734-1804) in 1791. (This shows clearly that people were looking at reproducing human speech, which ultimately evolves into the telephone, reproducing sound in the neurons of brains directly using lasers, and robots that talk by shaping air.) | London, England (presumably) |
178 YBN [03/??/1822 AD] | 3535) | London, England (presumably) |
178 YBN [06/14/1822 AD] | 2757) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
178 YBN [07/??/1822 AD] | 2354) | Chalon-sur-Saône, France |
178 YBN [09/01/1822 AD] | 1251) | France |
178 YBN [11/??/1822 AD] | 5986) Franz Peter Schubert (CE 1797-1828), Austrian composer, composes his "Symphony in B Minor" ("Unfinished"). Schubert bridges the transition from Classical and Romantic music, and is noted for the melody and harmony in his songs (lieder) and chamber music. | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 1246) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 2210) | Paris, France (presumably) |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 2381) | Paris, France |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 2530) Magendie proves this through the use of young dogs. | Paris, France (presumably) |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 2592) Jean Victor Poncelet (PoNSlA) (CE 1788-1867), French mathematician, publishes "Traité des propriétés projectives des figures" (1822, "Treatise on the Projective Properties of Figures"), a book on projective geometry. Poncelet is considered one of the founders of modern projective geometry. In 1812 As a lieutenant of engineers, Poncelet takes takes part in Napoleon's Russian campaign, in which Poncelet is abandoned as dead at Krasnoy and then imprisoned at Saratov, returning to France in 1814. From 1815 to 1825 Poncelet does military engineering at Metz. From 1825 to 1835 Ponmcelet is a professor of mechanics at the École d'Application at Metz. From 1838 to 1848 Poncelet is a professor at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris. From 1848 to 1850 Poncelet is commandant of the École Polytechnique, with the rank of general. | Metz, France |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 2601) Potassium ferrocyanide has a formula of K4Fe(CN)6·3H2O. Potassium ferrocyanide forms yellow crystals with saline taste; soluble in water, insoluble in alcohol; loses water at 60°C; used in medicine, dry colors, explosives, and as an analytical reagent. Potassium ferrocyanide is also known as yellow prussiate of potash. Although many salts of cyanide are highly toxic, ferro- and ferricyanides are less toxic because they tend not to release free cyanide. | Heidelberg, Germany |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 2621) Mantell is a British physician, geologist, and paleontologist. Mantell studied the paleontology of the Mesozoic Era (about 245,000,000 to 66,400,000 years ago), particularly in Sussex, a region he made famous in the history of geological discovery. Mantell's most remarkable discoveries are made in the Wealden formations. Mantell demonstrates the fresh-water origin of the strata, and from them brings to light and describes the remarkable Dinosaurian reptiles known as Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus, Pelorosaurus and Regnosaurus. For these researches Mantell is awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society and a Royal medal by the Royal Society. Among other contributions is Mantell's description of the Triassic reptile Telerpeton elginense. Dr Mantell authors "Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex" (1827); "Geology of the South-east of England" (1833); "The Wonders of Geology", 2 vols. (1838; ed. 7,1857); "Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight, and along the Adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire" (1847;(1847; ed. 3, 1854); "Petrifactions and their Teachings" (1851); and "The Medals of Creation" (2 vols., 1854). According to Asimov Mantell's wife had originally found the tooth and some bones in a pile of stones by the road. | Sussex, England (presumably) |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 2742) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, writes in a letter to Sir H. Davy on the application of machinery to the calculation and printing of mathematical tables, Babbage discusses the principles of a calculating engine. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 2785) | Paris, France (presumably) |
178 YBN [1822 AD] | 3467) | Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
177 YBN [03/06/1823 AD] | 3534) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
177 YBN [03/13/1823 AD] | 2699) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
177 YBN [04/1/1823 AD] | 2709) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
177 YBN [06/14/1823 AD] | 3297) | Benedictbeuern (near Munich), Germany (presumably) |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 2335) | Bremen, Germany[1 (presumably) |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 2506) Döbereiner uses this phenomenon to invent an automatic lighter called the Döbereiner lamp. In this lamp a jet of hydrogen catches fire from contact with platinum powder. (A spark from a flint can ignite gas, so I question the value of such an invention. I don't understand why there were never any hydrogen gas lamps or lighters. Igniting hydrogen is easy to do with a spark from a high voltage or from flint. Perhaps hydrocarbons are less expensive to obtain.) The decomposition of potassium chlorate using manganese dioxide is a favorite demonstration of oxygen production in elementary chemistry courses. Furfural is from the Latin for "bran", has chemical formula C4H3OCHO, is a viscous, colorless liquid that has a pleasant aromatic odor; upon exposure to air furfural turns dark brown or black. Furfural boils at about 160�C. Furfural is commonly used as a solvent; furfural is soluble in ethanol and ether and somewhat soluble in water. Furfural is prepared commercially by dehydration of pentose sugars obtained from cornstalks and corncobs, husks of oat and peanut, and other waste products. Döbereiner is a coachman's son an so (does not receive) formal schooling, but is apprenticed to an apothecary, reads widely, and attends science lectures. Döbereiner attends the University of Jena. In 1810, Döbereiner becomes an assistant professor at the University of Jena. | Jena, Germany (presumably) |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 2566) | Paris, France (presumably) |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 2743) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, gets government (funding) for the design of a projected machine with a 20-decimal capacity. Charles Babbage converts one of the rooms in his home to a workshop and hires Joseph Clement to oversee construction of the engine. Every part has to be formed by hand using custom machine tools, many of which Babbage himself designs. Babbage takes extensive tours of industry to better understand manufacturing processes. With the government grants Babbage begins work on the "Difference Engine", but decides later that scrapping the difference engine for a new design, the "Analytical Engine" would be easier. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 2769) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 2917) | Temesvár, Romania (presumably) |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 3383) | London, England |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 3464) | London, England (presumably) |
177 YBN [1823 AD] | 3684) | London, England (presumably) |
176 YBN [12/09/1824 AD] | 4022) Roget is instrumental in founding the University of London (1828). Roget is best known for his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1852), a comprehensive classification of synonyms or verbal equivalents which he assembles during his retirement. | (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 2494) Pure silicon is a hard, dark gray solid with a metallic luster and with a crystalline structure the same as that of the diamond form of carbon, to which silicon shows many chemical and physical similarities. A brown, powdery form of silicon has been described that also has a microcrystalline structure. Silicon has atomic number 14; atomic weight 28.086; melting point 1,410°C; boiling point 2,355°C; relative density 2.33; valence 4. Silicon is the element directly below carbon and above germanium in Group 14 of the periodic table. Silicon is more metallic in its properties than carbon. Silicon has two allotropic forms, a brown amorphous form, and a dark crystalline form. Silicon is the most abundant electropositive (having a positive electric charge) element in the Earth's crust. Silicon is the second most abundant element of the earth's crust; it makes up about 28% of the crust by weight. Oxygen, most abundant, makes up about 47%. Aluminum, third in abundance, makes up about 8%. Silicon does not occur uncombined in nature; but is found in practically all rocks as well as in sand, clays, and soils, combined either with oxygen as silica (SiO2, silicon dioxide) or with oxygen and other elements (e.g., aluminum, magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, or iron) as silicates. Silicon is prepared commercially by reducing (removing the oxygen from) the oxide by its reaction with coke in electric furnaces. On a small scale, silicon can be obtained from the oxide by reduction with aluminum. A purified silicon is used in the preparation of silicones. Silicon of very high purity is prepared by thermal decomposition of silanes; it is used in transistors and other semiconductor devices. Silica is widely used in the production of glass. Silicates in the form of clay are used in pottery, brick, tile, and other ceramics. Silicon is found in many plants and animals; it is a major component of the test (cell wall) of diatoms. Photovoltaic cells for direct conversion of solar energy to electricity use wafers sliced from single crystals of electronic-grade silicon. (So like selenium, does silicon become more conductive with light, and also generate current when light collides with silicon?) Silicon dioxide is used as the raw material for making elementary silicon and for silicon carbide. Sizable crystals of silicon are used for piezoelectric crystals. Silicon is commercially prepared by the reaction of high-purity silica with wood, charcoal, and coal, in an electric arc furnace using carbon electrodes. (Just any kind of wood, that seems kind of primitive. Silicon is not obtained more cheaply through electrolysis? Describe the arc furnace.) At temperatures over 1900 °C, the carbon reduces the silica to silicon according to the chemical equation: SiO2 + C → Si + CO2. SiO2 + 2C → Si + 2CO. Liquid silicon collects in the bottom of the furnace, and is then drained and cooled. The silicon produced via this process is called metallurgical grade silicon and is at least 98% pure. The use of silicon in semiconductor devices demands a much greater purity than afforded by metallurgical grade silicon. Historically, a number of methods have been used to produce high-purity silicon. | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 2501) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 2545) | London, England (presumably) |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 2560) | Paris, France (presumably) |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 2567) Michel Eugéne Chevreul (seVRuL) (CE 1786-1889) publishes "Considérations générales sur l'analyse organique" (1824, Paris), a general treatise on organic chemistry. (Organic chemistry is any chemistry from a living object, but is now taken to mean anything that has carbon. Still the distinction of "organic" is misleading since there is no difference between the chemistry of living things and nonliving things. However, sometimes knowing that some molecule is commonly found in a living object or originates from a living object is useful.) | Paris, France |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 2729) This catalog is compiled between 1821 and 1823 and published in the "Philosophical Transactions" in 1824. For this catalog Herschel and South are awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Lalande Prize in 1825 from the Paris Academy of Sciences. | London, England (presumably) |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 2797) Eventually Carnot's views are incorporated by the thermodynamic theory as developed by Rudolf Clausius in Germany (1850) and William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) in Britain (1851). Carnot accepts the caloric heat theory of Lavoisier. In 1814, Carnot graduates from the École Polytechnique. Sadi remains an army officer for most of his life. In 1832, Carnot dies, at age 36, in a cholera epidemic in Paris. | Paris, France |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 2912) Integral equations are classified according to three different dichotomies: Limits of integration both fixed: Fredholm equation one variable: Volterra equation Placement of unknown function only inside integral: first kind both inside and outside integral: second kind Nature of known function f identically zero: homogeneous not identically zero: inhomogeneous Abel dies of Tuberculosis at age 26. | (University of Kristiania (Oslo) )Oslo, Norway (presumably) |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 3390) | ?, England |
176 YBN [1824 AD] | 5980) | Vienna, Austria |
175 YBN [03/17/1825 AD] | 4838) | London, England (presumably) |
175 YBN [04/14/1825 AD] | 3533) | London, England (presumably) |
175 YBN [07/??/1825 AD] | 2461) In 1815, Bretonneau gets his M.D. degree in Paris. In 1816, Bretonneau is the chief physician of the hospital at Tours. | Tours, France (presumably) |
175 YBN [09/27/1825 AD] | 2516) In 1813 George Stephenson visited a neighboring colliery (a coal mine and connected buildings) to examine a "steam boiler on wheels" constructed by John Blenkinsop to haul coal out of the mines. Blenkinsop mistakenly believed that the train could not gain traction on smooth wooden rails, and so used a ratchet wheel running on a cogged third rail, an arrangement that creates frequent breakdowns. In 1821 Stephenson heard of a project for a railroad, employing draft horses, to be built from Stockton to Darlington to facilitate exploitation of a rich vein of coal (in Stockton?). At Darlington Stephenson interviews the promoter, Edward Pease, and so impresses Pease that Pease commissions Stephenson to build a steam locomotive for the line. | Darlington (and Stockdon), England |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 1243) The "runnelling shield" is first used in the building of the Thames tunnel. | England |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2300) | Paris, France(presumably) |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2413) | London, England (presumably) |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2456) | Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2526) Sturgeon's father is a shoemaker. 1802-1820 Sturgeon is in the army. In 1824 Sturgeon becomes lecturer in science at the East India Company's Royal Military College at Addiscombe in Surrey. | Surrey, England (presumably) |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2568) | Paris, France |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2576) Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), identifies the germinal vesicle, or nucleus of the unripe ovum, that now bears his name (1825). (more info) | (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2700) Benzene is a colorless, flammable, liquid aromatic hydrocarbon, C6H6, derived from petroleum and used in or to manufacture a wide variety of chemical products, including DDT, detergents, insecticides, and motor fuels. Benzene is the chemical that leads to understanding all the aromatics (a molecule that produces a smell and contains benzene). | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2788) (Surprisingly,) Ehrenberg does not accept the theory of the cell or of evolution. Ehrenberg publishes more than 300 scientific papers and books in his lifetime. | Berlin, Germany |
175 YBN [1825 AD] | 2886) Müller, is a shoemaker's son from Koblenz (a cobbler from Koblenz?) in Germany. In 1822, Müller graduates in medicine from the University of Bonn. In 1824 Müller is granted a lectureship in physiology and comparative anatomy at the University of Bonn. In 1833 Müller is called to Berlin to succeed Rudolphi, where Müller has access to the vast Berlin anatomical collection. (In Berlin), Müller's students include the renowned physiologist and physicist Hermann Helmholtz and the cellular pathologist Rudolf Virchow. | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
174 YBN [03/??/1826 AD] | 3454) Talbot obtains a monochromatic yellow light burning a cotton wick soaked in salt water, dried and then lit in an alcohol lamp. Talbot publishes these findings in "Some experiments on Coloured Flames.", in the Edinburgh Journal of Science. Talbot writes "...I would further suggest, that whenever the prism shows a homogeneous ray of any colour to exist in a flame, this ray indicates the formation or the presence of a definite chemical compound...." and concludes "...The bright line in the yellow is caused, without doubt, by the combustion of the sulphur, and the others may be attributed to the antimony, strontia, &c. which enter into this composition. For instance, the orange ray may be the effect of the strontia, since Mr Herschel found in the flame of muriate of strontia a ray of that colour. If this opinion should be correct and applicable to the other definite rays, a glance at the prismatic spectrum of a flame may show it to contain substances, which it would otherwise require a laborious chemical analysis to detect.". Talbot's paper in full reads: "GREAT progress has recently been made in investigating the properties of light, and yet many of them are still unexamined, or imperfectly explained. Among these are the colours of flames which not only appear very various to common observation, but are shown, by the assistance of a prism, to be entirely different in nature one from another; some being homogeneous, or only containing one kind of light; others consisting of an infinite variety of all possible shades of colour. 1. It was discovered by Dr Brewster, that the flame of alcohol, diluted with water, consists chiefly of homogeneous yellow rays. On this principle, he proposed the construction of a monochromatic lamp, and pointed out its advantages for observations with the microscope. This must be considered a very valuable discovery. The light of such a lamp, however, is weak, unless the alcohol flame is very large. I have, therefore, made several attempts to obtain a brighter light, and I think the following is the most convenient method. A cotton wick is soaked in a solution of salt, and when dried, placed in a spirit lamp. It gives an abundance of yellow light for a long time. A lamp with ten of these wicks gave a light little inferior to a wax candle; its effect upon all surrounding objects was very remarkable, especially upon such as were red, which became of different shades of brown and dull yellow. A scarlet poppy was changed to yellow, and the beautiful red flower of the Lobelia fulgens appeared entirely black. The wicks were arranged in a line, in order to unite their effect for a microscope. A common blue glass has the property of absorbing the yellow light of this lamp, however brilliant, while it transmits the feeble violet rays. If these are also stopped by a pale yellow glass, the lamp becomes absolutely invisible, though a candle is seen distinctly through the same glasses. But the most remarkable quality of this light is its homogeneity, which is perfect as far as I have been able to ascertain. I speak of the yellow rays, which form the mass of the light, and quite overpower the feeble effect of the blue and green. The origin of this homogeneous light appears to me difficult to explain. I have found that the same effect takes place whether the wick of the lamp is steeped in the muriate, sulphate, or carbonate of soda, while the nitrate, chlorate, sulphate, and carbonate of potash, agree in giving a blueish white tinge to the flame. Hence, the yellow rays may indicate the presence of soda but they, nevertheless, frequently appear where no soda can be supposed to be present. 2. Mr Herschel discovered that sulphur, when burning intensely, gives a homogeneous yellow light. To examine it, I inflame a mixture of sulphur and nitre behind a screen, having a narrow vertical slit through which the flame could be seen. This opening, examined with a prism, gave a spectrum in which there was a very bright yellow line, indicating the combustion of the sulphur. I thought it a point of considerable interest to determine, whether this yellow ray was identical with that afforded by the flame of alcohol containing salt, and with that view, I placed such a flame behind the other, their light passing through the same opening; so that, if the rays were of a different nature, two yellow lines should be seen in the spectrum; but if identical, then only one. I found, upon trial, that the rays coincided; and I obtained a further confirmation of this, by inflaming the nitre and sulphur, mixed up with a quantity of salt; the effect of which was, not to produce a second yellow line in the spectrum, but to increase greatly the brilliancy of the original one. The result of this experiment points out a very singular optical analogy between soda and sulphur, bodies hitherto supposed by chemists to have nothing in common. 3. There are other means of procuring the same light which I shall briefly mention If a clean piece of platina foil is held in the blue or lower part of a gas flame, it produces no change in the flame, but if the platina has been touched by the hand, it gives off a yellow light which lasts a minute or more. If it has been slightly rubbed with soap, the light is much more abundant, while wax, on the contrary, produces none. Salt sprinkled on the platina, gives yellow light while it decrepitates, and the effect may be renewed at pleasure by wetting it. This circumstance led me to suppose that the yellow light was owing to the water of crystallization, rather than to the soda, but then it is not easy to explain why the salts of potash, &c. should not produce it likewise. Wood, ivory, paper, &c. when placed in the gas flame, give off (besides their bright flame) more or less of this yellow light which I have always found the same in its characters. The only principle which these various bodies have in common with the salts of soda, is water; yet I think that the formation or presence of water cannot be the origin of this yellow light, because ignited sulphur produces the very same, a substance with which water is supposed to have no analogy. {It may be worth remark, though probably accidental, that the specific gravity of sulphur is 1.99, or almost exactly twice that of water.} It is also remarkable that alcohol burnt in an open vessel, or in a lamp with a metallic wick, gives but little of the yellow light; while, if the wick be of cotton, it gives a considerable quantity, and that for an unlimited time. (I have found other instances of a change of colour in flames owing to the mere presence of a substance which suffers no diminution in consequence. Thus, a particle of muriate of lime on the wick of a spirit lamp will produce a quantity of red and green rays for a whole evening, without being itself sensibly diminished.) The bright flame of a candle is surrounded by the same homogeneous yellow light, which becomes visible when the flame itself is screened. The following experiment shows its nature more evidently: If some oil is dropped on the wick of a spirit lamp, the flame assumes the brilliancy of a candle surrounded by an exterior yellow flame. This appearance only lasts until the oil is consumed. 4. The flame of sulphur and nitre contains a red ray, which appears to me of a remarkable nature. While examining the yellow line in the spectrum of this flame, I perceived another line situated beyond the red end of the spectrum, from the termination of which it is separated by a wide interval of darkness. In colour it nevertheless differs but little from the rays which usually terminate the spectrum. It arises, I believe, from the combustion of the nitre, as the yellow ray does from that of the sulphur, for I have since observed it in the flame of a spirit lamp, whose wick had been soaked in nitre or chlorate of potash. It appeared to me that this ray was so distant from the rest, that it might be less refrangible than any in solar light; and I have been since informed by Mr Herschel, that he had already observed it in a similar experiment, and was impressed with the same idea. With the hope of establishing this, I admitted candle light, and that of the nitre lamp which I have just mentioned, through the same aperture, and noticed how far this isolated red ray appeared beyond the spectrum of the candle. I then compared, in the same way the light of the candle with that of the sun, and I found that the great intensity of the solar light lengthened the red end of the spectrum about as far, so that I was obliged to leave the question undecided, as the faintness of the lamp prevented my comparing it directly with the sun. This red ray appears to possess a definite refrangibility, and to be characteristic of the salts of potash, as the yellow ray is of the salts of soda, although, from its feeble illuminating power, it is only to be detected with a prism. If this should be admitted, I would further suggest, that whenever the prism shows a homogeneous ray of any colour to exist in a flame, this ray indicates the formation or the presence of a definite chemical compound. An excellent prism is, however, requisite to determine the perfect homogeneity of a ray. 5. Phosphorus inflamed with nitre gives a very brilliant spectrum, in which no colour appears to be predominant or deficient. It therefore resembles the spectra of ignited lime, platina, and other solid bodies, and differs totally from the solar spectrum in which there are now known to be innumerable interruptions of light. And it is worthy of remark, that no light has been hitherto discovered at all resembling that of the sun, (when analyzed with a prism) except the light of the other celestial bodies. 6. The red fire of the theatres examined in the same way, gave a most beautiful spectrum with many light lines or maxima of light. In the red, these lines were numerous and crowded, with dark spaces between, besides an exterior ray greatly separated from the rest, and, probably the effect of the nitre in the composition. In the orange was one bright line, one in the yellow, three in the green, a very bright one in the blue, and several that were fainter. The bright line in the yellow is caused, without doubt, by the combustion of the sulphur, and the others may be attributed to the antimony, strontia, &c. which enter into this composition. For instance, the orange ray may be the effect of the strontia, since Mr Herschel found in the flame of muriate of strontia a ray of that colour. {Edinburgh Transactions, vol ix, p. 456.} If this opinion should be correct and applicable to the other definite rays, a glance at the prismatic spectrum of a flame may show it to contain substances, which it would otherwise require a laborious chemical analysis to detect.". | London, England |
174 YBN [07/05/1826 AD] | 3440) | (Bureau des Longitudes) Paris, France (presumably) |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2355) (Text messages sent electronically over metal wires will be called "telegrams", and possibly thought images, visual memories of light captured in eyes and stored in neurons, may be called "thoughtgrams" or "thoughtgraphs" or "psychograms" as Andre Maurois refers to them in his book "The Thought Reading Machine" or simply "thought image", "thought photo", "eye image", or "eye movie") | Chalon-sur-Saône, France |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2422) | Berlin?, Germany |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2462) | Tours, France (presumably) |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2524) | |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2541) Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (CE 1784-1846), makes a correction to the (length of the?) seconds pendulum, the length of which is precisely calculated so that it requires exactly one second for a swing. | Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2744) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, publishes "A Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives" (1826, London: J. Mawman). (In which Babbage) compiles the first reliable actuarial tables (tables that reflect the probability of a person living to a certain age). | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2847) Among Dumas' works are "Traité de chimie appliquée aux arts" (8 vol., 1828-45). Dumas is the one of the first people in France to realize the importance of experimental laboratory teaching. Student of Dumas include many French chemists, including Auguste Laurent, Charles-Adolphe Wurtz, and Louis Pasteur. During Napoleon III, Dumas serves as minister of agriculture, senator, master of the French mint, and the equivalent of mayor of Paris, until the fall of Napoleon. | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2887) This analysis of nerves, in particular of the eye will be one focus of a student of Müller's, Helmholz, whose student Michael Pupin will be the first to see thought, that is external images seen by the brain in addition to internal images produced by the brain. | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2888) Johannes Peter Müller (MYUlR) (CE 1801-1858), German physiologist, publishes the voluminous "ur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes ..." (1826, "Comparative Physiology of the Visual Sense ..."). This work contains a wealth of new material on human and animal vision, including the results of analyses of human expressions and research on the compound eyes of insects and crustaceans. In this year Müller also publishes "On Imaginary Apparitions" in which Müller theorizes that the eye as a sensory system not only reacts to external optical stimuli but can also be excited by internal stimuli generated by the imagination. Therefore, people who report seeing religious visions, ghosts, or phantoms may actually be experiencing optical sensations and believe them to be of external origin, even though the images are not from external stimulus. (Interesting as relates to the modern phenomenon of images beamed directly onto the neurons of people's brains without them knowing of their external origin.) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 2915) Bromine has symbol Br, atomic number 35, atomic weight 79.909, usually exists as Br2, a dark-red, low-boiling but high-density liquid of intensely irritating odor, with melting point 7.2°C; boiling point 58.78°C; valence 1, 3, 5, 7. Bromine is the only nonmetallic element that is liquid at normal temperature and pressure. Bromine is very reactive chemically; one of the halogen group of elements, it has properties intermediate between those of chlorine and iodine. (Mercury appears to me to be the only other element that is a liquid at room temperature. Perhaps some elements melt at warm temperatures.) Bromine is almost instantaneously injurious to the skin, and it is difficult to remove quickly enough to prevent a painful burn that heals slowly. Bromine vapor is extremely toxic, but its odor gives good warning. Bromine has many uses including as petroleum additives (ethylene dibromide), in photographic emulsions (silver bromide), as sedatives, and in flour (potassium bromate). Bromine is soluble in water to some extent; the aqueous solution, called bromine water, acts as an oxidizing agent. Bromine is also soluble in alcohol, ether, and carbon disulfide. Bromine is less active chemically than chlorine or fluorine but is more active than iodine. Bromine forms compounds similar to those of the other halogens. Oxides of bromine are unstable, but two acids, hypobromous acid, HBrO, and bromic acid, HBrO3, are known. Hydrobromic acid is the aqueous solution of hydrogen bromide, HBr. Bromine does not occur uncombined in nature but is found in combination with other elements, notably sodium, potassium, magnesium, and silver. In compounds bromine is present in seawater, in mineral springs, and in common salt deposits. Balard has Berthelot first as pupil, then as assistant and finally as colleague. | (Montpellier École de Pharmacie) Montpellier, France |
174 YBN [1826 AD] | 3384) | London, England |
173 YBN [04/07/1827 AD] | 6242) | England |
173 YBN [05/01/1827 AD] | 2606) Ohm is the son of a self-taught master mechanic interested in science. Oh m draws his own wires. In 1817, Ohm becomes professor of mathematics at the Jesuits' College at Cologne. From 1826 to 1833 Ohm teaches at the Military Academy in Berlin. In 1833, Ohm accepts a position at the Polytechnic School of Nürnberg. In 1841, Ohm is awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London. In 1849, Ohm is appointed a professor at the University of Munich. | Berlin, Germany (written in Cologne?) |
173 YBN [12/08/1827 AD] | 2356) | Chalon-sur-Saône, France |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2415) | London, England (presumably) |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2425) | Paris, France |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2450) | Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2472) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) invents the "Gay-Lussac tower" in which oxides of nitrogen arising from the preparation of sulfuric acid by the lead-chamber process, which formerly escaped into the atmosphere, are absorbed by passing them up a chimney packed with coke, over which concentrated sulfuric acid is trickled. This tower and its modifications are used in many chemically-based industries today. | Paris, France (presumably) |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2546) This (naming system) is quickly adopted by other biochemists. | London, England (presumably) |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2552) John James Audubon (oDUBoN) (CE 1785-1851), starts publishing "Birds of America" (4 vol, 1827-38) which when done 11 years later will contain 435 hand-colored plates. William MacGillivray helped write the accompanying text, "Ornithological Biography", (5 vol, octavo, 1831-39), and "A Synopsis of the Birds of North America" (1 vol, 1839), which serves as an index. The first hint that Audubon's skills as an artist and naturalist could be combined to make money come in 1810 when Alexander Wilson passes through Louisville, Louisiana, where Audubon is operating a general store. Wilson is looking for subscribers to his lavishly illustrated American Ornithology (9 vols; 1808-14). In 1824 Audubon goes to Philadelphia to find a publisher, but encounters the opposition of friends of Alexander Wilson, the other pioneer American ornithologist, with whom Audubon has a bitter rivalry with. (When published) sets of five plates are sold to subscribers for 2 guineas to finance the next set. In this way 200 full sets of Birds of America (1827-38) are published in Britain in 87 parts with 435 plates. (In modern times), full sets are rarely available for sale and when auctioned are raise at least a million dollars. | London, England |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2553) John James Audubon (oDUBoN) (CE 1785-1851), publishes "Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" (2 vols., 1842-1845) and the accompanying text (3 vol., 1846-53) is completed with the aid of Audubon's sons and the naturalist John Bachman. Audubon himself completes only about half the drawings in this last work, Audubon's son contributed the remainder. | London, England |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2614) Bright's disease, also called Glomerulonephritis, or Nephritis, is an inflammation of the structures in the kidney that produce urine: the glomeruli and the nephrons. The kidney is an organ found in some invertebrates and all vertebrates that maintains water balance and expels metabolic wastes. Bright's subsequent papers on renal (located or relating to the location of the kidneys) disease are published in a second volume of reports (1831) and in the first volume of Guy's Hospital Reports of 1836. | London, England |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2724) Baer contributes to the Academy at St. Petersburg by establishing an extensive skull collection. Baer is responsible for the founding of the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Entomological Society, of which Baer is the first president. Baer rejects Darwinism. (Surprising for something as simple and logical for somebody in biology. But then religion is a powerful force against the theory of evolution.) Although Baer believes that some very similar animals, such as goats and antelopes, might be related, Baer is vehemently against the concept expressed in Darwin's "Origin of Species" that all living creatures might have evolved from one or a few common ancestors. | (Königsberg now) Kaliningrad, Russia |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2745) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, publishes "Tables of Logarithms" (1827). | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2770) Selenic acid is prepared by oxidation of selenium dioxide with hydrogen peroxide: SeO2 + H2O2 → H2SeO4 To obtain the anhydrous acid as a crystalline solid, the resulting solution is evaporated at temperatures<140 °C in vacuum. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2774) Babinet improves the valves of the air-pump, attaining a very high vacuum. Babinet constructs a hygrometer and a goniometer (an optical instrument for measuring crystal angles, as between crystal faces (a compass?)). Babinet invents the "Babinet compensator", a double quartz wedge used in the study of elliptically polarized light. (more info and image) Babinet studies in Paris at the Ecole Polytechnique. In 1820 Babinet is a professor at the Collège Louis le Grand in Paris. | Paris, France |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2856) Wöhler studies with the famous Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius. In the first few years teaching at Göttingen, Wöhler (in parallel with Liebig at Giessen) pioneers a new pattern of science education and scientific research. Instead of the traditional lecturing and performing selected demonstrations for them, Wöhler and Liebig require that all students fulfill a laboratory practice in which they carry out laboratory manipulations themselves. This innovation is rapidly adopted throughout Germany and then in other nations and is the basis of modern laboratory-based university education today. Wöhler's works on chemistry are widely used as texts, and include "Outlines of Organic Chemistry" (1840, tr. 1873). | (Berlin Gewerbeschule (trade school)) Berlin, Germany |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2892) (Airy supervises expeditions to (measure the parallax of Venus (relative to the edge of the Sun?)) when Venus crosses the face of the sun, but the mission fails because the atmosphere of Venus makes determining the time of contact difficult. Airy is the son of a poor farmer, who distinguishes himself as Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, where Airy is elected fellow of Trinity College (1824) and appointed professor (1826). (This is an example of how a poor person through success in education can rise to a well paid employment.) In 1835 Airy is appointed Astronomer Royal (director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory), and holds this post for 46 years. In September 1845, John Adams comes to Airy, with news of the position of a new planet, Airy unwisely ignores Adams, and delays the discovery of planet Neptune. | Greenwich, England (presumably) |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 2999) Hamilton writes "By a Ray, in this Essay, is meant a line along which light is propagated; and by a System of Rays is meant an inï¬nite number of such lines, connected by any analytic law, or any common property. Thus, for example, the rays which proceed from a luminous point in a medium of uniform density, compose one system of rays; the same rays, after being reï¬ected or refracted, compose another system. And when we represent a ray analytically by two equations between its three coordinate s, the coefficients of those equations will be connected by one or more relations depending on the nature of the system, so that they may be considered as functions of one or more arbitrary quantities. These arbitrary quantities, which enter into the equations of the ray, may be called its Elements of Position, because they serve to particularise its situation in the system to which it belongs. And the number of these arbitrary quantities, or elements of position, is what I shall take for the basis of my classification of systems of rays; calling a system with one element of position a system of the First Class: a system with two elements of position, a system of the Second Class, and so on.". (More clearly explain "elements - are they variables? dimensions?) Hamilton writes " (D) dp + dp' = 0. This equation (D) is called the Principle of least Action, because it expresses that if the coordinates of the point of incidence were to receive any infinitely small variations consistent with the nature of the mirror, the bent path (dp + dp') would have its variation nothing; and if light be a material substance, moving with a velocity unaltered by reflection, this bent path dp + dp' measures what in mechanics is called the Action, from the one assumed point to the other. Laplace has deduced the formula (D), together with analogous formulae for ordinary and extraordinary refraction, by supposing light to consist of particles of matter, moving with certain determined velocities, and subject only to forces which are insensible at sensible distances. The manner in which I have deduced it, is independent of any hypothesis about the nature or the velocity of light; but I shall continue to call it, from analogy, the principle of least action.". Hamilton writes "The formula (D) expresses, that if we assume any two points, one on each ray, (the incident and reflected ray) the sum of the distances of these two assumed points from the point of incidence, is equal to the sum of their distances from any inï¬nitely near point upon the mirror.". Hamilton concludes by writing: "The preceding pages contain the execution of the first part of our plan; being an attempt to establish general principles respecting the systems of rays produced by the ordinary re- flexion of light, at any mirror or combination of mirrors, shaped and placed in any manner whatsoever; and to shew that the mathematical properties of such a system may all be de- duced by analytic methods from the form of ONE CHARACTERISTIC FUNCTION: as, in the application of analysis to geometry, the properties of a plane curve, or of a curve surface, may all be deduced by uniform methods from the form of the function which characterises its equation. It remains to extend these principles to other optical systems; to shew that in every such system, whether the rays be straight or curved, whether ordinary or extraordinary, there exists a Characteristic Function analogous to that which we have already pointed out for the case of the systems produced by the ordinary reflexion of light; to simplify and generalise the methods that we have given, for calculating from the form of this function all the other properties of the system; to integrate various equations which present themselves in the de- terminati on of mirrors, lenses, and crystals satisfying assigned conditions; to establish some more general principles in the theory of Systems of Rays, and to terminate with a brief review of our own results, and of the discoveries of former writers." Hamilton is a child prodigy, not only in mathematics, but in languages too. At age 17 Hamilton astonishes the royal astronomer in Ireland by communicating an error found in Laplace's "Celestial Mechanics". In 1823, Hamilton takes the entrance examination for Trinity College and (scores highest) of 100 candidates. | (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 3391) | London, England |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 3591) Dyar writes in 1848: "I invented a plan of a telegraph, which should be independent of day, or night, or weather, which should extend from town to town, or city to city, without any intermediary agency, by means of an insulated wire, suspended on poles, and through which I intended to send strokes of electricity, in such a manner as that the diverse distances of time separating the divers sparks should represent the different letters of the alphabet, and stops between the words, &c. This absolute, or this relative, difference of time between the several sparks I intended to take off from an electric machine by a little mechanical contrivance, regulated by a pendulum; while the sparks themselves were intended to be recorded upon a moving, or revolving, sheet of moistened litmus paper, which by the formation of nitric acid by the spark in its passage through the paper, would leave {show} a red spot for each spark. These so-produced red spots, with their relative interspaces, were, as I have said, taken as an equivalent for the letters of the alphabet, &c, or for other signs intended to be transmitted, whereby a correspondence could be kept up through one wire of any length, either in one direction, or back and forwards, simultaneously or successively. In addition to this use of electricity I considered that I had, if wanted, an auxiliary resource in the power of sending impulses along the same wire, properly suspended, somewhat like the action of a common bell-wire in a house. Now you will perceive that this plan is like that known as Morse's telegraph, with the exception that his is inferior to mine, inasmuch as he and others now make use of electro-magnetism, in place of the simple spark, which requires that they should, in order to get dots, or marks, upon paper, make use of mechanical motions, which require time; whereas my dots were produced by chemical action of the spark itself, and would be, for that reason, transmitted and recorded with any required velocity. In order to carry out my invention I associated myself with a Mr. Brown, of Providence, who gave me certain sums of money to become my partner. We employed a Mr. Connel, of New York, to aid in getting the capital wanted to carry the wires to Philadelphia. This we considered as accomplished; but, before beginning on the long wire, it was decided that we should try some miles of it on Long Island. Accordingly I obtained some fine card wire, intending to run it several times around the Old Union Racecourse. We put up this wire at different lengths, in curves and straight lines, by suspending it {with glass insulators} from stake to stake, and tree to tree, until we concluded that our experiments justified our undertaking to carry it from New York to Philadelphia. At this moment our agent brought a suit, or summons, against me for 20,000 dollars, for agencies and services, which I found was done to extort a concession of a share of the whole project. I appeared before Judge Irving, who, on hearing my statement, dismissed the suit as groundless. A few days after this, our patent agent (for, being no longer able to keep our invention a secret, we had applied for a patent) came to Mr. Brown and myself and stated that Mr. Connel had obtained a writ against us, under a charge of conspiracy for carrying on secret communication from city to city, and advised us to leave New York until he could settle the affair for us. As you may suppose, this happening just after the notorious bank-conspiracy trials, we were frightened beyond measure, and the same night slipped off to Providence. There I remained some time, and did not return to New York for many months, and then with much fear of a suit. This is the circumstance which put an end {to our project}, killing effectually all desire to engage further on such a dangerous enterprise. I think that, on my return to New York, I consulted Charles Walker, who thought that, however groundless such a charge might be, it might give me infinite trouble to stand a suit. From all this the very name of electric telegraph has given me pain whenever I have heard it mentioned, until I received your last letter, stimulating me to come out with my claims; and even now I cannot overcome the painful association of ideas which the name excites." (This story sounds somewhat unlikely, in particular knowing that shasiastafb has been kept secret for so long. There is a hint of some kind of pain being given - perhaps depending on how much Dyar chooses to makes public? Kind of a bizarre law against "secret messages", perhaps similar to the equally free info violating espionage laws.) Beccaria had used an electric spark to decompose the sulphuret of mercury and recovered the metal. (chronology) (This shows that clearly by 1827, the technology existed to print images, although possibly capturing an image might have to wait for selenium.) (There must be millions of red dot images in the telegraph/telephone company archives. Why have no people tried to access these and force them to be made public?) (The author of the 1884 book "A History of Electric Telegraphy, to the Year 1837" ends a paragraph on page 156 with "Cooke and Morse" which is "cam"era.) (It is kind of curious that, which this kind of red-dot printer, that the electro-mechanical system stays in use for so long, at least as far as the public knows.) | New York City NY (presumably) |
173 YBN [1827 AD] | 4001) | London, England (presumably) |
172 YBN [02/??/1828 AD] | 2857) German chemist, Friedrich Wöhler (VOElR) (CE 1800-1882), is the first to produce an "organic" (or biotic) compound {molecule} from an "inorganic" (or abiotic) compound, the compound "urea", which forms crystals when ammonium cyanate is heated. Wöhler finds that urea has the same composition as ammonium cyanate, and Berzelius will call these "isomers". (Isomers must be molecules made of the same ratio of atoms but in different structure. What explains isomerism?) Urea is the primary nitrogenous waste of the mammalian body, found in urine. This is the first experiment to show the theory of vitalism wrong. The theory of vitalism, first put forward by Stahl, is that organic molecules are different from inorganic molecules and require a "vital force" to be created. Berzelius had separates all chemicals (molecules) into organic and inorganic, depending on if the are created in living tissue or not. Gmelin accepted this, however Chevreul doubted this erroneous theory. (In addition, Wöhler reinforces the idea that life is made of molecules that are no different from non-living matter in the rest of the universe, This supports the idea that life was not created by a deity, is magical, or different from a natural process.) Berzelius eventually concedes. Berzelius and others argue that Ammonium cyanate is an organic compound. However, Berthelot 25 years later will remove all doubt. Wöhler also finds that urea has exactly the same composition as a different substance, ammonium cyanate. This discovery is equally important in the history of isomerism as for vitalism, since, at the time, very few cases of two distinct compounds having identical compositions are known. Two years after Wöhler's synthesis of urea, Berzelius defines the concept and introduces the new word "isomerism". | (Berlin Gewerbeschule (trade school)) Berlin, Germany |
172 YBN [06/??/1828 AD] | 2805) Henry is one of the first great American scientists after Benjamin Franklin and also the first in America to experiment with electricity in an important way after Franklin 75 years before. Henry's life parallels Faraday's life in many ways. Henry is from a poor family. Henry has little schooling, and is forced to work when young. At age 13 Henry is apprenticed to a watchmaker. At age 16 Henry finds a book titled "Lectures on Experimental Philosophy" in a church he enters through a broken floor board. This inspires him to go to school, and he enters the Albany Academy. (It shows the possibility of a person simply being exposed to ideas of science.) Henry teaches at country schools and tutors on the side to earn his tuition. From 1826 to 1832 Henry teaches mathematics and science at Albany Academy. In 1832 as a result of his electromagnets, Henry gets hired as professor of natural philosophy at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University). When Henry comes to Princeton he had been promised at first a salary of $1000 (a year), which is later raised to $1500 and a house. Henry remarks, however, that sometimes he receives no more than $600 a year because the university does not have the funds needed to pay him. In 1846 Henry is elected first secretary of the newly formed Smithsonian Institution. Henry makes the Smithsonian a clearing house of scientific knowledge and encourages scientific communications on a worldwide scale. Henry is one of Lincoln's chief technical advisers during the U.S. Civil War and recommends the building of ironclads (iron ships). Henry is one of the founders of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and its second president. (Henry is evidence that people in the USA are catching up at this time in terms of scientific skills with those in England and the rest of Europe. This advancing of people in the USA in science will be clear when Pupin is the first to see thought at Columbia, and of course, with the drain of all Europe's best minds before and during World War II. {Part of the success of the US may be that freethinking people flea to the USA for political and religious freedom. For example, Pupin was an immigrant from Europe. Perhaps this mixing of cultures, or the advanced view of religious freedom {including no religion}, is what gives the USA a competitive advantage over other older more settled nations.}. But this dominance of the USA fails with a resurgence of religion and violence after World War II in particular with the rise of the murderers of JFK and the ending of the Moon program. For example, people in the Asian nations are the first to go public with a walking robot, and are the main producers of cars, video devices, while the people in the USA and Europe trail behind, stuck in fanatical religion, hostile to science, and sharing of information. One exception is the recent rocket plane {star ships one and two, the X prize, etc.} development in the USA.) In 1893 the International Electrical Congress agrees to name the standard electrical unit of inductive resistance the "henry" in honor of Joseph Henry. The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica describes Henry as the foremost of American physicists, by general concession, and a man with a liberality of views, of generous impulses, of great gentleness and courtesy of manner, combined with equal firmness of purpose and energy of action. | Albany, NY, USA |
172 YBN [1828 AD] | 2383) (I disagree with the current view that polarization is a wave phenomenon. I think that polarized light are beams of light particles that have no horizontal or vertical component (relative to the plane of the polarizing surface). Materials that polarize probably only allow light in one plane to be transmitted, reflecting (or absorbing) the rest, so moving two objects at 90 degrees cancels out beams of light moving in any other direction than i,j,k=(0,0,1). In any event, I think the phenomenon of polarization is a particle phenomenon, and I view light beams as being beams of particles without amplitude where frequency is defined by frequency of photons.) Nicol lectures in natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh where James Clerk Maxwell is probably one of Nicol's pupils. | Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
172 YBN [1828 AD] | 2725) | (Königsberg now) Kaliningrad, Russia (presumably) |
172 YBN [1828 AD] | 2859) | (Berlin Gewerbeschule (trade school)) Berlin, Germany |
172 YBN [1828 AD] | 6028) | Paris, France (presumably) |
172 YBN [1828 AD] | 6246) | Pannonhalma, Hungary (presumably) |
172 YBN [1828 AD] | 6256) | Pannonhalma, Hungary (presumably) |
171 YBN [03/05/1829 AD] | 3392) James Anderson transports 15 passengers in a steam road vehicle. | Epping Forest, England |
171 YBN [03/27/1829 AD] | 2844) In 1830, Zantedeschi performs experiments that show that prolonged exposure to Sun light increases the strength of unpolished permanent magnets. Here is a translation with many mistakes: PS. I add in the form of an appendix to the experience 1. and 2. Of Part 1. Another fact I observed at times in this month, which is my duty to discuss, because it tends to connect and unite the different electromagnetic facts that arise. I have taken an iron horse-shoe magnet that weighs approximately a French pound, that can support a weight of approximately 4 to 5 pounds, and around each pole I have closely wrapped the thinnest wire of copper so that, placing the magnet at a distance of 15 to 16 Parisian feet, I can verify/test the other extremity of the wire. Now I take a multiplier to two magnets, I have looped wire in the same way (that of the copper surrounded by silk) attached to two well polished small thin copper plates, in between two wooden rods, in order not to alter the temperature, join the wires that I have said to be in communication with poles of the magnet, I have seen that the magnetic needle turns from its natural position declining towards the east {when} the above pole (of the coil of wire) enters the magnetic action of the North Pole, and towards the West, if this (the coil) enters below it, otherwise of that which passes with the ordinary electrical. The declination was from 8� to 10�. My opinion is that this phenomenon cannot be ascribed to the electromotive faculty (force), because the copper is found between two equal and contrary forces. And data also, as I have been experimenting in the liquids, that the electrical currents, have any direction; not defeated, like the light and the radiant caloric, would not have the multiplier give some sign, as it does clearly. It seems therefore that such effect must be ascribed to the magnetic, and however that the North Pole is equivalent to the zinc pole of a voltaic apparatus. I hope that others experimenting with delicate multiplier pins, like with the sideroscope of (M) Lebaillif (a kind of galvanometer), can obtain greater effects than I heard when they are at their pleasure. (Interesting to end on the word "pleasure", perhaps a partially admitted pro-pleasurist.) (Much of the parallel claims may be due to people of different nations who have known about the identify of magnetism and electricity for years finally making it public, perhaps even through remote neuron writing on excluded people or partial direct-to-brain windows people.) | Pavia, Italy |
171 YBN [11/19/1829 AD] | 2710) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) produce a glass of very high refractive index that will lead him, in 1845, to the discovery of diamagnetism. Faraday finds this while completing an assignment from the Royal Society of London to improve the quality of optical glass for telescopes. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2495) Thorium is a radioactive silvery white but turns gray or black on exposure to air (oxygen or nitrogen?). It is about half as abundant as lead and is three times more abundant than uranium in the Earth's crust. Thorium is commercially recovered from the mineral monazite and occurs also in thorite and thorianite. Thorium has been produced in commercial quantities by reduction of the fluoride (ThF4) and dioxide (ThO2) and by electrolysis of the chloride (ThCl4). Thorium's longest-lived isotope, the only one that occurs naturally, is Th 232 with a half-life of 1.41 × 10 isotopes, only 12 of which have half-lives greater than 1 sec. Thorium has atomic number 90; atomic weight 232.038; approximate melting point 1,750°C; approximate boiling point 4,500°C; approximate specific gravity 11.7; valence 4. At ordinary temperatures thorium has a face-centered cubic crystalline structure. Thorium is a member of the actinide series in Group 3 of the periodic table and is sometimes classed as one of the rare-earth metals. When pure, Thorium metal is stable and resists oxidation, but it is usually contaminated with small amounts of the oxide, which cause it to tarnish rapidly. Thorium reacts slowly with water and is attacked only by hydrochloric acid among the common acids. The finely divided thorium metal readily ignites when heated, burning with a brilliant white flame; the thorium oxide formed has the highest melting point of all oxides. Thorium forms numerous compounds with other elements. Thorium-232 undergoes natural disintegration and eventually is converted through a 10-step chain of isotopes to lead-208, a stable isotope; alpha and beta particles are emitted during this decay. One intermediate product is the gas radon-220, also called thorium emanation or thoron. Thorium and its decay products are sometimes used in radiotherapy.Although not a nuclear reactor fuel itself, thorium-232 can be used in breeder reactors because, on capturing slow-moving neutrons, (thorium) decays into fissionable uranium-233. (Because of this) thorium is expected to become increasingly important for conversion into the fissionable fuel uranium-233. Thorium-232 can react with a thermal (slow) neutron to form thorium-233, emitting (a quantity of photons with gamma frequency). | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2507) | Jena, Germany (presumably) |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2575) | (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2577) Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), describes the experimental effects on humans of camphor, opium, belladonna, and turpentine and the visual images produced by poisoning with digitalis and belladonna. | (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2735) From 1816 to 1838 Coriolis is an assistant professor of analysis and mechanics at the École Polytechnique, Paris. | Paris, France |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2761) Thomas Addison (CE 1793-1860), English physician with John Morgan, publishes "An Essay on the Operation of Poisonous Agents upon the Living Body" (1829), the first English book on toxicology. | (Guy's Hospital) London, England |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2767) In 1802 Lobachevsky lives in Kazan, studying on a government scholarship at the Gymnasium. After 1807 Lobachevsky attends Kazan State University, which had been opened by Tsar Alexander I in 1804. (At Kazan State University), Lobachevsky's teachers are German professors invited to the university, in particular the mathematician Martin Bartels, a friend of Gauss noted for his encyclopedic knowledge of mathematics. In 1812 Lobachevsky earns a master's degree from the university. In 1814 Lobachevsky earns the degree of adjunct of pure mathematics and permission to teach independently. From 1816 Lobachevsky is professor extraordinarius. In 1819 the Kazan regional board of education institutes a xenophobic (undo fear of all things foreign in particular people) policy, and the German faculty leaves. The resulting shortage of professors leads to a rapid advancement in Lobachevsky's career. In 1823 Lobachevsky publishes a gymnasium textbook in geometry. In 1824, Lobachevsky publishes an algebra textbook. In 1827 Lobachevsky is rector of (Kazan) University. Lobachevsky encourages the dissemination of education in the extensive Kazan district. In 1830-1831 Lobachevsky is instrumental in stopping the spread of a virulent cholera epidemic among the teachers and students of the university by means of a rigid quarantine. In order to inform Western scientists about his new ideas, in 1837 Lobachevsky publishes an article in French ("Geometrie imaginaire") and in 1840 a small book in German (Geometrische Untersuchungen zur Theorie der Parallellinien). Lobachevsky's article "Pangeometry" appears in Russian in 1855 and in French in 1856, the year of his death. In 1842, Lobachevsky saves the university from a devastating fire that sweeps through Kazan. Despite his efficient and devoted service, in 1846 he was relieved by the government of his posts of professor and rector. No reason is given. Carl Friedrich Gauss helps to get Lobachevsky's election as an honorary member of the Gottingen Scientific Society. Apart from geometry, Lobachevsky also does important work in the theory of infinite series, algebraic equations, integral calculus, and probability. | Kazan, Russia |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2771) Eilhardt Mitscherlich (miCRliK) (CE 1794-1863), German chemist, publishes "Lehrbuch der Chemie, which embodies many original observations, and is a successful and well regarded textbook of chemistry. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2789) German naturalist (Baron von) Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Humboldt (CE 1769-1859) is funded by Russian Czar Nicolas I to explore lands owned by Russia in Central Asia and Siberia. Humboldt is accompanied by another German naturalist, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (IreNBRG) (CE 1795-1876) | Siberia, Russia |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2898) Wheatstone shows that every Chladni figure is the resultant of two or more sets of isochronous parallel vibrations. (chronology) In 1834 Wheatstone is made professor of experimental philosophy at King's College, London. Wheatstone can never become a lecturer on account of his shyness. Therefore many of Wheatstone's investigations are first described by Faraday in his Friday evening discourses at the Royal Institution. Wheatstone invents the "Playfair cipher", which is based on substituting different pairs of letters for paired letters in the message. Wheatstone manufactures musical instruments. | London, England |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 2946) In 1825, Jacobi converts to Christianity, and a position opens for him at the University of Berlin. Asimov relates that because Jacobi is Jewish, it is unusual that he gets a teaching position at an important school. | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 3009) Graham's father is determined that Thomas should enter the ministry and when Thomas persists with his scientific studies, his father withdraws financial support. Graham is the first president of the Chemical Society of London, and of the Cavendish Society, which Graham founds. Graham is the first to suggest that alcohol intended for nondrinking use by adultereated with poison ("denatured alcohol") to prevent or punish unauthorized drinking. (This seems so destructive and dangerous. This is like practically arranging a potential poisoning. What is alcohol denatured with? I think people should rely on education to lower alcohol addiction without the use of poisons.) Graham became an enthusiastic supporter of the atomic theory first suggested by John Dalton. Grah am also devised the sand tray for heating flasks. (chronology and more info on usefulness) | (Mechanics' Institute) Glasgow, Scotland |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 3107) Galois' collected works are published, in "Journal de Liouville" (1846), pp. 381-444, about fifty of these pages being occupied by researches on the resolubility of algebraic equations by radicals. Galois is credited with the notion of a group of substitutions. When Galois writes a vigorous article expressing pro-republican views, he is promptly expelled from the École Normale Supérieure. Subsequently, Galois is arrested twice for republican activities; Galois is acquitted the first time but spends six months in prison on the second charge. In 1815, during the Hundred Days regime that followed Napoleon's escape from Elba, Galois' father is elected mayor of the Paris suburb of Bourg-la-Reine. Augustin-Louis Cauchy loses a memoir on the solvability of algebraic equations that Galois had submitted in 1829 to the French Academy of Sciences. Galois fails in two attempts (1827 and 1829) to gain admission to the École Polytechnique, Galois is shot and killed by a gun before the age of 21 in a duel. | Paris, France |
171 YBN [1829 AD] | 5985) | Paris, France |
170 YBN [09/15/1830 AD] | 2517) When the Liverpool-Manchester line is nearing completion in 1829, a competition is held for locomotives; Stephenson's new engine, the Rocket, which he built with his son, Robert, won with a speed of 36 miles (58 km) per hour. Eight locomotives, all built in Stephenson's Newcastle works, are used when the Liverpool-Manchester line opens on Sept. 15, 1830. From this time on, railroad building spreads rapidly throughout Britain, Europe, and North America, and George Stephenson continues as the chief guide of the railroad revolution solving problems such as roadway construction, bridge design, and locomotive manufacture, in addition to building other railways. | Liverpool (and Manchester), England |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 1210) | |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2527) | Surrey, England (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2535) | Paris, France (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2556) In 1830 Lister beings grinding his own lenses and develops techniques that Lister teaches to optical instrument makers in London. Lister is the father of the surgeon Joseph Lister. | london, England (presumbly) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2562) Amici makes microscopes that can examine objects with 6000 times magnification. Using an improved micrometer of his own design, Amici makes accurate measurements of the polar and equatorial diameters of the Sun. Amici builds lenses, mirrors and spectroscopic prisms for use in telescopes.) Amici invents a combination of three prisms that is still used in spectroscopy and is known as the Amici prism. From 1815 to 1825 Amici is professor of mathematics at the University of Modena. In 1831 Amici is invited by the grand duke of Florence to head the observatory and Museum of Natural History in Florence. | Modena, Italy (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2573) The English chemist Henry Enfield Roscoe are the first to isolate vanadium metal in 1867 by hydrogen reduction of vanadium dichloride, VCl2, and the American chemists John Wesley Marden and Malcolm N. Rich will obtain vanadium in 99.7 percent purity in 1925 by reduction of vanadium pentoxide, V2O5, with calcium metal. Sefström studies under Jöns Berzelius in Stockholm, graduating in 1813. Starting in 1820 Sefström teaches chemistry at the School of Mines. | |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2624) Hall's other works include "The Diagnosis of Diseases" (1817) and "Memoirs on the Nervous System" (1837). | London, England (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2636) George Peacock (PEKoK) (CE 1791-1858), publishes "Treatise on Algebra" which attempts to give algebra a logical treatment comparable to Euclid's "Elements". Peacock (defines) two types of algebra, arithmetical algebra and symbolic algebra. Peacock describes symbolic algebra as "the science which treats the combinations of arbitrary signs and symbols by means defined through arbitrary laws." (and arithmetical algebra as...) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2746) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, publishes "Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes" (1830, London, B. Fellowes). This work is directed almost exclusively at the Royal Society. One improvement Babbage suggests is biannual elections for president as opposed to lifetime Presidency. Babbage blames "the party" which governs the Royal Society and not the members, and near the end of his preface uses the expression "by ratifying it" which may imply that those who inform the public about the growing number of technological secrets may be frowned on as "rats", although perhaps this is simply coincidence. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2779) In 1817 Mädler graduates from a Gymnasium and teaches in a seminary in Berlin. In Berlin Mädler befriends Wilhelm Beer (1797-1850), a banker and amateur astronomer who owns a private observatory. | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2802) At age 15 Lyell reads Robert Bakewell's "Introduction to Geology" (1813), which arouses Lyell's interest in geology. In 1819, Lyell gets a bachelor's degree from Exeter College, Oxford. Lyell joins the Geological Society, becoming its secretary in 1823 and later president for two terms. In 1825, Lyell is admitted to the bar (certified to work as a lawyer). Lyell works as a lawyer intermittently for 3 years. From May 1828 to February 1829 Lyell explores the geology of Europe. From 1831 to 1833, Lyell serves as the first professor of geology at King's College, London. In 1832 and 1833 Lyell delivers well-received lectures at King's College, London, afterward resigning the professorship as too time-consuming. In 1833, Lyell meets Cuvier and Humboldt in Paris. The young Darwin is friends with and will be influenced by Lyell. In the 1840s Lyell visits America and see many important geological sites. Lyell's lectures at the Lowell Institute in Boston attract thousands of people of both genders and every (income level). Lyell long objects to church domination of British colleges and helps to begin educational reform at Oxford university. Lyell will be one of the first converts to Darwin's theory of evolution. Lyell is a strong proponent of the North in the US Civil War, while most others of the upper class of England were pro-Southern. | London, England (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 2848) Oxymide is a white crystalline neutral substance (C2O2(NH2)2) obtained by treating ethyl oxalate with ammonia. Oxymide is the acid amide of oxalic acid. | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 3271) This is an early instance of people using violence because of anger that machines has taken their jobs. A similar event happens in England with the Spinning Jenny. The walking robots will ultimately take many jobs away from humans, but like all technological advances, ultimately the majority benefits from the increased production of the robots. Ultimately the robots will be unpaid labor seeding, growing, harvesting, packaging and distributing for to the humans for less cost while humans get the rewards without having to work, clean, or do unthinking low-skill labor. | France |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 4003) Wilhelm Weber is the brother of the noted scientists Ernst Heinrich Weber and Eduard Friedrich Weber, both of whom worked in anatomy and physiology. In 1825, with his elder brother Weber publishes a well known treatise on waves, "Die Wellenlehre auf Experimente gegrundet" ("Wave teachings based on experiments"). In 1833 With his younger brother, the physiologist Eduard Friedrich Weber (1806-1871), Weber publishes an investigation into the mechanism of walking. In 1837, a new King began his reign in Hanover. He suspends the constitution and this creates vigorous protests from several of the professors at the University, Weber among them. To punish them, seven Professors are dismissed from their chairs, and three are even banished from the country. Weber is forced into retirement for some years. | (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 4699) | London, England (guess) |
170 YBN [1830 AD] | 5987) (Louis-)Hector Berlioz (CE 1803-1869), French composer, critic, and conductor of the Romantic period, composes his "Symphonie fantastique". | Paris, France (presumably) |
169 YBN [01/03/1831 AD] | 2806) | Albany, NY, USA |
169 YBN [02/17/1831 AD] | 2702) The transformer makes use of the important principle of dynamic electromagnet induction, how moving electrical particles can induce other electrical particles to move in an unconnected conductor. Static electric induction was first described in 1753 by John Canton (CE 1718-1772). Electrostatic induction is how an electrified object can induce an opposite charge in a second object without touching by being close to the electrified object. Faraday reports his production of electric current from magnetism initially on February 17, 1831, which is reported in the April edition of the "Annals of Philosophy" under "Proceedings of the Royal Institution" and then gives a more detailed account which is published on August 29, 1831. In the spring of 1831 Faraday began working with Charles Wheatstone on the theory of sound. Faraday is particularly fascinated by the Chladni figures formed in light powder spread on iron plates when these plates are vibrated by a violin bow. Faraday observes that such patterns can be induced in one plate by bowing another plate nearby. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this acoustic induction is apparently what lay behind Faraday's most famous experiment which results in the discovery of magnetic induction of electrical current. Why is there only a change in current and not a similar current as Faraday had expected? I think the explanation for this is that if a current is made of photons, or even electrons, or other particles, photon particles spill-out, outside of the wire and surround it. Current appears to move in a spiral shape like water going down a drain, and this may reflect the movement of photons through the atomic structure of metals. This spiral shape is reflected in the electric field around a wire which current is moving through. The photons outside the wire are less in quantity and less dense than in the wire. So I think that as the current in the first wire is initiated, a hole in the battery is caused, which starts a chain of particles (I think are photons but could be electrons) moving in a spiral within and around the first wire. These first photons collide with the coiled wire on the other side, and these photons fill holes in the second coiled wire which causes the photons to flow in the second wire, however once these holes or channels are filled (there is no where else for the photons to go except out as heat), photons simply bounce off (or replace those lost as heat), until the current in the first wire is stopped and photons stop bombarding the second wire, as the current trails to an end in the first wire, the photons end in sequence, which allows the holes or channels in the second wire to clear with the remaining photons (perhaps because they are emitted as heat?) photons in the rest of the wire then using these new holes to move in the opposite direction, temporarily filling the newly emptied channel. (I'm not sure about what explains the reverse motion, the holes are filled on one side, and then emptied on the other, and it doesn't circle forever because it is dissipated as heat. If true a superconductor might sustain the current longer.) In this view metals are filled with empty spiral channels that photons fill, the photons then move through empty holes because of gravity, and perhaps collision which is electrical current. Faraday presents his results in a four-part paper read to the Royal Society on November 24, December 8 and 15, 1831. The paper appears in print in May 1832 in the "Philosophical Transactions" and forms the first series of Faraday's famous "Experimental Researches in Electricity". In the first section Faraday describes the induction of momentary currents induced in a wire when either an adjacent primary wire is connected and disconnected to a battery, or when the position of the primary wire carrying a current is moved relative to the wire. In the second section Faraday describes the increased inductive effect obtained by inserting iron in the helices of wire in which current is induced, in addition to how currents are induced from the movement of permanent magnets when brought near the helices of wire. Faraday labels the effect of induced current from batteries as "volta-electric induction" and current induced from magnets as "magneto-electric induction". Faraday describes an experiment where a needle in the center of an induced helix remains magnetized after the primary circuit is disconnected. Faraday dedicates the third section to outlining his concept of an "electro-tonic state", which Faraday proposes as a "new electrical condition" established in matter when in the presence of magnets and current-carrying wires. In his paper, Faraday mentions Ampere's experiments of bring a copper disc near to a flat spiral, Ampere's repeating Arago's experiments (describe), and Ampere's finding that every electric current is accompanied by a corresponding magnetic action at right angles to the current. Faraday goes on to say that he would be surprised if a good conductor within the sphere of this magnetic action should not have any current induced through it. Initially, a number of experiments to cause a current in a second wire from a first that has a current that Faraday performs fail to produce any current in the second wire. Faraday rolls 26 feet of 1/20 inch diameter copper wire around a cylinder of wood (diameter? perhaps an inch) as a helix. Each spiral is separated from the next by a thin twine so they do not touch. This helix is covered with calico (cotton cloth which serves as an insulator) and a second wire and thread wound over the first. In this way 12 helices are layered around a cylinder of wood. Each alternate coil (the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh) is connected at each end to form a single helix, and the second coil is also connected in a similar way. So two helices are closely intertwined, having the same direction, not touching anywhere, and each containing 155 feet in length of wire. One helix is connected to a galvanometer the other to a voltaic batter of 10 pairs of plates four inches square (one of zinc and double coppers). This experiment fails to produce any movement in the galvanometer. A similar compound helix with six lengths of copper and six of soft iron wire containing even more wire, 208 feet per helix, fails to produce an induced current in the secondary helix in either the copper or iron helix when current was passed through the other helix. Similar other experiments fail, however when Faraday uses a battery with 100 pairs of 4 inch square plates (10 times more than the earlier mentioned 10 pairs of plates (what are equivalent voltages?)), with each of the two helices 203 feet of copper wire, and metal contact everywhere prevented by twine, when contact (between the primary coil and the battery) is made, Faraday reports "a sudden and very slight effect at the galvanometer" and "also a similar slight effect when the contact with the battery was broken". But while the voltaic current is continuing to pass through the one helix, the needle of the galvanometer does not move, indicating that no current is flowing in the second helix even though, Faraday observes, current continues to pass through the primary helix, resulting in heat from the helix. Faraday repeats this experiments with a battery of 120 pairs of plates, which produces no other effects, but Faraday notices that the movement of the needle when the battery is connected is always in one direction, and that the equally slight deflection produced when the battery disconnected is in the other direction. Faraday describes this flash of current as being more like that produced by a Leyden jar than by a voltaic battery. This causes Faraday to wonder if this induced current might magnetize a steel needle (because Leyden jars must have been used to magnetize needles and other bars of metal). Faraday substitutes a small hollow helix for the galvanometer and places a steel needle (in the middle of this new coil that has replaced the galvanometer in the secondary circuit). When Faraday connects the battery and primary coil and removes the needle before the battery is disconnected, Faraday finds that the needle is magnetized. When the battery contact is first made, and an unmagnetized needle is then put into the center (touching or insulated?) of the small indicating helix, and the battery then disconnected, the needle is magnetized to in equal strength as the first, but with opposite poles. When an unmagnetized needle is put into the indicating helix, before the battery is connected and remains there until the battery is disconnected, the needle has little or no magnetism, Faraday concluding that the first effect must be nearly neutralized by the second. Faraday finds that the induced current when the battery is connected is larger than when disconnected and explains this as the possible result of an accumulation at the poles of the unconnected pile which makes current stronger when first connected. Faraday states that there is no induced current in the second coil when the second coil connected from an open circuit after the battery is connected to the primary coil. Similarly, a needle is not magnetized when the second circuit is connected after the first, although a needle is magnetized when the battery is disconnected in the direction of the current induced. Faraday then stretches several feet of copper wire on a board in the letter W, with a second similar board with a sheet of thick paper in between the wires of each. One of these wires is connected to a galvanometer and the other with a voltaic battery. Faraday finds that when the first wire is moved towards the second, as the wire approaches the needle is deflected, and when removed the needle is deflected in the opposite direction. By making the wires approach and then recede simultaneously with the movement of the needle, the needle moves (often), but when the wires do not move towards or away from each other, the galvanometer shows no current. When the wires are brought together the induced current is in the opposite direction to the inducing current, and when the wires are receding the induced current is in the same direction as the inducing current. When the wires remain stationary there is no induced current. (20) When a small voltaic battery is connected to the secondary circuit so a smaller current runs through it, and a 100 plate pairs battery is connected to the primary circuit, the galvanometer needle moved in the usual way, but the resumed its position measuring the constant current. (21) Faraday concludes that the induced extra current exert no permanent inducing power on the existing current. (24) Faraday uses a Leyden jar in place of a batter which magnetizes an iron needle. (25) Faraday comments that separating the effect when the charge begins and ends is impossible because the charge happens too quickly. (have people since confirmed the same effect of current passing both ways on start and end of charge/current?) (26) Faraday defines the action of a current from a voltaic battery "volta-electric induction", and views the property of the secondary wire after the brief initial current, while the current flows through the primary circuit, as having a peculiar electric condition. (I think the analogy of an empty spiral channel running through wire which is filled by (photon) particles from the primary current until full and then no more particles can enter the channel, or simply replace those particles already in the channel fits the phenomenon too. (EX) If true, perhaps there is some way to extract that current temporarily into a second closed loop of wire (to fill a second, extended coil off the secondary coil while the current is already flowing in the primary coil)). Faraday titles part 2 "Evolution of Electricity from Magnetism", using the word Evolution in 1832, (Darwin formulates the theory of evolution from 1837-1839, and publishes "Origin of Species" in 1859, perhaps evolution was a code word for the early Lamarkian evolution theory or perhaps just coincidence. Now of course, the minority of evolution supporters use the word "evolution" to reveal themselves as theory-of-evolution supporters usually.) (27) A welded (how) ring, six inches in diameter, is made of round 7/8 inch thick soft iron bar. On one side of this ring Faraday wraps three helices, each with 24 feet of 1/20th inch copper wire, insulated from the iron and each other. These helices, connected end to end, occupy about 9 inches in length on the ring. (see image). On the other side of the ring sixty feet of copper wire in 2 pieces are applied forming helix B in the same direction as the helices of A, but separated from each other by about 1/2 and inch of uncovered iron. (28) Helix B is connected by copper wire with a galvanometer 3 feet away. The wires of A are connected to a battery with 10 pairs of plates four inches square. When Faraday connects the battery, the galvanometer needle is immediately affected, and to a degree far beyond that produced by a battery of 10 times the power produced by helices without iron. Again the effect is not permanent and the needle soon returns to rest in its natural position, similarly when breaking the connection with the battery, the needle is again powerfully deflected, but in the opposite direction to that induced when the battery was connected. (Presumably if there is a channel in the wire, more particles are entering it which shows that the weak current without the iron bar was not filling it completely but yet no more particles could enter. Did Faraday try with the wires intertwined? Perhaps the effect is from the secondary coil being farther away. It seems likely that the extra particles come from the iron atoms. Similar to an electromagnet, perhaps a larger channel is created in/extended into the iron bar. Perhaps the particles in the coil push the particles in the iron along, since they apparently do not move on their own, or perhaps they do.) (32) Faraday uses the larger 100 paired plates battery and by using charcoal at the ends of the B helix creates a tiny spark when the battery connected to A is connected, and a spark is rarely seen (in the opposite direction?) on breaking contact. (Is charcoal needed, or is an open circuit enough?) (34) Faraday again comments on how adding a soft iron cylinder 7/8" thick and 12" long into the coil produces a much larger movement on the galvanometer, and adds that this makes magnets with more energy, apparently, than when no iron cylinder is present. (35) Replacing the iron cylinder with an equal cylinder of copper produces no magnified effect, and only produces a feeble current similar to a hollow coil. (What other metals besides iron can be magnetized? Do alloys stop the magnetic (electric field) properties of iron?) (36) Faraday finds that ordinary permanent magnets can produce current in the same way as a battery can. Faraday connects two bar magnets with opposite poles on one end, with the other ends connecting on either side of an iron cylinder (around the iron cylinder with the helix around it connected to the galvanometer) which converts it for a time into a magnet (explain how magnets are created). By connecting and disconnecting one of the bar magnets, or reversing them, "the magnetism of the iron cylinder can be destroyed or reversed at pleasure" (and therefore the induced current) (see figure 2). (37) When making magnetic contact the needle is deflected, however, quickly resumes its initial position, and on breaking contact the needle is again deflected, but in the opposite direction. When the magnetic contacts are reversed, the deflections are reversed. (38) When magnetic contact is made the deflection indicates an induced current in the opposite direction than the current (see figure 3) that is used to make a magnet with the same polarity as the bar magnet. This current is in the opposite direction of the theory proposed by Ampere as existing in a permanent magnet or as current in an electromagnet of similar polarity. (Is this because electrons flow from negative to positive? - so the left-hand rule applies in terms of flow of electrons from negative to positive.) (This part is not exactly clear to me.) In figure 3, P is the wire going to the positive pole of the batter (which the zinc plates face) and the N the negative wire.(39) Faraday finds that when a cylindrical magnet 3/4" in diameter and 8.5 inches in length is inserted into a hollow helix connected to a galvanometer, the needle is deflected, and when the magnet is removed, the needle again is deflected, but in the opposite direction. The effect is small, but by introducing and withdrawing the magnet so that the impulse each time should be added to those previously causes the needle to vibrate through an arc of 180 degrees or more. (41) Faraday finds that when the magnet is inserted, the needle is deflected in the same direction, and when withdrawn the needle is deflected in the opposite direction. (figure 4) (43) Moving the magnet outside the helix has no effect on the galvanometer needle. (44) Faraday uses a large compound (bar?) magnet owned by the Royal Society for his experiments. (what kind? How manufactured?) This magnet is made of 450 bar magnets each 15 inches long, 1 inch wide, and half inch thick. When a soft iron cylinder 3/4 inch in diameter and 12 inches long is put across this magnet a force of 100 pounds is required to break the contact. (see figure 5) (46) When a soft iron cylinder 13 inches long is put through the compound hollow helix connected to the galvanometer, and the iron cylinder brought in contact with the two poles of this magnet (figure 5), a very powerful rush of electricity takes place causing the needle to whirl around many times (47) before coming to rest. Breaking the magnetic contact causes the needle to whirl around in the opposite direction with an equal force as the first. Using an armed (?) loadstone capable of lifting 30 pounds, a frog leg is powerfully convulsed each time magnetic contact is made, but only after separating the battery with a blow does the frog leg muscle convulse, which shows that the more instantaneous the connection or disconnection is the more powerful the convulsion (and current). (57) These experiments show conclusively that, although weak and quantity small, permanent magnets can be used to produce electricity. Faraday thinks that powerful electromagnets can be used to produce a brighter spark, ignite wires, and by being passed through liquid chemical action can be produced with such electric current. (58) Faraday importantly states "The similarity of action, almost amounting to identity (any difference perhaps because of the difference in direction of current), between common magnets and either electro-magnets or volta-electric currents, is strikingly in accordance with and confirmatority of M. Ampere's theory, and furnishes powerful reasons for believing that the action is the same in both cases". Faraday defines the words "magneto-electric" or "magnelectric" induction to describe current induced by permanent, or as he describes ordinary magnets. (59) Faraday finds the olny difference between volta-electric and magneto-electric induction as the suddenness of the volta-electric effect and the larger time required by magneto-electric induction, but states that circumstances indicate that this difference will disappear with more investigation. (So Faraday is basically agreeing with the theory put forward by Ampere that a magnetic field is an electric field caused by electric current in permanent magnets.) In the third section "New Electrical State or Condition of Matter", Faraday hypothesizes about an electro-tonic state, but notes that later investigations (73,76,77) induce him to think that these phenomena can be fully explained without any electro-tonic state. (60) Faraday states that when a wire is subject to induction it resists the formation of an electrical current in it, where if in a common condition, a current would be produced. (Clearly a current can still flow through the induced wire, as Faraday has shown. Faraday most likely means that the magnetic field does not cause a constant current as would be expected.) (67) Faraday explains that this hypothesized state begins when the effect of induction starts and ends when the inductive force is removed. (My own view is that particles fill holes in the iron and when filled with particles no current flows, however that an additional current flows during induction makes that seem unlikely. Possibly the lines of particles fill holes once, and then since not moved, collide with the same filled holes, while current flowing through from a different source pull a chain of particles. In fact with a current flowing, possibly more particles from the electric field might be accepted, but I doubt it since the hole in current is produced at the battery. But yet, even with a current, the field adds those initial particles. An alternative explanation is that the field {as a force that originates from the primary source} causes particles of current to flow. Clearly more particles of force are produced by the mass of the iron bar, but not that of a copper bar, which implies that the atomic structure, and not the mass of the iron is responsible to the addition.) (77) Faraday recounts an interesting story of M.A. De La Rive who found that a metallic conductor in a liquid connected to a battery can produce a current in the fluid after the battery is disconnected and another finding of electricity of two metals in contact that remains after their separation by M.A. Van Beek. (78) Faraday describes Ampere's experiment where a disc of copper is suspended by a silk thread and surrounded by a helix of wire, when a current is sent through the helix and a strong magnet moved towards the disc, the disc turns at the moment to take a position of equilibrium, exactly as the helix would have turned (in response to the magnet) if the helix was free to move. Faraday cannot reproduce this experiment and explains that this is probably because the induction effect is too fast or to the power of Ampere's electro-magnet apparatus. Ampere proposed that "a current of electricity tends to put the electricity of conductors near which it passes in the same direction" where Faraday finds that current of electricity produce current in nearby conductors in the opposite direction, and that this effect is only momentary. Faraday first experimented in an effort to induce a current from a helix on November 28, 1825 quoting from his notes: "Experiments on induction by connecting wire of voltaic battery:-a battery of four troughs, ten pairs of plates, each arranged side by side- the poles connected by a wire about four feet long, parallel to which was another similar wire separated from it only by two thicknesses of paper, the ends of the latter were attached to a galvanometer:- exhibited no action, &c, &c, &c,-Could not in any way render any induction evidence from the connecting wire." Faraday then writes that the cause of failure at that time is now evident. (Presumably that either the battery was not strong enough for the number of hollow coils used, or that a soft iron bar was needed to increase the induced current.)(Possibly penis symbol used by Faraday ":-" I notice because I can imagine the suspicion created if I used such a symbol. Generally the smartest people understand the massive injustice done to physical pleasure.) On his discovery of magneto-electricity Faraday abandons the commercial work which adds to his small salary, in order to devote all his time for research. This financial loss is made up in part later by a pension of 300 pounds a year from the British Government. James Clerk Maxwell will create "Faraday's law of induction" giving a mathematical interpretation based on this work. (Can static electricity induce current?) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
169 YBN [06/01/1831 AD] | 2835) | Boothia Peninsula,Nunavut, Canada |
169 YBN [06/01/1831 AD] | 2837) Part of the "Carta Marina" of 1539 by Olaus Magnus, depicts the location of magnetic north vaguely conceived as "Insula Magnetu" (Latin for "Magnetic Island") off modern day Murmansk. The man holding the rune staffs is the Norse hero Starkad. The Scottish explorer, James Clark Ross (CE 1800-1862) will be the first to reach the North Magnetic Pole in 1831. | Boothia Peninsula,Nunavut, Canada |
169 YBN [08/??/1831 AD] | 2525) Guthrie invents and first manufactured percussion pills, also inventing the punch lock for exploding them. This lock takes the place of the old flint lock in firearms, and will be in turn superseded, after Dr. Guthrie's death, by the percussion cap. In the course of Guthrie's experiments Guthrie sustains lasting injuries and nearly loses his life from an accidental explosion. In 1830 Guthrie invents a process for the rapid conversion of potato starch into molasses, which he published in Silliman's "American Journal of Science," to which he contributed occasional papers on scientific subjects. | Sackets Harbor, NY, USA |
169 YBN [09/??/1831 AD] | 2705) The first electrical generator was the static electricity generator of Guericke, in which mechanical movement is used to create a static electric potential. In 1663, Volta invented the first constant electricity generator, the electric battery (voltaic pile), which creates electricity from molecular combination (chemical reaction), in 1800. Faraday builds the first electrical generator, which creates constant electric current from mechanical motion in 1831. The electrical generator allows any source of mechanical movement, such as the force of wind, water, or a steam (coal burning), or gas burning engine to create a constant stream of electricity. Faraday reports his experiments which lead to the first electric generator in part 4 of his famous "Experimental Researches in Electricity". In Part 4 "Explication of Arago's Magnetic Phenomena", Faraday describes Arago's experiment (81) in which a plate of copper is revolved close to a magnetic needle or magnet which is suspended so that it may rotate in a plane parallel to the plate. (more detail about how suspended? Perhaps from a similar copper plate with both on different axes. Perhaps new record for Arago's experiment) When the copper plate is revolved, the magnetic needle or magnet tends to follow the motion of the plate and similarly if the magnet is revolved, the plate tends to follow the motion of the magnet. Arago states that this effect happens with all solids, liquids and even gases. (82) Babbage and John Herschel repeat this experiment and can only obtain the effect for excellent conductors of electricity. Babbage and Herschel explain the effect as magnetism induced in the plate by the magnet, the pole of the magnet causes an opposite pole in the nearest part of the plate. Arago and Ampere reject this theory because there is no attraction when the magnet and metal are at rest. (83) Having already obtained electricity from magnets, Faraday hopes to make Arago's experiment a new source of electricity. In addition, Faraday intends to offer the correct interpretation of the magnet following phenomenon found by Arago. (84) Faraday uses two iron or steel bars about 6x1x1/2 inches in size connected to the opposite poles of the large magnet of the Royal Society's at Christie's house. (85) Faraday mounts a disc of copper 12" in diameter and 1/5 inch thick on a brass axis so the disc can rotate either vertically or horizontally. The edge of this disc is placed between the two magnetic poles (see figure 7). (86) Faraday uses copper and lead conductors 4x1/3x1/5 inch in size which contact the edge of the copper disc and are connected to a galvanometer. (87) Faraday makes his own galvanometer of copper wire covered with silk coiled into 16-18 turns. Two sewing-needles are magnetized and put through a stem of dried grass parallel to each other but in opposite directions about held an inch apart. This system is suspended by a fiber of unspun silk (see figure 8). The entire instrument is protected in a glass jar. The wires are shown in the figures as A and B. (88) The edge of the copper disc is inserted in between the magnetic poles which are 1/2 inch apart. One galvanometer wire is connected to the brass axis and the other to the conductor which is held at the edge of the disc at the part between the magnetic poles. In this position, the galvanometer shows no effect, but the instant the plate is moved the galvanometer needle moves, and by rotating the copper plate quickly, the needle can be deflected 90 degrees or more. 89) After more experimenting Faraday can sustain a permanent deflection of the needle of nearly 45 degrees by rotating the disk. (90) Faraday writes "Here therefore was demonstrated the production of permanent current of electricity by ordinary magnets (57.).". (This is the invention of the first electrical generator {also called a dynamo}, a device that can convert mechanical movement into a sustained electrical current.) (91) When the motion of the disc is reversed, the galvanometer is deflected with equal power but on the opposite side, and the current of electricity is created in the reverse direction as in the initial direction. (92) Faraday finds that even when the conductor is placed to the right or left (see figure 9) of the poles, even as much as 50-60 degrees, the current is still passed through the galvanometer, but gradually weakens any farther than 50-60 degrees away from the magnetic poles. (94) Faraday finds that even if the conductor moves along with the disc, current flows when the disc is moved. (95) When the galvanometer wires are connected to two conductors on the edge of the disc, Faraday finds that when in the position in figure 11 a current is produced, and when shifted in figure 12 a current in the opposite direction is produced (when turning the disc in either direction?) Faraday describes this as in figure 11 a strong current at A and a weak current at B, and the opposite for figure 12. (96) So when the two conductors are equally distant from the magnetic poles, as in figure 13, no current at the galvanometer is measured, no matter which direction the disc is rotated. When the galvanometer is connected to a conductor and the disc axis, then the galvanometer shows a current according to the direction of disc rotation. (98) Faraday makes an effort to make sure that these results are independent of the Earth's magnetism. (This is an interesting point, because, can the Earth's magnetic field be used against an opposite pole to produce electricity, only needing one magnet? Probably the Earth field is too weak? State how strong the Earth magnetic field is. Does this represent particles per volume space per unit time?) (99) Faraday describes the relation of current of electricity produced to the magnetic pole and the direction of rotation of the plate. Faraday uses the terms "marked and unmarked pole". This is an important point. The marked end is the end with an "N" marked on it. Since we call the arctic pole of Earth the North pole, the side of a magnet with the letter N, the "marked" end, is actually a South pole since it points to the North Pole of the Earth. Particles appear to flow from South Pole to North Pole, so all North Poles are receivers of particles and South Poles emitters of particles. Placing a compass over a magnet shows that the compass needle points to the magnet's South Pole, when the compass is aligned to point to the Earth's North pole. A compass needle can have its magnetic field reversed by a magnet simply by changing the field around the needle before the needle has time to move, and so people should be aware of this too. If the unmarked magnetic pole is under the edge of the plate and the plate rotated clockwise, the current is positive at the edge and negative at the center (see figure 15). (In other words particles flow from the edge of the disk to the center.) (100) If the unmarked magnetic pole is placed above the disc and the disc rotated clockwise, the electricity is reversed. (The current flows from the center of the disk to the edge, the edge being considered the ground and source of electrons.) (101) Faraday states that the rotating plate is merely another form of the more simple experiment of passing a piece of metal between the magnetic poles in a rectilinear direction which produces currents of electricity at right angles to the direction of motion, reversing when crossing the place of the magnetic pole or poles. This is shown by the simple experiment: (see figure 16) a piece of copper plate 12x1.5x0.2 inches is placed between the magnetic poles while the two conductors from the galvanometer are held in contact with the edges of the copper plate. When the plate is then drawn through in the direction of the arrow the galvanometer needle is deflected, its unmarked end passing eastward, indicating that wire A received negative and wire B positive electricity. Since the unmarked pole of the magnet is above, the result is the same as the effect obtained by the rotating plate (99). (102) Reversing the motion of the plate causes the galvanometer needle to be deflected in the opposite direction, showing an opposite current. (103) To determine the nature of the electrical current in various parts of the moving copper plate, Faraday connects one conductor is connected to the copper plate near the pole of the magnet with the other connected to the end of the copper plate. In figure 17, B gets positive electricity, but on the opposite side (figure 18) gets negative electricity. Reversing the motion (figure 19) B gets negative electricity, and (figure 20) B gets positive electricity. (104) (Figure 21) The same effects are produced when the plate is not directly aligned with the polar axis of the magnet, although not as strongly. (105) When the two magnet poles are put together and the copper plate drawn between the conductors near the plate, there was only little effect produced. When the poles are separated by the width of a card, the effect is more, but still small. (106) A copper wire 1/8 inch thick moved between the conductors and magnet poles produces an effect although not as much as the plates. (108) (Figure 22) The results are the same when the conductors are connected to the ends of the copper plate and the plate moved in a direction transverse to their length. (109) Even simply the wire from the galvanometer connected to form a complete circuit, passed through between the magnet poles causes the galvanometer to move. Passing the wire back and forth to correspond with the vibrations of the needle can cause the needle to be increased by 20 or 30 degrees on each side. (110) (Figure 23) With the ends of a plate of metal connected to the galvanometer, and the plate then moved between the poles from end to end in either direction, no effect is produced on the galvanometer. Only when the motion is transverse is the needle deflected. (111) These effects are also obtained with electromagnetic poles, resulting from the use of copper helices or spirals, either alone or with iron cores. The directions of the motions are precisely the same, but the action is much greater when the iron cores are used, than without. (112) When a flat spiral is passed through long-side first between the poles, a curios action at the galvanometer results; the needle first moves strongly one way, but then suddenly stopped, as if the needle struck against some solid obstacle, and immediately returns. When the spiral is moved up or down the motion of the needle is the same, suddenly stopping and reversing, but on turning the spiral around 180 degrees the directions of needle motions are reversed, but still are suddenly interrupted and inverted. (This is difficult to visualize and I may be describing it incorrectly.) This double action depends on the halves of the spiral which is divided by a line passing through it's center perpendicular to the direction of its motion. So although this effect is curious, it is explainable to the action of single wires. (113) Faraday writes that although the experiments with the rotating plate, wires and plates of metal are first successfully made with the large magnet belonging to the Royal Society, they were all repeated with a couple of bar magnets two feet long, 1.5 inches wide and 0.5 inch thick, and by making the galvanometer (87) more delicate. Ferro-electro-magnets like those of Moll, henry, etc (57) are very powerful. It is very important when making experiments on different substances that thermo-electric effects produced by contact of the fingers, etc, be avoided or accounted for. (114) Faraday describes the relation that holds between the magnetic pole, the moving wire or metal and the direction of current evolved, that is, the law that governs the evolution of electricity by magneto-electric induction, stating that this relation is simple, although difficult to express. In figure 24, PN represents a horizontal wire passing by a south (marked) magnetic pole so that the direction of its motion coincides with the curved line proceeding from below upwards then the current of electricity in the wire is from P to N. This is also the case no matter what the motion so long as the wire cuts the magnetic curves in the same direction. By magnetic curves, Faraday is referring to the lines of force that would be shown by iron filings or with which a small magnetic needle would form a tangent with. If the wire is moved in the reverse directions, the electric current is from N to P. Alternatively, if the wire is in position shown by P' and N' and viewed as tangent to the curved surface of the cylindrical magnet, the wire moved with the dotted horizontal curve causes current to flow from P' to N'. (115) This same relation holds true for the unmarked pole of the magnet but the current directions are reversed. (116) (Figure 25) So the current of electricity which is excited in metal when moving in the neighborhood of a magnet depends on the relation of the metal to the magnetic curves. In figure 25, let AB represent a cylinder magnet, A is the marked pole and B the unmarked pole. Let PN be a silver knife-blade resting across the magnet with its edge upward, and with its marked or notched side towards the pole A, then, no matter what direction the knife is moved edge first in, either around the marked or unmarked pole, the current of electricity produced is from P to N, so long as the intersected curves from A contact the notched side of the knife, and those from B on the unnotched side. When the knife is moved with its back first, current flows from N to P. Faraday explains, as if instructing a child that "A little model is easily constructed, by using a cylinder of wood for a magnet, a flat piece for the blade, and a piece of thread connecting one end of the cylinder with the other, and passing through a hole in the blade, for the magnetic curves: this readily gives the result of any possible direction." (Although I don't understand how direction is determined readily with this kind of model, and why not just use a real magnet? Perhaps magnets were expensive at the time?) (177) In a wire with induced current that passes an electro-magnetic pole, the direction of the current in the approaching wire is the same with the direction of current in the side of the spirals nearest, and in a receding wire, the direction of current is the reverse in the spirals nearest. (need 3D animation) (118) All these results show that induced electric current is created by circumferential magnetism, just as circumferential magnetism is created by electric current. (119) These experiments show that when a piece of metal (and the same may be true of all conducting matter) is passed before a single pole, or between opposite poles of a magnet, or near electromagnetic poles, electrical currents are produced across the metal transverse to the direction of motion. In Arago's experiments, this transverse direction is in the direction of the radii of the disc. (Interesting that not in straight lines.) If the copper disc is viewed like a wheel with many spokes, and these spokes rotated near the pole, each radius will have a current produced in it as it passes the pole. (12) Now that the existence of these currents is known, Arago's phenomena can be viewed without the need to create a magnetic pole in the copper disk. (121) Faraday states that the effect is the same as the electro-magnetic rotations which Faraday discovered in 1821 with the invention of the first electric motor. (Figure 26) If a wire PN is connected with the positive and negative ends of a battery, so the positive electricity passes from P to N, and a marked magnetic pole N is placed near the wire between the wire and the viewer, the pole will move to the right, and the wire will move to the left (as shown by the arrows). This is exactly what takes place in the rotation of a plate beneath a magnetic pole. (Figure 27) Let N be a marked pole above the circular plate, the plate being rotated in the direction of the arrow. Immediately currents of positive electricity flow from the central part in the direction of the radii by the pole to the parts of the circumference (a) on the other side of that pole, and are therefore exactly in the same relation to the pole as the current in the wire, and therefore the pole in the same manner moves to the right. (122) If the rotation of the disc is reversed the electric currents are reversed and the pole therefore moves to the left. So in this way the direction of motion is explained. (123) Faraday states that these currents are discharged or return in the parts of the plate on each side of and more distant from the place of the pole where the magnetic induction is weaker, and when collecters are applied a current of electricity is carried away to the galvanometer, where the deflection there is merely a repetition by the same current or part of it, of the effect of rotation in the the magnet over the plate. (Interesting that Faraday addresses the issue of the circuit of current when not drawn off. This applies to a permanent magnet too, where current must flow through the center.) (126) The unusual fact that all movement stops when the magnet and metal are stopped can now be explained because the electrical currents that cause (and are caused by) the motion stop. (127) This also explains the finding of Babbage and Herschel (Philosophical Transactions, 1825, p. 481) who found that when the copper plate is cut, the power of the effect is diminished, but when the cuts filled with metallic substances, even though deficient in the power of influencing magnets, the power is restored. (Figure 29) Therefore if a fifth of the outside is cut off a copper plate and then reattached with the thickness of a paper between, the magnetic currents will greatly interfered with and the plate probably will lose much of its effect. Faraday notes that this experiment has been performed by Mr. Christie and is correct (Philosophical Transactions 1827, p82). (Figure 28) Faraday performs a similar experiment: when two pieces of thick copper are connected and passed between the poles of a magnet in a direction parallel to the center edges, a current is urged through the wires attached to the outer angles, and the galvanometer is strongly effected, however when a single film of paper is put between the two copper pieces and the experiment repeated, no effect is measured. (This would be a nice experiment to repeat.) (I don't understand 128, "A section of this kind could not interfere much with the induction of magnetism, supposed to be of the nature ordinarily received by iron." A section clearly is a cut. Is Faraday claiming that cutting an iron magnet in a similar way has no effect on the magnetic field's ability to cause current in metals?) (129) The effect of rotation or deflection of a needle, which Arago obtained using permanent magnets, and that Ampere obtained by using electromagnets can be used in this experiment. By using flat spirals of copper wire, through which electric currents are sent in place of permanent magnetic poles, Faraday is able to measure the actual induced current of electricity from the plate itself with the galvanometer (which was apparently too small to measure with permanent magnets). Faraday finds this effect using a single electromagnet on one side, and two on opposite sides. (130) The explanation for the rotation in Arago's experiment of the production of electrical currents, seems clear for all metals, and perhaps even other conductors, but in terms of glass, resins, and gases for which it seems impossible that currents of electricity could be generated in them, experiments Faraday performs convince him that any motion effect does not happen for non-conducting materials. (132) Copper, iron, tin, zinc, lead, mercury, and all metals tried by Faraday produce electrical currents when passed between magnetic poles (the mercury put into a glass tube for the purpose). The dense carbon placed in coal gas retorts also produce current, but ordinary charcoal does not. Faraday finds no current in salt water, sulphuric acid, saline solutions, whether rotated in basin or includes in tubes and passed between the poles. (133) Faraday states that he has never been able to produce any sensation on his tongue, heat a fine plantinum wire, produce a spark, or convulse the limbs of a frog from the electric current produced through the conductors on the edges of the rotating metal plate. (The current and voltage must be very small.) (Wasn't Faraday able to feel electricity and create a spark with the copper disk with both permanent and electric magnets? Clearly Faraday did measure current with the Galvanometer.) (134) Faraday states the the electric current in the rotating copper plate only occupies a small space, moving by the poles and being discharged right and left at very small distances, but even so, large currents can be drawn off that are strong enough to pass through narrow wires even 100 feet long; it is evident that the current existing in the plate itself must be a very powerful one when the rotation is rapid and the magnet strong. This is also proved by how a magnet 12 pounds in weight follows the motion of the plate and twists up the cord from which the magnet is suspended. (135) Faraday makes 2 rough trials with the intention of constructing magneto-electric (magnet-electric) machines. In one, a ring cut from a thick copper plate, 1.5 inches wide and 12 inches in external diameter is mounted to rotate between the poles of a magnet. The inner and outer edges are amalgamated (covered with mercury?), and the conductors applied, one to each edge, at the place of the magnetic poles (so that the disk slides over the stationary conductors). The current evolved does not appear to be stronger than the current created by the circular plate. (136) In the second trial, a small thick disk of copper or other metal, half an inch in diameter are rotated rapidly near the poles, but with the axis of rotation out of the polar axis. The electricity evolved is collected by conductors applied to the edges. Currents are created but far smaller than the currents produced by the circular plate. (137) This last experiment is analogous to those made by Mr. Barlow with a rotating iron shell, subjected to the magnetic field of the Earth. (Philosophical Transactions, 1825, p. 317) Messrs. Babbage and Herschel give the same explanation to the effects of Barlow's experiment as they do for Arago's experiment. (Philosophical Transactions, 1825, p.485) (Did Barlow produce a sustained or temporary current from the Earth's magnetic field?) Faraday notes that the rotation of a copper shell might decide the point and even throw light on the more permanent, although analogous effects obtained by Mr. Christie. (138) Faraday uses an iron plate in place of the copper plate (101) which is passed between the magnetic poles. While the experiments on the induction of electric currents (9) show no difference between iron and other metals, the iron plate produces less power than the copper plate in the rotating plate experiment. Faraday states that with iron, the larger part of the effect is due to ordinary magnetic action, and that there is no doubt that Babbage's and Herschel's explanation of Arago's phenomenon is true when iron is the metal used. (So an opposite magnetic pole is created in the iron disk?) (139) Faraday comments that Mr. Harris found that bismuth and antimony effect a suspended magnet disproportionately to their conducting power, but that Faraday has been able to explain these differences and prove with several metals, the the effect is based on the order of the conducting power, because Faraday has produced currents of electricity that are proportionate in strength to the conducting power of the bodies experimented with. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2414) Robert Brown (CE 1773-1858) identifies and names the cell "nucleus". While dealing with the fertilization of flowers, Brown notes the existence of a structure within the cells of orchids as well as many other plants that brown terms the "nucleus" of the cell (from the Latin word meaning "little nut"). This description is embedded in a pamphlet which focuses on the sexual organs of orchids. | London, England (presumably) |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2496) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2608) William C. Redfield (CE 1789-1857), publishes his evidence that storm winds rotate counterclockwise about a center that moves in the direction of the prevailing winds. (I think hurricanes rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere?) | New York, USA (presumably) |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2625) | London, England (presumably) |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2629) John Frederic Daniell (CE 1790-1845) invents a pyrometer (a device for measuring relatively high temperatures, such as found in furnaces) Phil. Trans., 1830). (describe design) Daniell receives the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society (in 1832) for his invention of a pyrometer and his papers detailing the uses for the pyrometer. | London, England (presumably) |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2809) | Albany, NY, USA |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2889) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2895) When little more than 20 years old, Boussingault goes to South America as a mining engineer on behalf of an English company. During the insurrection of the Spanish colonies Boussingault is attached to the staff of General Bolivar, and travels widely in the northern parts of the continent. Boussingault is professor of chemistry at the University of Lyon, and professor of agricultural chemistry at the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, Paris (1839-1887). | Lyon, France (presumably) |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2919) While in Paris, working under Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (1822-1824), Liebig investigates the dangerous explosive silver fulminate, a salt of fulminic acid. At the same time, the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler is analyzing cyanic acid. Liebig and Wöhler realize that cyanic acid and fulminic acid represent two different compounds that have the same composition, the same number and kind of atoms, but have different chemical properties. The Swedish chemist, Jöns Jacob Berzelius refers to such compounds as isomers (from the Greek words meaning "equal parts"). This shared finding leads to a lifelong friendship and collaborative research partnership between Liebig and Wöhler. This finding of isomers shows that the molecule of a compound is more than a (singular) collection of atoms, but that these atoms have particular (three dimensional) positions. Kekulé will create a structural formula for molecules. Liebig creates a laboratory for general student use. Liebig succeeds in institutionalizing the independent teaching of chemistry, which German universities had been taught as an adjunct to pharmacy for apothecaries and physicians. Liebig determines the oxygen content of the air by quantifying its adsorption in an alkaline solution of pyrogallol (benzene-1,2,3-triol). (chronology) Liebig is the son of a pigment and chemical manufacturer whose shop has a small laboratory. Liebig publishes an average of 30 papers a year between 1830 and 1840. In 1832 Liebig takes over the "Annalen der Pharmacie" ("Annals of Pharmacy") and renames it in 1840 the "Annalen der Chemie" ("Annals of Chemistry"). At Giessen, Liebig produces chloroform and chloral, and discovers hippuric acid. So many students are drawn to Liebig that he has to expand his facilities and systematize his training procedures. A considerable number of his students, some 10 per semester, are from other nations. Liebig's former laboratories in Giessen are now the Liebig Museum. | (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
169 YBN [1831 AD] | 2992) | Pavia, Italy (possibly) |
168 YBN [01/03/1832 AD] | 2808) | Albany, NY, USA |
168 YBN [06/08/1832 AD] | 2747) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, publishes "Economy of Machines and Manufactures" (1832) which is the result of Babbage's travels through several of the countries of Europe, examining different systems of machinery. In this work, Babbage describes what is now called the Babbage principle, which describes certain advantages with division of labor. Babbage notes that highly skilled, and therefore generally higher paid, workers spend parts of their job performing tasks that are 'below' their skill level. If the labor process can be divided among several workers, it is possible to assign only high-skill tasks to high-skill and high-cost workers and leave other working tasks to less-skilled and paid workers, which lowers labor costs. This principle is criticized by Karl Marx who argues that it causes labor segregation and contributes to alienation. The Babbage principle is an inherent assumption in Frederick Winslow Taylor's scientific management. (I think the differences between high and low skill are many times hard to define. It seems clear that walking robots will fill low skill jobs first, such as picking fruit, order taking, food serving, cleaning, driving, grocery shopping, filming, and this would imply that any job which a robot cannot perform is a higher skill job. We are heading to a society where walking robots perform almost all of the work, while humans and other species live off the products of that work. I see full and constant democracy as the future of government and society. The hope is that the majority will be well informed and educated and form a civilization full of pleasure and freedom and free of pain and violence.) In this work Babbage publishes his finding that the cost of collecting and stamping a letter for various sums depending on the distance it is to travel costs more in labor than using some small sum charged independently of distance. The British government will adopt this practice in 1840. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
168 YBN [07/??/1832 AD] | 2807) | Albany, NY, USA |
168 YBN [10/??/1832 AD] | 3002) Hamilton describes the confirmation of conical refraction: "After making this communication to the Academy, in October, 1832, I requested Professor Lloyd to examine the question experimentally, and to try whether he could perceive any such phenomena in biaxial crystals, as my theory of conical refraction had led me to expect. The experiments of Professor Lloyd, confirming my theoretical expectations, have been published by him in the numbers of the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, for the months of February and March, 1833; and they will be found with fuller details in the present Volume of the Irish Transactions." In this paper, Hamilton changes from his earlier neutrality to support the wave theory: Hamilton writes: " The latter theory was deduced, by my general methods, from the hypothesis of transver- sal vibrations in a luminous ether, which hypothesis seems to have been first proposed by Dr. Young, but to have been independently framed and far more perfectly developed by Fresnel; and from Fresnel"s other principle, of the existence of three rectangular axes of elasticity within a biaxal crystallised medium. The verification, therefore, of this theory of conical refraction, by the experiments of Professor Lloyd, must be considered as affording a new and important probability in favour of Fresnel"s views: that is, a new encouragement to reason from those views, in combining and predicting appearances." (Interesting that a single material can have more than one index of refraction. To me this implies that refraction has to do with crystal and or molecular structure (and shape) and less to do with kind of material (atom or molecule). Who first found this?) | (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
168 YBN [12/15/1832 AD] | 2448) | Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2514) Plastic. (Nitrocellulose). Braconnet creates a flammable product he names "xyloidine" by treating starch, sawdust, and cotton with nitric acid. Braconnot finds that this material is soluble in wood vinegar and attempts to make coatings (varnish), films, and shaped articles from it. (What kind of shaped articles? Solid-plastic objects?) This substance may be considered the first polymer or plastic material created by a chemist. Henri Bracconet is the first to prepare cellulose nitrate in 1833, by mixing sawdust cellulose with nitric acid. In 1855 Christian Schönbein, a professor at Basel University, copies Bracconet's method in treating simple paper made from wood cellulose with nitrite acid. The result is a transparent, highly flammable substance, which Schönbein names "cellulose nitrate" and markets as an explosive. Parkes will use cellulose nitrate as the basis of Parkesine, an early plastic. | Nancy, France |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2528) | Surrey, England (presumably) |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2623) | Tilgate Forest, England |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2659) | St. Petersburg, Russia |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2704) The quantity of electricity required to liberate 23 grams of sodium, or 108 grams of silver, or 32 grams of copper, in other words to liberate the "equivalent weight" (named by Wollaston) of an element, is named the Faraday. Faraday invents the voltameter, a device for measuring electrical charges, which was the first step toward the later standardization of electrical quantities. The voltameter is not to be confused with the voltmeter which measures electric potential. The voltameter measures quantity of electricity. The voltameter is an electrolytic cell and the measurement is made by weighing the element deposited or released at the cathode in a specified time. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2717) Antoine-Hippolyte Pixii lives a very short life, only 27 years. | Paris, France |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2718) Antoine-Hippolyte Pixii lives a very short life, only 27 years. | Paris, France |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2740) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2773) Nitrobenzene is a poisonous organic compound, C6H5NO2, either bright yellow crystals or an oily liquid, having the odor of almonds and used in the manufacture of aniline, insulating compounds, and polishes. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2775) John Wycliffe (WIKLIF) (c1330-1384), English theologian, and church reformer initiates the first complete translation of the Bible into English. The New Testament seems to have been completed about 1380, the Old Testament between 1382 and 1384. Exactly how much of it was done by Wyclif's own hand is uncertain. About 30 copies of this book have survived. Some are large folio volumes, written and illuminated in the style of the period. Others are plain copies of ordinary size, intended for private persons or monastic libraries. Clearly, in spite of official disfavor and eventual prohibition, Wycliff's Bible is welcome in many places in England. Wycliff dies on December 31, 1384 and is buried, but on May 4, 1415 by a decree of the council of Constance, Wycliff's remains are ordered to be dug up and burned, an order which is carried out, at the command of Pope Martin V, by Bishop Fleming in 1428. Wycliff writes a political treatises on divine and civil dominion "De dominio divino libri tres and Tractatus de civili dominio", in which Wycliff states that, as the church is in sin, the church should give up its possessions and return to evangelical poverty. Wycliff criticizes the belief in transubstantiation, that the substance of the bread and wine used in (religious ceremony) is changed into the body and blood of Christ. As a Realist philosopher, Wycliff criticizes this belief because in the destruction of the bread and wine, the end of being is involved. In May 1382, at the synod held at Blackfriars, London, many of his Wycliff's works are condemned. At Oxford Wycliff's (supporters) also give in, and all Wycliff's writings are banned. As an example of the english of this time Wycliff's Bible begins: "1 In the bigynnyng God made of nouyt heuene and erthe. 2 Forsothe the erthe was idel and voide, and derknessis weren on the face of depthe; and the Spiryt of the Lord was borun on the watris. 3 And God seide, Liyt be maad, and liyt was maad. 4 And God seiy the liyt, that it was good, and he departide the liyt fro derknessis; and he clepide the liyt, 5 dai, and the derknessis, nyyt. And the euentid and morwetid was maad, o daie." According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, this first and literal translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible into English is mainly the work of Wycliff's followers, notably Nicholas Hereford; the smoother revision of c.1395 is directed by Wyclif's follower John Purvey. In England the Lollards form the link between Wyclif and the Protestant Reformation. On the Continent Wycliff is a chief forerunner of the Reformation, through his influence on Jan Huss, the Bohemian reformer, and through Huss on Martin Luther and the Moravians. Wycliffe received his formal education at Oxford University. In 1361 Wycliff is made rector at Fillingham. In 1368 Wycliff is rector at Ludgershall. In 1369 Wycliffe earns a bachelor of divinity. (presumably from Oxford) In 1372 Wycliffe earns a doctor of divinity. In 1374 Wycliff is rector at Lutterworth. Wycliff's early associates himself with the anticlerical party in the nation. In 1374 Wycliff is sent to Bruges to represent the English crown in negotiations over payment of tribute to the Holy See.(notice "Holy See" from Columbia.) From 1377 Wycliff makes many vigorous attacks in both Latin and English on orthodox church doctrines, especially that of transubstantiation. Through his own preaching in the vernacular at Oxford and London and the teaching of his "poor priests", Wycliff spreads the doctrine that the Scriptures are the supreme authority over the church. Wycliff is condemned as a heretic in 1380 and again in 1382, and Wycliff's followers are persecuted, but Wycliff is not disturbed in his retirement at Lutterworth, where he dies in 1384. | Oxford, England |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2849) Cymene is any of three colorless isomeric liquid hydrocarbons, C10H14, obtained chiefly from the essential oils of cumin and thyme and used in the manufacture of synthetic resins. Cymene is a naturally occurring aromatic organic compound. Anthrecene, C14H10, is a solid organic compound derived from coal tar. The molecular structure of anthracene consists of three benzenelike rings joined side by side; it is therefore an aromatic compound. Cymene is the first member of the anthracene series, a group of aromatic hydrocarbons that are structurally related to it and have the general formula CnH2n−18. | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2860) | (Berlin Gewerbeschule (trade school)) Berlin, Germany (and (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany) |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2925) (Baron) Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873), German chemist discovers chloral, a sedative/hypnotic substance. | (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 2947) Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (YoKOBE) (CE 1804-1851), German mathematician discovers hyperelliptic functions. Jacobi shows that just as elliptic functions can be obtained by inverting elliptic integrals, hyperelliptic functions can also be obtained by inverting hyperelliptic integrals. This thinking leads Jacobi to the theory of Abelian functions, which are complex functions of several variables. (more info) | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 3046) Joseph Liouville (lYUVEL) (CE 1809-1882), French mathematician, creates his theory of integration in finite terms (1832â"33). The main goals of Liouville's work in this period is to decide whether given algebraic functions have integrals that can be expressed in finite (or elementary) terms. In analysis Liouville is the first to deduce the theory of doubly periodic functions (functions with two distinct periods whose ratio is not a real number) (what are doubly periodic functions whose two periods ration is real called?) from general theorems (including his own) (Liouville's theorem) in the theory of analytic functions of a complex variable (also known as holomorphic functions or regular functions; a complex-valued function defined and differentiable over some subset of the complex number plane). (See for related info) In 1836 Liouville founds and becomes editor of the "Journal des Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées" ("Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics"). Altogether, Liouville's publications comprise about 400 memoirs, articles, and notes. | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 3343) | (Institut Gaggia) Brussels, Belgium |
168 YBN [1832 AD] | 3910) | Padua, Italy (verify) |
167 YBN [07/07/1833 AD] | 2931) Asimov describes Lenz as being third in investigating electrical induction behind Faraday and Henry. | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
167 YBN [11/29/1833 AD] | 2932) Lenz's law must be taken into account in the design of electrical equipment. | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2449) Much of electricity and in particular the telegraph marks a major turn to secrecy in science, perhaps because of the nature of using technology to record the private message of people without their knowledge, and the strategic use that may provide. | (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2555) William Beaumont (BOmoNT) (CE 1785-1853), American surgeon publishes "Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion" (1833), in which Beaumont lists 238 experiments that he does on a person who survives a gunshot wound that leaves a hole (a fistula) into his stomach. Beaumont suggests using artificial fistulas (holes) in animals for further research. Beaumont is a US Army surgeon. Alexis St. Martin, a 19-year-old French-Canadian trapper has a wound from a shotgun blast. As a result of the healing of the wound, a gastric fistula, or passage, remains which, when pressed with the finger allows Beaumont to see the activities occurring within St. Martin's stomach. | Washington DC, USA |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2578) | (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2772) Eilhardt Mitscherlich (miCRliK) (CE 1794-1863), German chemist names Benzene, after producing it using the distillation of benzoic acid (from gum benzoin) and lime. Mitscherlich gives the compound the name "benzin". | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2786) | Paris, France (presumably) |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2850) Urethane is a colorless or white crystalline compound, CO(NH2)OC2H5, used in organic synthesis. Urethane is not a component of polyurethanes. | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2901) | (King's College) London, England |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2906) | Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, England |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2935) (Sir) Richard Owen (CE 1804-1892), English zoologist publishes "Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus" (London, 1832). Owen discovers the pearly nautilus which is a mollusk. In the late 1830s(chronology), Owen distingushes between 'homology' and 'analogy'. Homology is any similarity between characters that is due to their shared ancestry. An example is that ovaries and testicles are homologous; they evolve through the same pathway. Analogy is similar structures which evolved through different developmental pathways, in a process known as convergent evolution. An example is that the wings of insects, birds and bats are analogous; they perform the same function but evolved through different pathways. Owen is the first to identify the recently extinct moas of New Zealand. Owen is the first to describe the sponge "Venus' flower basket" or Euplectella (1841, 1857). Owen refuses knighthood in 1842 but accepts in 1884. Owen shows aggressive animosity for the theory of evolution by natural selection. Owen writes a very long anonymous review of Darwin's "Origin of Species" (The Edinburgh Review, 1860) to discredit Darwin. | (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 2941) (Sir) Richard Owen (CE 1804-1892), English zoologist publishes "Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Physiological Series of Comparative Anatomy" (5 vol., 1833-40) which is considered to be Owen's monumental work. | (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 3003) Lloyd writes: "Here then are two singular and unexpected consequences of the undulatory theory, not only unsupported by any phaeomena hitherto noticed, but even opposed to all the analogies derived from experience. If confirmed by experiment, they would furnish a new and almost convincing proof of the truth of that theory; and if disproved, on the other hand, it is evident that the theory must be abandoned or modified. Being naturally anxious to submit the theory of waves to this delicate test, and to ascer- tain how far these new theoretical conclusions were in accordance with actual phaenomena, Professor Hamilton requested me to undertake a series of experiments with that view. I ac- cordingly applied myself to this experimental problem with all the attention which the subject so well deserved, and have fortunately succeeded in verifying the first-mentioned species of conical refraction. I hope before long to be able to make similar researches on the second*. The editor comments: "to this direction was made by subsequent trial. The phaenomenon which presented itself, * Since we received this paper, we have been informed by the author that he has now observed phaenomena corresponding to the second species of conical refraction, and of which an account will be given in our next Number. -Edit." Lloyd continues: " The mineral I employed in these experiments was arragonite, which I selected partly on account of the magnitude of the cone which theory indicated in this instance, and partly because the three elasticities in this mineral have been determined, apparently with great care, by Professor Rudberg, and therefore the results of theory could be applied to it at once without further examination. The specimen I used was one of considerable size and purity, procured for me by Mr. Dollond, and cut with its parallel faces perpendicular to the line bisectin g the optic axes. If we suppose a ray of common light to pass in both directions out of such a crystal, along the line connecting the two cusps in the wave, it is evident that it must emerge similarly at both surfaces: consequently the ray which passes along this line, and forms a diverging cone of rays at emergence at the second surface of the crystal, must arise from a converging cone incident upon the first surface. Having therefore nearly ascertained the direction of the optic axis by means of the rings, I placed a lens of short focus at the distance of its own focal length from the first surface, and in such a position that the central rays of the pencil might after refraction pass along the axis. Then looking through the crystal at the light of a lamp placed at a considerable distance, I observed, in the expected direction, a point more luminous than the space immediately about it, and surrounded by something like a stellar radiation. Fearing that this appearance might have arisen from some imperfection in the crystal, I examined it with polarized light, and was happy to find the system of rings in the same direction. This was afterwards confirmed by numerous observations on different parts of the crystal." (Perhaps using a lens causes the circular outline. This must be the proof of the first claim by Hamilton that the incident in the shape of a cone with the point reaching the surface will be refracted as a cylinder. I think this theory is based strictly on a transverse wave, and cannot fit an equivalent particle interval beam, and therefore seems doubtful in my mind.) Lloyd publishes "Elementary Treatise on the Wave-theory of Light" in 1857 and a second edition in 1873. In this work Lloyd describes how crystalline bodies are divided into 3 classes, with respect to their action of light: "I Single refracting crystals II Uniaxal crystals or those which have one axis of double refraction III Biaxal crystals or those which have two such axes" In this work Lloyd gives his account of confirming the two theoretical refractions: "Being naturally anxious to submit the wave theory to this test and to establish or disprove its new results Sir William Hamilton requested the author to examine the subject experimentally. The result of this examination has been to prove the existence of both species of conical refraction. The first case of conical refraction is that called by Sir William Hamilton external conical refraction and was expected to take place as we have seen when a single ray passes within the crystal in the direction of either of the lines of single ray velocity. These lines coincide nearly but not exactly with the optic axes of the crystal, and in the case of arragonite, the crystal submitted to experiment contain an angle of nearly 20degrees. The plate of arragonite employed has its faces perpendicular to the line bisecting the optic axes, consequently the lines above mentioned were inclined to the perpendicular at an angle of about 10degrees on either side. Let these lines be represented by OM and ON, equally inclined to the perpendicular OP. A ray of common light traversing the crystal in the direction OM or MO should emerge in a cone of rays as represented in the figure, the angle of this cone depending on the relative magnitude of the three elasticities of the crystal a2 b2 c2. In the case of arragonite this angle is considerable and amounts to 3degrees very nearly. A thin metallic plate perforated with a very minute aperture was placed on each face of the crystal and these plates were so adjusted that the line connecting the two apertures should coincide with the line MO or any parallel line within the crystal. The flame of a lamp was then brought near one of the apertures, and in such a position that the central part of the beam converging from its several points to the aperture should have an incidence of 15 or 16degrees. When the adjustment was completed a brilliant annulus of light appeared on looking through the aperture in the second surface. (see image) When the aperture in the second plate was ever so slightly shifted so that the line connecting the two apertures no longer coincided with the line MO, the phenomenon rapidly changed and the annulus resolved itself into two separate pencils. The incident converging cone was also formed by a lens of short focus placed at the distance of its own focal length from the surface, and in this case the lamp was removed to a distance and the plate on the first surface dispensed with. The same experiments were repeated with the sun's light and the emergent rays were even thrown on a screen and thus the section of the cone observed at various distances from its summit. ... The rays that compose the emergent cone are all polarized in different planes. It was discovered by observation that these planes are connected by the following law; namely the angle between the planes of polarization of any two rays of the cone is half the angle between the planes containing the rays themselves and the axis. This law was found to be in accordance with theory. ... (191) The other case of conical refraction called internal conical refraction by Sir William Hamilton was expected to take place when a single ray has been incident externally upon a biaxal crystal in such a manner that one of the refracted rays may coincide with an optic axis (see image). The incident ray in this case should be divided into a cone of rays within the crystal the angle of which in the case of arragonite is equal to 1degree 55'. The rays composing this cone will be refracted at the second surface of the crystal in directions parallel to the ray incident on the first so as to form a small cylinder of rays in air whose base is the section of the cone made by the surface of emergence. This is represented in the annexed diagram in which NO is the incident ray, aOb the cone of refracted rays within the crystal and aa'b'b the emergent cylinder. The minuteness of this phenomenon, and the perfect accuracy required in the incidence, rendered it much more difficult to observe than the former. A thin pencil of light proceeding from a distant lamp was suffered to fall upon the crystal, and the position of the latter was altered with extreme slowness, so as to change the incidence very gradually. When the required position was attained, the two rays suddenly spread out into a continuous circle whose diameter was apparently equal to their former interval. The same experiment was repeated with the sun's light, and the emergent cylinder was received on a small screen of silver paper at various distances from the crystal, and no sensible enlargement of the section was observable on increasing the distance. The angle of this minute cone within the crystal was found to agree within very narrow limits with that deduced from theory the observed angle being 1degree 50' and the theoretical angle 1 degree55'. The rays composing the internal cone are all polarized in different planes and the law connecting these planes is the same as in the case of external conical refraction." (My own feeling about double refraction is that (see video) light is reflected off the crystal plane and this reflected beam causes the second extraordinary beam being refracted differently after reflection. The example is holding a plate of glass, such as a slide, and shining a laser beam through it, and turning the glass slide to see the "extraordinary image" rotate with the slide. In fact, there may be many surfaces that reflect light inside crystals.) Lloyd is a reverend. | (Trinity College) Dublin, Ireland |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 3004) (Sir) William Rowan Hamilton (CE 1805-1865) publishes "On a General Method of Expressing the Paths of Light and of the Planets by the Coefficients of a Characteristic Function" (1833), in which Hamilton attempts to apply his characteristic function, based on the principle of least action, to mechanics as well as to light. | (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 3014) Prior to 1833 when Graham published his work on phosphate compounds, it was thought that there were two forms of phosphoric acid which produced a variety of salts. The common form, what we now know is Na2HPO4, gave a yellow precipitate with silver nitrate and left the solution acidic. The second form resulted from heating the phosphate salt (Na2HPO4) above 350 degrees C. This form gave a white precipitate with silver nitrate and a neutral solution. Graham finds that when crystals of the neutral phosphate are heated, all but one of the water molecules in the crystal are readily lost (these are the water of hydration) and the last unit of water is not lost until the temperature is much higher. The salt that is formed from the pyrophosphate gives the white precipitate with silver nitrate. The difference between the two phosphate salts is the one water molecule. Graham then concludes that the water might play the role of a base in a salt. Continuing in this way Graham determines that there are really three phosphate salts of sodium (Na3PO4, Na2HPO4, NaH2PO4) as well as sodium pyrophosphate (Na4P2O7) and sodium metaphosphate (NaPO3).(needs visual) | (Andersonian Institution) Edinburgh, Scotland |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 3026) This book is produced with 1,000 francs of financial help from Alexander von Humboldt, who Asimov describes as the dean of Europe's scientists. Turning his attention to other extinct animals found with the fishes, Agassiz publishes in two volumes on the fossil echinoderms of Switzerland (from 1838�42), and later "�tudes critiques sur les mollusques fossiles" (from 1841�42). Agassiz's "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States" (4 vols. 1857â"62) remains uncompleted at his death. A monograph on the fishes of Brazil brings Agassiz to the attention of Georges Cuvier. Cuvier supported catastrophism, and neptunism rejecting Larmarck's theory of evolution. The supporters of catastrophism seek to try to accommodate the inaccurate creation story of the Christian Bible, where all species are created at one time. Agassiz does not accept Darwin's view of a gradual evolution of species, but, like Cuvier, considers that there have been repeated separate creations and extinctions of species, this theory explaining changes and the appearance of new forms. Agassiz, supporting the theory of catastrophism, views ice ages as catastrophes (which they were for many species). Agassiz imagines as many as 20 repeated creations. In 1836 the Wollaston medal is awarded to Agassiz for his work on fossil ichthyology. Agassiz pronounces that there are several species of humans, an argument used by pro-slavery supporters to justify their subjugation of Negroid people as an inferior species. Asimov states that Agassiz is "firmly convinced of the inherent inferiority of blacks". This view, that a race of humans is somehow inferior to another race is erroneous and elitist in my opinion. Agassiz is the most prominent biologist in the USA to oppose evolution. In 1859 as professor of zoology and geology at Harvard, Agassiz establishes the Museum of Comparative Zoology. (It is difficult when people with bad ethics have contributions to science. The contributions we love, but their ethics we do not. Such is the case with Louis Alvarez with his support for the fraudulent single-bullet theory, and numerous others, even Darwin wrongly believed the Negroid race to be inferior to the Caucasian race. The history of science is filled with people making science contributions that have terrible or shockingly inaccurate beliefs or ethics. What is clear to me is that accurate truths should be accepted no matter how unpleasant the source, because truth exists independently of the source of information, something is either true or false based only on physical evidence, not based on the ethics of the person making the scientific claim. Although, certainly, poor ethics, a history of dishonesty and/or inaccurate views, certainly does and no doubt should, effect a person's willingness to explore the claims of people who are consistently dishonest or inaccurate.) | (University of Neuch�tel) Neuch�tel, Switzerland |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 3027) Arnold Henry Guyot (GEO) (CE 1807-1884), the person whom Harry Hammond Hess names flat-topped sea mountains for, studies the structure and movement of glaciers in Switzerland, spending time testing the new theories of Louis Agassiz. | (University of Neuch�tel) Neuch�tel, Switzerland |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 3393) Walter Hancock's (CE 1799-1852) steam bus ("The Enterprise"). By this time several steam coaches drive the roads in England. | London, England |
167 YBN [1833 AD] | 5989) Of a distinguished intellectual, artistic and banking family in Berlin, Mendelssohn grows up in a privileged environment (the family converts from Judaism to Christianity in 1816, taking the additional name "Bartholdy").(Is seems to me absurd to have a religion, to change religion, or to change your name when you change religion. But those are all, of course, personal nonviolent activities that people must be allowed.) Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Felix's older sister, also composes music. | London, England |
166 YBN [01/01/1834 AD] | 1247) Mechanical reaper. A reaper is any farm machine that cuts grain. Early reapers simply cut the crop and drop it unbound, but modern machines include harvesters, combines, and binders, which also perform other harvesting operations. Cyrus McCormick builds a practical mechanical harvester. The Roman historian Pliny the Younger (62-113 CE) describes a harvesting machine that is in use by Celtic people in Gaul in 100 CE, but this machine is not adapted elsewhere and seems to disappear from use after the year 500. A patent for a reaper was issued in England to Joseph Boyce in 1800. In 1826 Patrick Bell builds a plane reaper which cuts and gathers wheat with serrated rotary blades. In the 1830s Jeremiah Bailey of the United States patents a mower-reaper, and Obed Hussey and Cyrus McCormick both develop reapers with guards and reciprocating (back-and-forth-moving) cutting blades. McCormick’s reaper has the several advantages over Hussy's in having a divider to separate cut and standing grain and a revolving reel to topple the cut grain onto the rear of the machine, where it can be raked off onto the ground and later tied. Robert McCormick attempts to build an automatic horse-drawn reaper that can be mass produced, but abandons the project. However, Robert inspired his son Cyrus (1809-1884) who invents a practical mechanical harvester in 1831 and patents it in 1834. (Note that all moving parts are driven by the movement of the wheel on the ground, pulled by the horses. Imagine cutting grain by hand with a scythe. In the future walking robots will probably do almost all the work required in planting, growing, harvesting, packaging and distributing food to humans. Walking robots and tiny machines may even target insects that feed on plants meant for humans.) | Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2497) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) reports finding organic matter, "humic acid", in a meteorite, in "Annalen der physikalisches Chemie". Such meteorites are called "carbonaceous chondrites". | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2539) Asimov comments that around this time astronomers are moving from exploring the solar system as Laplace and others had done, and exploring the outer stars. | Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2557) | london, England (presumbly) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2570) | Rhône River valley, Switzerland |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2622) Gideon Mantell (maNTeL) (CE 1790-1852) buys the skeleton for £25. | Sussex, England (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2741) In 1842, following repeated failures to obtain funding from the First Lord of the Treasury, Babbage approaches Sir Robert Peel for funding. Peel refused, and offers Babbage a knighthood instead which Babbage refuses. Babbage continues to modify and improve the design of his Analytical Engine for many years to come. The principles of the Analytical Engine will be later realized electronically. It is interesting to think about the electrical engineers perspective on this clearly all mechanical approach, as clearly electric computers will evolve from these early mechanical machines. With the invention of walking robots, there is an integration of electronics (and the nervous system) and mechanical design (as the muscular system). | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2758) Lovelace has been called the first computer programmer. Mathematics for Lady Byron, Ada Byron's mother, is first a mode of moral discipline. Accordingly, Lady Byron arranges a full study schedule for her child, emphasizing music and arithmetic-music to be put to purposes of social service, arithmetic to train the mind. Lovelace goes against traditional Victorian society by studying mathematics which is a (skill) few women attempt. Biographers debate the extent of Lovelace's original contributions, with some holding that the programs were written by Babbage himself. Babbage writes in his "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher" (1846): "I then suggested that she add some notes to Menabrea's memoir, an idea which was immediately adopted. We discussed together the various illustrations that might be introduced: I suggested several but the selection was entirely her own. So also was the algebraic working out of the different problems, except, indeed, that relating to the numbers of Bernoulli, which I had offered to do to save Lady Lovelace the trouble. This she sent back to me for an amendment, having detected a grave mistake which I had made in the process. The notes of the Countess Lovelace extend to about three times the length of the original memoir. Their author entered fully into almost all the very difficult and abstract questions connected with the subject." Lovelace labels her seven "Notes" with the letters A through G. "Note A" distinguishes between Babbage's Difference Engine and his Analytical Engine. This note describes a general purpose computer that will not be invented for more than 100 years (although much of this technology has been kept secret from the public and must be investigated). In "Note B", Lovelace looks at the concept of computer memory and the ability to insert statements to indicate what is happening to the person looking at the program. This idea is similar to the current practice of using REM or non-executable remark statements in a program. Lovelace expands on a method called "backing" in "Note C". This allows for the operation cards to be put back in the correct order so that they could be used again and again like a loop or subroutine. "Note D" is a very complex explanation of how to write a set of instructions or a program to accomplish a set of operations. "Note E", Baum a biographer of Lovelace, clearly states "emphasize the versatility of the Analytical Engine and suggests, in its brief description of operation cards which designate cycles, modern-day function keys". "Note F" explains how the Analytical Engine can solve difficult problems and eliminate error. This allows for the solving of problems that were prohibitive due to the constraints of time, labor and funds. Baum also notes that Lovelace wonders "if the engine might not be set to investigate formulas of no apparent practical interest ⦠as computers are used today, to find problems rather than to solve them". The last and probably the most mathematically complex and most quoted of Lovelace's notations is "Note G". In this note, Lovelace states what some have referred to as "Lady Lovelace's Objection" or, in the more modern phrasing, "garbage in, garbage out". Basically, that the computer's output is only as good as the information it is given. "Note G" also includes an actual illustration of how the engine can produce a table of Bernoulli numbers. Lovelace, originally Augusta Ada Byron, is the daughter of the notorious English Romantic poet, Lord Byron. Five weeks after Lovelace's birth, her mother, Lady Byron, left her abusive husband and Lady Byron takes control of her daughter's upbringing. Lovelace is educated privately by tutors and then self-educated but is helped in her advanced studies by mathematician-logician Augustus De Morgan, the first professor of mathematics at the University of London. De Morgan describes Ada as "an original mathematical investigator, perhaps of first-rate eminence". On July 8, 1835, Ada Byron marries William King who is then the eighth Baron King. In 1838, King becomes the 1st Earl of Lovelace and Ada becomes the Countess of Lovelace. Ada's husband is 11 years older than she and considered to be somewhat reserved. He does, however, take pride in his wife's mathematical talents and supported her endeavors. His approval is quite fortunate for Ada Byron Lovelace as few women of her station in Victorian England are encouraged to pursue academic interests of any kind. In fact, those of the aristocracy consider practicing a profession to be beneath them. For that reason, Lovelace only signs the initials, "A.A.L." to her "Notes". So Lovelace is limited by her class status as much as by her gender with regard to her passion for mathematics. Lovelace first meets Babbage when she is 18 at a dinner party hosted by Mary Fairfax Somerville, the 1800s most prominent woman scientist. Despite the fact that Babbage is 23 years older, Babbage becomes Lovelace's good friend and intellectual mentor. Lovelace is immediately intrigued when she first sees Babbage's Difference Engine and plans for the Analytical Engine in 1834. "ADA", a computer programming language, is named for Ada Lovelace. Ada Lovelace was bled to death at the age of 36 by her physicians, while trying to cure her uterine cancer. Lovelace will not obtain widespread recognition until the historian, Lord B.V. Bowden, rediscovers her "Notes" in 1952 and has them reprinted the following year, 110 years after their original publication. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2787) Cellulose is now known to be the main constituent of cell walls in most plants, and is important in the manufacture of numerous products with fibrous components, such as paper, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and explosives. | Paris, France (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2793) Ernst Heinrich Weber (VABR) (CE 1795-1878), German physiologist determines that there was a threshold of sensation that must be passed before an increase in the intensity of any (nervous system) stimulus (such as different shades of light, or different weights) can be detected. Weber publishes this finding in "De Tactu" (1834, "Concerning Touch"). Weber describes a terminal threshold for all senses, the maximum stimulus beyond which no further sensation can be (detected). Weber formulates what will be called "Weber's law", that the increase in stimulus necessary to produce an increase in sensation is not fixed but depends on the strength of the preceding stimulus. (I have doubts about this, but perhaps.) This examining of the nervous system will result in Michael Pupin researching the possibility of seeing what eyes see from behind the brain, which leads to Pupin successfully seeing what the eye sees, and images the brain produces in 1910. | (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2822) Clapeyron emphasizes the fact, already contained in Carnot"s work, that the efficiency of a reversible engine depends only on the temperatures of the source and sink. In the introduction to his paper Clapeyron writes that one of the basic ideas contained in Carnot"s work is that "it is impossible to create motive power or heat out of nothing", and that from here one can conclude, for example, that the difference in the heat capacities of a gas is the same for all gases. (Is it true that all gases absorb the same amount of heat? Because different gases absorb different frequencies of light.) This is before the concept of absolute temperature is established. Instead of absolute temperature, Clapeyron uses the Mariotte-Gay-Lussac law in this form (see image). Clapeyron writes the relation (see image) (v super L is volume of liquid, and v super G is volume of gas, dP over dt is change in pressure over a unit of time, and C is the number of calories of heat?) where k is the latent heat vaporization (which he calls latent caloric) per unit volume of vapor. Clapeyron remarks that k is never infinite but can be zero when both phases have the same density (critical point). This equation is essentially the same as (the current form of the equation) if C is taken as the absolute temperature multiplied by the conversion factor between heat and mechanical work units. In his paper Clapeyron indicates that no experimental data are available to determine the value of C except for t = 0. Using the value CP/CV = 1.412 found by Dulong, Clapeyron calculates 1/C to be 1.41 at 0 °C and therefore the value 386 as the mechanical equivalent kg.m kcal-1. Although this equation has been determined using a cycle in the liquid-vapor (transition), it is clear that the same result would be obtained if the cycle is performed either in the solid-gas or in the solid-liquid (transitions). Clapeyron designs and constructs locomotives and metal bridges. | Paris, France |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2851) Methanol, once produced by destructive distillation of wood, is now usually made from the methane in natural gas. Methanol is produced commercially from a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2). Methanol is an important industrial material; its derivatives are used in great quantities for making a vast number of compounds, among them many important synthetic dyes, resins, drugs, and perfumes. Methanol is also used in automotive antifreezes, rocket fuels, and as a solvent. Methanol is flammable and explosive. A clean-burning fuel, methanol may substitute (in part) for gasoline. Methanol is also used to denature of ethanol (for sale without the regulations of drinking alcohol (ethyl alcohol)). A violent poison, methanol causes blindness and eventually death when drunk. (Perhaps not the best idea to mix with ethyl alcohol and sell to the public, but prohibition is not known for its logic. It rings of the vindicative "serves them right" violent nature of many prohibitionists and conservatives in general.) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2853) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2890) Johannes Peter Müller (MYUlR) (CE 1801-1858), German physiologist, publishes "Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen" (2 vols., 1834-40, "Handbook of Human Physiology"). This book becomes the leading textbook in human physiology and is revised and re-published many times. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2896) | Lyon, France (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2899) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist uses a revolving mirror to measure the speed of electricity in a conductor. (more info, describe experiment) The same revolving mirror, by Wheatstone's suggestion, is later used in measurements of the speed of light. Wheatstone measures the speed of electricity to be 576,000 miles in a second (one fluid theory) or 288,000 miles in a second (two fluid theory), and concludes that "...the velocity of electricity through a copper wire exceeds that of light through the planetary space.". The great velocity of electrical transmission suggests the possibility of utilizing electricity for sending messages. The mirror's rotation is powered by a cord and pulley in order to count the exact rate of mirror turning. In order to measure the velocity of electricity through a wire, Wheatstone uses 0.8km (half a mile) of wire. Wheatstone cuts the wire at the middle, to form a gap which a spark leaps across, and connects the ends of the wire to the poles of a Leyden jar filled with electricity. Three sparks are therefore produced, one at either end of the wire (when the Leyden jar discharges to the two ends of the wire), and another at the middle (when the electric current has passed through each of the two segments of wire). (needs visual) Wheatstone mounts a tiny mirror on the works of a watch, so that the mirror revolves at a high velocity (800 rotations per second), and observes the reflections of the three sparks in it. The points of the wire are so arranged that if the sparks are instantaneous, their reflections appear in one straight line; but the middle one is seen to lag behind the others, because it is an instant later. The electricity takes a certain time to travel from the ends of the wire to the middle. This time is found by measuring the amount of lag, and comparing it with the known velocity of the mirror. Any difference in time between the sparks is converted into an angular separation, since the mirror turns slightly during the tiny interval between the sparks, resulting in slightly displaced reflections. The smearing of light in the reflected images indicate the duration of the sparks and their relative displacement gives a value for the speed of electricity. Having the time, Wheatstone can compare that with the length of half the wire, and he can find the velocity of electricity. However experimental or calculation error leads Wheatstone to conclude that this velocity is 288,000 miles per second, an impossible value as it is faster than the speed of light. Until this time, many people had considered the electric discharge to be instantaneous; but it was afterwards found that its velocity depended on the nature of the conductor, its resistance, and its electro-static capacity (by Ohm who uses the same law as Fourier for heat). Michael Faraday (goes on to show), for example, that the velocity of electric current in an underwater wire, coated with insulator, is only 144,000 miles per second (232,000 km/s), or still less. Arago is in Britain for the 1834 Edinburgh meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and may learn of Wheatstone's mirror then. Arago suggests to his fellow Academicians using a rotating mirror to test the speed of light. On the advice of Arago, Wheatstone's rotating mirror device is used by Léon Foucault and Hippolyte Fizeau to measure the velocity of light. William Watson had tried to measure the speed of electricity in 1748. This experiment is important to electronic telegraphy, (which Wheatstone is invested in, in England) because the thought is that if electrical propagation is a diffusion phenomenon, like heat, long distance communication might be impractical. | (King's College) London, England |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2913) Germain Henri Hess (CE 1802-1850), Swiss-Russian chemist, publishes a chemistry textbook that is the standard for Russia until the textbook by Mendeléev. Hess finds that the oxidation of sugars yields saccharic acid. | (University of Saint Petersberg) Saint Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 2916) Antoine Jérôme Balard (BoloR) (CE 1802-1876), French chemist discovers (1834) discovered dichlorine oxide (Cl2O) and chloric(I) acid (HClO) (a strongly oxidizing unstable chlorine acid that exists only in solution and as chlorates). | (Montpellier École de Pharmacie) Montpellier, France |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 3000) | (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 3061) Valentin is the first Jewish human to be hired as a professor in a German-language university (although the University (of Bern) is not in Germany itself), and the first Jewish person to be granted citizenship of the city of Bern. | (Breslau now:) Wrocław, Poland (presumably) |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 3076) Bunsen's father, Christian Bunsen, is chief librarian and professor of modern philology at the University of Göttingen. In 1830, Bunsen takes his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Göttingen. Bunsen never marries. Bunsen does not allow organic research in his lab. Chemists who come to study with Bunsen at Heidelberg include Adolph Kolbe, Edward Frankland, Victor and Lothar Meyer, Friedrich Beilstein, Johann Baeyer and Dmitri Mendeleev. Bunsen makes the University of Heidelberg one of the major world centers of chemical research. In 1860, Bunsen is awarded the Copley Medal. In 1877, Bunsen and Kirchhoff receive the first Davy Medal. In 1898 the Albert Medal in awarded to Bunsen in recognition of Bunsen's many scientific contributions to industry. | (University of Göttingen), Göttingen, Germany |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 3085) | (University of Göttingen), Göttingen, Germany |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 3272) | New york City, NY, USA |
166 YBN [1834 AD] | 3453) | Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
165 YBN [01/29/1835 AD] | 3459) | (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
165 YBN [02/06/1835 AD] | 2810) Henry becomes an unwilling participant in the protracted litigation over the scope and validity of Morse's patents. Between 1849 and 1852 the defendants in three infringement suits subpoena Henry in the hopes that his statements would weaken or invalidate Morse's claims, and Henry's testimony proves crucial to the Supreme Court's 1854 split decision that strikes down Morse's broadest claim. Henry claims that he does not want to become a party to this controversy and that he gives his statement unwillingly, only under subpoena. | Princeton, NJ, USA |
165 YBN [08/12/1835 AD] | 2900) | (King's College) London, England |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2420) For this work Biot was awarded the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society in 1840. | Paris, France (presumably) |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2498) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2550) Sedgwick strongly opposes Darwin's theory of evolution, although Sedgwick is the first to recognize Darwin's talent. In 1818 Sedgwick is elected to the Woodwardian Chair of Geology (at Cambridge), a post Sedgwick holds until his death. In 1829 Sedgwick is president of the Geological Society. | Cambridge, England |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2638) In October 1832 Morse returns to the United States from Italy aboard the packet-ship Sully. On the voyage Morse meet Charles Thomas Jackson, a doctor and inventor and the two discuss electromagnetism. Morse learns about Ampère's idea for the electric telegraph. Jackson assured Morse that an electric impulse can be carried along even a very long wire. Morse later recalls that he reacted to this news with the thought that "if this be so, and the presence of electricity can be made visible in any desired part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence might not be instantaneously transmitted by electricity to any distance." Morse immediately makes some sketches of a device to accomplish this purpose. Morse's shipboard sketches of 1832 have clearly laid out the three major parts of the telegraph: a sender which opens and closes an electric circuit, a receiver which used an electromagnet to (convert the electronic signal back into mechanical movement), and a code which translates the signal into letters and numbers. These notes, made aboard the Sully are still in the Morse papers in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.. Morse works for the next 12 years, with the aid of the chemist Leonard Gale, physicist Joseph Henry, and machinist Alfred Vail to perfect his own version of the instrument. So many phases of the telegraph, however, have already been anticipated by other inventors, especially in Great Britain, Germany, and France, that Morse's originality as the inventor of telegraphy has been questioned; even the Morse code does not differ greatly from earlier codes, including the semaphore. The first telegraphs were in the form of optical telegraphs which include smoke signals and beacons. One of the most successful of the visual telegraphs was the semaphore developed in France by the Chappe brothers, Claude and Ignace, in 1791. This system consisted of pairs of movable arms mounted at the ends of a crossbeam on hilltop towers. Each arm of the semaphore could assume seven angular positions 45° apart, and the horizontal beam could tilt 45° clockwise or counterclockwise. In this manner it was possible to represent numbers and the letters of the alphabet. Chains of these towers were built to permit transmission over long distances. The towers were spaced at intervals of 5 to 10 kilometres (3 to 6 miles), and a signaling rate of three symbols per minute could be achieved. Even from stars in a globular cluster to other stars in the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, perhaps there are transmitting and receiving stations because if the message is emitted in all directions, a very intense light is needed, like a star, we only see a few photons of the many that a star emits, but if the signals are directed to a specific direction which is much more efficient, the longer the distance between a sender and receiver the more complex the calculation of all the many pieces of matter in between that influence the two points, their positions and velocities, in particular the sender and receiver positions, and where the receiving object will be when the photons finally arrive at the receiver. So there probably needs to be relatively short range relay stations even between star clusters and their exploring voyagers. The invention of the voltaic cell in 1800 by Alessandro Volta of Italy helps to make the electric telegraph (and so many other electric inventions) a reality. The word telegraphy comes from Greek. "Tele" means distant and "graphein" to write. So the meaning is "writing at a distance". This telegraph is believed by many to this day to have been the scientific work of Joseph Henry, which Morse exploits. Morse's father Jedediah Morse is a Congregational Pastor and author of "Geography Made Easy", the first book on geography printed in the United States. Morse's mother is the daughter of the man who founded Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Morse attends Yale from 1808 to 1810, attends lectures on electricity, and spends a vacation assisting with electrical experiments. After 1825, Morse settles in New York City and paints portraits. As part of a campaign against the licentiousness (sexually unrestrained or going beyond customary limits nature) of the theater (stage), Morse helps launch, in 1827, the New York Journal of Commerce, which refuses theater advertisements. On 10/02/1832 Morse is hired as the professor of the literature of arts and design at the University of the City of New York (now New York University), which had been founded one year earlier. Morse receives no salary and must depend on fees from his students and the occasional sale of a portrait. Both Morse and John Draper are instrumental in introducing the daguerreotype in the United States. Morse enters politics, for mayor of New York (City) as a member of the "Native American" party, a group of anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant people. Morse does not acknowledge Henry's help. In 1837 Morse receives a patent on a telegraph in the USA. Morse's patent is rejected in England, where a similar device has already been developed. In 1854, a U.S. Supreme Court decision established Morse's patent rights. During the Civil War, Morse sympathizes with the South, even though he is a Northerner because of his belief that Negro slavery is justified. Morse is made a charter member of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans on the campus of New York University, but the authentically great American Henry is not elected until 1915. In his old age Morse is a founder and trustee of Vassar College, donates money to his alma mater, Yale College; and to churches, theological seminaries, Bible societies, mission societies, and temperance societies (people that want to jail those who use alcohol), as well as to poor artists. | New York City, New York, USA |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2671) The first railway is constructed in Germany, between Nuremberg and Furth. | Nuremberg (and Furth), Germany |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2673) | Bonn, Germany |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2736) Gustave Gaspard de Coriolis (KOrYOlES) (CE 1792-1843), French physicist, publishes "Théorie mathématique des effets du jeu de billiard" (1835, "Mathematical Theory of the Game of Billiards"). | Paris, France |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2738) The Coriolis "force", is an example of how a natural cumulative effect of motion of many particles due to gravity and collision can be described as a separate distinct force. This is why I prefer to call this an "effect" or "phenomenon", although "force" is fine, but people should recognize that this is a cumulative effect of a more fundamental force of gravity. | Paris, France |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2796) Adolphe Quetelet (full: Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet) (KeTlA) (CE 1796-1874), Belgian astronomer and statistician applies statistical analysis to humans. In 1830, Quetelet is supervisor of statistics for Belgium where he develops many of the rules governing modern census taking and stimulates statistical activity in other countries. For the Dutch and Belgian governments, Quetelet collects and analyzes statistics on crime, mortality, and other subjects and devises improvements in census taking. Quetelet records various measurements of human properties, for example height and then graphs the results which shows that the results fit a bell-shaped curve. Queteley uses these statistics to social phenomena, and develops the concept of the "average man". In this way Queteley establishes the theoretical foundations for the use of statistics in social physics or what is now called sociology. Therefore Queteley is considered by many to be the founder of modern quantitative social science. Quetelet publishes this analysis in "Sur l'homme et le développement de ses facultés, ou essai de physique sociale" (1835, tr Eng 1842, "A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties"). In 1828 Quetelet is the first director of the Royal Observatory at Brussels, a position held until his death in 1874. | Brussels, Belgium |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2829) Talbot writes: "(In) October, 1833, I was amusing myself on the lovely shores of the Lake of Como in Italy, taking sketches with a Camera Lucida, or rather, I should say, attempting to make them; but with the smallest possible amount of success... After various fruitless attempts I laid aside the instrument and came to the conclusion that its use required a previous knowledge of drawing which unfortunately I did not possess. I then thought of trying again a method which I had tried many years before. This method was to take a Camera Obscura and to throw the image of the objects on a piece of paper in its focus - fairy pictures, creations of a moment, and destined as rapidly to fade away... It was during these thoughts that the idea occurred to me... how charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably and remain fixed on the paper!" Talbot describes how he captures a paper negative: ".. I constructed {a camera obscura} out of a large box, the image being thrown upon one end of it by a good object-glass fixed at the opposite end. The apparatus being armed with a sensitive paper, was taken out in a summer afternoon, and placed about one hundred yards from a building favourably illuminated by the sun. An hour or so afterwards I opened the box and I found depicted upon the paper a very distinct representation of the building, with the exception of those parts of it which lay in the shade. A little experience in this branch of the art showed me that with a smaller camera obscura the effect would be produced in a smaller time. Accordingly I had several small boxes made, in which I fixed lenses of shorter focus, and with these I obtained very perfect, but extremely small pictures ..." | Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2864) | Paris?, France (verify) |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2865) | Paris?, France (verify) |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 2939) | (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 3017) | (Andersonian Institution) Edinburgh, Scotland |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 3028) Other achievements of Laurent include discovering anthracene, 1832; obtaining phthalic acid from napthalene, 1836; and showing that carbolic acid is phenol, 1841. The collected papers of Laurent are published posthumously in "Methode de Chimie" (1854; "Method of Chemistry"). Liebig, Gmelin, and Beilstein come to accept Laurent's view, Wöhler sides with Berzelius. Laurent presents three-dimensional models of molecules. In 1844 Laurent is one of the first chemists to embrace Avogadro's law. Laurent sees that chemists must distinguish clearly between atoms, molecules, and equivalents. Laurent regards the molecules of hydrogen, oxygen, and others as consisting of two atoms, forming what he calls a "homogeneous compound", which, by double decomposition, could form "heterogeneous compounds". This provides a basis for the accurate determination of atomic weights. In 1892 Laurent's suggestion for naming organic chemicals forms the basis of the Geneva nomenclature adopted for organic chemistry. In 1850 Laurent is the best-qualified candidate for the chair of chemistry at the Collège de France, but his appointment was vetoed by the Academy of Sciences, some of whose members are worried by Laurent's radical republican views in the tense atmosphere of conservative reaction that had set in after the Revolutions of 1848. Laurent dies of tuberculosis at age 44. (Perhaps an argument can be made for atoms holding together by the force of gravity or because of collision. Currently the view is that valence electrons hold atoms together in molecules, which seems a development of Berzelius' view of oppositely electrically charged atoms holding together. This may involve how electrons are gained or lost on atoms, or shared between atoms in a molecule, for example, where chlorine is thought to have 7 outer orbiting electrons, and is viewed as more likely to accept an eighth electron, hydrogen is seen as having only one electron and more likely to donate the electron. If a stable hydrogen shell is 2 electrons, perhaps adding an electron to hydrogen is a stable configuration for hydrogen. In this sense, hydrogen might be viewed as being just an atom that can gain an electron just as easily as lose an electron, however, the most common form of hydrogen is the single electron hydrogen and a second electron would cause a negative hydrogen ion which I don't think has ever been observed. Bromine is under Chlorine and is a similar single electron accepter, NO2 may also be a similar single electron accepter. If true, perhaps other molecules show the same property of Hydrogen and Chlorine being electron accepters. Are there any other known examples that violate the idea of atoms with opposite electrically balanced outer shells of atoms (1 electron versus 7, etc) bonding? The current view is that atoms are electrically neutral unless in the form of ions. The current view is also that an atom attaches to a molecule based on what makes the number of electrons in its outer (valence) electron shell most stable.) (Atoms and molecules are so small, and there are so many pieces of matter put together, that I think humans should keep an open mind about the physical structure of atoms without yet or perhaps ever physically seeing all the objects involved.) | Paris, France (presumably) |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 3226) | Belgium |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 3300) | (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 3781) | Paris, France (presumably) |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 3896) | Lodi, Italy (verify) |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 5982) Nicolò Paganini (CE 1782-1840), Italian violinist and composer, composes "Moto Perpetuo" ("Perpetual Motion"). (verify) | Parma, Italy |
165 YBN [1835 AD] | 5993) | Paris, France |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2579) | (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2605) | Copenhagen, Denmark |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2670) | Göttingen, Germany |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2672) Carl August von Steinheil (CE 1801-1870) erects a single insulated wire on wooden poles parallel to the railway track and uses the rails and Earth as return conductors. (Was this a telegraph? Was this done with railway and government participation?) | Göttingen, Germany |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2703) In 1836 Michael Faraday observes that the charge on a charged conductor is located only on its exterior and has no influence on anything enclosed within it. To demonstrate this fact Faraday builds a room (size?) coated with metal foil and allows high-voltage discharges from an electrostatic generator to strike the outside of the room. He uses an electroscope to show that there is no electric charge present on the inside of the room's walls. The same effect was predicted earlier by Francesco Beccaria (1716-1781) at the University of Turin, a student of Benjamin Franklin, who stated that "all electricity goes up to the free surface of the bodies without diffusing in their interior substance.". Later, the Belgian physicist Louis Melsens (1814-1886) applied the principle to lightning conductors. Another researcher of this concept was Gauss (Gaussian surfaces). A metal mesh cage also stops photon radio signals. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2780) This map is the first lunar map to be divided into quadrants. In 1878, J.F. Julius Schmidt's lunar map will surpass this map in detail. | Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2813) It is possible that people were murdered with high voltage from this point on, although an autopsy might reveal burned tissue. | Maynooth, Ireland |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2852) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2863) Pure acetylene is a colorless gas with a pleasant odor; as prepared from calcium carbide it usually contains traces of phosphine that cause an unpleasant garliclike odor. Pure acetylene under pressure in excess of about 15 pounds per square inch or in liquid or solid form explodes with extreme violence. Davy first makes acetylene from a compound produced during the manufacture of potassium from potassium tartrate and charcoal, which under certain conditions yields a black compound decomposed by water with considerable violence and the evolution of acetylene. This compound is afterwards fully investigated by J. J. Berzelius, who shows it to be potassium carbide. Davy also makes the corresponding sodium compound and shows that it evolves the same gas. In 1862 F. Wohler will first makes calcium carbide, and find that water decomposes it into lime and acetylene. Not until 1892 T. L. Wilson in America and H. Moissan in France independently find that if lime and carbon are fused together at the temperature of the electric furnace, the lime is reduced to calcium, which unites with the excess of carbon present to form calcium carbide. The cheap production of this material and the easy liberation by its aid of acetylene at once gaives the gas a position of commercial importance. Edmund Davy is cousin and lab assistant of Humprey Davy. Starting in 1813 Edmund Davy is professor of Chemistry at Cork Institution. Starting in 1826 Edmund Davy is professor of chemistry at the Royal Dublin Society. | (Royal Dublin Society) Dublin, Ireland (presumably) |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2867) | Auch?, France |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 2926) | London, England (presumably) |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 3066) Asa Gray (CE 1810-1888), US botanist, publishes "Elements of Botany" (1836). In 1842 Gray if professor of natural history at Harvard University. In 1851 Gray meets Darwin. In 1865, Gray donates the thousands of books and plants he has collected at his own expense to Harvard, and this results in the establishment of the botany department at Harvard. On Sept. 5, 1857, Darwin writes Gray a famous letter in which Darwin outlines his theory of the evolution of species by natural selection. Gray reviews Darwin's "Origin of Species" (1859) in the "American Journal of Science", of which Gray is a coeditor. Gray supports Darwin's theory of evolution in the United States (with Agassiz opposing) and writes numerous popular botanical books on North American plants. Gray boldy supports Darwinism in the United States against the objections of religious leaders and debates the point vigorously with the antievolutionist Agassiz. As a prominent religious person, Gray cannot be dismissed as an atheist (which is stupid anyway, since ultimately the truth of a theory should be the important thing, not the religious or political beliefs of the source), and this gives Gray's support more influence. Gray argues that natural selection is guided by a God, which Darwin disagrees with. (possibly move to chronological) | New York City, NY, USA |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 3070) Schwann is an assistant to the physiologist Johannes Peter Müller (1834–38) at the University of Berlin. The last 40 years of Schwann's life he dedicates to mysticism and religious meditation. (How can people go backwards like that? In accumulating information, I think most people must get smarter and more well informed as they age.) After leaving the influence of Müller, Schwann's productivity practically ceases; in Belgium Schwann only publishes one paper, on the use of bile. In 1845 Schwann receives the Copley Medal. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 3071) | (University of Louvain) Louvain, Belgium (verify) |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 3590) | London, England (presumably) |
164 YBN [1836 AD] | 3897) | (Charite Hospital) Paris, France |
163 YBN [06/12/1837 AD] | 2647) In this same year Samuel Morse demonstrates an electric telegraph that produces coded written messages and so the era of electric telegraphy starts in 1837 almost simultaneously in Great Britain and the United States. (Those people who own the telegraph companies, store and read the telegraph messages of people, and this informs them of what is going on. This system of recording public communications is adopted by the telephone companies who record phone calls, and even extend the system by putting microphones and cameras to see visible and infrared light, and even deadly lasers inside the majority of people's houses under the excuse of national security and in the interest of data collection and crime solving, however, the system is ultimately used to facilitate violence and protect powerful violent criminal people. This is done, presumably, in all nations with electrical communications systems.) | England (presumably) (more specific) |
163 YBN [07/??/1837 AD] | 3995) | Salem, Massachusetts, USA |
163 YBN [09/04/1837 AD] | 2674) Samuel Morse (CE 1791-1872) sends a telegraph message on a wire 550m long in his classroom. This demonstration results in the partnership of Morse, Gale and Alfred Vail. Vail's wealthy father finances the development of the telegraph, including paying for Morse's patent. Alfred Vail builds the instrument and receives 25% interest in the invention. | New York City, New York, USA |
163 YBN [10/17/1837 AD] | 4008) | St. Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
163 YBN [11/16/1837 AD] | 3663) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2435) | Turin, Italy (presumably) |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2521) | Paris, France |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2580) | (University of Bresslau) Bresslau, Prussia (now: Wroclaw, Poland)|Delivered before the Congress of Physicians and Scientists in Prague |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2602) Boucher de Perthes is the director of the customhouse (a building where customs and duties are paid or collected and where vessels are entered and cleared) at Abbeville, near the mouth of the Somme River, and devotes his leisure to archaeological searches in the Somme valley. (So de Perthes is not employed in a university, but has a natural interest in science and archeology.) | Abbeville, France |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2626) This research serves as the basis for Hall's theory of reflex action, which states that the spinal cord is made of a chain of units and that each of these units functions as an independent reflex (unit which Hall calls an "arc"); that the function of each arc arises from the activity of sensory and motor nerves and the segment of the spinal cord from which these nerves originate; and that the arcs are interconnected, interacting with one another and the brain to produce coordinated movement. (explain more nature of units - or arcs, are these nerve ganglions/bundles?) Hall theorizes that reflex actions such as pulling a finger away from something hot before knowing it is hot, is from nerve impulses to and from the spinal chord (without going all the way to the brain). | London, England (presumably) |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2630) In the early 1830s, Daniell becomes deeply interested in the work of his friend Michael Faraday and so turned to electrochemistry for his main research interest at that time. A major problem with the Volta pile is that it can not provide current for a sustained period of time. (William) Sturgeon (the inventor of the electromagnet) worked on the problem and in 1830 produced a battery with longer life than that of Volta by amalgamating the zinc (to blend with another metal (which metal?)). Contributing to the major problem with batteries is a thin film of hydrogen bubbles that forms over the positive electrode. The thin film of hydrogen causes increased internal resistance of the battery that reduces the battery's effective electromotive force (voltage). This process of a thin film of hydrogen collecting on the electrode is known as polarization. Daniell begins experiments in 1835 in an attempt to improve the Voltaic battery with its problem of being unsteady and as a weak source of electrical current. Daniell soon achieves remarkable results. In 1836, Daniell invents a primary cell in which hydrogen is eliminated in the generation of the electricity and this solves the problem of polarization. In his laboratory Daniell learns to alloy the amalgamated zinc of Sturgeon with mercury. Daniell's battery is the first of the two-fluid class battery and the first battery that produces a constant reliable source of electrical current over a long period of time. That is, the power remains constant with this type of battery upon repeated application without removing the metals which is a source of weakness in all single fluid batteries. Until now the current of other batteries rapidly declines. Daniell's placement of a barrier between the copper and zinc plates stops the hydrogen from forming. The Volta battery (or pile) emits free hydrogen by the electrolyte which then migrates to the positive copper pole. The hydrogen accumulates on the pole to form a barrier that soon stops the flow of the current. Both single fluid and two-fluid batteries use solutions to create the electricity. Daniell's battery consists of a cylindrical copper vessel that serves as the passive plate (or pole). A porous earthenware container or partition that holds a zinc rod or active plate (or pole) is placed inside the outer copper vessel. The space between the copper and the porous cup is filled with a solution of copper sulfate which keeps saturated by crystals of the (copper) salt lying on a perforated shelf. The porous cup is filled with dilute sulfuric acid. The porous earthenware keeps the fluids from mixing without stopping the passage of current; the earthenware barrier allows (hydrogen) ions to move through while the reaction of the cell is taking place. (The replacement of Zinc for hydrogen in the sulfuric acid is passed by the transfer of hydrogen, which is small enough to passes through the barrier and replaces copper in the copper sulfate on the other side.) The contents of the battery have to be dismantled when not used to stop the chemical reactions and conserve the metals. The sulfate of copper that is in contact with the passive plate serves to take up hydrogen. The amalgamated zinc rod (anode) had a binding screw (to hold a metal wire). The top of the copper cylinder contains the other binding screw (cathode). The chemical reaction within the battery consists of a decrease of zinc and an increase of copper; the zinc crowds out copper from its sulfate so that the copper sulfate continuously changes into zinc sulfate by replacement. Beard and Rockwell express the chemical reaction with the equation: Zn + H2SO4 + CuSO4 = ZnSO4 + H2SO4 + Cu (separate out two equations Zn+H2SO4->ZnSO4+H2 and H2+CuSO4->H2SO4+Cu) The sulfuric acid is kept in the porous cup to keep the sulfate of zinc formed from contacting the copper (what purpose does the copper pole serve? Not a source for copper ions, but as an attractor of zinc ions? It seems like any conductor/metal would work perhaps). Since copper sulfate solution is heavy, it remains on the bottom of the cell. Daniell's battery with modifications has an operating voltage (gives constant electromotive force and retains a nearly constant internal resistance) of 1.11 volts. Daniell's battery is called a "constant battery" because it does not evolve gas, and therefore does not polarize, supplying a constant current. Daniell's battery (makes possible the measuring of) the unit of electric potential, the volt, just as a column of mercury does (for the measuring of) the unit of resistance, the ohm. The Daniell cell still uses the familiar copper and zinc electrodes. The zinc electrode is put in a cup of unglazed earthenware and bathed in dilute sulphuric acid. The copper is surrounded by crystals of copper sulphate that maintain a saturated solution. Instead of releasing hydrogen, the electrons are furnished to the copper ions in the electrolyte, which plate out as copper metal on any nearby surface. (This seems a possible confusion between the movement of electrons and protons, because states that hydrogen combines with copper sulfate to plate copper at the positive copper pole - perhaps electrons replace a negative ion or perhaps all current is the proton, the hydrogen atom.) The purpose of the cup is to keep the solutions separate (the copper sulfate and sulfuric acid mixture with the zinc sulfate and sulfuric acid mixture) while allowing electrical conduction by ion migration. If the solutions mixed, (the) local (mixing) action ruins the battery (explain: with no barrier, the hydrogen gas builds up?). When the cell (provides) current, the zinc dissolves (in the sulfuric acid) to form zinc sulphate solution (and hydrogen is released), (the hydrogen moves through the barrier and replaces the copper in the copper sulfate) and copper from the copper sulphate plates out on the (positive) copper electrode. (Perhaps this causes a hole which pulls an ion, electron or proton from the wire and the object the wires are connected to, the so-called load. This chain reaction may creates the phenomenon of electrical current.) (State the official explanation.) No gases are (evolved) at all (the replacement of Zinc with Hydrogen in the Sulfuric acid causes free hydrogen but this is quickly reacts with copper sulfate on the other side of the barrier) (What is the exact order of the above equation? The hydrogen must be all taken up by the copper sulfate on the other side of the barrier), so the cell does not polarize. The cell has a fairly large internal resistance, but this is not a serious defect in view of the small currents required, and actually proves an advantage in many applications. This large internal resistance also protects the cell against damage if short circuited. The copper sulphate even keeps algae (growth) under control. However, the porous cup, intended to keep the solutions separate, is rendered impervious after a time by deposition of copper on it as the cell operates. This internal resistance varies slightly with areas of the copper and zinc plates immersed in the solutions, distance between the metal plates, and the width and materials of the walls of the porous cup. The battery's operating voltage depends on the densities of the copper and zinc sulfate solutions. The operating voltage increases (to around 1.14 V) by increasing the density of copper sulfate solution, and the battery's voltage decreases (to around 1.08 V) by increasing the density of the zinc sulfate solution. (zinc sulfate or sulfuric acid solution?) When the battery is not in use corrosion of the zinc plates is high which greatly limits its longevity. Daniell's battery required little maintenance, and does not give off noxious fumes. The Daniell battery is less expensive than existing batteries. (Does the zinc electrode get used up or the zinc in the zinc sulfate? Does copper plating happen on both inside and outside of earthenware container?) (See diagram below) This combination consists of a jar of glass or earthenware, F (Fig. 3), about six inches in diameter and eight or nine inches high. A plate of copper, G, is bent into a cylindrical form, so as to fit within it, and is provided with a perforated chamber, to contain a supply of sulphate of copper in crystals, and a strap of the same metal with a clamp for connecting it to the zinc of the next element. H is a porous cup, as it is technically termed, made of unglazed earthenware, six or seven inches high and two inches in diameter, within which is placed the zinc, X. This is usually of the shape shown in the figure, which is called the "star zinc", but it is often made in the form of a hollow cylinder, the latter giving greater power, but being somewhat more difficult to clean. The outer cell is filled with a saturated solution of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), and the porous cell with a solution of sulphate of zinc. A series of three elements connected together, as usually employed on American lines for a local battery, is shown at I. Daniell's research into development of constant current cells takes place at the same time (late 1830s) that commercial telegraph systems begin to appear. Early telegraph messages are brief and travel short distances. Crude, weak batteries were sufficient to support the signal. With the increase in traffic and introduction of Morse sets, stronger currents and more constant output are required in the batteries. Daniell's copper-depolarized battery (1836) and Grove"s nitric acid depolarized cell are fortuitous arrivals. British and American telegraph systems use the Daniell cell exclusively, as it is the only one capable of being rapidly depolarized. (describe how, I thought this battery would not become polarized.) Daniell's cells also produced a more constant output and generated a stronger current than Sand batteries. This is the "pre-volt" period, when the intensity of pain is used as a measure of a cell's power. The Daniell cell is widely used in France before the Leclanché cell is invented in 1868. In 1837 Daniell is presented the highest award of the Royal Society, the Copley Medal, for the invention of the Daniell cell. | London, England (presumably) |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2646) | New York City, New York, USA |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2748) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, responding to the Bridgewater Treatises, of which there were eight, publishes "The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, a Fragment" (1837, John Murray) challenging Hume on miracles. Babbage titles this work "On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation", putting forward the thesis that God has the omnipotence and foresight to create as a divine legislator, making laws (or programs) which then produced species at the appropriate times, rather than continually interfering with ad hoc miracles each time a new species was required. The book is a work of natural theology, and incorporates extracts from correspondence Babbage had been having with John Herschel on the subject. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2749) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, decodes Vigenère's autokey cipher as well as the much weaker cipher that is called Vigenère cipher today. Babbage's discovery is used to aid English military campaigns, and is not published until several years later; as a result credit for the development is instead given to Friedrich Kasiski, a Prussian infantry officer, who makes the same discovery some years after Babbage. (This clearly hints that Babbage was in communication with government military employees and the view of keeping scientific advances secret at the expense of public education and information is well underway by this time in Great Britain.) (chronology) (more details about cipher and encryption) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2765) In 1808 Struve leaves Germany to avoid (involuntary employment) (conscription) by the Napoleonic armies, and goes first to Denmark and then to Russia. In 1813 Struve becomes professor of astronomy and mathematics at the University of Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia). Struve makes substantial contributions to the study of galactic structure and also is involved in notable geodetic operations such as the triangulation of Livonia and the measurement of an arc of the meridian. In 1817 Struve is appointed director of the Dorpat Observatory. In 1830 Czar Nicholas I set aside land in the Pulkovo Hills outside St. Petersburg as the site for a new astronomical observatory and selects Struve for the commission responsible for its construction. (For this observatory), Struve buys the largest and best refracting telescope in the world made by Fraunhofer, a 15 inch objective lens. Struve is director of the observatory in Pulkovo for 20 years. Struve is the first in a line of 4 astronomers. | Pulkovo, Russia |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2777) From 1828-1832, Whewell is professor of mineralogy at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1834 Whewell opposes the admission of Dissenters. From 1838-1855 Whewell is professor of moral philosophy at Cambridge. From 1841-1866 Whewell is college master at Cambridge. In 1842 Whewell is made vice chancellor of Cambridge University. | Cambridge, England |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 2943) Wilhelm Eduard Weber (CE 1804-1891), German physicist publishes "Resultate aus den Beobachtungen des magnetischen Vereins" (6 vols, 1837-43), which contains many of Weber's extensive articles edited by Weber and Gauss. | (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 3005) (Sir) William Rowan Hamilton (CE 1805-1865) corrects Abel's proof of the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation (an equation where the highest power variable is 5) and defends this proof against G. B. Jerrard who claims to have found a solution. | (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 3029) As a child, science is considered by the majority in English public schools to be dehumanizing, and for dabbling in chemistry Darwin is condemned by his headmaster (and nicknamed "Gas" by schoolmates). Darwin starts to study "medicine" ((health science)) at Edinburgh University, but the sight of operations on children with no anesthesia upsets him. Edinburgh attracts English Dissenters who are barred from graduating at the Anglican universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and so the university's radical students expose the teenage Darwin to the latest Continental sciences. In 1828, Darwin's father transfers Charles to Christ's College, Cambridge to prepare for the church. Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's account of the South American jungles in his "Personal Narrative of Travels", Darwin gladly accepts Reverend John Henslow's suggestion of a voyage to Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America, aboard a rebuilt brig, HMS Beagle, commanded by the 26-year-old captain, Robert Fitzroy. This voyage is to survey coastal Patagonia to facilitate British trade and return three "savages" previously brought to England from Tierra del Fuego and Christianized. On the voyage Darwin accumulates a 770-page diary, 1,750 pages of notes, and draws up 12 catalogs of the 5,436 bones, skins, and carcasses Darwin had collected during the journey. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Darwin is a typical Victorian in his racial and sexual stereotyping, thinking women inferior, and although a fervent abolitionist, considers blacks a lower race. Darwin witnesses Negro slavery in the Americas, and passionately is against it. Darwin believes in a clear style and doing away with eloquence. Darwin is wealthy, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, by the late 1840s the Darwins had £80,000 invested; Darwin is an absentee landlord of two large Lincolnshire farms; and in the 1850s plows tens of thousands of pounds into railway shares. In 1873, Darwin helps raise £2,100 to send a fatigued Huxley on holiday. In 1881, with help from Darwin, the routinely poor Wallace is added to the Civil List, which gives money to people who have achieved distinction in the arts. Darwin has ten children with his wife (and cousin) Emma Wedgwood. To people who ask about his religious beliefs, Darwin states that he is an agnostic (a word coined by Huxley in 1869). Darwin as an agnostic, is given the ultimate British accolade of burial in Westminster Abbey, London. (For me being frozen and preserved for future scientists to reawaken is the ultimate in preservation and respect.) | London, England (presumably) |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 3055) In 1827 Rawlinson goes to India as a British East India Company cadet, and in 1833 Rawlinson and other British officers are sent to Iran to reorganize the shah's army. In Iran, Rawlinson becomes interested in Persian antiquities, and deciphering the cuneiform inscriptions at Bisitun becomes his goal. Rawlinson's other writings include "A Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria" (1850) and "Outline of the History of Assyria" (1852). | Behistun, (Persia now) Iran (and England) |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 3056) The inscription starts: "1.1) I (am) Darius, the great king, the king of kings, the king in Persia, the king of countries, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of Arsames, the Achaemenide. 1.2) Says Darius the king: My father (is) Hystaspes, the father of Hystaspes (is) Arsames, the father of Arsames (is) Ariaramnes, the father of Ariaramnes (is Teispes), the father of Teispes (is) Achaemenes. 1.3) Says Darius the king: Therefore we are called the Achaemenides; from long ago we have extended; from long ago our family have been kings. 1.4) Says Darius the king: 8 of my family (there were) who were formerly kings; I am the ninth (9); long aforetime we were (lit. are) kings. 1.5) Says Darius the king: By the grace of Auramazda I am king; Auramazda gave me the kingdom. 1.6) Says Darius the king: These are the countries which came to me; by the grace of Auramazda I became king of them; Persia, Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, the (lands) which are on the sea, Sparda, Ionia, , Armenia, Cappadocia, Parthia, Drangiana, Aria, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Ga(n)dara, Scythia, Sattagydia, Arachosia, Maka; in all (there are) 23 countries." (and continues on) | Behistun, (Persia now) Iran (and England) |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 3998) | (US Military Academy) West Point, NY, USA |
163 YBN [1837 AD] | 6257) | |
162 YBN [02/22/1838 AD] | 2885) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
162 YBN [02/??/1838 AD] | 2640) Samuel Morse (CE 1791-1872) gives his first public demonstration of his telegraph for interested members of the United States Congress. | Washington DC, USA |
162 YBN [07/??/1838 AD] | 3618) | (tested on railroad tracks from Nüremburg to Fürth) (Munich University) Munich, Germany |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2499) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2500) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2540) Bessel uses a heliometer to make this measurement. Earlier astronomers trying to measure parallax had chosen bright stars, supposing that all stars are about the same size and that the brightest stars are the nearest stars. By this time the "proper motion" of different stars is available and offers more reliable guidance in guessing which stars are most likely to be nearby. Bessel chooses to observe 61 Cygni, the star known to have the largest proper motion at the time. After 1 1/2 years of careful observations and laborious calculations, Bessel separates the star's own motion from the various motions of the earth and concludes in 1838 that the star was oscillating back and forth each year by about 3/10 of 1 second of arc. This calculation of parallax is pivotal in astronomy because it signals the official end of the dispute (between Sun-centered over Earth-centered theories) and constitutes the beginning of (calculating the distances to the other stars). | Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2639) | New York City, New York, USA |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2753) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2766) | Pulkovo, Russia |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2791) | Berlin, Germany |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2799) Poiseuille publishes (this equation) in 1846. | Paris, France (presumably) (Berlin, Germany for Hagen) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2803) (Sir) Charles Lyell (CE 1797-1875), Scottish geologist, publishes "Elements of Geology" (1838), a well-illustrated work, which describes European rocks and fossils from the most recent to the oldest known at the time. | London, England (presumably) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2814) | Maynooth, Ireland |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2815) | Maynooth, Ireland |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2854) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2891) Johannes Peter Müller (MYUlR) (CE 1801-1858), German physiologist, publishes "Über den feineren Bau und die Formen der krankhaften Geschwülste" (1838, "On the Nature and Structural Characteristics of Cancer, and of Those Morbid Growths Which May Be Confounded with It"), a book on the pathology ((progress over time)) of tumors, which begins to establish pathological histology as an independent branch of science. Histology is a branch of biology concerned with the composition and structure of plant and animal tissues in relation to their specialized functions. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2918) | Rotterdam?, Netherlands (presumably) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 2934) Schleiden mistakenly believes that new cells bud out of the nucleus. Schle iden is one of the first German biologists to accept Darwin's theory of evolution. Schleiden is a successful science popularizer in lectures and in articles. The Encyclopedia Britannica compares the importance of Schleiden's cell theory to the atomic theory of chemistry. | (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 3006) | (Royal Observatory) Bogenhausen, Germany |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 3067) | New York City, NY, USA |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 3157) Remak is barred from teaching by Prussian law, which forbids Jewish people to be employed as teachers. Remak does his research as an unpaid assistant in Müller's laboratory and supported himself by his medical practice. In 1843 Remak petitions directly to Friedrich Wilhelm IV for a teaching position, but is refused. Finally in 1847, Remak is hired as a lecturer at the University of Berlin, becoming the first Jewish person to teach at the University of Berlin. (It's amazing how focused people are on race, which to me seems unimportant other than working towards racial integration.) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 3386) | ?, England |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 3509) | Berlin, Germany |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 3589) | London, England |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 6003) | Paris, France (verify) |
162 YBN [1838 AD] | 6213) | |
161 YBN [01/09/1839 AD] | 2617) Daguerre specializes in painting scenic backdrops for theaters. Working with Charles-Marie Bouton Daguerre invents the diorama - a display of paintings on semitransparent linen that transmit and reflect light - and opens a diorama in Paris (in 1822). Niépce, who since 1814 has been trying to create permanent pictures by the action of sunlight, learns in 1826 of Daguerre's efforts in the same field. Niépce and Daguerre became partners in the development of Niépce's heliographic process from 1829 until the death of Niépce in 1833. The first permanent photograph from nature was made around 1826 by Nicéphore Niépce, but this photo is of poor quality and requires about eight hours of exposure time. The process that Daguerre develops (the daguerreotype process) required only 20 to 30 minutes. The daguerreotype is the first practical photograph. Niepce's heliography depends on the hardening action of sunlight on bitumen and the subsequent (dissolving) of the (dark unlit) parts of the image. Using this method on a glass plate, Niépce had obtained and fixed a photograph from the camera obscura in 1826. But Niepce wants to create a photoengraved plate from which (paper prints can be copied). This goal leads to Niepce using bitumen on silver-coated copperplates and then iodizing the silver revealed after dissolving the unexposed bitumen. The removal of the hardened bitumen produces a silver-silver iodide image. But Niépce goes no further. Daguerre (working with Niepce) makes the first permanent image using a pin-hole camera (a camera obscura, Italian for "dark room") with a lens and a copper plate with silver salts deposited on it. Building on his partner Niepce's foundation, Daguerre discovers the light sensitivity of silver iodide in 1831 but is unable to obtain a visible image. Daguerre discovers in 1835 that the latent image present on a silver iodide plate exposed for only 20 minutes can be developed with mercury vapor marks a major advance. Fixing this image is achieved in 1837, when Daguerre removes the unreduced silver iodide with a solution of common salt (and water). Having improved Niépce's process, Daguerre calls this process the daguerreotype (process). After 20 minute exposures, light portions darken the silver salts and dark areas leave the light-sensitive layer of silver iodide and bromide (silver salts) unaffected. The unchanged salts are then dissolved away with sodium thiosulfate (a process suggested by John Hershel), and a permanent image is left behind (on the copper plate?). By 1840 the Daguerreotype technique will be used to record astronomical images. Before this the camera obscura or pinhole camera is popular. Sunlight enters a room through a small opening and is made to fall onto a screen to show a sharp image of whatever is outside the room. People had inserted a lens in the pinhole in order to make possible a larger opening and more light without affecting the sharpness of the focus. (The so-called pin-hole camera, is a basic thing that all people should see and is very easy to create by simply making two holes in a cardboard box and looking through one to see light going through the other hole projected on the back wall which produces the scene horizontally and vertically backwards. It's interesting that light enters a tiny hole and shows a large scene. It means that light of many different directions is entering the hole.) On January 9, 1839, a full description of the daguerreotype process is announced at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences by the eminent astronomer and physicist François Arago. (Does Daguerre patent his invention?) Daguerre describes the process as consisting of five operations: the polishing of the (copper) plate; the coating of the plate with iodide of silver by submitting it for about 20 minutes to the action of iodine vapor; the projection of the image of the object upon the golden-colored iodized surface; the development of the latent image by means of the vapor of mercury (how is the vapor produced?); and, lastly, the fixing of the picture by immersing the plate in a solution of sodium "hyposulphite" (sodium thiosulphate). Daguerre's "Historique et description des procedes du daguerreotype et du diorama" (Paris, 1839) passes through several editions, and is translated into English. Besides this Daguerre writes an octavo work (paper is in octavo when a whole single sheet is folded three times to form eight leaves; a book is called an "octavo" size when made up of sheets folded three times), entitled "Nouveau moyen de preparer la couche sensible des plaques destinees a recevoir les images photographiques" (Paris, 1844). (One question for the excluded historian/scientist is: when did people start secretly using cameras and microphones to spy on people? It must have been very recently after the invention, and who did all the spying? Probably the wealthy, and those who use taxpayer wealth in governments.) (This process of capturing a permanent image of light will grow to include moving images by Thomas Edison in 1889, and in 1910 light that people see will first be captured from behind people's heads by Michael Pupin making the first "eye image" and the surprising find that the brain can generate its own images from past memories, what people generally call "thought". This find will show how similar the brains of all the species are, having the ability to remember images in their mind. But sadly these will be kept secret from the public, {as will hearing thought, recording the sounds people think of, and the technology of sending images, sounds and even triggering muscle movements remotely to brains} for 9 years and counting.) (The box with a hole to only allow a small amount of light in is useful to filter out large amounts of light from many sources and directions.) | Paris, France |
161 YBN [01/31/1839 AD] | 2834) | Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
161 YBN [01/??/1839 AD] | 3103) | (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
161 YBN [02/21/1839 AD] | 2833) | Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
161 YBN [02/??/1839 AD] | 3100) In his Philosophical Magazine postscript of January 1839, Groves writes "I should have pursued these experiments further, and with other metals, but was led aside by some experiments with different solutions separated by a diaphragm and connected by platinum plates; in many of these I have been anticipated. I will however mention one which goes a step further than any hitherto recorded; and affords, I think, an important illustration of the combination of gases by platinum. Two strips of platinum 2 inches long and three-eighths of an inch wide, standing erect at a short distance from each other, passed, hermetically sealed, through the bottom of a bell glass; the projecting ends were made to communicate with a delicate galvanometer; the glass was filled with water acidulated with sulphuric acid, and both the platina strips made the positive electrodes of a voltaic battery until perfectly clean, &c; contact with the battery having been broken, over each piece of platinum was inverted a tube of gas, four-tenths of an inch in diameter, one of oxygen, the other of hydrogen, acidulated water reaching a certain mark on the glass so that about half of the platina was exposed to the gas, and half to the water. The instant the tubes were lowered so as to expose part of the surface of platinum to the gases, the galvanometer needle was deflected so strongly as to turn more than half round; it remained stationary at 15°, the platinum in the hydrogen being similar to the zinc element of the pile. When the tubes were raised so as to cover the plates with water, the needle returned slowly to zero; but the instant that the tubes were lowered again, it was again deflected; if the tubes were changed with regard to the platina, the deflection was the contrary side. The action lowered considerably after the first few minutes, but was in some degree restored every time the tubes were raised so as to wash the surface of the platina, and again lowered. After 24 hours, the water had risen half an inch in the tube containing oxygen. in two other tubes, without platina, but with the same gases and immersed in acidulated water for the same time, the water had scarcely perceptibly risen, the effect therefore could not have been due to solution; the same sheets of platinum were exposed to atmospheres of common air and of similar gases, i.e. both to oxygen or both to hydrogen, &c, but without affecting the galvanometer. The platinum in the hydrogen was made the positive, and that in the oxygen the negative electrode of a single voltaic pair; the water now rose at the rate of three-eighths of an inch per hour in the hydrogen tube and proportionally in the oxygen; when the platina was not assisted by a pair of metals the oxygen was absorbed in more than its relative proportion. I hope, by repeating this experiment in series, to effect decomposition of water by means of its composition.". In an 1845 paper, Grove writes "led me to the result, for which I have the honour of laying before the Royal Society in this paper.", which, although it may be a stretch, may imply that "tp" may be telephone company, or a person with initials TP, although 1845 is an early date for even telegraph. But more likely, there appears to be subtle sex-based joking in many Philosophical Transaction papers - some take a positive tone and others a negative tone. Faraday took a positive tone, Priestley referred to "Canton's balls", and here "the honour of laying before the Royal Society" has to be a play on laying as having sex before the Royal Society. But this paper, may also imply that people might be so intrusive as to inspect a toilet paper. All this is speculation in an effort to understand the secret inside jokes of wealthy and educated in London society in 1845. | London, England |
161 YBN [07/29/1839 AD] | 3308) Alexandre Edmond Becquerel is the son of Antoine-César Becquerel (1788-1878) whom Edmond assists when young and eventually succeeds as director of the Muséum d'Historie Naturelle in 1878. Becquerel is interested in fluorescence, where a substance absorbs light of one wavelength and emits light of a different wavelength. Becquerel's son will identify (high speed?) electrons (beta particles) emitting from uranium. People now have nanometer sized photovoltaic devices that can even detect infrared light and can fly. (Does Becquerel understand that the effect is light on the metal only, and not the liquids (although the liquids must serve as carriers of the electrons)?) | (University of Paris) Paris, France |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2581) Also in this year, Purkinje creates the planet's first independent department of physiology at the University of Breslau. | (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2631) John Frederic Daniell (CE 1790-1845) experiments on the fusion of metals with a 70-cell battery. Daniell produces an electric arc so rich in ultraviolet rays that it results in an instant, artificial sunburn. | London, England (presumably) |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2660) | Liverpool (and Manchester), England |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2684) | Calcutta, India |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2711) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) puts forward a new theory of electrical action. Electricity, whatever it was, causes tensions in matter. When these tensions snap in a conductor, there is a cyclical repetition of buildup, breakdown, and buildup of tension that, like a wave, passes along the substance. In electrochemical processes the rate of buildup and release of strain is proportional to the chemical affinities of the substances involved. In Faraday's view the current is not a material flow but a wave pattern of tensions and their relief. (Did Faraday reject the atomic theory?). In Faraday's view insulators are materials whose particles can take an extraordinary amount of strain before snapping. Electrostatic charge in an isolated insulator is simply a measure of this accumulated strain. Therefore, according to Faraday, all electrical action is the result of forced strains in bodies. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2721) In 1831 Murchison is elected president of the Geological Society of London. | London, England (presumably) |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2730) Herschel also coins the term "snapshot". | London, England (presumably) |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2755) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2762) | (Guy's Hospital) London, England |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2800) Lanthanum has the symbol La, atomic number 57, atomic weight 138.91. Lanthanum, is a metal and the second most abundant element in the rare-earth group. The naturally occurring element is made up of the isotopes 138La (0.089%) and 139La (99.91%). 138La is a radioactive positron emitter with a half-life of 1.1 × 10 earths in monazite, bastnasite, and other minerals. Lanthanum is one of the radioactive products of the fission of uranium, thorium, or plutonium. Lanthanum is the most basic of the rare earths and can be separated rapidly from other members of the rare-earth series by fractional crystallization. Large quantities of Lanthanum are separated commercially because it is an important ingredient in glass manufacture. Lanthanum imparts a high refractive index to the glass and is used in the manufacture of expensive lenses. The metal is readily attacked in air and is rapidly converted to a white powder. Lanthanum becomes a superconductor below about 6 K -449°F) in both the hexagonal and face-centered crystal forms. | (Caroline Medical Institute) Stockholm, Sweden |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2820) | (University of Edinburgh)Edinburgh, Scotland (and observation in Cape Town, South Africa) |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2862) Goodyear patents this process in 1844, but the process is too simple and like Whitney's cotton gin many people copy it. Goodyear spends all his time with 60 court cases. Goodyear wins his case in 1852, but dies in debt. When Goodyear dies in 1860, he leaves his wife and six children $200,000 in debt. The major use of this rubber will be in automobile tires 50 years after Goodyear's death. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (founded 1898) honors Goodyear's name. | Woburn, Massachussetts, USA (presumably) |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 2866) | Cambridge, England |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3030) With a £1,000 Treasury grant, obtained through the Cambridge network, Darwin hires the best experts and publishes their descriptions of his specimens in "Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle" (1838-43). | London, England (presumably) |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3063) Regnault is an active amateur photographer and introduces the use of pyrogallic acid as a photographic developer (c. 1845-7). Regnault is one of the first photographers to use paper negatives. In 1854, Regnault becomes the founding president of the Société Française de Photographie. Regnault takes samples of air from different parts of Earth and demonstrates that all over the Earth, the air contains about 21% oxygen. Regnault is credited with the invention of the air thermometer. Regnault introduces the use of an accurate air-thermometer, and compares its indications with those of a mercury thermometer, determining the (specific heat) of mercury as a step in the process. Regnault devises a hygrometer in which a cooled metal surface is used for the deposition of moisture. Carbon tetrachloride has atomic formula CCl4, colorless, poisonous, liquid organic compound that boils at 76.8°C. It is toxic when absorbed through the skin or when inhaled. It reacts at high temperatures to form the poisonous gas phosgene. Carbon tetrachloride is used in the production of Freon refrigerants, for example, Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane). Because it is not flammable and is a good solvent for fats, oils, and greases, carbon tetrachloride is often used commercially for dry cleaning and for degreasing metals. Regnault grows up in poverty struggling to maintain himself and a sister. Regnault loses much of the results of his chemical work and his son Henri is killed as a result of the Franco-German War (1870-1871). | (University of Lyons) Lyons, France |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3072) Schwann knows Mathias Schleiden well, and a year after Schleiden, working at University of Jena, advances the cell theory for plants, Schwann extends it to animals in his "Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants" (1839). Schwann more clearly states and summarizes the theory. Schwann states that plants and animals are formed out of cells, that eggs are cells distorted by the presence of yolk, that eggs grow and develop by constant dividing so that the developing organism consists of more and more cells, but always of cells. Schwann refines Bichat's concept of tissues, by differentiating tissues by cell types. Asimov describes the cell theory as a landmark of biology, comparable to the atomic theory as a landmark of chemistry. The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography states that Schwann's cell theory can be regarded as marking the origin in biology of the school of mechanistic materialism that Brückem, du Bois-Raymond, Helmholtz, and Carl Ludwig make famous. According to Schwann, the theory that leads from the chemical molecule to the organism by way of the universal stage of the cell, is inspired by an intellectual, mechanistic reaction to Müller's vitalism. Schwann states that the cell theory demonstrates that the great barrier between the animal and vegetable kingdoms vanishes. Schwann proposes three generalizations concerning the nature of cells: First, animals and plants consist of cells plus the secretions of cells. Second, these cells have independent lives, and third, these lives are subject to the organism's life. In addition Schwann realizes that the phenomena (or perhaps purpose or activity?) of individual cells can be placed into two classes: "those which relate to the combination of the molecules to form a cell. These may be called plastic phenomena," and those phenomena "which result from chemical changes either in the component particles of the cell itself, or in the surrounding cytoblastema (modern cytoplasm). These may be called metabolic phenomena." With this Schwann coins the term "metabolism," which becomes generally adopted for the sum total of chemical processes by which energy changes occur in living things. (The word "metabolism" is somewhat abstract, as is the term "energy" when applied to living objects. At the basic level there is a conservation of velocity and mass, however, there needs to be language and descriptions more specifically adapted to more complex processes that result from many millions of pieces of matter interacting together in routine ways.) Schwann classifies tissues into five groups: 1) separate independent cells, such as blood; 2) compacted independent cells, such as skin; 3) cells whose walls have coalesced, such as cartilage, bones, and teeth; 4) elongated cells which have formed fibers, such as tendons and ligaments; and finally, 5) cells formed by the fusion of walls and cavities, such as muscles and tendons. (what is the modern classification of cells?) The first cell is at least 3.8 billion years old and is the basis for all of life on earth. Everything object alive today is descended from a single individual cell that divided. Cell structure is old, however, free living DNA and/or RNA molecules are viewed as the oldest ancestors of living objects. | (University of Louvain) Louvain, Belgium |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3075) First nude human photograph. | |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3090) John William Draper (CE 1811-1882), English-US chemist makes one of the earliest daguerreotype portraits (1839). Draper discovers that by increasing the (diameter) (aperture) of the lens and reducing its focal length he can drastically reduce exposure time. In December 1840 Draper is using a lens with an f1.4 aperture (focal length 1.4 inches). Draper reduces the exposure time of photography to under a minute. Draper founds the School of Medicine at New York University. Draper creates a partnership with Samuel Morse, a colleague at New York University. Morse is the beginning of recording people's messages to each other, which grows into the telephone company and a massive microscopic secret visible and thought cameras, microphones, and remote neuron activation network. So Draper, in particular in New York City the center of much of this development, must have been a part of that. In 1876 Draper is elected the first President of the American Chemical Society. From 1850-1873, Draper is the president of the University of the City of New York. Draper's son, Henry Draper (1837-1882) also teaches at the University of the City of New York. | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3099) In 1847 Franklin Leonard Pope describes the Grove battery in "Modern Practice of the Electric Telegraph: A Handbook for Electricians" like this: "The most intense and powerful voltaic combination that has yet been discovered is that of Grove. For many years it was exclusively used for telegraphic purposes in this country, and is still employed in that capacity to a considerable extent. Its component parts are shown in Fig. 5, in which A represents a glass jar or tumbler, about 3 inches in diameter and 4 1/2 inches high. A thick cylinder of zinc, B, of a size nearly sufficient to fill the tumbler, is placed within it, and is furnished with a projecting arm, to which is attached the positive plate of the next element. The porous cup, C, is placed within the zinc. A thin strip of platina, D, about 2 1/2 inches long and half an inch in width, is soldered to the end of the zinc arm projecting from the adjacent cell, and reaches nearly to the bottom of the porous cup. Setting up a Grove Battery. It is necessary that the zinc should first be thoroughly amalgamated. The ordinary zinc of commerce contains particles of lead, iron, and other impurities, which, when the plate is immersed in dilute acid, form as it were small batteries upon the surface, which eat away numerous cavities in the zinc without producing any useful effect. This is prevented by the above process of amalgamation, which is usually performed by immersing the zincs in a vessel containing dilute muriatic or sulphuric acid, and then plunging them in a bath of metallic mercury. After remaining in this for a minute or two they are taken out and placed in a vat of clean water, where the superfluous mercury is allowed to drain off. The mercury dissolves a little of the zinc, which flows over and covers the impurities, and prevents the acid solution from coming in contact with them. In putting the Grove battery together, first place the glass tumblers in position and fill them about half full of a solution composed of one part of sulphuric acid and twenty to thirty parts water, by measure, thoroughly mixed. Then place the amalgamated zincs in the tumblers, with the arms turned at right angles to the line of cells. Fill the porous cups nearly full of strong nitric acid and place them within the zincs, then turn the zincs around so as to immerse the platina strips in the nitric acid of the adjoining cell, throughout the whole series, as shown at T, in Fig. 5. The strength of the dilute sulphuric acid solution in this battery should be varied in proportion to the number of wires worked from it. The less the number of the latter the weaker the solution may be made. When in continuous service a Grove battery ought to be taken apart every night, and the nitric acid from the porous cups emptied into a vessel and kept closed until morning. The zincs should be removed and placed inverted in a trough of water, acidulated with sulphuric acid, and in the morning rubbed with a brush, and the mercury diffused evenly over their surfaces. To every ten parts of the nitric acid taken from the battery add one part of fresh acid every morning. By this means a steady and uniform current will be maintained when the battery is in action. The dilute sulphuric acid requires renewal about twice a week. In handling this battery great care is required not to injure the connection between the zinc and the platina. A set of Grove zincs, in continuous service, will require renewal about once in three months.". Groves takes a considerable interest in photographic science during the 1840s. | London, England |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3102) | London, England |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3106) | Bristol, England (presumably) |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3137) | Berlin, Germany |
161 YBN [1839 AD] | 3469) | (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
160 YBN [03/12/1840 AD] | 3875) | London, England (presumably) |
160 YBN [12/17/1840 AD] | 3238) The entire paper is this: "The inquiries of the author are directed to the investigation of the cause of the different degrees of facility with which various kinds of metal, of different sizes, are heated by the passage of voltaic electricity. The apparatus he employed for this purpose consisted of a coil of the wire, which was to be subjected to trial, placed in a jar of water, of which the change of temperature was measured by a very sensible thermometer immersed in it; and of a galvanometer, to indicate the quantity of electricity sent through the wire, which was estimated by the quantity of water decomposed by that electricity. The conclusion he draws from the results of his experiments is, that the calorific effects of equal quantities of transmitted electricity are proportional to the resistance opposed to its passage, whatever may be the length, thickness, shape, or kind of metal which closes the circuit; and also that, caeteris paribus, these effects are in the duplicate ratio of the quantities of transmitted electricity, and, consequently, also in the suplicate ratio of the velocity of transmission. He also infers from his researches that the heat produced by the combustion of zinc in oxygen is likewise the consequence of resistance to electric conduction.". I think that measuring temperature is difficult, because the temperature is only measured in the volume of the device doing the measuring. In addition, if, for example mercury expansion is used as a guide, only photons that mercury atoms absorb effect the measurement, while those reflected or otherwise not absorbed by mercury are not counted. So perhaps other liquids or gases might produce different temperatures in similar locations. EXPER: How does the expansion of different liquids and gases relate to temperature? Since some must absorb more photons than others, clearly some expand more than others. For example, chlorine being yellow, does the absence of yellow frequency photon absorption change the quantity of expansion relative to clear gases? It would seem that different materials (solids, liquids, gases) have different rates of expansion given some constant temperature simply because theoretically they absorb different frequencies of photons. (It is fun to speculate about what causes heat emitted from wires electric current is passed through. I think the collisions between the moving electrons with other particles, such as metal atoms, causes photons to be knocked loose to exit the atom. Those photons are then absorbed by surrounding material such as air and water, etc. and this raises their temperature. I think it has to do with conservation of velocity ultimately. Velocity is transferred from the moving electrons to the surrounding medium. The velocity was there perhaps in orbiting photons, and is released - so instead of moving in circles the photon then moves in a straight line.) Joule comes from a wealthy family. Joule's father is a brewer, and Joule works in his father's brewery. Joule has a spine injury that prevents him from participating in many activities. Joule's wife dies after only 6 years of marriage. (how?) Joule never takes a job and spends his life performing experiments in his own laboratory at his own expense. Although not initially received, eventually in 1849 Faraday sponsors Joule to read a paper on his work before the Royal Society. In 1850 Joule is elected to the Royal Society. In 1866 Joule wins the Copley medal. Joule remains a brewer all his life and is never a professor. | Broom Hill (near Manchester), England |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2563) Giovanni Battista Amici (omECE) (CE 1786-1686) invents the oil-immersion technique, in which the objective (lower) lens (of a microscope) is immersed in a drop of oil which is placed on top of the specimen under observation in order to minimize light aberrations. (So the oil is constant from the specimen to the lens?) | Florence, Italy (presumably) |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2778) William Whewell (HYUuL) (CE 1794-1866), English scholar publishes "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences" (1840) which begins with the claim that "Man is the interpreter of Nature, science is the right interpretation". | Cambridge, England |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2827) Ozone is an irritating, pale blue gas that is explosive and toxic, even at low concentrations. Ozone is formed naturally in the ozone layer from atmospheric oxygen by electric discharge or exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Ozone is a highly reactive oxidizing agent used to deodorize air, purify water, and treat industrial wastes. Ozone gas decomposes rapidly at temperatures above 100° C (212° F) or, in the presence of certain catalysts, at (lower ) temperatures. At -112 °C, ozone forms a dark blue liquid. At temperatures below -193 °C, it forms a violet-black solid. Ozone usually is manufactured by passing an electric discharge through a current of oxygen or dry air. The resulting mixtures of ozone and original gases are good enough for most industrial purposes. Purer ozone can be obtained from them by various methods; for example, on liquefaction, an oxygen-ozone mixture separates into two layers, of which the denser one contains about 75 percent ozone. The extreme instability and reactivity of concentrated ozone makes its preparation both difficult and hazardous. In 1828 Schönbein joins the faculty of the University of Basel, in Switzerland. In 1835, Schönbein is appointed professor of chemistry and physics at the University of Basel, staying there for the rest of his life. Schönbein rejects the atomic theory. Schönbein (correctly) thinks that Scheele was wrong in thinking chlorine a compound and Davy correct in proving chlorine to be an element. In his lifetime Schönbein produces more than 360 scientific papers. | (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2855) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2902) | (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2904) | (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2911) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist builds a magneto-electrical machine (electric generator) for generating continuous currents. | (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2914) | (University of Saint Petersberg) Saint Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2921) | (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 2936) (Sir) Richard Owen (CE 1804-1892), English zoologist publishes "Odontography" (1840-45), a major study of the structure of teeth. | (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 3051) After studying medicine at Heidelberg and at Bonn, where Henle gets his doctor's degree in 1832, Henle becomes prosector in anatomy to Johannes Muller at Berlin. During the six years henle spends in this position he publishes a large amount of work, including three anatomical monographs on new species of animals, and papers on the structure of the lacteal system, the distribution of epithelium in the human body, the structure and development of the hair, the formation of mucus and pus, and the first descriptions of the structure and distribution of human epithelial tissue and of the fine structures of the eye and brain. Henle recognizes that all inner and outer surfaces of the body are lined with epithelial tissue. (chronology) Henle makes numerous microanatomical finds, the best known being Henle's loop, a part of the kidney tubule. In addition, "Henle's fibers", which are the inner fibers of photoreceptors, Hassle-Henle bodies. In 1835 Henle is arrested for belonging to a radical students' movement, sentenced to seven years in prison, but soon released. According to Asimov, Henle's liberal views bring him to trial for treason in Berlin and a short period of imprisonment. | (University of Zürich) Zürich, Germany |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 3091) | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 3123) Stas has liberal views, and is openly critical of the part played by the Christian church in education. (more specific) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 3230) Du Bois-Reymond works at the University of Berlin (1836–96) under Johannes Müller, whom he later succeeds as professor of physiology (1858). Du Bois-Reymond is an early supporter of evolution. Du Bois-Reymond's collaboration with fellow physiologists Hermann von Helmholtz, Carl Ludwig, and Ernst von Brücke is of great significance in linking animal physiology with physical and chemical laws. Mijalo Pupin studies under Helmholtz in Berlin, so there is a clear continuity between this research and the view that Pupin is the first person to see images stored and generated by the brain remotely using a camera that detects a specific frequency of radio or microwave light. In addition the finding of the as of yet unknown P.C. who first remotely makes muscles move. All of this technology apparently connected with the phone companies of earth. Du Bois-Reymond considers the history of science the most important, but most neglected part of cultural history. In 1867 Du Bois-Reymond is appointed perpetual secretary of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Du Bois-Reymond serves as president of both the Physical and the Physiological societies of Germany and is elected a foreign fellow of the Royal Society of London. Du Bois-Reymond rejects the theory of vitalism and is a "materialist". Du Bois-Reymond writes memoirs of some of the materialistic philosophers, including Voltaire and Denis Diderot. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 3360) | Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
160 YBN [1840 AD] | 4004) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
159 YBN [01/01/1841 AD] | 2836) (Sir) James Clark Ross (CE 1800-1862), Scottish explorer names Mt. Erebus, (located on Antarctica) after one of his ships. Mt. Erebus is the southern-most active volcano known. Ross publishes "A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions" (1847). | Boothia Peninsula,Nunavut, Canada |
159 YBN [01/11/1841 AD] | 3600) | London, England |
159 YBN [11/02/1841 AD] | 3246) | Broom Hill (near Manchester), England |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 2542) Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (CE 1784-1846), In 1841 Bessel deduces a value of 1/299 for the ellipticity of the Earth (the amount of elliptical distortion the Earth's shape departs from a perfect sphere by). The study of the Earth's size and shape is called "geodesy" ("Geometrics" is an alternative title). | Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 2543) Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (CE 1784-1846), publishes "Astronomische Untersuchungen" (1841-42). (more info) | Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 2582) Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), improves the stroboscopic viewer of Simon Stampfer and J. A. F. Plateau with his "Phorolyt" device which is marketed in two sizes as a scientific toy. In the 1850s Purkinje will produce a disc holding nine posed photographs of a simple movement intended for projection when his Kinesiskop viewer is attached to a magic lantern. With this apparatus, in 1861, Purkinje demonstrates the action of the human heart and the circulation of blood, using individual photographs of each sequence of the heart's movement. Purkinje's Kinesiskop discs are used in his lectures throughout the decade; one survives at the Technical Museum, Prague. | (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 2722) | London, England (presumably) |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 2750) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, publishes "Table of the Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from 1 to 108000" (1841, London, William Clowes and Sons). | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 2781) | (Dorpat Observatory) Dorpat (Tartu), Estonia |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 2903) | (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 2948) | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 3023) | Newcastle, England |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 3052) | (University of Zürich) Zürich, Germany |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 3053) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 3077) | (University of Marburg), Marburg, Germany |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 3128) | Birmingham, England |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 3158) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 3159) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
159 YBN [1841 AD] | 3190) Kölliker like Nägeli believes that evolution proceeds in jumps. Kölliker emphasizes the significance of sudden change in evolution as opposed to gradual change. In 1848 with Karl von Siebold, Kölliker founds the "Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie" ("Journal of Scientific Zoology"). Kölliker plays an influential role in the development of Würzburg as a leading center of health science (medical) learning. | (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
158 YBN [03/30/1842 AD] | 3171) The use of anesthetic gases in surgery was first proposed by British chemist Sir Humphrey Davy in 1798, following his observation that inhalation of nitrous oxide relieves pain. The idea of using ether came to Long after he had engaged in "ether frolics", parties at which ether is inhaled for the intoxicating effect. Long participates in many ether parties and often notices that participants receive bumps and bruises but experience no pain. This suggests to him the possibility of using ether to provide surgical anesthesia. On March 30, 1842, Long removes a small tumor from the neck of an etherized patient. When the person operated on regains consciousness he tells Long that he did not experienced any pain. Long follows this up in July by painlessly amputating the toe of a young etherized boy. Long does not publish any report of this use until 1849. Despite Morton's claims to the discovery and the publicity of his demonstration, Long is recognized as the first to use ether as an anesthetic for surgery. There is one earlier record of the administration of ether, for a tooth extraction: in January 1842, William Clark gave ether to a patient whose tooth was then removed by Elijah Pope. | Jefferson, Georgia |
158 YBN [06/17/1842 AD] | 2812) Also in this year Henry traces the influence of induction to surprising distances, magnetizing needles in the lower story of a house through several intervening floors by means of electrical discharges in the upper story, and also by the secondary current in a wire 220 ft. distant from the wire of the primary circuit. | Princeton, NJ, USA |
158 YBN [07/04/1842 AD] | 5837) | Paris, France (presumably) |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 2733) The cyanotype method of photography is used by Herschel's friend Anna Atkins to produce the first photographically illustrated book, and later employed for decades in the form of the architect's blueprint. | London, England (presumably) |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 2734) | London, England (presumably) |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 2751) The British government officially withdraws funding and puts the incomplete "Difference Engine" of Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871) in the Science Museum, where it still is located. Babbage then, using his own money, spends the rest of his life working on the Analytical Engine, but never finishes it. Babbage is assisted by Lord Byron's daughter, Ada Augusta, the countess of Lovelace and an amateur mathematician. In spite of his failure to completely develop a working machine, Babbage (and Lady Lovelace) are legendary heroes in the prehistory of the computing age. Babbage is sometimes called "the grandfather of modern computing". It is possible that at this time the British military decided to fund and continue this project secretly. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 2798) The evils of racism, such as slavery, or the race-based murder in Nazi Germany, will use Retzius' and the actual scientific work of other people to determine differences between humans, fraudulently for their own bad purposes (in supporting claims of racial separation, inferiority, etc.). From 1824-1860 Retzius is a professor of anatomy and physiology at the Karolinska Medic-Kirurgiska Institutet, Stockholm. | Stockholm, Sweden |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 2923) | (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 2929) | (Prague Polytechnic, now Czech Technical University)Prague, Czech Republic |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 2937) | (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 3031) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, drafts a 35-page sketch of his theory of natural selection. | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 3054) Oliver Wendell Holmes (CE 1809-1894), United States author and physician, reads "The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever" (1843), calling attention to the contagiousness of puerperal fever (a fever relating to, or occurring during childbirth or the period immediately following). Holmes' investigation convinces him that physicians are themselves responsible for carrying the disease from one patient to another. As a result, Holmes advocates the washing of hands, changing of clothes, and a twenty-four-hour period between handling corpses and treating patients. However, Holmes' directions are viewed badly by some who can not believe that physicians could be the source of disease. Yet, his protocols offered some response to a pressing public health concern and questioned the relationship between disease, patients, and physicians. Asimov states that Holmes figured out that childbed fever is caused by doctors not washing their hands, and that Holmes takes abuse from doctors who view bloodied and smelly hands with pride. Holmes names the process of applying ether as "anesthesia" from the Greek word for "no feeling". (Holmes recommends the use of soap in washing hands? What kind of soap?) At the early age of 33 Holmes becomes the first dean of Harvard Medical School. | Boston, Massachussetts, USA |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 3150) As ship's physician on a Dutch merchant ship on a voyage to Java (an island of Indonesia), Mayer realizes that heat and work are interchangeable, that the same amount of food can be converted to different proportions of heat and work, but that the total must be the same. Mayer send his first paper on the subject to Annalen der Physik (Annals of Physics) where the editor, Johann Poggendorf, does not acknowledge it. however, Justus von Liebig publishes the paper "Bemerkungen über die Krafte der unbelebten Natur" ("Comments on the forces of inanimate nature") in the journal "Annalen der Chemie und Pharmazie" (Annals of Chemistry and Pharmacy). Mayer is expelled (from school) for liberal views. In 1849 Mayer jumps out a 3 story building in a failed suicide attempt laming himself permanently. In 1851 Mayer is (locked) in a mental institution where primitive and cruel methods prevail, however is later released. In 1856 Liebig mistakenly refers to Mayer as dead. In 1871 Mayer receives the Copley medal. (I think some people feel sympathy for some people with potential scientific contributions, and I think the important thing is feel sympathy for all of life, but clearly distinguishing true and false in terms of science, throwing away any lies or compromises told to be polite, popular, or warm, etc and also with no regard to gender, race, religion, political beliefs, just focusing on what is factually true in your own opinion. And I think that individual scientific beliefs can be asserted, politely, and compassionately without disrespecting any person.) | Heilbronn, Germany |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 3152) A neighbor of Lawes explains that on some local farms bone meal increases turnip production, while on others bone meal seems to have no effect and this starts Lawes on his life of experimenting on the chemistry of fertilizers. (One idea that occurs to me is that very large buildings built up or down into the earth, could grow many rows of plants inside using electric lights which would be free of many insects, loss of light and wind. In addition, if not already, eventually, the cost of space above or below the earth is not as much as the cost on the surface. Inside growing is going to dominate the future in my opinion, in particular as humans move into orbit and to the planets of other stars. Also, totally automated systems, where seeding, watering, harvesting, packaging and distributing are all done automatically with machines and/or walking robots.) | Rothamsted, England |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 3156) Forbes devotes much of his life to an extensive study of mollusks and starfishes, participating in dredgings and expeditions in the Irish Sea (1834), France, Switzerland, Germany, Algeria (1836), Austria (1838), and the Mediterranean (1841–42). Forbes believes in a creation plan as opposed to evolution. Forbes completes "History of British Mollusca" (4 vol., 1852) in 1852. | Mediterranean Sea |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 3179) Over the course of his life, more than two hundred and fifty men from a dozen different countries come to study under Ludwig. (Sadly, at the time women are not encouraged to pursue the career of physician, which wastes half of the potential human resource and talent, in addition to creating a second lower class of people of half the humans.) Schmiedeberg under Ludwig's guidance in 1866 discovers the accelerator nerve of the heart of the frog and the dog, and in 1883, Wooldridge finds centrifugal fibers to the heart of the dog which alter the blood pressure without changing the rate of the heart beat. Bowditch the best known of the US physiologists in 1871 working with an excised (frog?) heart and frog manometer (an instrument for measuring the pressure of a fluid, consisting of a tube filled with a liquid, the level of the liquid being determined by the fluid pressure and the height of the liquid being indicated on a scale) shows that the heart muscle either contracts all together or not at all (referred to as the "all or none" principle), Luciana and Stienon, study the effects of electrical excitation on the heart muscle and ascertain a number of facts of theoretical importance to heart and muscle physiology. | (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 3284) | France (presumably) |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 3475) Thompson is an infant prodigy. William Thomson's father, James Thomson, is a textbook writer, who teaches mathematics, first in Belfast and later as a professor at the University of Glasgow. From 1890-1894 Thompson is president of the Royal Society. Thompson rejects the idea that radioactive atoms are disintegrating, or that the energy they release (in modern terms the photons) comes from within the atom. Thomson also opposes Darwin, remaining "on the side of the angels". (To me this shows a serious limitation on the depth of his logic skills, understanding of history and basic education.) After assisting the successful laying of the transatlantic cable, Thomson becomes a partner in two engineering consulting firms, which play a major role in the planning and construction of submarine cables during the period of massive growth that results in a global network of telegraph communication. Thomson becomes a wealthy man, owning a 126-ton yacht and a baronial estate. Thompson is one of the first to support Faraday's lines of force. Thompson introduces Bell's telephone to Great Britain. In retirement, Thomson spends much of his time in writing and revising the lectures on the wave theory of light which he had delivered at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in 1884, but which were not finally published till 1904. In his lifetime Thomson produces 661 scientific publications and 70 patents. | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
158 YBN [1842 AD] | 5991) Chopin is a legendary pianist who only gives approximately 30 public performances in his entire lifetime. Chopin is a child prodigy and at eight makes his first public appearance at a charity concert. Three years later Chopin performs in the presence of the Russian tsar Alexander I, who is in Warsaw to open Parliament. At seven Chopin writes a Polonaise in G Minor. | Nohant, France |
157 YBN [02/03/1843 AD] | 2641) Morse buys some 250km of (iron?) wire made by the Stephen & Thomas plant in New Jersey. The Ohio Railway gives Morse permission to use the railroad's right-of-way. Initially Morse chooses to run the wire underground, using two wires enclosed in lead pipes. However, after laying about 15km of wire, work is stopped because the line fails to operate. Morse reads that Cooke and Wheatstone have shifted from underground to above ground pole mounting of wire, Morse decides to mount the wire on poles. Upon advice from Joseph Henry, Morse decides to use two glass plates on each pole separating the two wires. 500 chestnut tree poles, 7 meters (23 feet) high are erected 60 meters apart. Number 16 copper wire is used, insulated with cotton thread treated with shellac and a mixture of beeswax, resin, linseed oil, and asphalt. The battery in Baltimore consisting of acid cells, provides an 80 volt electricity source. Before this messages are sent by horse, railways had only started in 1830, and messages from New York to Washington took a day to deliver and 3 weeks to reach Chicago. This starts the telegraph era in the United States, which will last more than 100 years. (Is this the origin of AT&T?) Although the earliest applications of the telegraph is for railroad traffic control, the telegraph immediately becomes a vital tool for the transmission of news around the (planet). | Washington DC, USA |
157 YBN [06/??/1843 AD] | 2394) | Paris, France |
157 YBN [06/??/1843 AD] | 2395) | Paris, France |
157 YBN [08/21/1843 AD] | 3239) Joule begins "It is pretty generally, I believe, taken for granted that the electric forces which are put into play by the magneto-electrical machine possess, throughout the whole circuit, the same caloritic properties as currents arising from other sources. And indeed when we consider heat not as a substance, but as a state of vibration, there appears to be no reason why it should not be induced by an action of a simply mechanical character, such, for instance, as is presented in the revolution of a coil of wire before the poles of a permanent magnet. At the same time it must be admitted that hitherto no experiments have been made decisive of this very interesting question; for all of them refer to a particular part of the circuit only, leaving it a matter of doubt whether the heat observed was generated, or merely transferred from the coils in which the magneto-electricity was induced, the coild themselves becoming cold. The latter view did not appear untenable without further experiments, considering the facts which I had already succeeded in proving, viz. that the heat evolved by the voltaic batter is definite (Phil. Mag. ser. 3. vol. xix. p. 275.) for the chemical changes taking place at the same time; and that the heat rendered ("Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester", 2nd series, vol. vii. p. 97.) - facts which, among others, might seem to prove that arrangement only, not generation of heat, takes place inthe voltaic apparatus, the simply conducting parts of the circuit evolving that which was previously latent in the battery. And Peltier, by his discovery that cold is produced by a current passing from bismuth to antimony, had, I conceived, proved to a great extent that the heat evolved by thermo-electricity is transferred (the quantity of heat thus transferred is, I doubt not, proportional to the square of the difference between the temperatures of the two solders. I have attempted an experimental demonstration of this law, but, owning to the extreme minuteness of the quantities of heat in question, I have not been able to arrive at any satisfactory result.") from the heated solder, no heat being generated. I resolved therefore to endeavor to clear up the uncertainty with respect to magneto-electrical heat. In this attempt I have met with results which will, I hope, be worthy the attention of the British Association.". | (read in Cork, Ireland experiments done in:) Broom Hill (near Manchester), England |
157 YBN [10/16/1843 AD] | 3001) | (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
157 YBN [12/31/1843 AD] | 3603) Alexander Bain (CE 1811-1877), machinist, constructs an earth battery, by creating current between a plate of zinc and copper buried in the ground. Gauss and Steinheil had previously done this. (chronology) | London, England (presumably) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 1614) | Paris, France |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 2615) Schwabe makes (1831) the first known detailed drawing of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. | Dessau, Germany (presumably) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 2616) | Dessau, Germany (presumably) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 2794) James Braid (CE 1795-1860), Scottish surgeon uses the word "hypnotism" instead of "mesmerism" or "animal magnetism", and demonstrates that hypnosis is achieved by suggestion. Braid's writings prepared the way for investigations into what will be called the unconscious mind. In 1841, Braid attends a lecture on animal magnetism (mesmerism) given by Charles Lafontaine, then performs his own experiments with mesmerism. (This view of animal magnetism descends from the idea that magnets affect humans, and perhaps Braid seeks to remove this theoretical relation to the method of hypnosis.) Braid rejects the popular belief that the ability to induce hypnosis is connected with the magical passage of a fluid or other influence from the operator to the patient. Instead Braid adopts a physiological view that hypnosis is a kind of nervous sleep, induced by fatigue resulting from the intense concentration necessary for staring at a bright, inanimate object. Braid finds that he is able to put a person in a trance-like state resembling sleep but different in being (partially)-conscious and extraordinarily open to suggestion. Braid describes this as a suspension of the conscious mind, induced by having been forced into weariness through repetitive stimuli, and calls this state "hypnotism" from the Greek word for "sleep". Braid publishes his findings in his book "Neurypnology" (1843), in which Brain introduces the term "hypnosis". brain is mainly interested in the therapeutic possibilities of hypnosis and reports successful treatment of paralysis, rheumatism, and aphasia. Brain hopes that hypnosis can be used to cure various seemingly incurable "nervous" diseases and also to alleviate the pain and (fear) of patients in surgery. (some people are more easily brought into this condition, while for others it is virtually impossible. I wonder if "hypnotist" shows are rigged, and if there is any truth at all to the phenomenon. Seeing and hearing people's thoughts might reveal. Perhaps the hypnotic state is simply sleeping, or the part of the brain that controls sleep is activated, or the part that controls the brain when awake is made to sleep. ) On aspect of the idea of suggestion is how easily an image, sound sent directly or invoked by stimulated an already existing memory can influence the decisions made by a brain. This is shown, in particular, in brains that are unaware that such images, and sounds are being sent or stimulated in their brain, wrongly believing that their thoughts cannot be externally changed except through the usual inputs such as eyes, ears, nose, skin, etc. In some sense, perhaps there is a component of this principle in the phenomenon of hypnosis. More interesting is how decisions may possibly be automatically made in the brain without the owner of the brain having any control over any part of their own brain. Clearly this has been demonstrated for all muscles, so there is every reason to believe that this may also be true for the movement of all electrical currents in the cells of any brain. The future of this technology may result in a voluntary-only use, more user-controlled and pleasant. Some of those people may enjoy wisely chosen suggestions and information, for example, of what to eat, which videos to see, potential dangers, etc. I think hypnotism is a very experimental and mostly ineffective method, although I have never seen any real studies done. In this time, even now, with so much pseudo and experimental science in health, mainly psychology, I doubt the value of hypnosis, and I doubt many of the theories behind so-called psychiatric diseases. As always, the key concept is consensual treatment only. How much of the current view of health will change or has already secretly radically changed as a result of the secret technology of seeing, hearing, sending images and sounds to and from brains leaves large unanswered questions for the future. For example, many of those who claimed to hear voices might not be forcibly treated, pain might be stopped at the neuron, sleep might be able to be automatically induced at the neuron, health problems more easily determined by examining thought images, violent people more easily identified using thought images as evidence, among many countless other improvements. Braid's findings are opposed at first, but eventually inspire the development of the French school of neuropsychiatry. | Manchester, England (presumably) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 2801) Erbium has symbol Er, atomic number 68, atomic mass 167.26, melting point 1,529°C, boiling point 2,863°C, relative density 9.05 at 25°C, and valence +3. Erbium is a soft, malleable, lustrous, silvery metal. Erbium is a member of the lanthanide series in Group 3 of the periodic table. With other rare earths Erbium's oxide occurs in the mineral gadolinite, found in Sweden. Natural erbium is a mixture of 6 stable isotopes; in addition, 10 radioactive isotopes are known. Erbium does not oxidize in air as rapidly as some of the other rare-earth metals. Erbia is a rose-colored oxide of erbium and has been used to a very limited extent in glazes and glass as a coloring agent. What Mossander calls terbia becomes known as erbia and is shown to contain five distinct rare earths, now called (made singular) erbium, scandium, holmium, thulium, and ytterbium. Fairly pure erbium oxide is first isolated in 1905; fairly pure erbium is isolated in 1934. Terbium is a soft, silvery-gray metallic rare-earth element, used in x-ray and color television tubes. Atomic number 65; atomic weight 158.925; melting point 1,356°C; boiling point 3,123°C; relative density 8.229; valence 3, 4. Terbium does not tarnish rapidly in air. Terbium's oxide, terbia, Tb2O3, is white; its peroxide, Tb4O7, is dark brown to black. Terbium and its compounds have limited commercial importance; some minor uses are in lasers, semiconductor devices, and phosphors for color television picture tubes (like yttrium they must emit light in red frequencies when collided with electrons). Mosander discovered Terbium in its oxide form originally naming it "erbia", but has been known as terbium since 1877. | (Caroline Medical Institute) Stockholm, Sweden |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 2905) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist, communicates an important paper to the Royal Society, entitled "An Account of Several New Processes for Determining the Constants of a Voltaic Circuit" which contains a description of the balance for measuring the electrical resistance of a conductor, which still goes by the name of "Wheatstone's Bridge" or balance, although it was first devised by Samuel Hunter Christie, of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, who published it in the Philosophical Transactions for 1833. The method was neglected until Wheatstone brings it into notice. The Christie (or Wheatstone) bridge is an electrical bridge circuit used to measure resistance. It consists of a common source of electrical current (such as a battery) and a galvanometer that connects two parallel branches, containing four resistors, three of which are known. One parallel branch contains one known resistance and an unknown; the other parallel branch contains resistors of known resistances. In order to determine the resistance of the unknown resistor, the resistances of the other three are adjusted and balanced until the current passing through the galvanometer decreases to zero. | (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 2924) | (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3092) | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3133) | Singapore (and London, England) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3153) | Rothamsted, England (factory at Deptford Creek, England |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3194) In 1841, Kopp becomes Privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer) at the University of Giessen. Kopp works under Justus Liebig at the University of Giessen. | (University of Giessen) Geissen, Germany |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3201) Hofmann studies law and languages at Giessen. (Which may explain how he successfully worked in England for a long time) Hofmann studied under Justus von Liebig at the University of Giessen and received his doctorate in 1841. Hofmann is a co-founder of the German Chemical Society (1867) and serves as its president from 1868–92. Hofmann is a windower 3 times. (that seems beyond coincidence, but perhaps are natural deaths.) Hofmann is the father of 11 children. Asimov comments that under Hofmann's leadership, Germany overtakes England and France in the dye industry, until the WWI British blockade, when the US will develop a chemical industry. Hofmann synthesizes new dyes. Most of Hofmann's 360 major papers grow out of his work with the derivatives of coal tar and the synthesis of related organic compounds. | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3231) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3232) Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond (DYUBWA rAmON) (CE 1818-1896), German physiologist publishes "Untersuchungen über thierische Elektricität", 2 vol. (1848–1884; "Researches on Animal Electricity"), which creates the field of electrophysiology. Du Bois-Reymond rarely publishes discoveries in separate papers. The bulk of his work appeared collectively in this, Du Bois-Reymond's most famous book. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3301) | London, England |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3326) In 1842, Cayley is the champion student ("Senior Wrangler") of his year. Cayley spends 14 years working as a barrister, since he is unwilling to take holy orders, which at the time is a necessary condition of continuing his mathematical career at Cambridge. When this requirement is dropped, Cayley is able to return to Cambridge and in 1863 becomes Sadlerian Professor there. Cayley has an extraordinarily prolific career, producing almost a thousand mathematical papers. In 1876 Cayley publishes his only book "Treatise on Elliptic Functions". Cayley's collected papers are published in 13 volumes (1889–98). In 1882, Cayley is awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society. | London, England (presumably) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3329) | London, England (presumably) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 3899) | (private practice) Paris, France |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 5990) | Leipsig, Germany (presumably) |
157 YBN [1843 AD] | 6240) | Paterson, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
156 YBN [05/01/1844 AD] | 2643) | Annapolis, Maryland, USA |
156 YBN [05/24/1844 AD] | 2644) | Washington DC, USA |
156 YBN [06/20/1844 AD] | 3245) | (Oak Field Whalley Range near) Manchester, England (presumably) |
156 YBN [12/31/1844 AD] | 3602) | London, England |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 2642) | Washington DC, USA |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 2676) | New York City, New York, USA |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 2707) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 2708) Michael Faraday performs experiments trying to measure an electromagnetic current produced by the force of gravity when a metal cylinder is allowed to fall through a coiled wire but no current is produced. I think that magnetism can be reduced to electricity (as Ampere concluded too), and that electricity can be reduced to the effects of gravity, and collision. In my opinion, the most simple explanation is probably the most accurate one. In this sense, there is only one force in nature, and other forces are only larger scale effects of a single force (just as field of grass may look like one object but is made of many individual plants). I think ultimately that both the attractive and repulsive forces of electricity are mainly due to particle collision, and ultimately due to the attractive force of gravity. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 2737) Gustave Gaspard de Coriolis (KOrYOlES) (CE 1792-1843), French physicist, publishes "Traité de la mécanique des corps solides" (1844, "Treatise on the Mechanics of Solid Bodies"). | Paris, France |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 2795) Ruthenium has atomic number 44, has the symbol "Ru". Ruthenium is a hard silver-gray acid-resistant metallic element that is found in platinum ores and is used to harden platinum and palladium for jewelry and in alloys for nonmagnetic wear-resistant instrument pivots and electrical contacts. Ruthenium has an atomic mass of 101.07; melting point 2,310°C; boiling point 3,900°C; specific gravity 12.41; valence 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Because of its high melting point, ruthenium is not easily cast; its brittleness, even at white heat, makes it very difficult to roll or draw into wires. Natural ruthenium consists of a mixture of seven stable isotopes: ruthenium-96 (5.54 percent), ruthenium-98 (1.86 percent), ruthenium-99 (12.7 percent), ruthenium-100 (12.6 percent), ruthenium-101 (17.1 percent), ruthenium-102 (31.6 percent), and ruthenium-104 (18.6 percent). Ruthenium has four allotropic forms. Ruthenium metal does not tarnish in air at ordinary temperatures and resists attack by strong acids, even by aqua regia. | St. Petersberg, Russia |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 2832) | Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 2897) Jean Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault (BUSoNGO) (CE 1802-1887), French agricultural chemist publishes "Traitt d'economie rurale" (1844), which is remodeled as "Agronomie, chimie agricole, et physiologie" (5 vols., 1860-1874; 2nd ed., 1884). | Paris, France (presumably) |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3032) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, expands his 1842 sketch into an essay (which will become) "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", but does not intent to publish it. Darwin writes a letter to his wife Emma in 1844 asking that, if he dies, she should pay an editor £400 to publish the work. | Downe, Kent, England |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3047) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3048) Grassmann is an accomplished linguist, specializing in Sanskrit literature. At the age of 53 (around 1862), disappointed with the lack of interest in his mathematical work, Grassman turns all his efforts to Sanskrit studies. Grassman translates sanskrit texts, and prepares Sanskrit dictionaries. Grassman's Sanskrit dictionary on the Rigveda is still widely used. | (Gymnasium in) Stettin, (Prussia now) Poland |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3062) | (University of Bern) Bern, Switzerland |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3078) | (University of Marburg), Marburg, Germany |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3093) John William Draper (CE 1811-1882), English-US chemist captures one of the first photographs of specimens under a microscope. | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3185) Nägeli accepts evolution but puts forward the erroneous theory of orthogenesis arguing that some inner push drives evolution in a particular direction, for example increased size. Nägeli rejects the paper sent to him by an obscure monk named Mendel. Asimov describes this as Nägeli's most far-reaching mistake. When this paper is rediscovered 40 years later, it will serve as the source of the Mendelian laws of inheritance. | (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3216) Richard Jordan Gatling (CE 1818-1903), US inventor, adapts the cotton sowing machine for sowing (seed planting) rice, wheat and other grains, and establishes factories to manufacture these sowing machines. Gatling is the son of a wealthy planter and slave-owner. With his father Gatling perfects machines to sow cotton and to thin out cotton plants. In 1839 Gatling perfects a practical screw propeller for steamboats, only to find that a patent had been granted to John Ericsson for a similar invention a few months earlier. Gatling is well educated and is successively a school teacher and a merchant, spending all his spare time in developing new inventions. Because of an attack of smallpox Gatling becomes interested in the study of health science and completes a course at the Ohio Medical College, taking his M.D. degree in 1850. | St. Louis, Missouri |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3236) Pettenkofer is most familiar in connection with his work in practical hygiene, advocating good water, fresh air and proper sewage disposal. Pettenkofer's attention is drawn to this subject around 1850 by the unhealthy condition of Munich. In hygiene, Pettenkofer studies the role of ventilation on health and how contaminated soil and water spread cholera. Pettenkofer rejects the germ theory of disease. Pettenkofer publishes papers on the preparation of gold and platinum, numerical relations between the atomic weights of analogous elements, the formation of aventurine glass, the manufacture of illuminating gas from wood. According to the Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography, in 1850, Pettenkofer anticipates the periodic law of the elements. In 1892 Pettenkofer deliberately swallows a virulent culture of cholera bacteria to show his contempt for the germ theory of disease, but does not become infected. In 1901, Pettenkofer buys a gun and shoots himself in old age because of a painful sore throat. | (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3237) | (University of Geissen) Geissen, Germany |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3294) Foucault is the son of a publisher in Paris and educated at home due to delicate health. Foucault abandons medical studies unable to bear the sight of blood. Foucault is experimental assistant to Alfred Donne (1801-1878) for three years in Donne's course of lectures on microscopic anatomy. | Paris, France (presumably) |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 3898) | (Hotel dieu) Paris, France (verify) |
156 YBN [1844 AD] | 6243) Wells is jailed in New York City for throwing acid at passersby and ends his own life there in a jail cell. (Perhaps Wells was excluded and remote neuron writing was used to support an association of nitrous oxide with acts of violence.) | Hartford, Connecticut, USA (presumably) |
155 YBN [04/02/1845 AD] | 3279) | Paris, France (presumably) |
155 YBN [04/??/1845 AD] | 2839) William Parsons, (3d earl of Rosse) (CE 1800-1867), Irish astronomer is the first person to recognize the spiral shape of the objects at the time called nebulae, but now known to be galaxies, like our own Milky Way Galaxy. Parsons' main aim is to build a telescope as large as those of William Herschel and to discover the nature of the unresolved nebulae found by William Herschel to determine if they are only gaseous masses in space or are composed of many stars, like our own Milky Way, as introduced by Kant in his theory of "world islands". Even the largest telescopes (like those build by Herschel) were not able to resolve the nebulae (into their spiral shape or into individual stars). Herschel had left no details of how to grind large mirrors, and so Parsons has to rediscover all this for himself. Parsons uses an alloy composed of four atoms of copper to each atom of tin. This alloy is very brittle. Not until 1839 does Parsons make a 3-inch (8-cm) mirror; this is followed by mirrors of 15 inches (38 cm), 24 inches (61 cm), and 36 inches (91 cm). Parsons' first 36-inch-diameter mirror is made of 16 thin plates soldered to a brass framework. In 1842, Parsons starts works on his 72-inch (183-cm) massive mirror. Parsons is only successful on the fifth casting. The mirror weighs 8960 pounds (4064 kg), cost £12,000, and becomes known as the "Leviathan of Corkstown". The telescope tube is over 50 feet (15 m) long and because of winds the tube has to be protected by two masonry piers 50 feet high and 23 feet (7 m) apart in which it is supported by an elaborate system of platforms, chains, and pulleys. The telescope takes 4 people to run it. In the year 1845, Parsons completes his 72 inch reflector telescope, the largest on Earth until the 100-inch reflector is installed in 1917 at the Mt. Wilson Observatory, California. In April 1845, when Parsons points his new telescope to M51 for the first time, he discovers that the nebula has a spiral structure. Parsons creates the term "spiral nebula" and concludes (that the nebula is) an inner rotation of a large system "pretty well studded with stars". Parsons will discover 15 spiral galaxies. The Leviathan is dismantled in 1908. | (Birr Castle) Parsonstown, Ireland |
155 YBN [08/06/1845 AD] | 3248) | (Oak Field, Whalley Range near) Manchester, England |
155 YBN [09/18/1845 AD] | 2713) Faraday holds the belief that all the forces of matter have one common origin, and are convertible into each other. However, experiments done by Faraday show no effect of electricity on light particles. A ray of light from an Argand lamp is polarized in a horizontal plane by reflection from a surface of glass, and passed through a Nichol's eye-piece revolving on a horizontal axis. Between the polarizing (glass) mirror and eye-piece, two powerful electro-magnetic poles are arranged, separated by about two inches. The direction of the magnet is positioned so that the magnetic lines of force are parallel to the ray of light. (I think an important note is that although we call a beam of light a ray, the ray is composed of many billions of individual rays of light particles, an unimaginably large quantity of very fast moving particles.) Any transparent substance in between the two poles would have passing through it the polarized ray of light and the magnetic lines of force at the same time in the same direction. Faraday first finds an effect in a glass he created 16 years before called silicated borate of lead. In addition, the glass illustrates the effect to a larger degree than any other substance examined. A piece of this glass 2 inches square and 1/5 inch thick is placed between the poles (not yet magnetized by electric current), and the polarized light appears extinguished when the eye-piece is turned to the same position as when there is nothing between the magnetic poles. When sending the current through its coils, creating the electromagnet, looking through the eye-piece, immediately the lamp-flame becomes visible, and continues to be visible as long as the electric current is on. On stopping the electric current, causing the magnetic force to stop, the light instantly disappears. The battery Faraday uses is five pairs of Grove's construction (explain), and the electromagnets have a power such that the poles can each sustain a weight of 56 or more pounds, so this phenomenon is no seen with a weak magnet. (How many wire turns, what diameter iron bar?) Faraday finds that when the current is flowing, the rotating the eyepiece to the right or left will cause it to disappear, and concludes that the polarized light has been rotated. (2149) Faraday uses the word "diamagnetic" to mean a body through which lines of magnetic force are passing. When the marked pole is nearest the observer, the rotation of the ray is right-handed; the eye-piece needs to be turned to the right-hand, clockwise. When the poles are reversed, simply by changing the direction of the electric current, the rotation is also changed and becomes left-handed in equal quantity as before. When the magnetic lines of force are perpendicular to the glass, no effects are observed. These results are also obtained with an ordinary steel horse-shoe magnet with no electric current used, although these results were feeble. Faraday uses a single magnet pole (see figure 1, a and b are the positions of the diamagnetic (glass) where the ray of light is perpendicular to the magnetic pole at P, c and d are at points where the ray is parallel to the field which is circling around the pole (on the outside, not the lines entering or emitting from the pole center), the ray is marked by a dotted line. Faraday notes that if a glass is placed directly at the end of the magnet, no effect is produced. (I think the curving nature of particles in the field is needed.) So in position a and b, when light is perpendicular (and probably the magnetic lines are parallel to rows of atoms), there is no effect, but in positions c and d when light is parallel (and probably the magnetic lines are perpendicular to rows of atoms), there is an effect. The rotation of the ray is in proportion to the length of the "diamagnetic" (the glass). (2163) When Faraday adds more pieces of glass end to end, the amount of rotation is increased. (So clearly there is a cumulative effect, the longer the light passes through the atomic field the more deflected it is. The phenomenon may be like a ball bouncing down a corridor, and with each 20 reflections, the position of the ball at regular intervals of time has rotated by a certain quantity.) (2164) The power of rotating the ray of light increases with the intensity of the magnetic lines of force (or the intensity of the electric field). (It may be that an atomic lattice "corridor" is tilted more with a stronger magnetic field.) (2165) In bodies that have a rotative power of their own such as turpentine, sugar, tartaric acid, tartrates, etc, the effect of the magnetic force is to add to or subtract from their specific force. (2176) Flint-glass exhibits the property but in a less degree, and crown-glass is an even smaller degree. (What can it mean that a highly refractive material exhibits this property most? Perhaps in a material that already changes the direction of light significantly, small changes to the atomic positions are magnified.) (2178) Rock-crystal shows no effect on the ray. (So clearly the nature of the atomic structure makes a difference, and it appears that some parts of the atomic structure can be moved by particles in an electric field in transparent materials.) (2179) Iceland spar shows no effect. (2184) Water, alcohol and ether all show the effect, water most, alcohol less, and ether the least. Every liquid substance Faraday has at hand produce this effect. (I think it shows that the atomic structure is more easily moved in a liquid than in a solid.) (2186) In gases, Faraday does not observe this effect in any substance. (Perhaps there constantly moving structure of the gas atoms removes any kind of permanent order.) (2189) Faraday finds the same effect for electric current running through a wire on the polarization angle of the ray of light. (2224) Faraday makes clear that the magnetic forces do not act on the ray of light directly but only through the intervention of matter. (Which shows that Faraday does not consider light to be made of matter.) (2242) Faraday concludes by stating that he hopes to find a way to use light to evolve electricity and magnetism, but prefers to investigate and develop real truth through experiment as opposed to suppose ideas that may or may not be founded on or consistent with fact. (Like Faraday, I also share this belief that all forces of matter have one common origin, however, I think all apparent forces of matter, electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces are all cumulative and collective effects of gravity, just as life itself, with the many complex molecules and naturally selected forms is complex, but made of the same atomic units functioning by gravity. It is probably hard to believe that such complexity could result from the simple principles of an infinite sized and scaled space, matter, time under a single force of gravity, and modeling the evolution of molecules and life using light particles and gravity requires massive computer resources and time. We should definitely keep an open mind when it comes to theories of the universe. In particular I find that the probability of an infinity of space and matter both in size and scale causes a mathematical problem with modeling the universe exactly. In any event, to reduce unnecessary "forces" to a single force seems logical. The most simple explanation is probably the correct one. instead of creating dozens of new "forces" that are probably the results of the cumulative and larger scale effects of a single force. One example I give is that a star wobbles from the matter orbiting it. From a distance people could say that there is some "wobbling" force "wobblery" that all stars have besides the force of gravity that appears to hold the stars together. Perhaps a clearer example is how a person might see, from a distance an anthill created without ever seeing individual ants building the anthill, and then create a new force "hill growthery" which causes hills to arise from the ground over time. So it is, I think, with electricity {and therefore magnetism} being a collective effect of gravity, and particle collisions.) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
155 YBN [09/??/1845 AD] | 3266) Adams is a child prodigy. Adams refuses knighthood and astronomer royal because of age. | (Cambridge Observatory) Cambridge, England |
155 YBN [12/24/1845 AD] | 2714) Faraday suspends a bar of glass composed of silicated borate of lead 2x0.5x0.5 inches in size by a long thread. This bar can turn freely by the slightest force in the horizontal plane and is enclosed in a glass jar to prevents the movement of air from moving the bar. Two poles of a powerful electromagnet are placed on each side of the glass bar so the center of the bar is in the line connecting the poles, which is the line of magnetic force. If the bar is inclined at 45 degrees to that line of force, then when the battery is connected, the glass bar will turn to a position at right angles to the line of force, and if moved will return to that position. A bar of bismuth exhibits the same phenomenon. While a bar of iron takes a position in the same direction of the magnetic forces, which is 90 degrees with the direction the bar of bizmuth takes when subjected to the same magnetic influence. (How do the dimensions of the bar make a difference? For example, in cube shape, no difference can be noticed, but when in rectoid a difference is noticed? And then is it not possible to simply cut the material so that what was once the long dimension is then the short dimension, the long part extending 90 degrees from the grain? I think this needs to be verified and explained. If time make a video of this experiment. Search for videos of this experiment.) Faraday categorizes these two different kinds of objects as those, like iron usually called "magnetics", and the other group, like bismuth, obeying a contrary law, and therefore being called "diamagnetics". The number of magnetics are extremely limited, consisting only of iron, nickel, cobalt, manganese, chromium, cerium, titanium, palladium, platinum and osmium. All other bodies, either solid or liquid are diamagnetic, but with various degrees of intensity. Some diamagnetics, listed in increasing degree are ether, alcohol, gold, water, mercury, flint glass, tin, lead, zinc, antimony, phophorus, and bismuth. No gases, rarefied or condensed are observed to be affected by magnetic forces. Faraday views gases as occupying a neutral point in the magnetic scale between magnetic and diamagnetic bodies. (So perhaps a sliver of bizmuth will always point east and west? Perhaps their movement depends on the direction of current in them. One in which current flows around the short side, and the other where the current flows around the long side. Clearly the dimensions of the material are partially responsible for the effect, because the "grain" of the material could be in any of 3 dimensions depending on how the material is cut.) Faraday states that the material requires an elongated shape for this effect. When the material is in the form of a cube or sphere they do not turn in any direction, but the entire object if magnetic, is attracted towards either magnetic pole; if diamagnetic, the object is repelled from them. (Interesting that there are objects that are repelled from North and South magnetic poles?) Substances divided into minute fragments, or fine powder, obey the same law as the larger masses. This powder moves in lines which Faraday terms "diamagnetic curves", in contradistinction to the ordinary magnetic curves, which they everywhere intersect at right angles. (To me this is a major find, that there are materials that cause different lines of magnetic force.) Faraday writes "These movements may be beautifully seen by sprinkling bismuth in very fine powder on paper, and taping on the paper while subjected to the action of a magnet.". Faraday explains that these lines are the result of the simple law that while every particle of a magnetic body is attracted, every particle of a diamagnetic body is repelled, by either pole of a magnet. (Perhaps the diamagnetics align on separate lines of current, or the current flows through them only in the long dimension. I want to see the effect before I think more about it.) Faraday states that these two modes of action stand in the same general antithetical relation to one another as the positive and negative conditions of electricity, the northern and southern polarities of ordinary magnetism, or the lines of electric and of magnetic force in magneto-electricity. (It is important to note that at this stage in 1845, Faraday, still holds out magnetism as a separate force of nature, different from electricity. Faraday still describes the "magnetic force" instead of the "electric force". Although some might interpret this as simply calling this force the magnetic force, just because it is an electric force in a permanent magnet as opposed to an electric force created by a battery. Clearly the modern view is still this distinction between electricity and magnetism.) Faraday concludes his first paper on the diamagnetic phenomenon by theorizing that both magnetic and diamagnetic materials become magnetized when exposed to a magnetic field (Note that on this occasion, Faraday is using the word "field" instead of magnetic action or force), each having its axis parallel to the lines of force passing through it, but the particle of magnetic matter would have its north and south poles opposite or facing the pole of the inducing magnet, where the diamagnetic particles would align in the reverse which results in the magnetic particle being attracted, while the diamagnetic particle being receded. (It's confusing. Make clearer. I think I doubt the receding claim, are bars of bismuth actually recede from magnetic poles?) Faraday then states that according to Ampere's theory (the theory of an electric current causing a magnetic field? Faraday should be more explicit.) this view would result in currents that are induced in iron and magnetics parallel to those existing | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 2652) The Electric Telegraph Company is formed in England. The Electric Telegraph Company must store every telegraph, and keep them on file for wealthy connected people to search through the messages of people they are interested in. Why do we never hear about this massive telegraph library? In 1870 the telegraph industry in England is nationalized and becomes part of the British Post Office. | England |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 2723) (Sir) Roderick Impey Murchison (mRKiSuN) (CE 1792-1871), Scottish geologist, publishes "The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains" (1845). | London, England (presumably) |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 2828) Nitrocellulose is a pulpy or cottonlike polymer derived from cellulose treated with sulfuric and nitric acids and used in the manufacture of explosives, collodion, plastics, and solid monopropellants. Nitrocellulose is the main ingredient of modern gunpowder. Nitrocellulose is a fluffy white substance that retains some of the fibrous structure of untreated cellulose. Nitrocellulose will ignite on brief heating of more than about 150° C (300° F). When nitrocellulose (breaks apart), it forms products that further catalyze decomposition and this reaction, if not stopped in time, results in an explosion (which is when many pieces of matter are quickly given high velocities in an outward direction, in particular many photons are released in even visible frequencies). Nitrocellulose is nitric acid ester of cellulose (a glucose polymer). Nitrocellulose is usually formed by the action of a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids on purified cotton or wood pulp. The quantity of nitration and degradation (breaking down) of the cellulose (into glucose?) is carefully controlled in order to obtain the desired product. When cotton is treated so that nearly all of the hydroxyl groups of the cellulose molecule are esterified (conversion of an acid into an ester by combination with an alcohol and removal of a molecule of water), but with little or no degradation of the molecular structure, the nitrocellulose formed is called guncotton. Guncotton resembles cotton in its appearance. Extremely flammable, guncotton explodes when detonated and is used in the manufacture of explosives. Guncotton is insoluble in such common solvents as water, chloroform, ether, and ethanol. If the nitration is not carried to completion (the point at which about two thirds of the hydroxyl groups are esterified), the soluble cellulose nitrate pyroxylin is formed. Less completely nitrated celluloses are called collodion cotton or pyroxylin and are inferior to guncotton in explosive properties. Collodion with a nitrogen content of not more than 12 percent is used chiefly for lacquers and celluloid plastics. Materials with a nitrogen content of about 11.5 percent are used as artificial silk but have been replaced by other materials such as viscose rayon. A nitrogen content of 11.5 percent is also used for manufacturing photographic film until safety film made of cellulose acetate plastics becomes more popular. | (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 2838) Parsons is a wealthy aristocrat. (One of the few who spends on science, and in particular useful science.) Parsons is educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Oxford University, where he graduates in 1822. In 1821 Rosse is elected to the House of Commons as Lord Oxmantown. Parsons sits in Parliament for 12 years, resigning his seat in 1834. In 1841 Parsons inherits his father's earldom and serves as one of the Irish peers in the House of Lords. (You can see how even after monarchy, the wealthy somehow control the "representative" governments.) In 1845 Parsons is the Irish representative in the House of Lords (in England?). In Ireland in the years after 1845 the "potato famine" costs the lives of more than 1 million people. During the potato famine, Rosse (pays) back a major portion of his rents to the farmers. From 1849 to 1854 Parsons is the president of the Royal Society. From 1862 (on) Parsons is the chancellor of the University of Dublin. | (Birr Castle) Parsonstown, Ireland |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 2922) In Hertfordshire England experiments by Liebig's English pupil J.H. Gilbert, together with the landowner John Bennet Lawes, lead to the discovery of superphosphates, which are developed as fertilizers. In addition extracting the necessary molecules from manure may remove the unpleasant smell of feces when fertilizing public plants. | (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 2933) Siebold founds the "Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie" ("Journal of Scientific Zoology"), which becomes one of the foremost periodicals for biological research. | (University in) Freiburg, Germany |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3151) Julius Robert Mayer (MIR) (CE 1814-1878), German physicist, publishes "Die organische Bewegung in ihrem Zusammenhang mit dem Stoffwechsel" (1845, "Organic movement in their connection with the metabolism") in which Mayer extends the conservation of force to magnetic, electrical and chemical forces. Mayer describes how plants convert the sun's heat and light into latent chemical force; animals consume this chemical force as food; the animals then convert that force to body heat and mechanical muscle force in their life processes. | Heilbronn, Germany |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3202) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3227) Kolbe studies chemistry with Friedrich Wöhler at the University of Göttingen and earns his doctorate in 1843 with Robert Bunsen at the University of Marburg. Just before 1860, the German chemist August Kekulé and others develop the the theory of chemical structure that depends on valence bonds. However, Kolbe categorically rejects the molecular structural diagrams drawn by Kekulé, and holds that the classical theory of radicals, in which groups of atoms are held together by electrostatic forces is sufficient to describe even the most complex organic molecules, and that therefore the new structural formulas are overly speculative. However, most other chemists Kolbe's age or younger accept the structure theory, and this theory is well established around 1870. In 1874 when Kekulé's former student Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff extends structural formulas into three dimensions to create the new field of stereochemistry, Kolbe explodes with anger. Being chief editor of a leading journal, the "Journal für praktische Chemie", Kolbe often publishes scathing editorials, and in 1877 Kolbe viciously opposes the young and still unknown Van't Hoff and the tetrahedral carbon atom proposed by Van't Hoff and Le Bel. | (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3234) Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (KOLBu) (CE 1818-1884), German chemist publishes a "Textbook of Organic Chemistry" (1854–60), which collects together all the methods of preparing organic compounds. | (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3295) | Paris, France |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3362) Virchow bases his view on a mechanistic understanding of vital phenomena seeing life as the sum of physical and chemical actions and as essentially the expression of cell activity. In 1847 Virchow and friend Benno Reinhardt, start a new journal, "Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie, und für klinische Medizin" ("Archives for Pathological Anatomy and Physiology, and for Clinical Medicine"). In 1848 Virchow denounces social conditions in Silesia, radicalized by his experiences with the destitute Polish minority of Upper Silesia during the typhus epidemic of 1848, and fights on the side of the revolutionaries against the Prussian government, and loses his university position. But Virchow is hired as professor in the more liberal atmosphere of Bavaria in 1849. In 1860 Virchow states that "all cells arise from cells" in Latin. Bismarck challenges Virchow to a duel in 1865. Virchow refuses. Virchow is elected to the Reichstag in 1880, as a leader of a small German liberal party which vigorously opposes Bismarck. Virchow rejects Pasteur's germ theory of disease, and views disease as a civil war between cells, an anarchy among order, not an invasion from the outside. We now know that there are diseases of both kinds. (In addition to external causes, there are congenital (genetic) inherited diseases.) Virchow also thinks that sociological factors play a significant role in disease. Virchow rejects Darwin's theory of evolution, and votes for a measure banning the teaching of Darwin's theory from schools. Virchow accompanies Schliemann to Troy in 1879 and to Egypt in 1888. In 1873 Virchow is elected to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Virchow declines to be ennobled as "von Virchow", but in 1894 is created Geheimrat ("privy councillor"). From his anthropological studies, Virchow is convinced that there are no such things as "superior races". In 1892 Virchow receives the Copley medal of the Royal Society. | (Charité Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3363) | (Charité Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3401) | London, England (presumably) |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3451) In 1847 Kirchhoff becomes privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer) at the University of Berlin. In 1850 Kirchhoff accepts the post of extraordinary professor of physics at the University of Breslau. In 1854 he was appointed professor of physics at the University of Heidelberg, where he joined forces with Bunsen and (establishes) spectrum analysis. | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Prussia (now Germany) (presumably) |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3519) | (School of Pharmacy) Paris, France |
155 YBN [1845 AD] | 3660) | (Gymnasium in) Stettin, (Prussia now) Poland |
154 YBN [05/??/1846 AD] | 3298) For me light interference is a very interesting phenomena. EXPERIMENT: I think we need to carefully measure the light that goes in and comes out of interference. Do it all add up? Is mass (energy) conserved? Where does the light in the dark areas go? in the light areas is the light brighter than the source when added up? If any light is missing, test for larger particles, such as electrons, neutrinos, neutrons, protons, other possible composite particles to verify that no two or more photons are falling together because of their gravity. | Paris, France |
154 YBN [08/??/1846 AD] | 2930) James Challis (CE 1803-1882), English astronomer observes the planet Neptune but fails to compare that night's observations with those of the previous night. | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
154 YBN [09/03/1846 AD] | 3101) | London, England |
154 YBN [09/23/1846 AD] | 3073) In 1821 Alexis Bouvard, of the Paris Observatory, had published a set of tables of the motion of Uranus. (Tables are different from observations, in that tables are mathematical predictions of the location of an object over a period of time.) Within a few years there is a noticeable difference between the predicted and observed location of Uranus. Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier (luVerYA) (CE 1811-1877), French astronomer, calculates the position of Neptune mathematically from the perturbations of Uranus. On 09/23/1846, Galle is the first to see planet Neptune, in the first night of searching at the request of Leverrier names the planet "Neptune", god of the ocean (supposedly from the planet Neptune's green color). The finding of a planet from pure calculation is strong evidence in favor of Newton's theory. John Couch Adams had made the same calculation months earlier with the same result. Leverrier works out the gravitational accounting of the motions of the planets in greater detail than ever before. (But it is now accepted that these motions are partially unpredictable, like the weather on earth, because of the many atoms of water and their complex movement on earth and even the moving of many atoms inside planets.) Both Leverrier and Adams has thought that Neptune would be more distant based on Bode's law. In the field of celestial mechanics, Le Verrier revises much of the work of Pierre Simon Laplace. (At the time) the theory of celestial mechanics centers on the theory that each planet moves around the sun in an ellipse with minor deviations due to attractions by the rest of the planets. This is different from running a simulation forward into time by using a computer to iterate the positions of all known masses and their mutual forces on each other (that is to calculate each position for each unit of time given starting positions and velocities into the future). Leverrier and Laplace before Leverrier use equations which are supposed to repeat periodically in time, for example, the equation for an ellipse; these equations are independent of time, since they form a periodic pattern. This method must make special exceptions to account for the interaction of other masses in the system. The computations involved are very complicated, but the results are accurate enough to provide predictions of considerable accuracy. However, the planet Uranus is the one exception. The error is in prediction of location of Uranus is 1 minute of arc. Another contribution of Galle's is that Galle suggests that the parallax of asteroids be used to determine the scale of the solar system. This will finally be done and successful, but not until 20 years after Galle dies. (chronology, may be 4.8) | Berlin, Germany (and Paris, France) |
154 YBN [09/30/1846 AD] | 2998) William Thomas Green Morton (CE 1819-1868), United States dental surgeon, popularizes the use of ether by giving a successful public demonstration of ether as an anesthesia during surgery, using ether for a tooth removal (extraction). The rural Georgia physician Crawford Long was the first to use ether for surgery 4 years before, but did not make his findings public until 1849. In 1844, the earliest known tooth extraction under anesthesia using nitrous oxide was performed by US dentist Horace Wells, which Morton witnessed. Determined to find a more reliable pain-killing chemical than nitrous oxide, Morton consults his former teacher Boston chemist Charles Jackson (CE 1805-1880). The two discuss the use of ether. On October 16 Morton successfully demonstrates the use of ether as an anesthetic, administering ether to a person undergoing a tumor operation. Morton attempts to obtain exclusive rights to the use of ether anesthesia and spends the remainder of his life engaged in a costly disagreement with Jackson, who claims priority in the discovery, despite official recognition going to Horace Wells and the rural Georgia physician Crawford Long. | (Massachusetts General Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
154 YBN [09/??/1846 AD] | 3268) Howe's early years are spent on his father's farm. In 1835 Howe enters the factory of a manufacturer of cotton-machinery at Lowell, Massachusetts, where he learns the machinist's trade. Howe is apprenticed in 1838 to an instrument maker and watchmaker in Boston at whose suggestion Howe turns his attention to devising a sewing machine. For five years Howe spends all his spare time in its development. Howe sends his brother to England to seek a market and there sells his third machine to William Thomas a manufacturer of corsets, umbrellas, and shoes. This manufacturer sees the possibilities the sewing machine could have if it can sew leather for shoes. Howe works with Thomas in London to produce a machine to stitch leather. The two soon quarrel, however, and Howe is forced to pawn his model and the patent papers to raise enough money to return back to the USA. When he cannot make money from his sewing machine patent, Howe sells the patent rights in England for £250 ($1,250), and moves to England. Howe works for £5 a week to perfect his machine for use in sewing leather and similar materials. When Howe returns to the U.S., he finds that some manufacturers, including Isaac Singer, are making and selling sewing machines similar to his. After a five year legal battle, lasting from 1849 to 1854, Howe's patent rights are established in 1854, and from then until 1867, when his patent expires, Howe receives royalties on all sewing machines produced in the United States. At the height of his prosperity Howe receives as much as $4,000 a week in royalties. (Can you imagine had Michael Pupin fought for his patent right to the camera that sees eyes and brain images? He probably feared being murdered if he pushed the point in the press or courts.) | Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
154 YBN [10/10/1846 AD] | 2824) Triton is the largest of Neptune's moons and has a diameter around 1,680 mi (2,700 km), nearly 80% that of Earth's Moon. Triton is the only large moon of the solar system to move in a retrograde orbit, opposite the direction of Neptune's rotation. Triton's orbital period of 5.9 Earth days is the same as its rotation period and as a result Triton always keeps the same face toward Neptune. Triton has a very thin atmosphere of nitrogen and methane and a surface temperature of -390 °F (-235 °C). The surface of Triton is covered with enormous (sheets) of ice sculpted with fissures, puckers, and ridge-crossed depressions. Geyser-like plumes will be observed by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and these may be gas venting through fissures when the surface is warmed by sunlight. Triton appears to have formed elsewhere in the star system and to have been gravitationally captured by Neptune in the planet's early history. In 1839, Lassell describes his home-made 9-inch equatorial reflector to the Royal Astronomical Society. Lassell never publishes any drawings of the 24-inch telescope. Around 1825 Lassell starts a brewery business, after a seven-year apprenticeship. | (Starfield Observatory) Liverpool, England |
154 YBN [10/??/1846 AD] | 3022) In 1865 De Morgan helps to found the London Mathematical Society. De Morgan is prevented from taking his M.A. degree, or from obtaining a fellowship, by his conscientious objection to signing the theological tests then required from masters of arts and fellows at Cambridge. De Morgan publishes numerous math papers and textbooks. | (University College) London, England |
154 YBN [12/12/1846 AD] | 3601) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 2603) | Abbeville, France (presumably) |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 2675) After a year of operation the telegraph system is moved from government owned and opened to ownership by private industry. (Some people argue that handing over the telegraph to private industry the telegraph grew faster, and perhaps that is true, however companies are not democratic (not that government is either), and if a conservative company owns the telegraph, telephone, and eventually the Pupin technology, liberal intellectual atheists and non-church going tend to be excluded from use of the service and the victim of abuse at the hands of conservative religious who own and have access to the technology. If owned by government, there might be on occasion the possibility of liberal leadership, as opposed to a company like AT&T where the owners rarely change, and are generally passed down like monarchy through inheritance. Either way, ultimately, the majority can control the vast wire network through government laws, once the public realizes what is happening with the secrecy and two-tier society that has been created.) The telegraph companies must store every telegraph recognizing the value of charging people to see the messages sent by people they are interested in. However, this routine process must be kept from the public, for fear of the public becoming angry. What are some of the oldest telegraphs secretly and systematically stored? | Washington DC, USA |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 2716) Charles Wheatstone is supposed to give a lecture for the Royal Society, but at the last second, with the audience already in their seats, Wheatstone becomes scared and leaves the theater, so Faraday gives this improvised lecture in which Faraday speculates that light may be a disturbance of electricity and magnetism. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 2944) The name "Weber" was used for the unit of current for some time, until an international congress in Paris in 1881 in which Helmholtz, the leader of the German delegation proposed the name "Ampere" for the unit of current instead of "Weber" which was accepted. The magnetic unit, termed a Weber, formerly the Coulomb, is named after Weber. A "Weber" is the International System unit of magnetic flux. One "Weber" is equal to the flux that produces in a circuit of one turn (of wire) an electromotive force of one volt, when the flux is uniformly reduced to zero within one second. A Weber is equivalent to 108 "Maxwell"s, the unit used in the centimeter-gram-second system. | (University of) Leipzig, Germany |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 2950) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 2951) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 3084) | (University of Marburg), Marburg, Germany |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 3108) Probably military people take an interest in developing this explosive, and the traditions of secrecy in military would make this research unavailable to the public. (Used for projectiles? propulsion of projectiles or vehicles?) | Torino, Italy (presumably) |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 3129) This process is used extensively by Goodyear in the United States and Hancock in England. Elkington and Mason use the process for waterproofing before selling the patent rights to Macintosh and Company, who became famous for their waterproofing products. | Birmingham, England (presumably) |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 3132) Ménard is educated at the Collège Louis-le-Grand and the École Normale and is a gifted chemist, painter and historian. Ménard is a socialist republican and is condemned to prison in 1849 for his "Prologue d'une révolution", which contains radical political opinions and his reminiscences of the June 1848 insurrections in Paris, in which Ménard played an active part. Ménard escapes abroad, returning to Paris in 1852. In 1876 Ménard publishes "Rêveries d'un païen mystique" ("Reveries of a Mystic Pagan"), which explains his philosophy. | Paris, France |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 3240) | Salford, England (presumably) |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 3327) | London, England (presumably) |
154 YBN [1846 AD] | 3476) At the University of Glasgow where Thomson is the chair of natural philosophy (later called physics), Thomson creates the first physics laboratory for students in the British Isles. | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
153 YBN [05/05/1847 AD] | 3255) | Broom Hill (near Manchester), England |
153 YBN [07/23/1847 AD] | 3331) (Possibly include text of introduction here) Helmholtz's father is a teacher of philosophy and literature at the Potsdam Gymnasium, and Helmholtz's mother is descended from William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. (It is interesting that there are lines of descent where clearly some families have progressed into science farther than others, and their descendants generally receive science educations as opposed to the explanations offered by religions, and this effect is amplified over many generations.) In 1838, Helmholtz enters the Friedrich Wilhelm Medical Institute in Berlin, where he receives a free (physician's) education on the condition that he serve eight years as an army doctor. At the Institute Helmholtz does research under the greatest German physiologist of the day, Johannes Müller. Helmholtz learns to play piano while at the Medical Institute. Helmholtz opposes the "nature philosophy" of Kant and others which views concepts of time, space, and causation were not products of sense experience but mental attributes, instead insisting that all knowledge comes through the senses, and that all science and the universe can and should be reduced to the laws of classical mechanics, which, for Helmholtz, includes matter, force, and, later, energy. Müller, whose lab Helmholtz earned his doctorate in, is a vitalist and is convinced that living processes will never be reduced to the ordinary mechanical laws of physics and chemistry. Ernst Brücke, Helmholtz and Karl Ludwig make up the "1847 school" of physiology whose program reacts sharply against German physiology of previous decades, in rejecting any explanation of life processes that appeals to nonphysical vital properties or forces. The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography states that "All of Helmholtz's minor papers published between 1843 and 1847, most of which treat problems of animal heat and muscle contraction, clearly reflect the mechanistic tenets of the school.". Heinrich Hertz, who discovers radio waves in 1888, is Helmholtz's pupil. (Helmholtz is the teacher/mentor of Michael Pupin for a few years, and Helmholtz's interest and immersion in studies of the sense organs no doubt inspired Pupin to explore the questions of "can the heat from a human's body and in particular the brain be seen apart from the background heat?", “can what a person sees be seen from behind the head?”, "can image a brain creates be seen outside of the head in different frequencies of light?", “can thought be somehow heard outside of the head?”, questions perhaps Helmholtz and others openly asked among themselves. When did hidden microphones start to be used? After 1890, people probably were using hidden movie cameras. ) In 1873 Helmholtz is award the Copley Medal. Helmholtz experiences fainting spells throughout his life, on returning from a lecture tour of the USA, he suffers a concussion from a faint, doesn't recover and dies 8 weeks later. Many of Helmholtz's works appear in Hermann von Helmholtz, "Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen", "Scientific Papers" (2 vol, 1882,1883). | (Physikalische Gesellschaft) Berlin, Germany |
153 YBN [10/01/1847 AD] | 3215) Mitchell is the first professional woman astronomer in the USA. As a child Mitchell's interest in astronomy is stimulated by her father, who encourages her independent use of his telescope. From 1836 to 1856 Mitchell works as a librarian during the day and is a regular observer of the skies at night. In October 1847 Mitchell succeeds in establishing (plotting?) the orbit of a new comet. (how is this communicated to the public?) This discovery causes Mitchell's immediate recognition among people in science. Mitchell is awarded a gold medal from the King of Denmark. The following year Mitchell becomes the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1849 Mitchell is hired as a "computer" by the US Nautical Almanac Office. The next year Mitchell is elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1857 a group of Boston area women (led by Elizabeth Peabody) present Mitchell with a 5-in. Alvan Clark refractor, with which she expands her studies of sunspots, planets, and nebulae. In 1865, Mitchell, reluctantly, but encouraged by her father, accepts a job at Vassar Female College, which opens this year in Poughkeepsie, New York. (Is Mitchell the first female professor (of astronomy) in the US?) In 1873 Mitchell helps found the Association for the Advancement of Women and serves as its president (1875–76). Asimov comments that Mitchell's contributions to science are moderate, but that she represents the (highest point) for the oppressed half of the American population. | Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 2731) | London, England (presumably) |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 2754) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3064) In 1843 Regnault is commissioned by the Government to investigate the properties of steam and to obtain numerical data that should be of value to steam engineers. The results are published in 1847, as vol. XXI of the "Mémoires" of the Academy of Sciences. For this work Regnault wins the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society of London. (alpha of 1/273 is in this work?) Also in this year, Regnault publishes a four-volume treatise on Chemistry which has been translated into many languages. (title = ) | (College de France) Paris, France |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3094) | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3098) Simpson is a child prodigy, and enters the University of Edinburgh at 14, receiving a medical degree at age 21. Simpson develops the long obstetrics forceps that are named for him. Simpson is also known for his writings on medical history (especially on leprosy in Scotland) and on fetal pathology and hermaphroditism. | (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3110) Until Snow is 14, he is educated at a common day school for poor families. In 1827, Snow travels to Newcastle - upon - Tyne, 80 miles from his home, where Snow begins serving a six year apprenticeship in medicine (or perhaps in the study of illness) under surgeon William Hardcastle. The apprenticeship includes attending lectures at the Newcastle Infirmary. During this apprenticeship, Snow became a vegetarian as well as a total abstainer of alcohol (perhaps a non-drinker of alcohol, nonalcoholian). | London, England |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3172) Boole comes from a poor background in the English city of Lincoln. Boole's father teaches him math and to make optical instruments. Aside from his father's help and a few years at local schools, however, Boole is self-taught in mathematics. From the age of 16 Boole teaches in village schools in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1835 Boole opens his own school in Lincoln when he is 20. In 1844 Boole is awarded the Royal Society's first gold medal for mathematics for Boole's pioneering paper on the calculus of operators. Much of language is defined by our interpretation of the universe. We define subset objects from a singular universe. For example we create the object "Star" which is different from the rest of the universe. From the definition of space and time come the questions what, where, when, if, etc which form the basis of language. So humans create and move around these objects in our brains. The objects (nouns) we select in the universe, and their movement (verbs) define much of human language. | Lincoln, England (presumably) |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3180) Ludwig attempts to determine, with greater precision than Harvey had done, the relation of the movements of the heart and chest to the fluctuations of pressure of the blood in the veins and arteries. In 1846, Ludwig, while still at Marburg, studies the relation which exists between the movements of respiration and the pressure of the blood. Ludwig connects a U shaped manometer tube partly filled with mercury with an artery (describe how - wrapping around or injecting in?) but the movements of the column of mercury are so rapid and complex that the eye fails to retain them. It is then that Ludwig conceives the idea of placing on the mercury a float carrying a style tipped with a writing point and of letting this record the movements of the mercury and consequently of the blood column on a moving surface. The movement of the paper on which the tracing is written is effected by means of a clockwork. The respiratory movements are recorded on the same paper at the same time with the oscillations of the arterial pressure. Therefore the records of these two processes are written simultaneously and can be readily compared. | (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3213) Semmelweiss is educated at the universities of Pest and Vienna, receives his doctor's degree from Vienna in 1844 and is appointed assistant at the obstetric clinic in Vienna. In July 1865 Semmelweiss is locked into a psychiatric hospital and dies there. (I always wonder what the person did to be handcuffed by police and taken to a psychiatric hospital...maybe he grabbed a juicy ass, who knows?!) | (Vienna General Hospital) Vienna, (Austria now:) Germany |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3225) Many people mistake a gun "bullet" with a gun "cartridge". The bullet is the projectile inside the cartridge. | Paris, France |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3303) | Paris, France |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3473) This paper wins Hofmeister, self-educated, an honorary degree from the University of Rostock. In 1863 Hofmeister is given the chair of botany at Heidelberg. and in 1872 is hired as chair at the University of Tübingen, both unheard of accomplishments for a self-taught scholar. | Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3605) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 3606) | London, England |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 5992) | Paris, France (presumably) |
153 YBN [1847 AD] | 6002) Clara Josephine Schumann (CE 1819-1896), German pianist and composer, composes Piano Trio opus 17. Shumann wins success as a touring piano virtuoso both before and after she marries the composer Robert Schumann (1840). Despite strong objections from her father, she married Schumann in 1840, and they have eight children between 1841 and 1854. | Leipzig, Germany (verify) |
152 YBN [03/11/1848 AD] | 2843) | (Birr Castle) Parsonstown, Ireland |
152 YBN [05/22/1848 AD] | 3411) Pasteur is the descendant of generations of tanners. His great-grandfather was an indentured laborer who bought his own freedom. Pasteur tutors, but experiences periods of semistarvation from poverty. In 1848 Pasteur takes side of the revolutionaries but is politically conservative. Pasteur shows these (stereo optical molecular isomers) to Biot. The finding of stereo optical isomers makes Pasteur famous at age 26. Pasteur receives the Rumsford medal for this work. Pasteur is a very religious person. Pasteur rejects the theory of evolution on religious reasons. In 1868 Pasteur has a stroke that partially paralyzes him. In 1888 the Pasteur Institute is established with the help of donations from all over the earth, including from the governments of Russia, Turkey and Brazil. It's purpose is originally to treat rabies, and it is now one of the most recognized and productive centers of biological research on earth. In the closing paragraphs of his inaugural oration, Pasteur said: "Two opposing laws seem to me now to be in contest. The one, a law of blood and death opening out each day new modes of destruction, forces nations always to be ready for the battle. The other, a law of peace, work and health, whose only aim is to deliver man from the calamities which beset him. The one seeks violent conquests, the other, the relief of mankind. The one places a single life above all victories, the other sacrifices hundreds of thousands of lives to the ambition of a single individual. The law of which we are the instruments strives even through the carnage to cure the wounds due to the law of war. Treatment by our antiseptic methods may preserve the lives of thousands of soldiers. Which of these two laws will prevail, God only knows. But of this we may be sure, science, in obeying the law of humanity, will always labor to enlarge the frontiers of life.". Asimov comments that nobody except Aristotle and Darwin can compete with Pasteur for the greatest scientist in the field of biology. | Paris, France |
152 YBN [08/10/1848 AD] | 2879) | London, England (presumably) |
152 YBN [08/??/1848 AD] | 3241) | (read at) Swansea, Wales, England |
152 YBN [09/16/1848 AD] | 2612) Bond builds a home observatory that is the best in the nation. Hyperion is 370x280x225km (230x174x140 miles), and is largest highly irregular (nonspherical) body in the solar system. Hyperion's mean density is only about half that of water ice, suggesting that the moon's interior may be a loose agglomeration of (water?) ice blocks interspersed with empty space. (I have doubts, because the meteor impacts imply a solid one-piece object, in particular the largest impact.) Hyperion orbits Saturn once every 21.3 Earth days in the prograde direction at a distance of 1,481,100 km (920,300 miles), between the orbits of the moons Titan and Iapetus. Hyperion's orbit is unusual in that it is somewhat eccentric (elongated) yet inclined less than a half degree from the plane of Saturn's equator. Hyperion forms a satellite pair with Titan; that is, the two moons interact gravitationally. Because of Hyperion's shape and orbit, it does not maintain a stable rotation around its own fixed axis. Unlike any other known object in the solar system, Hyperion rotates (unpredictably), changing its rotational characteristics over timescales as short as a month. Hyperion is named for one of the Titans of Greek mythology. Bond is largely self-educated, and is a watchmaker who becomes interested in astronomy after observing the solar eclipse of 1806. In 1815 Bond is sent by Harvard College to Europe to visit existing observatories and gather data preliminary to the building of an observatory at Harvard. In 1839, Bond is appointed the first astronomical observer at Harvard College in recognition of his efforts. In 1839 the (Harvard) observatory is founded. Bond supervises its construction and becomes its first director. In 1847 a 15-in. (37.5 cm) telescope, then matched in size by only one other on Earth, is installed. With this telescope Bond makes elaborate studies of sunspots, of the Orion nebula, and of the planet Saturn, publishing his results chiefly in the Annals of the Harvard College Observatory. In 1851 a photograph (daguerreotype )of the moon Bond takes is a sensation at the Great Exhibition in London. | Harvard, Massachussetts, USA ((Starfield Observatory) Liverpool, England) |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 2561) Slavery is abolished in the French colonies. French physicist, Dominique François Jean Arago (oroGO) (CE 1786-1853) as minister of war and navy, appoints the greatest advocate of ending slavery Victor Schoelcher as undersecretary for the navy, who the prepares the famous decree that abolishes slavery in the colonies. | Paris, France (presumably) |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 2648) The Associated Press is a cooperative news agency (wire service), the oldest and largest of those in the United States and long the largest and one of the preeminent news agencies on Earth. The AP is formed in 1848, when six New York City daily newspapers pooled their efforts to finance a telegraphic relay of foreign news brought by ships to Boston, the first U.S. port of call for westbound transatlantic ships. | New York City, NY, USA |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 2679) | France |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 2759) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, makes a complete set of drawings for "Difference Engine 2". | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 2811) In this same paper, Henry describes how at a high enough temperature silver does not evaporate as thought, but sinks into copper metal below it. | Princeton, NJ, USA |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 2842) | (Birr Castle) Parsonstown, Ireland |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3018) Maury describes the gulf stream by saying "there is a river in the ocean". Maury is one of the founders of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. According to the Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography, as head of the U.S. naval Observatory from 1844 to 1861, Maury's poor qualifications as an astronomer hold back the Earth's greatest observatories. Being a Virginian Maury sides with the Confederacy in the outbreak of the US Civil War in 1861. In England, Maury takes an active part in organizing an unsuccessful petition for peace in the United States. | Washington, DC, USA |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3068) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3191) | (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3289) Fizeau substitutes bromine for the iodine used by Daguerre in making daguerreotypes and this increases the permanency of daguerreotypes. (verify) With Jean Foucault, Fizeau performs a series of investigations on the interference of light and heat. Most of Fizeau's published works appear in the "Comptes Rendus" and in the "Annales de physique et de chimie". Fizeau is the son of a wealthy physician and professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. Fizeau receives his secondary education at the Collège Stanislas and starts to study a career as a physician, but because of poor health has to stop regular attendance of classes. Upon return to health Fizeau turns his focus to physics. Fizeau never holds professorships but is elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1860. In 1875 Fizeau is awarded the Royal Society's Rumford medal. | Paris, France (presumably) |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3302) | Paris, France |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3333) | (Physikalische Gesellschaft) Berlin, Germany |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3405) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3477) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3478) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3497) In later life Bates is considered possibly the greatest authority on Coleoptera (beetles and weevils). | Brazil, South America |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 3658) | (University of) Leipzig, Germany |
152 YBN [1848 AD] | 5988) Johann Strauss I (Known as "the Elder.") (CE 1804-1849), Austrian violinist and composer of waltzes and other works, composes the "Redetzky March" (1848). His son Johann (1825-1899), known as "the Younger," is sometimes called "the Waltz King" and is best remembered for his numerous waltzes, such as "The Blue Danube" (1867). (It is interesting how different from Mozart and Beethoven's music the march is. There is, perhaps more focus on percussion and a regular drum beat. Apparently the march goes back a long way in history.) (Determine when the march originates and by whom.) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
151 YBN [01/20/1849 AD] | 3280) EXPER: For all known substances, use a diffraction grating and computer interface to analyze for all photon intervals (wavelengths) of light, those absorbed, reflected, and transmitted. Try various angles of incidence to see if there is a difference. Make public all findings. I think there is the remote possibility that light particles of the same frequency could be colliding off each other and this might explain the dark areas. Kirchhoff had found that the absorption happens even for unilluminated sodium - see id3458. EXPERIMENT: In 2D and 3D models do particle beams of the same or different frequencies from two spherical sources collide more often? How are distance, intensity, frequency, etc related to number and rate of collisions? | Paris, France (presumably) |
151 YBN [01/23/1849 AD] | 1252) Blackwell applies to several prominent medical schools but is rejected by all. Her second round of applications is sent to smaller colleges, including Geneva College in New York, where she is accepted. According to legend, because the faculty put the application to a student vote, and the students think her application is a hoax. Blackwell braves the prejudice of some of the professors and students to complete her training. She persists, ranking first in her class. | Geneva, New York, USA |
151 YBN [03/29/1849 AD] | 3507) | (Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
151 YBN [05/27/1849 AD] | 3299) | Paris, France |
151 YBN [06/21/1849 AD] | 3247) Joule publishes these results as "On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat" in the Philosophical Transactions. Joule opens with two quotes, the first from John Locke, and the second from Gottfried Leibnitz: From Locke: "Heat is a very brisk agitation of the insensible parts of the object, which produces in us that sensation from whence we denominate the object hot; so what in our sensation is heat, in the object is nothing but motion." and from Leibnitz: "The force of a moving body is proportional to the square of its velocity, or to the height to which it would rise against gravity.". This last quote is interesting to me, because, perhaps this work is on the path that leads to the use of "energy" as a quantity which is conserved and equal to 1/2mv2. Joule refers to the "vis-viva" of the heated water (particles) and defines this property (vis-viva) as being proportional to the particle velocity squared. I think according to the F=ma law, force of an object is proportional to the object's mass and acceleration. This idea of gravity presumes the large mass of the Earth, strictly speaking, a mass that is pulled away, against the force exerted by a larger mass. But I think this may be a case of how a person may say, force is proportional to mass, and to mass squared, and to the square root of mass, and to mass cubed, etc. all true, but seems apparently unimportant. Although I am not sure and this is certainly open to other explanations. But beyond that, I don't think force is proportional to velocity or velocity squared (or cubed, etc), as it is, strictly speaking by the definition of F=ma defined as proportional only to mass and acceleration. But again, I'm not entirely clear on this. My own feeling about the heat convertible to force, force convertible to heat issue that Faraday rejects, is that these quantities, heat and force, are composite quantities and strictly speaking the modern view of heat does not include all possible forces, because it excludes photons of a frequency that are not absorbed by the heat measuring device, which may account for the velocity of a force. Are we measuring that small slice of the spectrum in the microwave and infrared, or the movement of particles in the full spectrum? The definition of heat, I think needs to be more clearly defined, because, clearly there are moving particles that are not absorbed by the heat measuring device, whether that is mercury, water, a skin cell, etc. So is the intention to measure the average velocity of all particles in some volume of space, or to measure the average velocity of only those particles that are absorbed by the substance used to determine the quantity of heat? Ultimately mass and velocity are conserved, so the velocity of the particles as they do mechanical work, can be transferred to particles that are heated up, but I think that there may be large velocities of photons within atoms, which, because they are limited to an orbit, cannot be measured directly using other atoms, but are observed when the photon exits the atom and takes a straight line direction. So, it may be, that there are many hidden velocities in atoms that are revealed when photons are sent into straight line directions from friction. To conclude, I think that, there are many velocities of photons in atoms. So a small velocity (an example is like a neutron in fission) might release a much larger velocity summed over many released particles than went into some event. The velocities were always there, but simply not moving in straight lines and not visually observable. So it's an issue of space, the many resulting velocities were already there, but confined to a small space. But I think we need to open this debate up and try to find the clearest and most simple and accurate explanations that everybody can understand and accept as the best theory currently known. | (Oak Field, Whalley Range near) Manchester, England |
151 YBN [07/23/1849 AD] | 3290) EXPER: Use a device similar to the one used by Fizeau to determine if long photon interval light beams can be halved. use a diffraction grating to isolate a single frequency of light from a light source. To detect the light a grating can also be used, or perhaps an electronic tuned circuit. For a grating, is the spectral line moved because of the blocking by the spinning toothed wheel? Is this evidence for the particle theory, or can a wave theory explain this result? | Paris, France |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 1026) | |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 2523) David Brewster (CE 1781-1868) invents the lenticular "stereoscope" where a person looks at two slightly different pictures, one with each eye, which gives the illusion of three-dimensional features. Charles Wheatstone discovered the principle (of the stereoscope) and applied it as early as 1838 to an instrument, in which the binocular pictures are made to combine by means of mirrors. Brewster uses of lenses for the purpose of uniting the dissimilar pictures. | Edinburgh, Scotland |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 2649) Reuters uses pigeons to cover sections where lines are incomplete. Reuters' original name is Israel Beer Josaphat. Reuters is a German-born founder of one of the first news agencies, which still bears his name. Of Jewish parentage, Reuters becomes a Christian in 1844 and adopts the name of Reuter. | Paris, France |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 2732) | London, England (presumably) |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 2763) | (Guy's Hospital) London, England |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 3065) | (College de France) Paris, France |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 3114) Barnard is one of the founders of experimental (health science). Barnard describes the concept of the internal environment of the organism, which leads to the current understanding of homeostasis, the self-regulation of vital processes. Bernard studies under François Magendie at both the Hôtel-Dieu and the Collège de France. Magendie notices Bernard's skillful dissections and takes Bernard on as a research assistant. Bernard's wife, Fanny, opposes vivisection (the act or practice of cutting into or otherwise injuring living animals, especially for the purpose of scientific research) so much that, she joins the newly formed society for the protection of animals, the SPA, and becomes one of its most vocal members. The two have a legal separation in 1870. Bernard rejects evolution. Asimov explains that French biologists, even Pasteur, reject Darwinism, this is partly from the influence of Lamarck and Cuvier 50 years before. At his death Bernard is given a funeral arranged and financed by the government, the first ever given to a scientist in France. | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 3135) William Zinsser manufactures shellac into the USA. Zinsser is a foreman in a Mainz, Germany, shellac factory, who emigrates from Germany to the United States in 1848. Zinsser discovers that shellac varnishes are unknown in America. Working from a home laboratory, Zinsser develops a product and soon establishes the nation's first bleached shellac manufacturing plant, William Zinsser & Company, in what is then "far uptown rural Manhattan". Shellac is made from the secretions of the tiny lac insect, Laccifer lacca. Shellac is a natural thermoplastic, a material that is soft and flows under pressure when heated but becomes rigid at room temperature. Shellac is an ingredient in many products, including abrasives, sealing wax, hair sprays, and cake glazes. Shellac is used, along with fine clay or other filler, to mold phonograph records, but, after the early 1930s, synthetic thermoplastics, particularly vinyl resins, gradually replace shellac. In the 1800s many mixtures and compositions are based on shellac, the most successful being the American ones of Peck, Halvorson, and Critchlow. | Manhattan, NY, USA |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 3195) Ethylamine is a colorless volatile liquid, C2H5NH2, used in petroleum refining and detergents and in organic synthesis. Also called ethamine. Methylamine is a toxic flammable gas, CH3NH2, produced by the decomposition of organic matter and synthesized for use as a solvent and in the manufacture of many products, such as dyes and insecticides. Diethylamine, (C2H5)2NH is a water-soluble, colorless liquid with ammonia aroma, boiling at 56°C; used in rubber chemicals and pharmaceuticals and as a solvent and flotation agent. Trietylamine, (C2H5)3N is a colorless, toxic, flammable liquid with an ammonia aroma; soluble in water and alcohol; boils at 90°C; used as a solvent, rubber-accelerator activator, corrosion inhibitor, and propellant, and in penetrating and waterproofing agents. In 1845 Wurtz becomes an assistant to Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas, whom Wurtz succeeds at the School of Medicine in 1852. In 1858 Archibald Couper apparently anticipates Kekulé in working out the structure of the carbon atom (more detail) and asks Wurtz to present his paper to the Académie des Sciences. Wurtz delays and Kekulé publishes. When Couper protests with Wurtz Couper is expelled from Wurtz's laboratory. (I don't worry about priority. With the camera-thought network, history will show who was first, and ultimately the important thing is human progress no matter what the source. In any event, theoriginator of new ideas should always be honestly recognized by people.) In 1875 Wurtz is the first chair of organic chemistry at the Sorbonne. Wurtz is one of the founders of the Paris Chemical Society (1858), and its first secretary and three times serves as its president. | (Ecole de Médicine, School of Medicine) Paris, France |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 3199) Sainte-Claire Deville also isolates toluene and methyl benzoate from tolu balsam and investigates other natural products before turning to inorganic chemistry. Toluene is a colorless, flammable, toxic liquid hydrocarbon aromatic compound (C6H5CH3), the methyl derivative of benzene. Found in coal-tar light oil and in petroleum, toluene is mainly obtained from the processing of petroleum fractions. It is used as a solvent, diluent (serving to dilute), and thinner; as an antiknock additive in airplane gasoline; and as a raw material for TNT, benzoic acid and its derivatives, saccharin, dyes, photographic chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Toluene is also called methylbenzene. Toluene was discovered by Pelletier in 1838 (Ann. chim. phys., 1838, 67, p. 269). Starting around 1857 Deville studies reversible reactions under a general theory of dissociation. In the course of this investigation Deville devises the apparatus known as the "Deville hot and cold tube". Deville discovers dissociation of heated chemical compounds and their recombination at lower temperatures. (more info. Is the dissociation between atoms, or between molecule groups?) Deville is the son of a wealthy shipowner from the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. Sainte-Claire Deville commits suicide at 63. | (University of Besançon) Besançon, France |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 3229) | Braunschweig, Germany |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 3319) | (University of Montpellier) Montpellier, France |
151 YBN [1849 AD] | 3479) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
150 YBN [02/??/1850 AD] | 3364) Clausius writes "Die Potentialfunktion und das Potential" (1859) and "Die mechanische Wärmetheorie" (1865–67; tr. "The Mechanical Theory of Heat", 1879). (So is heat a particle or movement? I think my own opinion is that heat is a movement due to a particle, but its not clear to me. Is the heat the velocity of the photon or the photon itself? Without the photon there is no heat, but without the velocity of a photon there is no heat either, so it is in some sense both a movement and a particle perhaps. It has to do with the quantity of free photons too, in particular free photons absorbed. For example you could hold a dense solid cold object and a less dense warm object. The dense object clearly has more photons and more velocity within it, but the warm object is emitting more photons, in particular photons of a frequency that are absorbed by sensors in the skin.) (Notice how the heat and work equivalent group never refer to velocity (or momentum) of particles but only to their vis viva, which is 1/2mv^2.) Clausius rejects Helmholtz's explanation of the first law of thermodynamics (the conservation of energy) in the early 1850s. An interesting example in my mind is that if you put a mass near a large mass, it's potential energy goes up (because the force of gravity is large on it), as opposed to putting a mass far away from a large mass. It just seems like the mass is just a mass and there is no difference physically in it, no matter where it happens to be located. Faraday stated that the law of gravity violates the conservation of energy, but I think that it is preserved because any added acceleration is balanced in an opposite direction, and in addition, two masses moving closer, results in their moving farther away from all other masses. In 1857, Clausius wrongly claims priority for Avogadro's hypothesis of diatomic molecules and in 1866 for the diatomic nature of the oxygen molecule. | (Royal Artillery and Engineering School) Berlin, Germany |
150 YBN [05/06/1850 AD] | 3281) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), measures that the light moves more slowly in water than in air, and that the speed of light is inversely proportional to the index of refraction of the medium. Roemer had measured the speed of light and proved light to have a finite velocity in 1676. In 1834, Charles Wheatstone had used a rotating mirror powered by (wound up) clock gears to measure the speed of electricity. Foucault clearly supports the wave theory of light writing in "Journal des Débats" on May 15, 1850: "To complete the downfall of this poor theory of emission...to give it the fatal blow, it was only a matter of performing {Arago's} famous experiment.". Foucault and Fizeau both independently perform the same experiment, Foucault finding success first. Historian William Tobin describes Foucault's experiment: (see image 1) "Sunlight from a heliostat (a heliostat is an instrument in which a mirror is automatically moved so that it reflects sunlight in a constant direction) illuminated a 2-mm square entrance aperture. In its initial form, the aperture was crossed by a vertical grid of eleven fine platinum wires, but later Foucault used only a single wire, and this arrangement will be described since it accords with an engraving which he later published {see image 2}. Let us consider the air path first with the spinning mirror stationary. Within a certain range of azimuth (space in the horizontal or X dimension), this mirror reflects rays from the wire towards the air-path concave mirro, where an image is produced owing to a converging lens placed earlier along the optical path. The concave mirror reflects the rays back towards the platinum wire, where they would refocus, except that Foucault introduced a beam-splitting glass plate near the aperture to reflect this final image into an eyepiece. To emphasize a point already made, because a concave mirror was used, the position of the image in the eyepiece remained the same whatever the azimuth of the spinning mirror, though of course no image appears if the azimuth of the spinning mirror was outside the range that fed rays to the concave mirror. A ruling in the eyepiece marked the undeviated position of the image {see image 2}. When the mirror was spinning, it turned through a certain minuscule angle during the time it took light to make the tript to the concave mirror and back. The final image was therefore shifted slightly sideways in the eyepiece. The size of the deviation depended on how much the spinning mirror had rotated, which in turn depended on the mirror speed and the delay between the outward and returning beams. With such a complicated path, Foucault reported that the principal difficulty was obtaining a sharp image. The spinning mirror was held in a barrel-like fixture mounted on a spindle {see image 3}. To turn the spindle, Foucault adandones his beloved clockwork, which he felt was too self-destructive at high speeds and did not allow the mirror speed to be varied ina continuous manner or held constant for sufficiently long. Instead, he adapted the siren {see image 4} devised by the aged Cagniard-Latour...Foucault adapted the siren into a 24-bladed turbine driven by steam {see image 3}. ...The {mirror} needed to be dynamically balanced ... {and} ...then statically balanced. ... Foucault first saw the image of the wire deviate on 1850 February 17. He will then have known that the experiment was going to work. However, it took a further two months to set up the water-path leg of the experiment, in which the light passed through a 3-m long tube of water. To get a satisfactory final image it was essential that the windows at the end of the tube had accurately parallel sides; luckily there was a supplier of optical plates in Paris, MM. Radiguet and Son. ... Distilled water was surprisingly murky because of microorganisms; water from the public supply provided much superior transparency. The final image of the wire was nevertheless very dim - and green - because of absorption by the long column of water. For this reason, both Foucault and Fizeau were forced to operate with sunlight, and to increase throughput, Foucault mounted two glass mirror in the barrel, back to back. {Foucault uses the new chemical silvering process for these mirrors.} So as to be able to see the air- and water-path images simultaneously, Foucault masked the air-path concave mirror with a screen pierced by a narrow, horizontal slit {see image 6}. This reduced the path of the air-path image {image 2b}, allowing the water-path image to be seen dimly flanking it {image 2c}. The experiment finally worked on April 27, a Saturday. Foucault observed the air- and water-path deviations successively, and then simultaneously, as in {image 2.d}, where a vertical scratch in the eyepiece marked the position of no deviation. The rightwards displacement of the image of the wire was greater for the water path, as illustrated. Further, the ratio of the two deviations was as expected given the refractive index of water. The emission theory was dead, incontestably incompatible with the experimental results! Within three hours, Foucault had had four others peer into the eyepiece and confirm his result.... On Monday, May 6, Foucault reported to the Academy. The mirror speed was estimated from the pitch (of sound) of the knocking of the bearings, but was not accurately determined, which prevented an absolute determination of the velocity of light. With 600-800 r.p.s., the deviations were 0.2 to 0.3 mm. Foucault went on to suggest how to make an absolute measurement and adapt the method to calorific rays using the tiny thermometers devised with Fizeau. .... Non-scientists wanted to see the image deviate too. Hector Berlioz asked to bring along three friends." Foucault publishes this as "Methode générale pour mesurer la vitesse de la lumière dans l'air et les milieux transparants. Vitesses relatives de la lumière dans l'air et dans l'eau. Projet d'experience sur la vitesse de propagation du calorique rayonnant.", ("General method to measure the speed of light in air and the transparent medium. Relative speeds of light in air and water. Project experiment on the speed of propagation of radiant heat."). (verify translation) (Find translation of 1850 paper) In his paper, Foucault writes (note: this is a Google and babel fish translation since Foucault's writings, shockingly, considering the importance to science of these works, have not been translated to English to my knowledge) "The new experimental method that I propose to evaluate the speed of light being propagated at small distance, is founded on the use of the rotating mirror invented by Mr. Wheatstone, and indicated by Mr. Arago, as being able to be used to attack this kind of question. The rotating mirror associated with a suitable optical apparatus indeed makes it possible to note, to less than one thirtieth close, the duration of the double course of the light through a column of water 3 meters in length, and when it is intended to operate only in the air, a slight modification of this apparatus permits the attainment of a degree of precision of which it not is not yet possible to specify the limit. A third modification, designed to spare much the loss of light, will be useful, and I've come to understand a note by thermometric indications that the heating radiation until here inseparable from the light, is propagated with same speed.". Foucault continues: "Moreover, taking into account lengths of air and water crossings, deviations have been substantially proportionate to the refractive indices. These results show a speed of light in water less than in the air and accordingly, fully confirm the views of Mr Arago indications of the theory of undulations. It should be noted as Mr. Arago said at the meeting that the experiment, in demonstrating a lower speed in water than in air, is quite crucial and is the decisive call between the two systems. If we would have found an inverse result, the theory of Newton would remain sustainable, but that the wave theory is not possibly reversed, waits until it is possible to constitute ether in order to explain, whatever is the meaning of the change of speed to the changes of mediums." (It is interesting that no exploration of a particle theory is examined. It's no credit to the corpuscular supporters that they never created a theory to support light particles being slowed in denser mediums, so far as I know.) In his "Opticks" (in 1704), Newton had theorized that because the path of light corpuscles is slanted towards the perpendicular, the distance traveled by the corpuscles must be shorter, and therefore that the speed of the corpuscles must be faster in denser mediums. (verify) The accepted view given by corpuscular supporters is that the parallel component of the velocity of a ray of particles is unchanged when the particles enter the water, but the perpendicular component is increased by the attraction of the water. The total velocity of the particles is therefore increased in water. Nobody, so far as I know, had any alternative corpuscular theory, in particular that the speed of corpuscles might be slower and the parallel velocity nonzero because of collision with atoms in water. Before Newton's corpuscular (or "emission") theory, the view was that light is like sound, a wave in a medium. This view was supported by (Grimaldi, Hooke, Huygens, Euler, Thomas Young, Fresnel, and others). The wave interpretation of light is thought to imply that the movement of light would be slowed in a denser medium. (verify first to claim light would be slowed in denser medium - Fresnel in 1821?) Thomas Young determined the wavelength of light in 1801 and theorized that light is a transverse wave in an aether medium in 1817, as did Fresnel in 1821, and the corpuscular theory of light then started to lose popularity. In the undulatory or wave theory, wavefronts are deviated but not broken when the enter water. This deviation shorten the space between wavefronts. Since the same number of wavefronts must pass per second, their reduced separation results in a lower velocity in water. Foucault's finding that light is slowed down in denser mediums therefore supports the wave theory. The corpuscular supporters had never theorized that collisions of light corpuscles and atoms in the medium might delay the passage of the corpuscles, and as far as I know, no published paper has ever contested the wave explanation for light being slower in denser mediums, or offered a corpuscular alternative. Do any known rebuttals or alternative corpuscular explanations exist? Tobin explains that this effect is explained in quantum mechanics by Planck's equation for the momentum of a photon (momentum=Planck's constant/wavelength). The photon is interpreted differently from the old corpuscular theory (which presumed particles of light to be material while the photon is viewed as nonmaterial or massless). Tobin states that "The component of the photon momentum perpendicular to the interface does increase as the photon passes into water, as does the total momentum; but the wavelength is thereby reduced. Since the frequency is unchanged, the velocity, which equals the product of frequency and wavelength, is lessened too...". However, I think the delay is because of photons, as masses, colliding and reflecting off the internal structure of the atoms of the medium. In addition, I think Planck's equation for momentum, being dependent on wavelength, cannot represent a single photon. This equation of momentum can only apply to two or more photons, and I think the photon must have a mass and momentum of its own. This equation may represent the total momentum of a beam of sequential photons. | Paris, France (presumably) |
150 YBN [08/28/1850 AD] | 5996) The court opera authorities in Dresen refuse to stage Wagner's opera, Lohengrin, because they are alienated by Wagner’s projected administrative and artistic reforms. Wagner's proposals would have taken control of the opera away from the court and created a national theater whose productions would be chosen by a union of dramatists and composers. Wagner becomes involved in the German revolution of 1848–49. Wagner writes a number of articles advocating revolution and takes an active part in the Dresden uprising of 1849. When the uprising fails, a warrant is issued for Wagner's arrest and he fleas from Germany, unable to attend the first performance of Lohengrin at Weimar, given by his friend Franz Liszt on Aug. 28, 1850. In 1850-51, in Zürich, Wagner writes his ferociously anti-Jewish "Jewishness in Music" (some of it an attack on Meyerbeer). | Weimar, Germany |
150 YBN [08/??/1850 AD] | 3893) | Paris, France (presumably) |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 1134) | (Military School) Brussels, Belgium |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 2613) In this same year, Bond detects the dark inner ring of Saturn (the Crepe Ring), which Lassell discovers independently only a few nights later. Johann Galle had discovered the Crepe (or C) ring in 1838. (What is the reason that the rings have different colors?) Vega is also called Alpha Lyrae. Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation Lyra and fifth brightest in the night sky, with a visual magnitude of 0.03 (in photons). Vega is 25 light-years away. Vega is a white main-sequence star of spectral class A0 V indicating that Vega has a surface temperature of 9600 K (16,800°F). Compared to the Sun, Vega is approximately 2.9 times larger in diameter, 2.5 times more massive, and 60 times more luminous (emits 60x as many photons). Vega emits far more radiation at infrared wavelengths than would be expected. This radiation originates from a shell or disk of particles with a temperature of 100 K (−280°F) surrounding Vega out to a distance of 1.3 × 1010 km (8 × 109 mi), twice the radius of the solar system. | Harvard, Massachussetts, USA |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 2663) | Calcutta, India |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 2817) In 1830 Melloni takes part in an unsuccessful Italian revolution. (Melloni measures the heat effect of moonlight (from a high location on Mount Vesuvius.).) | Naples, Italy |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 2942) | (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3008) | (Royal Observatory) Bogenhausen, Germany |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3019) | Washington, DC, USA |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3115) In 1850, the Academy of Sciences award Bernard, for the third time, its prize in Experimental Physiology. | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3116) These findings are published as "Recherches sur le curare". C R hebd Acad Sci, t.31, 1850, p 533-537. Avec J Pelouze. and "Action du curare et de la nicotine sur le système nerveux et sur le système musculaire." - C. R. Soc. Biol., t. 2, 1850 (1851), p. 195. | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3130) | (Elkington and Mason copper smelting plant) Pembrey, South Wales, England |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3217) Richard Jordan Gatling (CE 1818-1903), US inventor, invents a double-acting hemp break (an instrument or machine to break or bruise the woody part of flax or hemp so that it may be separated from the fiber). (human powered?) | Indianapolis, Indiana (presumably) |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3265) | Tarentum, Pennsylvania, USA |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3291) | Paris, France (presumably) |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3332) | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3471) | (University College, London) London, England |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3488) Frankland receives his doctorate at Marburg under Bunsen in 1949. In 1851, Frankland becomes the first professor of chemistry at Owens College, Manchester. In 1863, Frankland succeeds Michael Faraday as professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London. Frankland names his son Percy Faraday Frankland, presumably in honor of Michael Faraday. In 1894, Frankland receives the Copley medal of the Royal Society. Frankland investigates the chamistry of storage batteries, publishing 3 papers through the Royal Society on this topic. Frankland installs electricity into his residence using batteries of his own design. Frankland makes many contributions to purification of drinking water. | (Queenwood school) Hampshire, England |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3561) Cohn is born in the ghetto of Breslau, the first of three sons of a Jewish merchant. Cohn is a child prodigy. From 1842-1846 Cohn studies at the University of Brelau (now Wroclaw, Poland), but as a Jewish person, Cohn is barred from the degree examinations, because the University of Breslau will not grant the doctorate to a Jewish person. So, in 1847 Cohn gets his doctorate degree from the more liberal University of Berlin at the age of 19. However, Cohn spends the rest of his life employed teaching at the University of Breslau. In 1866, at the University of Breslau, Cohn founds the first institute for plant physiology. In 1870 Cohn founds the journal Beiträge zur Biologie der Pflanzen ("Contributions to the Biology of Plants") in which the founding papers of modern bacteriology appear. In 1876 Robert Koch turns to Cohn for a prepublication appraisal of his work on the cause of anthrax, a disease of cattle, sheep, and sometimes humans. Cohn agrees to see the unknown country physician and quickly recognizes Koch as "an unsurpassed master of scientific research". Cohn’s publishes Koch's paper which shows that Bacillus anthracis is the agent that causes anthrax, in his journal Beiträge. Cohn is an effective popularizer of science. The Encyclopedia Britannica writes that perhaps Cohn's greatest achievement is his introduction of the strict and systematic observation of the life histories of bacteria, algae, and other microorganisms. | (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 3580) | |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 4544) | unknown |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 4700) | London, England (guess) |
150 YBN [1850 AD] | 5995) | Weimar, Germany (presumably) |
149 YBN [02/03/1851 AD] | 3282) Foucault's first pendulum swings in the cellar of the house he lives in with his mother. Froment makes this and all later pendulums for Foucault. A substantial piece of cast iron is fixed into the vaulting to provide a solid suspension for a 5-kg brass bob hung on a 2-m steel wire. Foucault tells Arago of his discovery and Arago authorizes Foucault to swing his bob with an 11-, wire in the Meridian Room of the observatory. The Observatory has a north-south line set into the floor which can serve as a reference line. Foucault suspends an iron ball, 2 feet in diameter, from a steel wire more than 67m (220feet) long, under the dome of a large Paris church. The pendulum has a spike that just clears the floor and makes a line in sand placed on the floor. In this way, the pendulum appears to draw lines in different direction as the earth slowly moves relative to the motion of the pendulum. The pendulum swings a full rotation in 31 hours and 47 minutes, which is the rate to be expected for the latitude of Paris. This experiment causes great excitement. Heracleides was the first to suggest that the earth is rotating, 22 centuries before, and Foucault is the first to demonstrate this fact. For this demonstration and a similar one using a gyroscope (in 1852), Foucault receives the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1855 and is made physical assistant at the Imperial Observatory, Paris. Foucault publishes this experiment in 1851 as "Demonstration physique du mouvement de rotation de la terre au moyen du pendule" ("Physical Demonstration of the Rotation of the Earth by Means of the Pendulum") presented to the Academy by Arago. Foucault writes "The very numerous and important observations which have hitherto been made upon the pendulum, are especially relative to the time of its oscillations; those which I propose to relate to the Academy, have reference principally to the direction of the plane of oscillation, which being gradually displaced from east to west, gives a sensible proof of the diurnal motion of the terrestrial globe. In order to succeed in justifying this interpretation of a constant result, I will neglect the earth's movement of translation, which is without effect upon the phenomenon which I wish to exhibit, and I will suppose the observer to have established at the pole a pendulum of the greatest simplicity: that is, a compound pendulum composed of a heavy, homogeneous, and spherical mass, suspended by a flexible thread from a point absolutely fixed. I will, moreover, suppose at first, that this point of suspension is exactly in the prolongation of the axis of rotation of the globe, and the solid masses which support it do not participate in the diurnal movement. If, under these circumstances, the mass of the pendulum is drawn aside from its position of equilibrium, and abandoned to the action of gravity without having any lateral impulse given to it, its center of gravity will pass through the vertical, and by its acquired velocity will rise upon the other side of the vertical to a height nearly equal to that whence it came. Arrived at this point, its velocity dies out, changes its sign, and brings it back, causing it to pass again through the vertical to a point a little below its starting point. Thus a movement of oscillation is excited in an arc of a circle whose plane is clearly determined, to which the inertia of the mass gives an invariable position in space. If then these oscillations continue for a certain time, the motion of the earth, which does not cease turning from west to east, will become sensible by contrast with the immobility of the plane of oscillation, whose trace upon the ground will appear to have a motion comfortable to the apparent motion of the heavenly sphere; and if the oscillations could be continued for twenty-four hours, the trace of their plane would have executed in that time a complete revolution around the vertical projection of the point of suspension. Such are the ideal conditions under which the motion of rotation of the globe would become evidently accessible to observation. But, in fact, we are obliged to take our fixed point upon a moving base; the parts to which the upper end of the pendulum thread is attached cannot be withdrawn from the diurnal movement, and it might be feared, at first sight, that this motion, communicated to the thread and to the mass of the pendulum, would alter the direction of the plane of oscillation. However, theory shews us here no serious difficulty, and on the other hand, experiment has shewn me that, provided the thread be round and homogeneous, it may be turned with considerable rapidity around its axis in either direction, without influencing sensibly the position of the plane of oscillation, so that the experiment such as I have described it, must succeed at the pole. But when we descend to our latitudes, the phenomenon becomes complicated by an element of considerable difficulty of appreciation, and to which I desire particularly to call attention of mathematicians. In proportion as we approach the equator, the plane of the horizon assumes a position more and more oblique to the axis of the earth, and the vertical, in place of turning on itself, as at the pole, describes a cone of greater and greater angle; whence results a retardation in the apparent motion of the plane of oscillation, a motion which becomes nothing at the equator, and changes its sign in the other hemisphere. To determine the law according to which this motion varies in different latitudes, we must have recourse either to analysis or to mechanical and geometrical considerations, which do not suit the narrow limits of this note. I must, therefore, confine myself to announcing that the two methods accord (neglecting certain secondary phenomena) in shewing that the angular motion of the earth during the same time multiplied by the sine of the latitude. I then set to work with confidence, and in the following way I established the reality of the predicted phenomenon as to its direction and probable amount.". Foucault concludes: "In conclusion I will present on further remark: It is, that the facts observed under these circumstances, accord perfectly with the results announced by Poisson in a very remarkable memoir, read by him before the Academy, 14th November, 1837. In this memoir, Poisoon, treating of the motion of projectiles in the air, and taking into consideration the diurnal movement of the earth shows, by calculation that in our latitude, projectiles thrown towards any point, experience a deviation which takes place constantly towards the right of the observer, standing at the point of departure and looking towards the trajectory. It appears to me that the mass of the pendulum may be compared to the projectile, which deviates towards the right while departing from the observer, and necessarily in the opposite direction in returning towards its mean plane of oscillation, and indicates its direction.. But the pendulum possesses the advantage of accumulating the effects, and allowing them to pass from the domain of theory into that observation.". An audience of people watches the pendulum. The rope holding the pendulum from moving is burned off to prevent the effects of cutting. (Perhaps a small vibration could be amplified over time, but it seems like the original direction would be maintained. Still a burnt rope might also impart an uneven motion in some direction since not all of the rope separates at once.) Pendulums complete a 360 degree circuit in 23 hour 56 minutes at the North or South Pole, increasing in time to thousands of hours around the equator. Fifty years before, Laplace wrote in his "Celestial Mechanics" (translated from French) "Although the rotation of the Earth is now established with all the certainty available in the physical sciences, a direct proof of this phenomenon would nevertheless be of interest to mathematicians and astronomers.". In March 1851, a pendulum is installed in the Paris Panthéon to demonstrate what Foucault has found. In ancient Greece pantheons were temples dedicated to all gods. The Panthéon in Paris' Latin Quarter is a former church dedicated to the cit's patron saint, Saint Genevieve, whose prayers supposedly saved Paris from Atilla the Hun in the 400s CE. A new building replaced the original building in 1791. Louis-Napoléon approves the installation of the pendulum. Foucault comments "Every man, whether converted or not to prevailing ideas (about the Earth's rotation) remains thoughtful and silent for a few moments, and generally leaves carrying with him a more insistent and lively appreciation of our unceasing motion in space.". One magazine reports "Pendulum mania" spreading like wildfire after this demonstration. (Imagine the response to the public demonstration of seeing and hearing thought.) In 1852 Louis-Napoléon gives Foucault 10,000 francs. | Paris, France (presumably) |
149 YBN [03/??/1851 AD] | 2680) | France |
149 YBN [03/??/1851 AD] | 3112) Talbot sues for patent infringement but loses. Archer does not patent this process, although does patent other inventions. Archer dies very poor. At the time, collodion is also sold as finger nail polish after dye is added to it. | Bloomsbury, London, England (presumably) |
149 YBN [03/??/1851 AD] | 3480) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
149 YBN [05/06/1851 AD] | 6250) | New Orleans, Lousiana, USA |
149 YBN [09/29/1851 AD] | 3292) | Paris, France (presumably) |
149 YBN [10/22/1851 AD] | 2726) According to one source, Faraday's introduction of the concept of lines of force is rejected by most of the mathematical physicists of Europe, since they assume that electric charges attract and repel each other, by action at a distance, making such lines unnecessary. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, by 1850 Faraday will evolve a radically new view of space and force. Space is not "nothing", the mere location of bodies and forces, but a medium capable of supporting the strains of electric and magnetic forces. The energies of the world are not localized in the particles from which these forces arise but rather are to be found in the space surrounding them. Therefore the field theory is created. Maxwell will admit that the basic ideas for his mathematical theory of electrical and magnetic fields came from Faraday; his contribution was to mathematize those ideas in the form of his classical field equations. James Clerk Maxwell will formulate a mathematical theory of the propagation of electromagnetic waves from Faraday's theory of lines of force moving between bodies with electrical and magnetic properties. In 1865, Maxwell theorizes mathematically that electromagnetic phenomena are propagated as waves through space (with an aether as a medium) moving at the velocity of light, which will lay the foundation of radio communication being confirmed experimentally in 1888 by Hertz and developed for practical use by Guglielmo Marconi. (My own view is that Maxwell theorized that electricity is light waves because the speeds were similar, and then created a mathematical justification for this view, with Hertz detecting photons emitted from electric wire, just as photons are emitted from all atoms. So I think that Maxwell can be credited with the idea that light is emitted from current and inspiring Hertz, however, I think the photons emitted from electrical current, are the same as photons emitted from any object, and Maxwell coincidentally inspired a very powerful concept of invisible photon detection which would rise into invisible photon communication.) James Maxwell will write: "Faraday, in his mind's eye, saw lines of force traversing all space where the mathematicians saw centres of force attacting at a distance: Faraday saw a medium where they saw nothing but distance: Faraday sought the seat of the phenomena in real actions going on in the medium, they were satisfied that they found it in a power of action at a distance impressed on the electric fluids.... Faraday's methods resembled those in which we begin with the whole and arrive at the parts by analysis, while the ordinary mathematical methods were founded on the principle of beginning with the parts and building up the whole by synthesis". I think the mistakes that Faraday make, are 1) not realizing that a electric (magnetic) field is made of particles, 2) not thinking that those particle in the electric field are tiny centers of gravity 3) not recognizing that, at tiny magnifications, many particles may be grouping, colliding and result in the appearance of a stronger force but may be the result of the accumulated movements of many particles. This view is the obvious method to apply if theorizing an argument to entertain the concept of gravity, which apparently either was not done or not popular. So the idea of "action at a distance" is a phrase that is applied as a dogma in my opinion, because it implies that an electric field is just empty space, not chock full of particles and that the magnetic force, like gravity must emanate from the center of the magnet. It is maybe a subtle point, but the idea that an electric field is made of material particles is still not popular. Had Faraday supported the view of electrical current as a fluid made of particles, the wave theories of light may not have lasted as long as it has, and the wave theory of electricity might not have ever been created, saving the human species more than 100 years of theoretical progress in science. According to Oxford University Press Philosophy Dictionary states that Faraday's discovery of electro-magnetic 'lines of force' and view of the atom as merely a center of force opened up field theory, which itself owns ancestry to the views of Kant, and especially Boscovich. Clearly by this time, the corpuscular or emission theory appears to have lost favor. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
149 YBN [11/25/1851 AD] | 6258) | Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
149 YBN [11/??/1851 AD] | 3544) Riemann was born into a poor Lutheran pastor’s family. Riemann plans on a career in the Church in accordance with his father's wishes but changes to mathematics. Riemann also teaches course in mathematical physics (at Göttingen). Riemann dies of tuberculosis before the age of 40. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 2653) The International Morse Code is adopted. The American Morse Code is inadequate for the transmission of much non-English text and so a variant ultimately becomes known as the International Morse Code is used on all cables, for land telegraph lines except in North America, and later for wireless telegraphy. | Europe |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 2681) | St Petersburg, Russia |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 2756) | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 2816) One induction coil of Ruhmkorff in 1851 that is awarded a 50,000-franc prize in 1858 by Emperor Napoleon III as the most important discovery in the application of electricity. Ruhmkorff is able to improve Callan's two-winding induction spark-coils, on the basis of the research conducted in Paris by Masson and Breguet in 1842. | |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 2825) Ariel rotates around Uranus at a mean distance of 191,240 km (118,830 miles) from the center of the planet, taking 2.52 days to complete one orbit. Like the other large Uranian moons, Ariel rotates synchronously with its orbital period, keeping the same face toward the planet. Ariel has an average diameter around 1,160 km (720 miles) and has a density of about 1.67 grams per cubic cm which is consistent with a composition of roughly equal parts water ice and rock, perhaps intermixed with a small amount of frozen methane. The surface of Ariel has scarps (a line of cliffs produced by faulting or erosion) and long valleylike formations. These features and the small number of large impact craters suggests that Ariel has the youngest surface of all of Uranus's major moons. Umbriel is the nearest of the five major moons of Uranus and the one having the darkest and oldest surface of the group. Umbriel orbits Uranus once every 4.144 days at a mean distance of 265,970 km (165,270 miles). Umbriel has a diameter of 1,170 km (727 miles) and a density of about 1.4 grams per cubic cm. Umbriel appears to be composed of equal parts water ice and rocky material, intermixed with small amounts of frozen methane. Umbriel is distinct from the other major moons of Uranus in having no evidence of past tectonic activity. Its surface is uniformly covered with impact craters, most of them large, measuring 100-200 km (60-120 miles) across. Craters of this size could only have been produced early in the history of the star system, when planetesimal-size impacting bodies existed. The name "Ariel" and the names of all four satellites of Uranus then known were suggested by John Herschel in 1852 at the request of Lassell and named for characters in Alexander Pope's poem "The Rape of the Lock". Ariel is also the name of the spirit who serves Prospero in Shakespeare's "Tempest". | Malta |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 2830) | | Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 2952) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3025) | Dublin, Ireland (presumably) |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3154) From 1868-1883, De La Rue investigates the discharge of electricity through gases by means of a battery of 14,600 chloride of silver cells. | London, England (presumably) |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3182) | (University of Zürich) Zürich, Germany |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3204) | (Royal College of Chemistry) London, England |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3208) Secchi enters the Jesuit order in Rome, studies at the Collegio Romano, and becomes the director of its observatory in 1849. Secchi's works include a star catalog (1867). | (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3273) In 1854 Stokes suggests that the Fraunhofer lines might be caused by atoms in the outer layers of the Sun that absorb light of certain wavelengths, however concedes priority to Kirchhoff. Although the first to publish this theory is Foucault in 1849. In fact, Stokes. himself publishes the English translation of Foucault's 1849 paper. The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica states that Stokes' perhaps best-known researches are those which deal with the undulatory theory of light. Stokes is an advocate of the wave theory of light and in the ether as a medium for the waves of light. To explain how the ether can be rigid but moved, Stokes suggests that the aether is like wax that is rigid but flows under a slow but steady force, such as that applied by the orbiting planets. In addition, Stokes hypothesizes that the planets drag part of the ether along with them because of friction. Stokes is among the first to appreciate the importance of the work of James Joule. The Royal Society's catalog of scientific papers gives the titles of over a hundred memoirs by Stokes published to 1883. Stokes is the youngest son of the Reverend Gabriel Stokes, rector of Skreen. In 1849 Stokes is appointed to the Lucasian professorship of mathematics at Cambridge, but finds it necessary to supplement his slender income from this post by teaching at the Government School of Mines in London. In 1852 Stokes receives the Rumford medal of Royal Society for his paper on fluorescence (1852) in which Stokes shows how fluorescence can be used to study the ultraviolet segment of the spectrum. In 1885 Stokes is President of the Royal Society (1885-1892). (As President of the Royal Society and supported of the wave theory for light, clearly the overthrow of the corpuscular theory originated by Newton was complete in England at this time.) In 1893 Stokes receives the Copley medal. (state for what) Stokes serves as Conservative member in Parliament for Cambridge University. A devoutly religious person, Stokes is deeply interested in the relationship of science to religion. For me, the uselessness of religions is obvious. (I am not sure that Stokes' achievements in science justify the awards he receives. Perhaps this is an example of perhaps a wealthy person, that either buys awards or is given awards in recognition of monetary contributions to science or simply for have other wealthy connections. Stokes might have contributions to science that are not public.) | Cambridge, England |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3275) | Cambridge, England |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3334) | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3341) EXPER:How fast can CCD chips capture images? | Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3404) Arrest helps Galle find Neptune. Galle reads off the stars he observes while Arrest checks each with its position against the star chart. Arrest finds several (previously unknown) comets. | (Leipzig Observatory) Pleissenburg, Germany (presumably) |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 3474) | Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
149 YBN [1851 AD] | 5998) Rigoletto is produced in Venice (after trouble with the censors, a recurring theme for Verdi) and is a huge success. Hugo's play depicts a king (Francis I of France) as an immoral and cynical womanizer, something that is not accepted in Europe during the Restoration period.(verify) | Venice, Italy |
148 YBN [01/07/1852 AD] | 2880) William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist, applies an induction coil high voltage through an evacuated tube with various gases, and performs electrolysis on gases. Grove describes his experiments in "On the Electro-Chemical Polarity of Gases". | London, England (presumably) |
148 YBN [05/10/1852 AD] | 3489) | (Queenwood school) Hampshire, England |
148 YBN [05/11/1852 AD] | 3274) Stokes receives the Rumford medal of Royal Society for this paper. | Cambridge, England |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 2604) Sabine superintends the establishment of magnetic observatories throughout the world (and so this provides Sabine with regular access to Earth's magnetic data). From 1861-1871, Sabine is president of the Royal Society. | London, England (presumably) |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 2678) E. P. Smith coins the word "telegram". (It is interesting how telegram is replaced by phone call, email, vmail, and perhaps thought-gram or thought-message.) | |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 2920) | (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 2938) | (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 3086) | (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 3104) Otis' device is demonstrated at the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York. In 1854, Otis tests his new design with himself inside. The elevator cable is cut and it descends safely. | Yonkers, NY, USA |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 3117) Later in 1869, the Swiss physician Horner additionally observes reduced sweating in a woman with a tumor invading the sympathetic nerve in the neck. The complete clinical syndrome is widely called Horner's Syndrome, but in France is referred to as the Syndrome de Claude Bernard-Horner. For this work Bernard is awarded his fourth award from the Academy of Sciences for experimental physiology. | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 3192) Rudolf Albert von Kölliker (KRLiKR) (CE 1817-1905), Swiss anatomist and physiologist, publishes "Handbuch der Gewebelehre des Menschen" (1852; "Manual of Human Histology"): probably the best early text on histology. This textbook may be the first good study of histology, the science started 50 years before by Bichat without a microscope. In this work Kölliker expounds on his isolating the first smooth muscle cell. Kölliker shows that nerve fibers are elongated parts of cells, therefore anticipating the neuron theory, (in which) the neuron is the basic unit of the nervous system. | (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 3283) | Paris, France (presumably) |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 3335) | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
148 YBN [1852 AD] | 3413) | (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, France |
147 YBN [01/19/1853 AD] | 3482) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
147 YBN [02/16/1853 AD] | 3143) In 1872, Angström is awarded the Rumford medal of the Royal Society. | (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 2655) | Vienna, Austria |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 2689) | Stockholm (and Uppsala), Sweden |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 2894) During his passage back from London, Borden sees several children on board ship die after drinking contaminated milk. Because no one yet understands how to keep milk fresh, spoiled and even poisonous milk is not uncommon. Visiting the Shaker community at New Lebanon, N.Y., in 1851, Borden observes sugar making with airtight pans and decides that milk could be condensed and could remain wholesome indefinitely. Borden knows that the Shakers (?) use vacuum pans to preserve fruit, and he begins experimenting with a similar apparatus in search of a way to preserve milk. In 1861 the U.S. government orders 500 pounds of condensed milk for troops fighting in the Civil War. As the conflict grows, government orders increase, until Borden has to license other manufacturers to keep up with demand. After the war, Bordon's New York Condensed Milk Company has a ready-made customer base in both Union and Confederate veterans. Bordon teaches school in southern Mississippi and immigrates to Texas in 1829, where he prepares the first topographical map of Texas, helps write the first constitution of that state, is cofounder of the first long-lived Texas newspaper, and lays out the city of Galveston. | New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 3186) | (University of Freiburg) Freiburg im Bresigau, Germany |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 3293) | Paris, France (presumably) |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 3309) | (Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers) Paris, France |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 3312) The concept of potential energy presumes a set course over a period of time, where in my view, the forces at each instant need to be recalculated using the law of gravitation. Actually, I think that simply the mass times the velocity squared of any particle can be viewed as its potential energy, or possibly kinetic energy, without any presumptions about future forces (although because of gravity, there must be forces that change the energy, because gravity changes the acceleration, and therefore the velocity of the particle, which in turn changes the potential energy. One question I have, is, how can the amount of heat emitted from exothermic chemical reactions be related to energy of the reagents? For example, in a battery, the energy is related to electric current. Perhaps the initial mass of the chemicals? So Joule's constant applies to the conversion of electric current to heat, but I think it depends on wire diameter and other parameters. | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 3468) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany (presumably) |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 3525) Thomsen is a member of Copenhagen's Municipal Council for 35 years and is the driving force responsible for the development of Copenhagen's gas, water, and sewage system. | (Polytekniske Laereanstalt) Copenhagen, Denmark |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 3538) When a revolution starts in 1847, Cannizzaro returns from his studies in Pisa to his native Sicily, and takes an active role in fighting on the side of the republicans, who seek to break the domination of the Italian states by Austria and the House of Bourbon (rulers of the kingdom of Naples). After the failure of the revolt in 1849, Cannizzaro flees to Paris. Cannizaro becomes vice president of the Italian senate. In 1891 Cannizzaro receives the Copley medal of the Royal Society. | (Collegio Nazionale in Alessandria) Piedmont (now part of Italy), Italy |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 3644) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, work in geometrical optics leads to the discovery of the fish-eye lens. | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 5999) | Rome, Italy |
147 YBN [1853 AD] | 6247) | Paris, France (presumably) |
146 YBN [11/08/1854 AD] | 2682) | Madrid, Spain |
146 YBN [11/08/1854 AD] | 2683) | Madrid, Spain |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 2569) Michel Eugéne Chevreul (seVRuL) (CE 1786-1889) publishes a treatise debunking psychic phenomena entitled "De la baguette divinatoire" (1854). | Paris, France (presumably) |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 2693) | Melbourne (and Victoria), Australia |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 2792) | Berlin, Germany |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 2893) | Greenwich, England (presumably) |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 2940) | (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 2945) | (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3111) Snow is called the "father of epidemiology". | London, England |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3167) Weierstrass' lectures were published, as "Die Elemente der Arithmetik", by one of his students in 1872. | (Catholic Gymnasium) Braunsberg, East Prussia |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3173) Boole writes "Logic is conversant with two kinds of relations, relations among things, and relations among facts. But as facts are expressed by propositions, the latter species of relation may, at least, for the purposes of Logic, be resolved into a relation among propositions. The assertion that the fact or event A, is an invariable consequent of the fact or event B, may to this extent, at least be regarded as equivalent to the assertion that the truth of the proposition affirming the occurrence of the event B always implies the truth of the proposition affirming the occurrence of the event A. Instead then of saying that Logic is conversant with relations among things, and relations among facts, we are permitted to say that it is concerned with relations among things, and relations among propositions. Of the former kind of relations we have an example in the proposition- 'All men are mortal' of the latter kind in the proposition- 'If the sun is totally eclipsed, the stars will become visible'. The one expresses a relation between 'men' and 'mortal beings;' the other between the elementary propositions- 'The sun is totally eclipsed;' 'The stars will become visible'. Among such relations, I suppose to be included, those which affirm or deny existence with respect to things, and those which affirm or deny truth with respect to propositions. Now let those things, or those propositions among which relation is expressed be termed 'the elements of the propositions by which such relation is expressed'. Proceeding from this definition we may then say that i) the premises of any logical argument express given relations among certain elements, and that the conclusion must express an implied relation among those elements or among a part of them ie a relation implied by or inferentially involved in the premises. | (Queen's College) Cork, Ireland |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3276) (Sir) George Gabriel Stokes (CE 1819-1903), British mathematician and physicist, publishes "Stokes' theorem" which describes an equality concerning the cosines of a normal vector of a surface. Stokes for several years sets the Smith's Prize Exam at Cambridge with this proving this theorem as a test question. The left hand expression is in two earlier works of Stokes'. Before appearing in print in 1854, this theorem had already appeared in a letter of William Thomson to Stokes on July 2, 1850. This theorem, a theorem by Gauss, and the same theorem by Reimann will be eventually generalized and unified. | Cambridge, England |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3352) | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3365) (My own view on this topic is that there is a larger equation describing the conservation of velocity. Each atom has a certain quantity of velocity, which is proportional to the quantity of photons in it. So much of the heat produced by simple friction, is the release of particles with a velocity that is simply changing direction out of the atom and into a straight line as a free photon. The velocity was already there from perhaps some gravitational exchange far in the past, such as a collision with another photon. It may be that a photon-photon collision is what causes the photons to be released in simple friction. So there is a larger, more inclusive equation which includes {sums} the velocities of all particles involved. For example, velocity of moving particles in arm and metal file + velocity of particles in piece of metal that will be freed by passing file scraping on metal => velocity of particles in metal file + velocity of free photons released from scraped metal ... I am saying that it is something like that ... that this concept is more complex and can't be confined to quantity of movement=quantity of heat. But we should verify all of these claims for all theories as best as possible.) | (Royal Artillery and Engineering School) Berlin, Germany |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3423) In writings and public appearances Wallace opposes vaccination, eugenics, and vivisection while strongly supporting women’s rights, but also believes in and promotes spiritualism. Also over the course of his life, Alfred Wallace publishes 21 books, and the list of his articles, essays, and letters in periodicals totals more than 700 items. Among Wallace's books are: "The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise" (1869), "Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), a two-volume "Geographical Distribution of Animals" (1876) and "Island Life" (1880) which synthesize knowledge about the distribution and dispersal of living and extinct animals in an evolutionary framework, and Darwinism (1889) which contains an explanation of natural selection and Wallace's points of divergence from Darwin. Wallace wins the Royal Society of London’s Royal Medal (1868), Darwin Medal (1890; for his independent origination of the origin of species by natural selection), Copley Medal (1908), and Order of Merit (1908); the Linnean Society of London’s Gold Medal (1892) and Darwin-Wallace Medal (1908); and the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal (1892). (Perhaps all these medals are mainly due to Wallace's public support of the theory of common ancestry and natural selection.) | Malaysia |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3472) | (University College, London) London, England |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3545) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3546) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3551) | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3552) Berthelot is born into a middle-income Parisian family. Berthelot is the son of a doctor, and studies medicine at the Collège de France but is more interested in chemistry, and becomes assistant to Antoine-Jérôme Balard in 1851. Berthelot is professor of organic chemistry at the Ecole Supérieure de Pharmacie (1859–76) and professor of chemistry at the Collège de France (1864–1907). In 1860, Berthelot declines German chemist August Kekule’s offer to join the Karlsruhe Conference, which is organized to reach an agreement on formulas and atomic weights, because Berthelot wants to return to equivalent weights. Berthelot unsuccessfully leads the opposition to the atomic conventions put forward by Cannizzaro. Berthelot wrongly suggests that the heat emitted by a chemical reaction is its driving force. However, reversible reactions (shown by Williamson) show that heat is not the driving force of reactions. Gibbs will describe "free energy" and "chemical potential" to define the driving force behind chemical reactions. (As a novice, I feel that simple physical proximity to each other has to be one part of the drive of reaction, in addition, to material distribution - atomic structure, particle collisions and interactions.) In 1866 Berthelot becomes president of the Chemical Society of Paris. In 1881 Berthelot becomes a senator. In 1886 Berthelot enters the cabinet. In 1889 Berthelot succeeds Louis Pasteur as secretary of the French Academy of Sciences. Berthelot is a prolific writer, with some 1,600 published papers and books in his lifetime. Scholars of chemical history are greatly indebted to Berthelot for his book "Les Origines de l'alchimie" (1885) and his "Introduction a l'etude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen age" (1889), as well as for publishing translations of various old Greek, Syriac and Arabic treatises on alchemy and chemistry ("Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs", 1887-1888, and "La Chimie au moyen age", 1893). Berthelot is also the author of "Science et philosophie" (1886), which contains a well-known letter to Renan on "La Science ideale et la science positive", of "La Revolution chimique, Lavoisier" (1890), of "Science et morale" (1897), and of numerous articles in "La Grande Encyclopedie", which Berthelot helps to establish. Berthelot is one of the last chemists to reject Dalton's theory of atoms. He rejects the theories of chemical atoms and molecular constitutions, which he considered to be "theories of language", as opposed to his own system of equivalents, which he views to be "theories of facts" firmly grounded on empirical evidence. (Some people may confuse Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907) with another French chemist, Claude-Louis Berthollet (BRTOlA) (CE 1748-1822).) | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
146 YBN [1854 AD] | 3671) Crookes is the oldest of 16 children. In 1856, having inherited a large fortune from his father, Crookes devotes himself entirely to scientific work of various kinds at his private laboratory in London. Crookes has 10 children. In 1859 Crookes founds the Chemical News, which makes him widely known, and Crookes is editor and owner all his life. Crookes grows interested in psychic research and spiritualism. | (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
145 YBN [01/04/1855 AD] | 3650) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
145 YBN [01/04/1855 AD] | 3651) For this paper Maxwell receives the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society of London. | Edinburgh, Scotland |
145 YBN [08/08/1855 AD] | 2760) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, publishes "On the Method of Laying Guns in a Battery without exposing the men to the shot of the enemy." Another interesting statement by Babbage is "...men of science in Italy might have made three steps in advance..." which may imply that Babbage and others are already aware of the possibility of walking robots, and the potential military advantage such a machine could supply. Perhaps this is just coincidence, but if not, it also implies that Babbage, for some reason feels reluctance to openly express the idea of walking machines. | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
145 YBN [09/??/1855 AD] | 3285) | Paris, France (presumably) |
145 YBN [12/10/1855 AD] | 3641) (Possibly put either entire text or above notes here) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 2463) | Tours, France (presumably) |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 2627) Marshall Hall (CE 1790-1857) introduces (1855) a method of artificial respiration that was widely applied in cases of drowning. | London, England (presumably) |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 2632) | London, England (presumably) |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 2637) George Peacock (PEKoK) (CE 1791-1858), publishes a memoir of Thomas Young, and edits the first two volumes of the three volume "Miscellaneous works" (1855, London) of Thomas Young. This is the main source for those interested in Young's contribution to the transition in popularity from Newton's corpuscular theory of light to the wave (or undulatory) theory for light. These three volumes contain 1. Scientific memoirs. 2. Scientific memoirs {concluded} Biographies of men of science. 3. Hieroglyphical essays and correspondence. The articles "Languages" and "Herculaneum", from the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Lives of eminent scholars (which contains Young's biographies of scientists). | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 2764) | (Guy's Hospital) London, England |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3020) | Washington, DC, USA |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3021) In 1862 Mallet publishes two volumes, dealing with the Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 and "The First Principles of Observational Seismology". Mallet then brings forward evidence to show that the depth below the earth's surface, where impulse of the Neapolitan earthquake came from, is about 8 or 9 geographical miles. One of his Mallet's most important essays is that communicated to the Royal Society (Phil. Trans. clxiii. 147; 1874), entitled "Volcanic Energy: an Attempt to develop its True Origin and Cosmical Relations" in which Mallet seeks to show that volcanic heat may be attributed to the effects of crushing, contortion and other disturbances in the crust of the earth; these disturbances leading to the formation of lines of fracture, more or less vertical, down which water moves, and if the temperature generated is sufficient, volcanic eruptions of steam or lava would follow. | Washington, DC, USA |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3024) | (Vesuvius Observatory) Naples, Italy |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3082) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3131) In 1866 Parkes founds the Parkesine Company and begins commercial production of parkesine. However, Parkes's business fails. Daniel Spill. A talented chemist, and works manager at the Parkesine Company takes over the company, renaming it the Xylonite Company and markets celluloid as Xylonite and Ivoride, but goes bankrupt in 1874. However, Spill reopens in a new location in 1875, takes on several partners in 1877 becoming the British Xylonite Company and they achieve commercial success producing celluloid collars and cuffs. John Wesley Hyatt of the Hyatt Brothers, in the United States will discover that nitrate cellulose mixed with camphor creates a much more pliable product. The Hyatt Brothers will find planet-wide success and bring in the age of modern plastics. | (Elkington and Mason copper smelting plant) Pembrey, South Wales, England |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3139) In 1869, in conjunction with H. P. J. Vogelsang, Geissler proves the existence of liquid carbon dioxide in cavities in quartz and topaz. Geissler was educated as a glass-blower. | Bonn, Germany |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3160) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3163) Ducheene publishes over fifty volumes containing his researches on muscular and nervous diseases, and on the applications of electricity both for diagnostic purposes and for treatment. This work is translated to English by GV Poore in "Selections from the clinical works of Dr Duchenne (de Boulogne)." (London: The New Sydenham Society, 1883). In 1838 interest in electrical methods of treatment become popular when Cerletti and Bini introduce electroconvulsive therapy (Cerletti, 1950). High voltage electricity on the human nervous system in the crude involuntary application of "electroshock" or "electroconvulsive" therapy, even involuntarily still is used in some psychiatric hospitals on unwilling people. This practice of applying a large voltage to the human nervous system needs to be stopped if unconsensual, but even if consensual (which I think should be allowed although I do not advocate), the theories behind it, and the supposed beneficial results, in particular given the trauma induced, are highly doubtful in my mind. I compare it to cooking a hotdog with electricity in terms of precision and overall effect. The wise use of electricity in testing the functioning of nerves, and stimulating paralyzed muscles (although how much of this may be replaced by remote or local photon muscle stimulation when the secret is finally shown to all is unknown) are some beneficial results of the application of electricity to health science of Duchenne and others. Quoting from selections of Duchenne's writings: "...faradisation (applying a high voltage) of a very wasted muscle in the last stage of atrophy causes no movement, or only a feeble one, of the limb or part of the limb to which it belongs, especially when the health antagonising muscles oppose a tonic resistance to its action. We must not conclude that the contractility of such a muscle is weakened, the true meaning of such a fact being merely that the fibres are insufficient for performing the normal work of the muscle." Duchenne describes paralysis of the tongue, palate and lips, a disease called "glosso-labio-laryngeal paralysis" which Duchenne had originally named "progressive muscular paralysis of the tongue, soft palate, and lips". This raises the issue of naming conventions, which in my view should be as simple and accurate as possible. Problems arise when there are many different languages, and many times Latin is preferred, although Latin is not in common use anymore. In describing progressive locomotor ataxy, Duchenne writes "The sexual power in man sooner or later has manifested considerable change: once it was increased; in all the others it was weakened or abolished.", and it causes me to wonder if Duchenne applied so-called faradisation to a penis. Electrical stimulation of the anus is used to make the penis erect in mammal species, however does direct electrical stimulation cause the penis to become erect? In describing lead palsy and "vegtable palsy" Duchenne writes "under the influence of local faradisation, I noted on the right side that the extensor communis digitorum, extensor minimi digiti, extensor secundii internodi, and the extensores carpi radiales, did not contract to a maximum current with moist rheophores, and even electro-puncture (a needle being plunged into the muscles) only caused a few fibrillary contractions with the most intense current.". Duchenne writes about so-called "hyterical paralysis". One interesting case Cuchenne describes is case number 76 "A girl, aged 24, a baker's assistant, usually healthy, was in the habit of carrying bread daily to a customer. One day she found him dead in his bed, and the shock was so great as to cause an hysterical fit, lasting several hours. After this she remained deprived of movement, the lower limbs being tetanised, and presenting a well-marked equino-varus. Her menstruation was suppressed, and she became blind. Certain senses were strangely perverted. If she were pinched or spoken to on the right side, she felt and heard on the left. The contractions of the legs lasted several years, long after the disappearance of the other troubles, and this persistence might have caused a fear that they were symptomatic of damage to the cord. Nevertheless the whole group of symptoms just given made me certain of its hysterical origin. This diagnosis was completely justified by her spontaneous and sudden recovery, only some deformity of the joints, caused by the long-sustained faulty posture of the feet, remaining." Duchenne writes on "nervous deafness": "1. The rheophore having been placed in my own external Auditory meatus (previously half-filled with water), and the apparatus being at its minimum, I perceived, on the instant that the intermission of the current took place, a little dry parchment-like sound, a crackling which I referred to the bottom of the external auditory meatus. When the intermissions were very rapid the sound resembled a crepitation, or the noise produced by the wings of a fly flying between a window-pane and the blind. The intensity of these sounds increased with the force of the current. 2. To the auditory phenomenon was added a sense of tickling in the bottom of the ear, proportional to the strength of the current, and absolutely limited to the point at which the sound seemed to originate. 3. After a certain time, and with a certain degree of tension of current (voltage), I felt very plainly a tickling of the right side of my tongue at the junction of the middle and posterior thirds. As the stength of the current increased, the tickling reached the point of the tongue, where I then felt a numbness and a disagreeable pricking which was not actually painful. This experiment is often followed by a numbness, and sometimes by an over-sensitiveness of the two front thirds of the edge of the tongue, which persists a considerable time. 4. It seemed also as if my tongue were dry and rough on the side operated upon. Such were the phenomena which first attracted my attention, and which appeared almost in the order I have indicated in the patients who were submitted to this experiment. 5. I must mention a very important phenomenon which, often enough, appears when the stimulation is sufficiently energenetic, viz., the production of a peculiar taste. It was the last phenomenon to attract my attention, because it is masked byu the tickling and pricking which accompanies it. It would pass unobserved if attentionwere not directed to it. Although the taste is feeble, it can be recognized to be of a metallic kind. 6. Finally, some patients perceived which each intermission a luminous sensation on the side stimulated.". Duchenne describes curing asphyxia (absence of respiration) by faradisation of the skin over the heart. In a number of cases Duchenne describes faradisation curing problems it seems doubtful were cured by applying electricity and more likely other causes. In this sense Duchenne advertises faradisation, as a cure-all, and more than is likely and accurate. One example is case 118, a child who has a general paralysis, which lasted about forty-eight hours, and was followed by a complete loss of voice, and a difficulty in swallowing and breathing...", Duchenne writes "...The palsy returned many times, but was soon overcome by faradisation of the phrenic nerves. After faradizing the palate, phrynx, and front of the neck on a level with the larynx, the child sucked better, and voice came back a little. he was completely cured in a few sittings.". Case no 119 is another example, which makes use of the very abstract so-called disease of "neurosis", Duchenne writing "Case no. 119 - Neurosis marked by a kind of apnea. Cured by faradising the skin of the praecordia, and by faradising the phrenic nerve.". In this case, Duchenne describes a young man "of nervous temperament" who has intervals where he stops breathing for from thirty to sixty seconds. | Paris, France |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3196) | (Ecole de Médicine, School of Medicine) Paris, France |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3200) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3553) | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3564) | (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
145 YBN [1855 AD] | 3565) | (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 2650) The Western Union Telegraph Company is founded. Western Union must store every telegraph, and keep them on file for wealthy connected people to search through the messages of people they are interested in. Why do we never hear about this massive telegraph library? Western Union became the dominant telegraph company in the United States. | Mississippi, USA (and New York) |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 2654) By 1856 the register in the Morse system is replaced by a sounder (speaker?), and the code is transcribed (onto paper) directly from the sounds by the operator. | |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 2868) | Aurignac?, France |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3044) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), tells his friends Lyell and J. D. Hooker about his theory of evolution. both Lyell and Hooker do not accept evolution which they are familiar with through Lamarck. On their urging Darwin starts to write a book on the theory (1856). | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3095) | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3096) | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3097) This work is a In this work, Draper summarizes the history of science, spending a chapter on the Museum in Alexandria, concluding the chapter with the murder of Hypatia. Draper's preface begins: "WHOEVER has had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the mental condition of the intelligent classes in Europe and America, must have perceived that there is a great and rapidly-increasing departure from the public religious faith, and that, while among the more frank this divergence is not concealed, there is a far more extensive and far more dangerous secession, private and unacknowledged. So wide-spread and so powerful is this secession, that it can neither be treated with contempt nor with punishment. It cannot be extinguished by derision, by vituperation, or by force. The time is rapidly approaching when it will give rise to serious political results. Ecclesiastical spirit no longer inspires the policy of the world. Military fervor in behalf of faith has disappeared. Its only souvenirs are the marble effigies of crusading knights, reposing in the silent crypts of churches on their tombs. That a crisis is impending is shown by the attitude of the great powers toward the papacy. The papacy represents the ideas and aspirations of two-thirds of the population of Europe. It insists on a political supremacy in accordance with its claims to a divine origin and mission, and a restoration of the mediaeval order of things, loudly declaring that it will accept no reconciliation with modern civilization." Draper concludes: "As to the issue of the coming conflict, can any one doubt? Whatever is resting on fiction and fraud will be overthrown. Institutions that organize impostures and spread delusions must show what right they have to exist. Faith must render an account of herself to Reason. Mysteries must give place to facts. Religion must relinquish that imperious, that domineering position which she has so long maintained against Science. There must be absolute freedom for thought. The ecclesiastic must learn to keep himself within the domain he has chosen, and cease to tyrannize over the philosopher, who, conscious of his own strength and the purity of his motives, will bear such interference no longer. What was written by Esdras near the willow-fringed rivers of Babylon, more than twenty-three centuries ago, still holds good: 'As for Truth it endureth and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore."'. | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3109) In 1860 Bessemer starts his own steel works, using phosphorus-free iron ore, and sells high-grade steel for one-tenth the prices of the competition. He grows rich in a very few years. The invention of the open-hearth (Siemens-Martin) process in the late 1860s eventually is more popular than the Bessemer process. William Siemens, a German person living in England revisits an old proposal for using the waste heat given off by the furnace; directing the fumes from the furnace through a brick checkerwork, Siemans heats the brick to a high temperature, then used the same pathway for the introduction of air into the furnace; the preheated air increases the temperature. In his youth Bessemer learns metal processing in his father's type foundry and machine design and chemistry in London. Bessemer invention of movable stamps for dating deeds and other government documents. Before aged 20 Bessemer invents a new way to stamp deeds, which the British government uses but doesn't compensate Bessemer for. Bessemer improves a typesetting machine. Bessemer manufactures "gold" powder from brass for use in paints. Bessemer grows wealthy from his secret brass powder process. Bessemer retires a rich man in 1873. | Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England (announcement) |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3118) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3119) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3136) Francois Charles Lepage invents "Bois Durci" (BOE DRSE?), a form of plastic based on cow's blood. This is a plastic based on an animal polymer patented in France in 1856 by Francois Charles Lepage who calims "A New Composition of materials which may be employed as a substitute for wood, leather, bone, metal and other hard or plastic substances". Bois Durci is made from blood (from the Paris slaughterhouses) and powdered wood, mixed with coloring to simulate wood color. Lepage heats and stirs the mixture until it acquired the 'correct consistency' and then molds it in a heated mold. The mixture is cured under heat and pressure to produce a hard, dense, glossy, molding. | Paris, France |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3168) | (Industry Institute) Berlin, Germany |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3181) | (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria, Germany |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3350) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3425) Charles William (Carl Wilhelm) Siemens is the younger brother of Ernst Wener von Siemens (CE 1816-1892), who after improving the indicator telegraph of Wheatstone, founds with Halske, in 1847, the company of "Telegraphenbaunstalt von Siemens & Halske" to manufacture and construct telegraph systems, eventually expanding to London, St. Petersberg and Vienna. Charles becomes a partner in Ernst's subsidiary British company. Siemens designs the cable-laying ship Faraday for laying a new trans-Atlantic cable in 1874. | London, England (presumably) |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3442) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3457) | Edinburgh, Scotland |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3554) | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3607) | (University of Florence, Florence, Italy demonstrates in Froment's workshop) Paris, France |
144 YBN [1856 AD] | 3774) Perkin is inspired by the lectures of Faraday, as Faraday was once inspired by the lectures of Davy. After seeing the lectures, Perkins becomes determined to attend the Royal College of Chemistry. In 1889 Perkin is awarded the Davy medal. | (Royal College of Chemistry) London, England |
143 YBN [01/26/1857 AD] | 4005) | Paris, France |
143 YBN [03/24/1857 AD] | 3999) Sound recorded mechanically by the sound vibrating a stylus that draws onto paper. The phonautograph, an early cylinder sound recording device that records sound mechanically by drawing the sound vibration shape onto paper. Scott is the first to record sound using a membrane instead of directly attaching a stylus to a string, tuning fork or bell. Leon Scott (Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, (CE 1817–1879)) invents the phonautograph, the earliest known mechanical device for recording and reproducing sounds including music and speech. This device consists simply of an ellipsoidal barrel. The sound receiver is open at one end and closed at the other. From the closed end projects a small tube, with a stretched flexible membrane across it. In the center of the membrane is a bristle which acts as a stylus and vibrates with the membrane. In front of the membrane is a horizontal cylinder wrapped with a sheet of paper and covered with a layer of lampblack (carbon) which the bristle rests lightly against. Any sound vibrations entering the ellipsoid are transmitted by the membrane to the stylus, which, when the cylinder is made to revolve and to advance slowly, describes on the lampblack surface a wavy line which is a phonographic record of whatever vibrations have been produced. In 1870 Fleeming Jenkin and Ewing record sounds onto a tin foil phonograph. The physicist and instrument maker Konig of Paris builds a device based on Leon Scott's invention, but nothing practical is created until Thomas Edison constructs a machine in which a receiving funnel is substituted for the ellipsoid, an iron diaphragm for the membrane, a sharp metallic point for the bristle, and a tin-foil-covered cylinder in place of the cylinder coated with lamp-black. With the sound vibrations indented as opposed to traced on the surface of the cylinder, the machine can be reversed which causes the stylus to travel over the spiral line indented by the recording point, and the original sonud is reproduced by the diaphragm. In January, Scott had deposited his first paper to the Academy of Sciences on recording sound vibrations to sooted glass plates. Now in March 1857, Scott deposits the paperwork for a patent on the phonautograph-the same basic design described in the "Principes de Phonautographie", but now lays out in greater detail with drawings and a sample phonautogram and instead of plates of glass uses a hand-cranked cylinder. This patent is the first to publicly introduce a rotating cylinder to record sound vibrations. Scott writes: "The process I have invented-hitherto completely unknown, and for which I am requesting a patent- consists of fastening a simple or composite stylus near the center of a thin membrane placed at the end of any acoustic conduit. This stylus light grazes a substance sensitive to the lightest friction, such as for example a film of lampblack - a substance deposited on a glass, a metal, or even a piece of paper or fabric. The sensitive film passes under the stylus at a regular and determined speed. When one speaks, sings, or plays an instrument in the presence of the acoustic conduit, the stylus traces figures or drawings in keeping with the sounds produced. Afterwards I fix this novel writing by immersion in a liquid carburet, followed by a bath of albuminous water. I then make prints called negatives directly, or positive prints indirectly by photography or transfer to stone, etc. With the aid of this process and the interchangeable parts of the phonautograph (fig. 2,3,4,5 of the supporting drawing). I collect the acoustic trace of speech at a distance- of the song of the coice and of various instruments. I propose to apply my process to the construction of a divider instrument; to that of a mathematical tuner for all instruments, of a stenographer for the voice and of instruments; to the study of the conditions of sonority of various commercial substances and alloys; and to produce industrial designs for embroideries, filigrees, jewelry, shades, illustration of books of an entirely new kind. The first figure of the plate clearly shows my process in its most extreme simplicity - a process which is in my mind roughly independent of the number of thin membranes, of their size, of the form and dimensions of he conduit to which they have been applied, of the manner of suspension of the phonautograph, and of the nature of the motor which imparts speed to the sensitive film.". Scott then goes on to explain each part in particular the addition of the cylinder. Scott writes: "dir.-stylus director - Small cylinder of very light material performated along its axis and glued firmly to the membrane. It is intended to receive the stylus and to maintain it in a fixed and determined direction.". Scott describes the use of a motor too writing: "fig. 6 -sensitive film that passes under the stylus set in motion by the action of a trumpet at a distance, at a speed determined by the movement of a pendulum and made uniform by means of a motor borrowed from clockwork or from the electromagnet - a motor not represented in the figure.". Scott concludes writing "For greater clarity, I am appending to the drawing of my apparatuses a print in duplicate of the acoustic figures of the voice, or the cornet- of drawings I obtain before any construction of apparatuses and by the only use of the process of figure 1.". Scott describes the process: "The manner of proceeding to obtain phonautographic prints is very simple. A strip of paper is rolled up on the cylinder while being stretched. This paper, which turns with a nearly uniform speed, is charged with an even, opaque, exceedingly thin film of lampblack. Towards the center of the membrane is placed the stylus, of which the end that does the tracing is taken from a feather of certain birds. This point, so very thin, obeys all the simple or complex movements of the membrane. In this state the stylus is introduced to the cylinder in such a manner that it grazes it while remaining fixed in the direction of its shadt. One makes the sound heard at the opening of the tub or conduit, the membrane begins vibrating, the stylus follows its movements and its end traces upon the cylinder, which describes a continuous helix, the figures of the vibration of the sound produced. They show the number of the timbre thereof. These figures are large when the sound is intense, microscopic if it is very weak, spread out if it is low, squeezed together if it is high, of a regular and straightforward pattern if the timbre is pure, uneven and somewhat shaky if it is bad or clouded. Here now is the series of interesting experiments for physicists, physiologists, instrument makers, {and} lovers of the sciences, which can already be carried out with the apparatus built as represented in the present certificate: 1. To write the vibratory movement of any solid to be used as a term of comparison with the movements of a fluid; to count the number of vibrations carried out by the solid in a unit of time by means of the marking chronometer. 2. A tuning fork having been calibrated by means of the preceding experiment to a determined number of vibrations in a unit of time (500 or 1000 for example), to count, by causing them to write simultaneously, the number of vibrations achieved by any agent capable of vibrating 9solid or fluid) in a space of time as short as one might wish (a few thousandths of a second). Example: to count and measure the various phases of a noise and the intervals of time contained between rapid and successive sound phenomena; to test the relative sonority of metals, alloys, wood, etc. 3. To write the vibrations produced in a membrane by one of more pipes sounding sumultaneously, to count the number thereof, to show the phases thereof; to obtain the acoustic figure or diagram of each chord and dissonance; to write likewise the song of any wind instrument; to show the characteristic timbre of these instruments; to write the composite movement resulting from the sounds of two or more instruments playing simultaneously. 4. To write the song of a voice, to measure the extent thereof with the marking chronometer or the calibrated marking tuning fork; to write the scale of a singer, to measure the accuracy thereof with the marking tuning fork; to show the purity or isochronism of the vibrations thereof, as well as the timbre; to write a melody and transcribe it with the aid of the marking tuning fork; to write the simultaneous song of two voices and to show the harmony or discord thereof. 5. To study acoustically the physiological or pathological movements of the vocal apparatus and of its parts during the various emissions of sound, the shout, etc; to mark down the characteristic timbre of a given voice; 6. To study the articular voice, the declamation (see in the appended plates a first application to ordinary writing); to show the syllabic diagrams. 7. To inscribe by the combination of the second method (the flexible stylus) and the third (the fixing) the movements of the pendulum, of the teetotum or top, of the magnetized needle, the manner of locomotion of an insect, etc." Scott describes plate 2 writing: "...For noting declamation exactly it does not suffice to mark down above or below the line the longs and the shorts, the fortes and the pianos, the raisings and lowerings of pitch, the inalations, the breathing, and the pauses and the explosions; it is necessary to represent clearly and easily the quantum or mathematical value of each of these modifications. The phoautographic trace furnishes at present-without one having to be occupied with articulation- a very simple means of objectively representing the artist's diction. This trace is a kind of reptile, the coils of which follow all the modulations or inflections of discorse. It suffices for translating by sight- except for the articulation - to make the following remarks: the horizontal distance of the foot of the curves indicates the pitch or tonality; the height of the same curves the intensity of the voice; the detail of the curves the timbre; the absence of curves the pauses or silences. The few natural expressions opposite suffice for understanding this page. represents the deep voice the high-pitched voice a high-pitched voice descending to a deep one a deep voice rising to the high-pitched on an intense voice an average voice a weak voice the tremolo on the letter r the cadence on a vowel the outburst of the voice So to this rival faithless Hedelmone must have given this diadem! In their cruel rage, our lions of the desert, beneath their burning laei, sometimes tear apart the trembling traveler- It would be better for him for their devouring hunger to scatter the scraps of his palpitating flesh than to fall alive into my terrible hands!". Scott describes plate 3 as the "calibration of a sound by means of the chronometer". Notice that playing these recordings on paper out loud is not claimed. Playing recorded - that is permanently stored - sounds out loud will only be known publicly with the phoneograph of Thomas Edison in 1877 which records the sounds as impressions into tin foil - although playing live sounds from a microphone through a wire and out a speaker will be first done publicly by Philip Reiss in 1861. A recording made on April 9, 1860 of a person singing the words, "Au clair de la lune, Pierrot repondit" is currently the oldest known sound recording. This soot-covered paper is converted to audio in 2008, replayed from a digital scan. It is disappointing that so few people know about Leon Scott, and so few have a biography on Scott and the telautograph. It is a combination of the evilness and fear of those who want to keep technology and science secret together with the underinformed and/or easily fooled who believe and follow the outlandish claims of religions and pseudosciences. There is some confusion about the history of sound recording between Hooke and Chladni's sand drawings and this first rotating cylinder. THere is a claim that Wilhelm Weber recorded the sound vibrations of a tuning fork onto a sooted glass plate in 1830. There is also a claim that Duhamel was the first to record sound to a sooted glass cylinder in 1840. Note that this is the first public record of at least the technical possibility of people, in particular, governments, and telegraph and telephone companies, accumulating data records of sound, before this, could only be paper records on which a person wrote or typed the sounds, and of course, photographs, and text information. It seems very likely that people in governments, in particular military, and in the telegraph and telephone companies were secretly recording and playing back sounds before this time, in particular presuming they saw and heard thought and were doing remote neuron activation in 1810. Is Arthur Korn the first to apply this pressure writing method to record the intensity of each dot in an image? According to one source, Scott succeeds in causing the phonautograph to render back faint sounds from the blast of two huge organ pipes, three feet from the instrument. | Paris, France |
143 YBN [04/??/1857 AD] | 3354) | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
143 YBN [07/17/1857 AD] | 3121) Thomas Andrews (CE 1813-1885), Irish physical chemist measure the density of ozone, and shows that ozone is an allotrope of oxygen, but cannot determine its composition(chronology for second part). Ozone was first identified by Schönbein. An allotrope is any of two or more forms of the same chemical element. They may have different arrangements of atoms in crystals of the solid, for example, graphite and diamond for carbon, or different numbers of atoms in their molecules, for example, ordinary oxygen (O2) and ozone (O3). | (Queen's College) Belfast, Ireland |
143 YBN [08/08/1857 AD] | 3412) | (University of Lille) Lille, France |
143 YBN [12/10/1857 AD] | 3325) Cayley plays a large role in persuading the University of Cambridge to admit women as students. | London, England (presumably) |
143 YBN [12/27/1857 AD] | 2873) Plücker writes (translated): "The idea of employing tubes with platinum electrodes fused into them for observing the electrical discharge through rarefied gases, instead of the electrical egg, as originally employed by Ruhmkorff and Quet, may be considered in many respects a happy one. Such tubes, containing various gases and vapours, are prepared in this city, of the most different forms, by M. Geissler, and present sometimes an appearance of incomparable beauty. Geissler's tubes (I give them, and with justice, this name although the first such tubes were not prepared by him) were tried at the beginning of this year in the Physical Cabinet: and what more natural than the thought of approximating such tubes in various ways to the poles of a magnet during the discharge? Davy had already noticed that the arch of light which he formed between carbon-points by means of a powerful battery was diverted by the magnet. Arago had predicted such diversion. In the same way it was possible to predict generally the nature of the diversion of the electric current in Geissler's tubes. But on the actual performance of the experiment, in addition to the phaenomena which were looked for, certain unexpected one presented themselves; namely, the division of the light-stream, its decomposition at the negative electrode into an undulating flickering light, and the extension of the stream from the positive electrode into a brilliantly illuminating fine point... This electrolysis of dilute compound gases received complete verification in subsequent cases. In tubes containing hydriodic acid, the iodine is gradually deposited. In highly rarified gases this electrolysis by the electric stream, as it becomes finely divided, often manifests itself suddenly by a remarkable alteration of colour. Examples of this were furnished by tubes containing phosphoretted hydrogen and sulphurous acid. The laws of the electrolysis brought about by the spark of Ruhmkorff's apparatus may, however, be traced in gases and vapours of ordinary density. ... In the different Geissler's tubes the light appears of all kinds of colours, often of a very intense nature, and on analysis with the prism yields variously modified spectra. ... The dark bands first observed by Rugmkorff and Quet in the electrical egg (electric egg electrodes) appear in Geissler's tubes of the most varied shape, and in some of them with the greatest distinctness. ... In wider tubes the dark intervals may attain a breadth of 5 millims.; they become narrower if the electric light passes from a wide tube into a narrower one. They often appear only after the discharge has passed for a long time through the tube, and then become gradually better and better defined. ... the discharges of light take place at intervals, which, if Ruhmkorff's apparatus be employed, depend upon the rapidity with which the breakings of the current follow one another. The phaenomena can only consist in an aggregation of matter at definite parts of the tube which become luminous through the discharge, while the passage of the electricity from one luminous plate to the other is dark. ... In the experiments immediately to be described I employed a great upright horseshoe magnet, to the two limbs of which two heavy armatures were applied, 4 cm thick, 13 cm wide, and 20 cm long. Each of these armatures was rounded circularly at one end, and the rounded extremities were directed towards one another, being kept by an interposed brass disc, at a distance of about 4 mm. ... I placed a tube about 270 mm long, widened in the middle to an ellipsoid ... This tube contained a trace of phosphorus, and gave a beautiful red light when the discharge was led through it by means of the two platinum wires fused into its extremities. ... In two cases the electrical light-currents were attracted in the ellipsoid; in the other two they were repelled. ... A perfectly similarly-shaped tube, containing a small quantity of hydrogen instead of the trace of phosphorus, showed exactly the same appearances, with the single exception that the light, instead of being red, was bright violet. ... The two arcs of light, which were before circular and which bordered the ring in which the atmosphere of light had become concentrated around the warmth-pole, assumed the form of magnetic curves. " Plücker follows up on January 25, 1858 by stating clearly "In accordance with the phaenomena described in the latter part of the preceding paper, we may say that electric light under the circumstances in point is magnetic. Inasmuc h as such light, which proceeds from one point of the negative electrode in all directions, is drawn together by the magnet to a luminous magnetic curve passing through the same point, the original rays behave as iron-filings would do if we imagine them infinitely fine, perfectly flexible, and attached to the point of the electrode in opposition to the force of gravitation." (Here the view is that light particles and electric current particles (later called electrons) are the same, as opposed to the view that the light particle are emitted from the electric particles in such arcs.) On March 30, 1858 Plücker writes "The behavior towards magnetism of that light which, proceeding from the negative electrode, spreads out in all directions, is so remarkable that I shall in the first place recur to it again. We can best illustrate this behaviour by considering the well-known fact, that when iron filings are strewn upon a piece of stiff paper covering the pole of a magnet, they arrange themselves in curves which have been called magnetic curves, or lines of magnetic force. Such curves render the distribution of the power of a magnet visible even when analysis is unable to determine their form. in every such curve the separate particles of iron having, under the influence of the magnet, become themselves little magnets, arrange themselves with their attracting poles together so as to form a chain. Could we remove the particles of iron from the influence of gravitation and distribute them through the whole space surrounding the magnetic pole, then such chains assuming the form of magnetic curves would traverse the whole magnetic field, and furnish a visible image of the distribution of the magnetic force. ... The hypotheses conditioning such a phaenomenon are such as can scarcely by realized; so that the phaenomenon itslf will probably remain a merely imaginary one. if, however, in place of the linked iron chain, we suppose rays of magnetic light, the phaenomenon is converted into one which actually exists. " (EX: It would be interesting to attach a magnet inside a tube and see the beams of light forms around the magnetic field.) Plücker describes a system using lines instead of points as the fundamental geometric elements. In 1847 Plücker is made professor of physics at Bonn, and this begins the record of Plücker's work in physics after a life dedicated to mathematics. | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 2831) | Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 2858) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 2910) In 1870 the electric telegraph lines of the United Kingdom, worked by different companies, is transferred to the Post Office, and placed under Government control. (Perhaps there was a difference of opinion about how the public's messages are stored. Under government control, the heads, handlers and controllers of the telegraph service can be replaced by popular opinion unlike the US system.) | (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3034) | London, England (presumably) |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3079) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, publishes his only book "Gasometrische Methoden" (1857) which brings gas analysis to a new level of accuracy and simplicity. In 1838, Bunsen started working with gases, starting with work on the gases present in the blast furnaces used for making iron. Accompanied by a collaborator, Lyon Playfair, Bunsen visits England and their results help iron-masters save fuel. Bunsen and Playfair suggest techniques that can recycle gases through the furnace and retrieve valuable escaping by-products such as ammonia. From this work Bunsen goes on to show how to determine the specific gravity of gases, to measure their absorption by liquids, and their rates of diffusion. Bunsen perfects the technique of eudiometry, where known volumes of gas are exploded with oxygen and the amounts of the products measured. | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3148) | (Indiana University) Indiana, USA |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3218) | Indianapolis, Indiana (presumably) |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3286) | Paris, France (presumably) |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3366) | (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3367) | (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3394) Thomas Rickett builds a "road locomotive" (steam engine car). | Buckingham, England |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3455) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3508) Bond identifies a number of comets. Bond dies of tuberculosis at age 29. | (Harvard U) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA (presumably) |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3562) | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3628) Suess advocates bringing in drinking water into Vienna from mountain springs instead of using disease-filled wells. Suess develops the plan for a 69-mile (112-kilometre) aqueduct (completed in 1873) that brings fresh water from the Alps to Vienna. In 1876, Suess supervises the production of the Danube canal which puts an end to the flooding of the low-lying sections of Vienna. In 1850 Suess is imprisoned for being on the side of the liberals during a revolution in 1848. Another source has Suess imprisoned simply for participating in revolutionary demonstrations of 1848. In 1856, Suess is appointed extraordinary professor of paleontology at the University of Vienna without a doctorate degree. From 1873 on, Suess spends 30 years in the Austrian legislature. | (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3640) Maxwell's parents married late in life, and his mother is 40 years old at his birth. James's unusual mode of dress is how he got the nickname "Dafty" at Edinburgh Academy, where he enrolled in 1841. Asimov explains this nickname as being because talent, for example in math, is some times mistaken for foolishness. At age 15, Maxwell submits a paper on curves to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1871 Maxwell is appointed professor of experimental physics at Cambridge. According to Asimov, Maxwell is not a popular lecturer. Maxwell organizes the Cavendish laboratory and serves as its director it until his death. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that (as director of Cavendish laboratory), Maxwell has few students, but that they are of the highest quality. Like Faraday, Maxwell has deep religious beliefs, and has a childless but happy marriage. In 1876, Maxwell writes a classic elementary text in dynamics, "Matter and Motion" (1876). Maxell and Thomas Huxley are joint scientific editors of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Maxwell publishes the "Unpublished Electrical Researches of the Hon. Henry Cavendish" (1879). According to Asimov this work shows that Cavendish was 50 years ahead of his time. Maxwell rejects the particle theory for electricity, although Faraday's laws of electrolysis strongly suggest the particulate nature of electricity (and this is true also for light, Maxwell viewing light as waves of electromagnetic radiation carried by the ether). Maxwell is one of the first to appreciate the work of Gibbs. Maxwell dies before the age of 50 from cancer. Over the course of his life, Maxwell wrote four books and about 100 papers. | (Marischal College) Aberdeen, Scotland |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3670) | (Ximenian Institute)Florence, Italy |
143 YBN [1857 AD] | 3791) | (Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers) Paris, France |
142 YBN [01/06/1858 AD] | 2881) Gassiot describes his experiments in a January 6, 1858 paper "On the Stratifications and Dark Band in Electrical Discharges as observed in Toricellian Vacua.". (I think "stratifications" can be interpreted as "stripes".) Gassiot writes: "The striated condition of the electrical discharge in vacuo that takes place when the terminal wires of Ruhmkorff's inductive coil are inserted into a well-exhausted receiver, in which a small piece of phosphorus has been previously placed, was first announced by Mr. Grove in his communication to the Royal Society, 7th January, 1852; ... I had, at the time, the pleasure of witnessing many of these experiments, which are now so well known to electricians; shortly afterwards I examined the discharge in a Torricellian vacuum: my apparatus consisted of a glass cylinder 6 inches long, in which two platinum wires are hermetically sealed about 4 inches apart; the cylinder forms the upper portion of a barometer, the lower part being made of the usual sized tubing; the mercury, when at the height of 30 inches, reaches to within about 6 inches of the cylinder; the mercury was carefully boiled in the usual manner by M. Negretti, and the apparatus fixed in my laboratory ... When the discharge is made with a Ruhmkorff's coil, by connecting the above platinum wires with the terminals of that apparatus, the cylinder is brilliantly illuminated with a dense white phosphorescent light, filling the entire vacuum, the intensity of the light depending on the energy of the battery. The mercury sinks at each discharge, but not the slightest trace of any transverse bands can be detected. The phenomenon of stratifications in the discharge in vacuo were subsequently observed in Paris by M. Ruhmkorff, who obtained the effect by using the vapour of alcohol; they were again noticed by Masson, Du Moncel, Quet, and other continental electricians, who all describe the intense white light without stratification produced in the barometrical vacuum. The Rev. Dr. Robinson, who has made a series of beautiful experiments with the inductive coil, says, "Nothing satisfactory has yet been ascertained as to the cause of the stratification of light. Mr. Grove appears to think that it arises from some vibration in the metal of the contact breaker, which produces a fluctuation in the inducing current;... (Is this due to the alternating current of the induction coil?) ... (see figure) While pursuing my experiments, it occurred to me that an apparatus similar in some respects to that used by Davy, could without much difficulty be constructed, which would enable me not only to make experiments in a Torricellian vacuum, but also with great facility in any gas which does not act on mercury Plat I. fig. 1 represents this apparatus. In the glass tube, two platinum wires, a and b, are carefully sealed about 6 inches apart; the tube is filled with pure mercury. A stopcock, fixed at C, can, by means of a flexible tube, be connected with an air-pump. When the air is extracted from the ball of the apparatus, the mercury sinks in the tube, and in this manner the Torricellian vacuum is formed, the mercury in the tube descending to "d." ... ...the discharge from the coil, when excited by a single cell of Grove's battery, the upper wire being negative, consisted of eight or ten distinct stratifications, extending from the positive wire to the dark space, while the usual blue flame surrounding the intense red, which has the appearance of red heat, is visible on the negative wire. (The blue flame are actually photons emitting from charged particles? I don't think this flame must appear like an ordinary flame from gas or a match.) On reversing the direction of the primary current by the commutator, the stratifications appear from the upper wire, while the lower, which is now negative, has the blue and red glow; but in this case there is aphosphorescent light from the surface of the mercury at d to the lower wire. ... In some experiments which I made as far back as October 1854, I noticed a deposit when the discharge was made from platinum wires sealed in a glass globe, exhausted by means of the air-pump. I showed the globe to Dr. Faraday, who kindly tested and examined the deposit, and found it to be finely divided platinum in the metallic state. (how tested?)... ...it appeared surprising that there should be so marked a difference in the discharge when, as in some instances, so very minute a quantity of air (less than 1/6000th of the contents of the tube) was present. Mr. Casella, who had made all the glass apparatus already described (with the exception of the barometer), placed one of his most intelligent workmen at my disposal;... Each of these tubes was filled with pure mercury, carefully boiled; a tube about 34 inches in length being attached to each, also filled with mercury; the apparatus was inverted into a basin of mercury, thereby forming the usual barometrical vacuum, and the tubes were then sealed about 4 inches below the lower platinum wire. ...the platinum coating is deposited on the portion of the tube surrounding the negative wire, but none at or near the positive. .... The stratifications are very powerfully affected by a magnet. When the discharge is made from wire to wire. Plat I. figs 1,2,3 or 7, if a horseshoe magnet is passed along the tube so as alternately to present the poles to different contiguous positions of the discharge, it will assume the form of ~ in consequence of its tendency to rotate round the poles in opposite directions, as the magnet in this position is moved up and down the side of the tube. The effect is still more striking if the straight bar of a powerful electro-magnet is placed close to the ends of the stratifications; they then tend to rotate in one direction round the north, and in another round the south pole of the magnet. When the discharge was first made in the pear-shaped apparatus, fig. 5 (24.), the mercury being negative and about 2 inches from the end of the positive wire, the discharge formed nearly a straight line; in this position, when the pole of a powerful electro-magnet was placed close to the glass vessel of the apparatus, the discharge was deflected across the pole at right angles, the discharge being from the positive wire to the negative mercury; if the magnet presented a northern polarity, the discharge deflected to the right, when looking from the magnet to the discharge, carrying with it the red spot in a direct line across the mercury. ... In this experiment I noticed another effect which I have not seen in any of my other apparatus. The magnet so divided the electrical discharge, that the rays producing the fluorescence in the glass tube were all accumulated in the neighbourhood of the negative terminal, the glass in that part being highly fluorescent, while the positive portion exhibited little or no signs of this phenomenon. I refrain for the present from offering any observations as to the action of the magnet on the discharge. The intimate relation of magnetic and electric action has long since been shown; but the curious effect of the power of a magnet to draw out the stratification from the positive terminal, and in some instances its powerful action on that portion of the discharge which exhibited the phosphorescent light in its greatest intensity, are worthy of further examination." | London, England (presumably) |
142 YBN [03/12/1858 AD] | 3539) | (Collegio Nazionale in Alessandria) Piedmont (now part of Italy), Italy |
142 YBN [03/15/1858 AD] | 3460) After a 10 year career in business Stewart changes to a career in science. For this in 1868 Stewart is awarded the Rumford medal of the Royal Society. Stewart's textbooks and popularizations of science are widely read. Stewart writes "The Unseen Universe" (with Peter Tait, 1875) and many other popular accounts of scientific discoveries of the time. "The Unseen Universe", is at first published anonymously, and according to the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica is intended to combat the common notion of the incompatibility of science and religion. | (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
142 YBN [03/16/1858 AD] | 3581) Kekulé is attacted to chemistry by the teaching of Justus Liebig at the University of Giessen. Kekulé has a complete mastery of English and French in addition to his native German. In September 1860, Kekulé organizes the First International Chemical Congress at Karlsruhe. During Kekulé's long time at the University of Bonn (1867-1896), he contributes to the rise of organic chemistry and the chemical industry of Germany. Students of Kekulé come from all over Europe and then take leading professorships and head industrial laboratories. Kekulé is ennobled in 1895 by Emperor William II and can then add "von Stradonitz" to his name. | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
142 YBN [03/30/1858 AD] | 2874) Plücker continues: "On discharging Ruhmkorff's apparatus through one of the tubes before described, not only the intensity, but the colour of the light is different in different parts of the tube. (Are these different elements?) The eye perceives, for instance, in one part of the tube red, in another violet, and in the middle cylinder a fainter colour; so that one would be inclined to imagine that the ponderable matter which becomes luminous is differently distributed through the tube. In addition to this, it happens in many cases that the colour of the electric light undergoes a change in its passage through the narrow tube on the excitation of the great electro-magnet...But in all cases, whatever may be the colour-impression produced on the eye, the distribution of the colours in the spectrum remains for the same gas entirely of the same kind; it is the intensity of the colours alone which changes in different degrees in different portions of the spectrum: so that when the eye ... is at fault, still the nature of the gas or vapour contained in the tube is unfailingly determined by means of the spectrum." | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
142 YBN [07/01/1858 AD] | 3033) Richard Owen opposes the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin is gentle, avoids conflict and spends many years trying to build up evidence before publishing. Thomas Huxley calls himself "Darwin's bulldog" and does much of the public arguing for Darwin. In Germany, Ernst Haeckel supports evolution against the opposition of Virchow. In America Asa Gray supports evolution against the opposition of Agassiz. (in France and Italy, Russia, China, India: ? It is interesting how the theory of evolution clearly divides people into two sides. In my opinion, those who see the truth of evolution are the smarter and more concerned with truth and accuracy.) In 1863 in "The Antiquity of Man", Lyell comes out strongly in favor of evolution. Wallace doubts that evolution can apply to humans, but Darwin accepts this. Wallace becomes engaged in spiritualism. Both British prime ministers William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli are both strongly opposed to evolution. (Now politicians are not even required to express an opinion, and it is an absolute disgrace on society. Update: recently the question of belief in evolution was asked of a few United States presidential candidates with a few {Huckabee, Brownback and Tancredo being examples} openly rejecting evolution.) | (Linnean Society), London, England |
142 YBN [08/16/1858 AD] | 3305) | (Newfoundland to Ireland) Atlantic Ocean |
142 YBN [08/25/1858 AD] | 2974) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 2826) | (Starfield Observatory) Liverpool, England |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3120) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3155) In 1851 De La Rue's attention is drawn to a daguerreotype of the moon by G. P. Bond (or W. C.?), shown at the great exhibition of that year. De La Rue uses the rapid wet-collodion process and succeeds in obtaining well defined lunar pictures, which remain unsurpassed until the appearance of the Rutherfurd photographs in 1865. De La Rue's photograph of the Moon is sharp enough to be magnified twenty-times. (This magnification must be done with a negative raised above a photograph exposure paper and light beamed down through the negative onto the exposure paper.) De La Rue's stereoscopic pictures (formed by combining two photographs) of the Sun and the Moon create a sensation at the International Exhibition of 1862 in London. In 1860 De la Rue took the photoheliograph to Spain for the purpose of photographing the total solar eclipse which occurs on the 18th of July of that year. The photographs obtained on that occasion prove beyond doubt the solar character of the prominences or red flames, seen around the limb of the moon during a solar eclipse. According to Asimov, this and Schwabe's finding of a sunspot cycle initiate astrophysics, the study of the composition of the stars and their physical processes. | (Kew Observatory) Surrey, England |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3161) Robert Remak (rAmoK or rAmaK?) (CE 1815-1865), German physician, publishes the results of his study of the therapeutic effects of electric current in "Galvanotherapie" and recommends the use of the constant current in "morbid conditions of the brain accompanied by disordered mental functions". (Is this the earliest use and or study of the use of electricity for human health?) (electricity has many important uses in health, for example, diagnostic testing of nerves, closing blood vessels, and of course, running machines that analyze body fluids, however, electroshock or electroconvulsive treatment is an example of the many experimental and destructive or useless application of electricity to health care, and reminds us that clear consent in applying health care procedures is of primary importance in addition to carefully separating observed clearly measurable truth from unproven highly speculative, non-physical, or abstract theory. I think there is a fine line between neurology the science of nerve cells and psychology the study of human behavior and the brain {the so called "mind"}. For example, the use of electricity to determine is a nerve cell is working is neurology, but to apply electricity without a physical explanation is not neurology in my opinion. The most important point is that there is consent when applying electricity to a body, in particular a human. I think a clear line should be drawn between the science of damaged nerve cells versus the science of diseases without any known physical damage to nerve cells, and I define these two sciences as neurology and psychology, although again, the most important point is making all health care whether neurology, psychology or any other ology consensual only as defined by the Nuremburg laws and basic ethics and logic.) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3164) | Paris, France |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3203) | (Royal College of Chemistry) London, England |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3205) Donders uses his own money to establish the polyclinic in Utrecht which becomes a center for both research and teaching. | (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3211) | (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3288) | Paris, France (presumably) |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3358) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3359) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3368) | (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3395) Because of the liquids in the planets, moons and Sun, in addition to the effect of smaller masses not accounted for, I think estimating the locations of the planets and moons will forever be like predicting the weather on planet Earth, impossible to estimate into the far future. Even into the far future, I think our descendants will be have to constantly update the latest positions of the moons, planets, and all the ships in orbit of the Sun to carefully make sure that the star system remains stable and does not collapse or become chaotic. EXPER: Use a computer and the simple Newtonian equation to see how closely the Sun, planets and moons follow observations from different centuries. Can the effect of the other planets be seen in the motion of the Sun? When every object is moving, how can any location be fixed in the universe (in particular some center point of 0,0,0 for any given time, presuming time to be the same value everywhere in the universe)? Include the constant loss of mass from the Sun. Use initial velocities. How do these initial inertial velocities change through time? For example how is the x,y,z of a planet relative to the Sun or a central 0,0,0 point, changed in the course of a single orbit? | Paris, France |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3408) | (Collège de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3415) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3481) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3501) Huxley is the youngest of the six surviving children of schoolmaster George Huxley and his wife, Rachel. In 1845, Huxley discovers a new membrane, now known as Huxley’s layer, in the human hair sheath. Huxley teaches natural history at the Royal School of Mines, giving very popular lectures aimed at lower income people, and is a popularizer of science. Huxley's strong belief in public education of science is expressed in his famous lectures to working men, delivered from 1855 on. In 1856, Charles Darwin and T.H. Huxley meet, become friends. The two complement each other well, because the reclusive Darwin needs a public defender, which Huxley is skilled with. Huxley praises Darwin's "Origin of Species" in a review for the London Times (the day after Christmas, 1859); in an article for the "Westminster Review"; and in a discourse at the Royal Institution ("On Species and Races, and their Origin"). Huxley popularizes the theory of evolution. In 1869, Huxley's team founds the journal "Nature". As an example of Huxley's popularity, in 1866, as Huxley gives a talk on blind faith as the ultimate sin, 2,000 people must be turned away from the crowded hall. A bequest of £1,000 from a Quaker supporter finances Huxley’s American (US only?) tour in 1876, in which Huxley gives talks about the dinosaur ancestry of birds and shows how the succession of fossil horses in America is “Demonstrative Evidence of Evolution”. Huxley serves as president of the Geological Society (1869–71), the Ethnological Society (1868–71), the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1870), the Marine Biological Association (1884–90), and the Royal Society (1883–85). Huxley's talented daughter Marian was labeled insane after 1882 and died in Paris, under the care of the renowned neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, in 1887. To fill the demand for science teachers (driven in part by the Education Act of 1870), Huxley teaches courses at South Kensington for schoolmasters and mistresses, and from the good performance of the women Huxley is inspired to fight for the admission of women to universities. In 1880 Huxley names the class Osteichthyes which are also called bony fish". In 1883, a lord chief justice declares that Christianity is no longer the law of the land in England, with the caveat that while Huxley’s reverent questioning is now legal, vulgar working-class attacks on Christian beliefs are still indictable. Huxley has many nicknames including "Darwin's pit bull", "The General", "Huxley Eikonoklastes", and "Pope Huxley". | (University of London) London, England (presumably) |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3555) | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3557) Berthelot synthetically produces many organic (carbon) compounds such as methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, methane, benzene, and acetylene. Berthelot is the first to synthesize organic (carbon) compounds that do not occur naturally, by combining glycerol with fatty acids that do not naturally occur in fats. Bert helot builds a calorimeter to measure the heat of chemical reactions. Berthelot defines the terms "exothermic" for reactions that give off heat, and "endothermic" for reactions that absorb heat. In 1883, Berthelot publishes the results of a detailed study on the strength of explosives in a two-volume book. (How many explosives reactions are then known?) | (Collège de France) Paris, France |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3627) With Couper there is a claim of nervous breakdown possibly as result of priority of Kekule structure priority. I reject the claims of "nervous breakdown" as too abstract, and the stigma of psychiatric disorder is a massive injustice directed at many lawful nonviolent people. So I think people should require specific examples of claims of unusual behavior. Many times, the so-called unusual behavior is not unusual, or is within the realm of creative expression, and is completely nonviolent and legal. Perhaps a better expression would be, was unable to contribute to science because of constant distraction, etc, a more specific kind of claim, then labeling "nervous breakdown". Perhaps Couper just became uninterested in chemistry or suffered from some physical health problem. | (Wurtz's Paris laboratory) Paris, France |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3635) Voit is a pupil of the German chemists Justus von Liebig and Friedrich Wöhler at the University of Munich, where Voit later is professor of physiology (1863–1908). In 1862 Voits begins a collaboration with the German chemist Max von Pettenkofer that leads to productive investigations into metabolism (the chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life). | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany (presumably) |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 3775) | (Perkin factory) Greenford Green, England |
142 YBN [1858 AD] | 6001) | (Bouffes-Parisiens theater) Paris, France |
141 YBN [02/21/1859 AD] | 3747) | (Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers) Paris, France |
141 YBN [08/10/1859 AD] | 3754) Kühne succeeds Helmholtz in the chair of physiology at Heidelberg (1871-1899). | (University of ?) Paris, France |
141 YBN [08/27/1859 AD] | 3264) | (near) Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA |
141 YBN [09/23/1859 AD] | 3074) | Paris, France |
141 YBN [10/20/1859 AD] | 3087) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), and Gustav Kirchhoff (KRKHuF) (CE 1824-1887) understand that the spectra of light relates to and can be used to determine the atomic (chemical) composition of a substance and develop the technique of spectroscopy. Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), and Kirchhoff (KRKHuF) (CE 1824-1887) build a spectroscope and develop the technique of spectroscopy. Bunsen and Kirchhoff (confirm clearly Fraunhofer's view that) each pure substance has its own characteristic spectrum. Kirchhoff supports the theory that each element emits and absorbs frequencies of light at the same specific frequencies. Kirchhoff recognizes that sodium and potassium exist in the sun's atmosphere, while lithium does not or does in undetectably small quantity. Kirchhoff recognizes that temperature of source and absorbing material makes a difference in absorption of spectral lines. Kirchhoff and Bunsen develop a spectroscope which allows light to pass through a narrow slit before reaching a prism. The different wavelengths (or photon intervals) of light are refracted differently so that numerous images of the slit are thrown on a scale in different positions and with different colors. In addition to yielding a unique spectrum for each element (and compound molecules), the spectroscope has the advantage of definite identification while only using a minimal amount of sample, on the range of nanograms to micrograms for elements like sodium and barium respectively. Bunsen and Kirchhoff will use this technique to quickly identify the two new elements cesium and rubidium. The Bunsen-Kirchhoff spectroscope, a very important instrument of chemical analysis is initially built with simple components such as a prism, cigar box, and two ends of otherwise unusable old telescopes. The spectroscope is an instrument which will prove to be of tremendous importance in chemical analysis and the discovery of new elements. The spectroscope will be used to identify five more new elements. These included thallium (Crookes, 1861), indium (Reich and Richter, 1863), gallium (Lecoq de Boisbaudran, 1875), scandium (Nilson, 1879) and germanium (Winkler, 1886). Bunsen's original vision of analyzing the composition of the stars is realized in 1868 when helium is discovered in the solar spectrum. Draper and Huggins also use the spectroscope for astronomy. The Bunsen lamp provides a hot flame of low visible light emission in which flame spectra can be observed against a minimum of background spectra, which makes spectrum analysis easier. In 1859, Bunsen suddenly stops his work with Roscoe, telling Roscoe: "At present Kirchhoff and I are engaged in a common work which doesn't let us sleep... Kirchhoff has made a wonderful, entirely unexpected discovery in finding the cause of the dark lines in the solar spectrum.... thus a means has been found to determine the composition of the sun and fixed stars with the same accuracy as we determine sulfuric acid, chlorine, etc., with our chemical reagents. Substances on the earth can be determined by this method just as easily as on the sun, so that, for example, I have been able to detect lithium in twenty grams of sea water." This work is published as (translated from German) "On Fraunhofer's Lines" ("Uber die Fraunhofer'schen Linien,") in the "Monatsberichte der Koniglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin". The two main contributions of this paper are: 1) recognizing that the elements of any substance can be determined from the spectrum of an object and 2) identifying elements in the sun. Kirchhoff makes the important observation that, to observe an absorption feature, the source of the light has to be hotter than the absorbing flame. Kirkkoff report this in "Uber die Fraunhofer'schen Linien" ("On Fraunhofer's lines"). This finding initiates a new era in the method used to identify new elements. The first fifty elements discovered, beyond those known since ancient times, were either the products of chemical reactions or were released by electrolysis. From 1860 on, the search is on for trace elements detectable only with the help of specialized instruments like the spectroscope. | (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
141 YBN [11/22/1859 AD] | 3035) Darwin hates public argument, and Huxley, a good friend, loves public argument and famously argues in favor of the theory of evolution. Huxley writes three reviews of "Origin of Species", defends human evolution at the Oxford meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1860 (when Bishop Samuel Wilberforce jokingly asks whether the apes are on Huxley's grandmother's or grandfather's side), and publishes his own book on human evolution, "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature" (1863). Throughout these struggles Huxley is the leading champion for evolution and for fair play to natural selection, although Huxley never entirely accepts the theory of natural selection, although enthusiastic for the theory of evolution, that is descent from a common ancestor. Herbert Spencer's alternative phrase, "the survival of the fittest", probably helps to spread a clear appreciation of Darwin's meaning. | London, England (presumably) |
141 YBN [11/24/1859 AD] | 2928) | Mourillon, Toulon, France |
141 YBN [12/11/1859 AD] | 3456) | (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 2823) Argelander is friends with Frederick William IV, which allows Argelander to build a new observatory. In 1863 Argelander founds the "Astronomische Gesellschaft", (Astronomical Society) the first large international organization of astronomers. The object of the society is to expand the collaboration with many observatories. | Bonn, Germany |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3183) | (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria, Germany |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3209) | (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3228) | (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3311) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3313) Tyndall is descended from William Tyndale, a 1500s translator of the bible who was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1536. Tyndall spends his savings on gaining a Ph.D. from the University of Marburg, Germany (1848–50), but then struggles to find employment. In 1853 Tyndall is appointed professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, London, where he becomes a friend of the much-admired Michael Faraday, gives many public lectures, and pursues science research. Tyndall has a successful lecturing tour in America (1872-1873) and receives the equivalent of several thousands of pounds, but places it in the hands of trustees for the benefit of American science. Tyndale helps to inaugurate the British scientific journal "Nature". Tyndall's respect for Faraday is recorded in his memorial volume called "Faraday as a Discoverer" (1868). Suffering from sleeplessness, Tyndall is accidentally given an overdose of chloral hydrate by his wife and dies the next day. | (Royal Institution) London, England |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3328) This paper is very abstract and complex. It examines conic (cones) and spherical geometry and so appears to be an extension of the so-called non-Euclidean surface geometry that rose up after Lobechevskii. | London, England (presumably) |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3373) Lenoir dies poor. (This invention shows that a certain amount of engineering skill, and inventive free thought exists in this time in France, also clearly in England, Germany, Italy, Western Russia, and the USA (perhaps also China? South America? Spain?).) | ?, France |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3536) Carrington, like Joule is the son of a wealthy brewer. Carrington dies of a stroke before 50. | (Redhill Observatory) Surrey, England |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3543) | (U of Jena) Jena, Germany |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3547) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
141 YBN [1859 AD] | 3714) | (Conservatory of Arts and Crafts) Paris, France |
140 YBN [01/??/1860 AD] | 3461) | (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
140 YBN [04/16/1860 AD] | 3088) Cesium is a soft, silvery-white ductile metal, liquid at room temperature, the most electropositive and alkaline of the elements, used in photoelectric cells and to catalyze hydrogenation of some organic compounds. Cesium has atomic number 55; atomic weight 132.905; melting point 28.5°C; boiling point 690°C; density (specific gravity) 1.87; valence 1. Cesium is the heaviest of the alkali metals in group 1 of the periodic table (except for francium, the radioactive member of the alkali metal family) and is the most reactive of the alkali metals. Cesium reacts vigorously with oxygen to form a mixture of oxides. Cesium does not appear to react with nitrogen to form a nitride, but does react with hydrogen at high temperatures to form a fairly stable hydride. Cesium reacts (bonds?) with the halogens, ammonia, and carbon monoxide. In general, cesium undergoes some of the same type of reactions with organic compounds as do the other alkali metals (such as Lithium and Sodium), but is much more reactive. Cesium is not very abundant in the Earth's crust, there being only 7 parts per million (ppm) present (about half as abundant as lead). Like lithium and rubidium, cesium is found as a component of complex minerals and not in relatively pure halide form as are sodium and potassium. Lithium, rubidium, and cesium frequently occur together in lepidolite ores. Pure cesium can be prepared by electrolysis of fused cesium cyanide in an inert atmosphere; the pure metal must be kept under an inert liquid or gas or in a vacuum to protect it from air and water. Cesium reacts readily with oxygen; it is sometimes used to remove traces of the gas from vacuum tubes and from light bulbs. It reacts with ice; it reacts explosively with water to form cesium hydroxide, the strongest base known. Cesium-137, a waste product of nuclear reactors, is a radioactive isotope used in the treatment of cancer. Cesium is found in the mineral pollux. Commercially useful quantities of inexpensive cesium are now available as a byproduct of the production of lithium metal. Cesium is first isolated by Carl Sefferburg in 1881 by electrolysis of its salts. | (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
140 YBN [04/??/1860 AD] | 3458) | (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
140 YBN [09/??/1860 AD] | 3540) Also in 1860 Cannizzaro takes part in attacking Naples to make it part of a unified Italy. This is eleven years after his failed 1847 Sicilian revolution. This Sicilian revolt, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, is successful and leads to the unification of Italy under Victor Emmanuel II. Cannizzaro moves to Rome and is made a senator. As a moderate liberal, Cannizzaro plays a role in shaping the new constitution and establishing political reforms. | Karlsruhe, Baden |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 2694) | Cape Town (and Simon's Town), South Africa |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 2706) Faraday writes "The Chemical History of a Candle" and this is the first complete book to be converted into "basic English". "The Chemical History of a Candle", is taken from a series of six children's lectures. In this work Faraday describes atoms, but not light as made of corpuscles, but simply as "light" and "heat". For example Faraday states "You see it comes to this - that all bright flames contain these solid particles; all things that burn and produce solid particles, either during the time they are burning, as in the candle, or immediately after being burnt, as in the case of the gunpowder and iron filings - all these things give us this glorious and beautiful light." and "for what is this bright flame but the solid particles passing off?" (Presumably Faraday is referring to atoms of carbon.) Faraday uses the word "particles" to describe atoms and molecules. | (Royal Institution in) London, England |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 2870) Édouard Armand Isidore Hippolyte Lartet (loRTA) (CE 1801-1871), French paleontologist publishes "Sur l'ancienneté géologique de l'espèce humaine dans l'Europe occidentale" (1860; "Antiquity of Man in Western Europe"). Lartet follows this with "New Researches on the Coexistence of Man and of the Great Fossil Mamnifers Characteristic of the Last Geological Period" (1861) in 1861. | Paris?,France |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 2872) Gustav Theodore Fechner (FeKnR) (CE 1801-1887), German physicist publishes "Elemente der Psychophysik" (1860, 2 vol, "Elements of Psychophysics"). In this work Fechner develops experimental procedures for measuring sensations in relation to the physical magnitude of stimuli and devised an equation to express the theory of the just-noticeable difference, advanced earlier by Ernst Heinrich Weber. This theory concerns the sensory ability to discriminate when two stimuli (for example two weights) are just noticeably different from each other. Later research has shown, however, that Fechner's equation is applicable within the midrange of stimulus intensity and then holds only approximately true. This book claims to describe the "exact science of the functional relations, or relations of dependency, between body and mind". Pupin's work once made public, will show that the so-called mind, is much more like a mechanical machine which stores and retrieves images, than many early primitive religious theories understood. Fechner is said to have learned Latin by age 5. I would say my current views on psychology are: 1) Psychiatric treatments need to be consensual only 2) People should not be locked in psychiatric hospitals without consent 3) Consensual-only use of drugs and/or treatments is fine 4) If a person feels that consensual drug or treatment is curing some problem, than in some sense that is science in the form of find a solution to some perceived problem for at least one person through consensual experimentation. 5) People should view much of psychology as modern day snake-oil cure-all salespeople. All people are prescribed drugs, and I doubt that most of the drugs given are helpful in solving any believed or perceived problems. | Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 2990) | London, England |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3045) There is a famous debate between Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce on human evolution at the Oxford meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. According to Isaac Asimov: the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce is primed with facts by Owen, and when asked if Huxley traces his own descent from the apes through his father or mother. Before a crowd of 700 Huxley answers that if given the choice of an ancestor either a miserable ape or an educated man who could introduce such a remark into a serious scientific discussion, he would choose the ape. | Oxford, England |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3124) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3125) Butlerov studies under N.N. Zinin at Kazan university (1844-49), and teaches there (1852-68), and at St. Petersburg University (1868-85). Butlerov goes farther than Kekulé, and is the first to speak of the chemical structure of a compound. (make clearer) Butlerov is an eager convert to the new structural theory (of Kekulé). Butlerov becomes interested in spiritualism, Mendeléev investigates his suggestions, and becomes an outspoken critic of (spiritualism) but remains friends with Butlerov. (Notice Asimov keyword "suggestions". When did people in Russia first see eyes and hear ears?) Butlerov creates the first Russian school of chemists, which includes V. V. Markovnikov, A. M. Zaytsev, A. P. Popov at Kazan and A. E. Favorski and I. L. Kondakov at St. Petersburg. | (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3166) | Paris, France |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3174) From 1837 to 1849 Rutherfurd practices law. From 1858–84 Rutherfurd is a trustee of Columbia University. A trustee is a member of a board elected or appointed to direct the funds and policy of an institution. Rutherfurd gives his instruments and collections of photographs to Columbia University. | (invented: New York City, NY, USA) (tested:) Laborador, Canada |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3177) Between 1854 and 1864 Donati discovers six comets, one of which, first seen on June 2, 1858, is named after Donati. | Florence, Italy |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3416) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3532) Pacinotti graduates from the University of Pisa (1861) where his father is a professor of mathematics and physics. | (University of Pisa) Pisa, Italy |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3573) Swan's house is the first house to be lit by electricity. (on Earth? verify) In 1881 The House of Commons in Great Britain is lit with Swan lamps. In 1882 The British Museum is lit by Swan lamps. | Newcastle, England (presumably) |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3642) (To me, temperature, might more accurately be stated as average velocity of particles over a dimensional space. The quantities {variables} necessary are: velocity, quantity of particles, mass, space, time. One possible definition of temperature, in terms of photons {presuming constant velocity and perfectly elastic collisions}, is defining temperature as the number of photons moving through some photon sized-point over some period of time. Temperature and heat would then be a measurement of rate as opposed to velocity (the rate of accumulated constant velocity photons). But I question the theory that light always has a constant velocity. Light particles may, perhaps as a result of some finite distance they can get to each other - creating the maximum acceleration possible. However, if true, then photon velocities change, but only very close to other photons.) (Does Maxwell claim to integrate temperature and heat? To me heat is average velocity * quantity. Clearly there is a difference between temperature and heat - since two objects, of different size with the same temperature on contact with a thermometer, give different temperatures if the thermometer is 10 cm away in a vacuum. So heat and temperature as identical or different - both depend on a volume space which involves quantity of particles.) (It is interesting and a key concept that Maxwell defines temperature as the velocity of molecules (not for example how often molecules collide, since this is viewed as perfectly elastic). I think this needs to be taken into the realm of photons, however. Clearly photons absorbed into an atom, cause the atoms velocity to increase {photons with infrared frequency in, for example, sunlight, raise the temperature of mercury and other atoms more than any other frequency}. EXPERIMENT: Are there materials which expand more with other frequencies besides the traditional infrared?) (There is also a major point in my mind that temperature should be defined as average velocity of all particles, perhaps multiplied by quantity of particles involved - and so cannot be measured accurately with mercury of other atoms, since none absorb all frequencies of light. Measurements with mercury are only partial estimates, and then may be inaccurate if two different objects emit the same quantity but different frequencies of light.) (Are all collisions elastic? Since clearly velocity is always conserved. At a scale larger than the photonic scale, velocity of a single fast moving particle colliding with other particles is distributed among the many other particles {for example a drop falling into a pool of water}. The velocity appears to stop eventually for the one particle, but this velocity is spread among the many other particles in smaller quantity. One of the great questions in my mind, is where the return, reverse, mirror velocity come from, when, a ball bounces off a wall, or water rising up after a drop of water falls into it. Clearly this reverse velocity must come from somewhere. Is it the original velocity simple bent into a circle 180 degrees back onto itself? Or is there at some atomic or photonic level always particles that periodically in their orbiting have an orbit in this direction which impart this "answer" velocity back? This is interesting to model on a computer.) (Either photons maintain constant velocity, and 1) in the realm of photons temperature has no meaning, since it only relates to a larger phenomenon of atoms (or the quantity of photons in a finite volume of space determines temperature), or 2) photons do have variable velocity and photon velocity also determines temperature.) (Clearly photons are needed to produce heat so in that sense the caloric theory of heat as the product of a particle is true - but also the particle's velocity matters - so then one issue is do photons have the same velocity or different velocities. Another interesting issue is, how do we define the temperature of, for example particles compressed together that have small velocities, for example in the center of a planet or star? Only when space is opened up to them is there a large release of photons, and therefore heat. I think, we should then claim that the technical temperature of the inside of stars and planets is actually cold, relative to the surface, because of pressure - only when space is made for the particles to flow, does the temperature quickly and vastly increase. It's an interesting issue.) (Imagine if Jupiter was a sun that has since lost matter. It is 1000 times smaller than the sun. How many photons are each losing per second? Then work backwards and see how Jupiter grows. It cannot be ruled out that the oldest sediment we see is not the sediment that originated on earth, and that perhaps any original sediment has long since metamorphasized, presenting the possibility that the earth may be older (and perhaps far older) than 4.6 billion years. Although it seems clear that multicellular life has only evolved in the last billion years, and would we not see a more developed life in ancient sediment if the earth was older? Still I don't think we can rule out sediment older than 3.6 bya...actually I think the zircon may be evidence of a finite age since the last molten stage of earth. The best evidence of the matter of our star system being 4.8 billion year old is the meteorites which do not extend in age past 5 billion. But then, clearly some matter in the universe must be older than, for example 100 billion years old. Theoretically, the conservation of matter requires that no matter ever disappears. Each photon may be infinitely old, and there may be atoms which are trillions of years old - but without any clear way of knowing. The best method of aging requires a sample large enough to determine a ratio of some atom to a smaller atom it decays to. This ratio is presumed to be constant throughout the sample.) | (King's College) London, England |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3720) Newcomb is an infant prodigy. Newcomb rises to the rank of rear admiral in the Navy. Newcomb's revision of the value of the solar parallax published in 1867 remained standard until 1895, when it was superseded by his own revision. Before and even after the Wright brothers, Newcomb claims that the hope of heavier-than-air machines is a vain and foolish one. (Seeing the first metal planes must have surprised some people.) As early as 1867 Newcomb suggests the desirability of accurately determining the velocity of light as a method to obtain a reliable value for the radius of the earth's orbit. In 1878 Newcomb begins the experiments, for a while collaborating with Albert Michelson, whose later works far overshadow Newcomb's efforts. From 1881-1899, Newcomb annually edits "The American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac". An ephemeris is a table giving the coordinates of a celestial body at a number of specific times during a given period. These annual books report the predicted positions of sun, planets and the moon (not other moons or stars), eclipses, and transits for various times of the year in right ascension and declination, from the perspective of Greenwich, Washington, geocentric and heliocentric. Newcomb urges the use of a common system of constants and fundamental stars by astronomers of all nations. Newcomb is the author of over 350 scientific papers and a number of popular works on astronomy. (see for list of works.) Newcomb publishes a number of mathematical textbooks and several astronomical books for a popular audience, including Popular Astronomy (1878), The Stars (1901), Astronomy for Everybody (1902), and his autobiographical Reminiscences of an Astronomer (1903). He also wrote a novel, His Wisdom, the Defender (1900), and three books and a large number of articles on economics. | (Nautical Almanac Office) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3776) | (Perkin factory) Greenford Green, England (presumably) |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3894) | (Hopital de le Charite) Paris, France |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 3900) | |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 4545) | unknown |
140 YBN [1860 AD] | 4546) | unknown |
139 YBN [02/25/1861 AD] | 3089) Rubidium is a soft silvery-white metallic element of the alkali group that ignites spontaneously in air and reacts violently with water. Rubidium has atomic number 37; atomic weight 85.47; melting point 38.89°C; boiling point 688°C; specific gravity (solid) 1.532; valence 1, 2, 3, 4. Rubidium is used in photoelectric cells and as a "getter" in electron tubes to scavenge the traces of sealed-in gases. Natural rubidium makes up about 0.01 percent of Earth's crust; it exists as a mixture of two isotopes: rubidium-85 (72.15 percent) and the radioactive rubidium-87 (27.85 percent). A large number of radioactive isotopes have been artificially prepared, from rubidium-79 to rubidium-95. Rubidium is so reactive with oxygen that Rubidium will ignite spontaneously in pure oxygen. Rubidium, a metal, tarnishes very rapidly in air to form an oxide coating, and it may ignite. The oxides formed are a mixture of Rb2O, Rb2O2, and RbO2. Rubidium reacts with hydrogen to form a hydride which is one of the least stable of the alkali hydrides. Rubidium does not react with nitrogen. With bromine or chlorine, rubidium reacts vigorously with flame formation. Rubidium is extremely reactive and forms numerous compounds, e.g., halides, oxides, sulfates, and sulfides. Rubidium's salts color a flame red. Rubidium is not found uncombined in nature but occurs widely distributed in lepidolite (the major source), carnallite, pollucite, and some rare minerals, and with lithium in seawater, brines, and natural spring waters. Although rubidium is much more abundant in the earth's crust than chromium, copper, lithium, nickel, or zinc, and about twice as abundant in seawater as lithium, rubidium did not become available commercially until the early 1960s as a byproduct of the manufacture of lithium chemicals. The metal is obtained by electrolysis or chemical reduction of the fused chloride. | (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
139 YBN [03/??/1861 AD] | 3652) | (King's College) London, England |
139 YBN [04/26/1861 AD] | 3726) On his retirement Schiaparelli studied the astronomy of the ancient Hebrews and Babylonians and writes "L'astronomia nell'antico testamento" (1903; Astronomy in the Old Testament, 1905). From his observations of Mercury and Venus, Schiaparelli concludes that they rotate on their axes at the same rate as they rotate around the Sun, so one side always faces the Sun. This view is generally accepted until the late 1960s, when radar techniques and space probes give different values. (chronology and work title) | (Brera Observatory) Milan, Italy |
139 YBN [04/??/1861 AD] | 3653) | (King's College) London, England |
139 YBN [05/10/1861 AD] | 3490) | (St Bartholomew's hospital) London, England (presumably) |
139 YBN [06/??/1861 AD] | 3462) | (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
139 YBN [09/??/1861 AD] | 3568) | (Scientific Congress) Speyer, Germany |
139 YBN [10/26/1861 AD] | 3997) Microphone, speaker, and telephone. Sound converted to electricity and back to sound again. Sound can be sent farther as electric current in a wire than mechanically in air and travels silently. (Note that if remote neuron reading and writing is centuries old, then probably the telephone, microphone, speaker, recording and playing back of sound happened earlier but was kept secret from the public.) Johann Philipp Reis (CE 1834-1874) explains the first microphone, speaker and telephone publicly. These devices convert variations in sound (air pressure) into variations in electric current, which can be carried over long distances using metal wire, and then convert the electric current back into sound. The electromagnet made possible the sending of electric current over long distances. Before 1840, the attempts to transmit signals over large distances were not very successful. The first microphone, or device that transfers variations in sound to variations in electric current is demonstrated on October 26, 1861 by Philip Reiss of Friedrichsdorf, Germany, although it seems very likely that the microphone was invented earlier but like seeing eyes and thought-images kept secret from the public for a long time. Reis, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Friedrichsdorf, neat Frankfort, demonstrates his apparatus in a meeting room before members of the Physical Society. Reiss causing melodies to be sung in one part of his apparatus in the Civic Hospital, a building about 300 feet away with doors and windows closed, and the same sounds to be reproduced and heard in the meeting room through a second part of his apparatus. Reiss models his first telephone transmitter (microphone) after the human ear (see image). Silvanus Thompson describes Reiss' ear this way: "The end of the aperture a was closed by a thin membrane b, in imitation of the human tympanum. Against the centre of the tympanum rested the lower end of a little curved lever c d, of platinum wire, which represented the " hammer " bone of the human ear. This curved lever was attached to the membrane by a minute drop of sealing-wax, so that it followed every motion of the same. It was pivoted near its centre by being soldered to a short cross-wire which served as an axis; this axis passing on either side through a hole in a bent strip of tin-plate screwed to the back of the wooden ear. The upper end of the curved lever rested in loose contact against the upper end g of a vertical spring, about one inch long, also of tin-plate, bearing at its summit a slender and resilient strip of platinum foil. An adjusting-screw, h, served to regulate the degree of contact between the vertical spring and the curved lever. The conducting-wires by which the current of electricity entered and left the apparatus were connected to the screws by which the two strips of tin-plate were fixed to the ear. In order to make sure that the current from the upper support of tin should reach the curved lever, another strip of platinum foil was soldered on the side of the former, and rested lightly against the end of the wire-axis, as shown in magnified detail in Fig. 6. If now any words or sounds of any kind were uttered in front of the ear the membrane was thereby set into vibrations, as in the human ear. The little curved lever took up these motions precisely as the " hammer "-bone of the human ear does; and, like the " hammer "-bone, transferred them to that with which it was in contact. The result was that the contact of the upper end of the lever was caused to vary. With every rarefaction of the air the membrane moved forward and the upper end of the little lever moved backward and pressed more firmly than before against the spring, making better contact and allowing a stronger current to flow. At every condensation of the air the membrane moved backwards and the upper end of the lever moved forward so as to press less strongly than before against the spring, thereby making a less complete contact than before, and by thus partially interrupting the passage of the current, caused the current to flow less freely. The sound waves which entered the ear would in this fashion throw the electric current, which flowed through the point of variable contact, into undulations in strength. It will be seen that this principle of causing the voice to control the strength of the electric current by causing it to operate upon a loose or imperfect contact, runs throughout the whole of Reis's telephonic transmitters. In later times such pieces of mechanism for varying the strength of an electric current have been termed current-regulators or sometimes "tension regulators" {ULSF note: this kind of device is also called a "pressure regulator" and "pressure relay").". Reis goes on to develop and improve a variety of different models of telephone. Sylanus Thompson describes Reis' first receiver (or "speaker"): "The first form of apparatus used by Reis for receiving the currents from the transmitter, and for reproducing audibly that which had been spoken or sung, consisted of a steel knitting-needle, round which was wound a spiral coil of silk- covered copper-wire. This wire, as Reis explains in his lecture " On Telephony," was magnetised in varying degrees by the successive currents, and when thus rapidly magnetised and demagnetised, emitted tones depending upon the frequency, strength, etc., of the currents which flowed round it. It was soon found that the sounds it emitted required to be strengthened by the addition of a sounding-box, or resonant- case. This was in the first instance attained by placing the needle upon the sounding-board of a violin. At the first trial it was stuck loosely into one of the /-shaped holes of the violin (see Fig. 19) : subsequently the needle was fixed by its lower end to the bridge of the violin. These details were furnished by Herr Peter, of Friedrichsdorf, music-teacher in Garnier's Institute, to whom the violin belonged, and who gave Ileis, expressly for this purpose, a violin of less value than that used by himself in his profession. Reis, who was not himself a musician, and indeed had so little of a musical ear as haidly to know one piece of music from another, kept this violin for the purpose of a sounding-box. It has now passed into the possession of Garnier's Institute. It was in this form that the instrument was shown by Reis in October 1861 to the Physical Society of Frankfort.". Later a cigar box will substitute for the violin, and then an electro-magnet receiver. Reis writes " The apparatus named the 'Telephone,' constructed by me, affords the possibility of evoking sound- vibrations in every manner that may be desired. Electro-magnetism affords the possibility of calling into life at any given distance vibrations similar to the vibrations that have been produced, and in this way to give out again in one place the tones that have been produced in another place.". This electromagnet receiver or speaker is the basis of the telephones of the later receivers of Yates, Asa Gray, and Alexander Bell. Reis builds his telephone in a workshop behind his house in Friedrichsdorf and runs a wire to a cabinet in Garnier's Institute. Reis names the instrument "telephon". Reiss first publishes a description of his telephone delivered verbally on October 26 and in writing in December 1861, for the 1860-1861 Annual Report of the Physical Society of Frankfur-am-Main, in a paper entitled (translated to English from German) "On Telephony by the Galvanic Current". Reiss writes: "The surprising results in the domain of Telegraphy, have already suggested the question whether it may not also be possible to communicate the very tones of speech direct to a distance. Researches aiming in this direction have not, however, up to the present time, been able to show any tolerably satisfactory result, because the vibrations of the media through which sound is conducted, soon fall off so greatly in their intensity that they are no longer perceptible to our senses. A reproduction of tones at some distance by means of the galvanic current, has perhaps been contemplated; but at all events the practical solution of this problem has been most doubted by exactly the very persons who by their knowledge and resources should have been enabled to grasp the problem. To one who is only superficially acquanted with the doctrines of Physics, the problem, if indeed he becomes acquainted with it, appears to offer far fewer points of difficulty because he does not foresee most of them. Thus did I, some nine years ago (with a great penchant for what was new, but with only too imperfect knowledge in Physics), have the boldness to wish to solve the problem mentioned; but I was soon obliged to relinquish it, because the very first inquiry convinced me firmly of the impossibility of the solution. Later, after further studies and much experience, I perceived that my first investigation had been very crude and by no means conclusive: but I did not resume the question seriously then, because I did not feel myself sufficiently developed to overcome the obstacles of the path to be trodden. Youthful impressions are, however, strong and not easily effaced. i could not, in spite of every protest of my reason, banish from my thoughts that first inquiry and its occasion; and so it happened that, half without intending it, in many a leisure hour the youthful project was taken up again, the difficulties and the means of vanquishing them were weighed,- and yet not the first step towards an experiment taken. How could a single instrument reproduce, at once, the total actions of all the organs operated in human speech ? This was ever the cardinal question. At last I came by accident to put the question another way: How does our ear take cognizance of the total vibrations of all the simultaneously operant organs of speech? Or, to put it more generally: How do we perceive the vibrations of several bodies emitting sounds simultaneously? In order to answer this question, we will next see what must happen in order that we may perceive a single tone. Apart from our ear, every tone is nothing more than the condensation and rarefactino of a body repeated several times in a second (at least seven to eight times). If this occurs in the same medium (the air) as that with which we are surrounded, then the membrane of our ear will be compressed toward the drum-cavity by every condensation, so that in the succeeding rarefaction it moves back in the oposite direction. These vibrations occasion a lifting-up and falling-down of the "hammer" (malleus bone) upon the "anvil" (incus bone) with the same velocity, or, according to others, occasion an approach and a recession of the atoms of the auditory ossicles, and give rise, therefore, to exactly the same number of concussions in the fluid of the cochlaea, in which the auditory nerve and its terminals are spread out. The greater the condensation of the sound-conducting medium at any given moment, the greater will be the amplitude of vibration of the membrane and of the "hammer," and the more powerful, therefore, the blow on the "anvil" and the concussion of the nerves through the intermediary action of the fluid. The function of the organs of hearing, therefore, is to impart faithfully to the auditory nerve, every condensation and rarefaction occuring in the surrounding medium.The function of the auditory nerve is to bring to our consciousness the vibrations of matter resulting at the given time, both according to their number and their magnitude. Here, first certain combinations acquire a distinct name: here, first the vibrations become musical tones or discords. ...". Reiss goes on to write: "As soon, therefore, as it shall be possible at any place and in any prescribed manner, to set up vibrations whose curves are like those of any given tone or combination of tones, we shall receive the same impression as that tone or combination of tones would have produced upon us. {Silvanus Thompson comments: This is the fundamental principle, not only of the telephone, but of the phonograph ; and it is wonderful with what clearness Reis had grasped his principle in 1861.} Taking my stand on the preceding principles, I have succeeded in constructing an apparatus by means of which I am in a position to reproduce the tones of divers instruments, yes, and even to a certain degree the human voice. It is very simple, and can be clearly explained in the sequel, by aid of the figure: {ULSF: see image, figure 25} In a cube of wood, r s t u v w x, there is a conical hole, a, closed at one side by the membrane b (made of the lesser intestine of the pig), upon the middle of which a little strip of platinum is cemented as a conductor of the current {or electrode}. This is united with the binding-screw, p. From the binding-screw n there passes likewise a thin strip of metal over the middle of the membrane, and terminates here in a little platinum wire which stands at right angles to the length and breadth of the strip. From the binding-screw, p, a conducting-wire leads through the battery to a distant station, ends there in a spiral of copper-wire, overspun with silk, which in turn passes into a return-wire that leads to the binding-screw, n. The spiral at the distant station is about six inches long, consists of six layers of thin wire, and receives into its middle as a core a knitting-needle, which projects about two inches at each side. By the projecting ends of the wire the spiral rests upon two bridges of a sounding-box. (This whole piece may naturally be replaced by any apparatus by means of which one produces the well-known "galvanic tones.") If now tones, or combinations of tones, are produced in the neighbourhood of the cube, so that waves of sufficient strength enter the opening a, they will set the membrane b in vibration. At the first condensation the hammer-shaped little wire d will be pushed back. At the succeeding rarefaction it cannot follow the return-vibration of the membrane, and the current going through the little strip {of platinum} remains interrupted so long as until the membrane, driven by a new condensation, presses the little strip (coming from p) against d once more. In this way each sound-wave effects an opening and a closing of the current. But at every closing of the circuit the atoms of the iron needle lying in the distant spiral are pushed asunder from one another. (Muller-Pouillet, ' Lehrbuch der Physik,' see p. 304 of vol. ii. 5th ed.). At the interruption of the current the atoms again attempt to regain their position of equilibrium. If this happens then in consequence of the action and reaction of elasticity and traction, they make a certain number of vibrations, and yield the longitudinal tone of the needle. {Silvanus Thompson comments that at any single demagnetisation of the needle, it vibrates and emits the same tone as if it had been struck or mechanically caused to vibrate longitudinally} It happens thus when the interruptions and restorations of the current are effected relatively slowly. But if these actions follow one another more rapidly than the oscillations due to the elasticity of the iron core, then the atoms cannot travel their entire paths. The paths travelled over become shorter the more rapidly the interruptions occur, and in proportion to their frequency. The iron needle emits no longer its longitudinal tone, but a tone whose pitch corresponds to the number of interruptions (in a given time). But this is saying nothing less than that the needle reproduces the tone which was imparted to the interrupting apparatus. Moreover, the strength of this tone is proportional to the original tone, for the stronger this is, the greater will be the movement of the drum-skin, the greater therefore the movement of the little hammer, the greater finally the length of time during which the circuit remains open, and consequently the greater, up to a certain limit, the movement of the atoms in the reproducing wire {the knitting needle}, which we perceive as a stronger vibration, just as we should have perceived the original wave. Since the length of the conducting wire may be extended for this purpose, just as far as in direct telegraphy, I give to my instrument the name "Telephon." As to the performance attained by the Telephone, let it be remarked, that, with its aid, I was in a position to make audible to the members of a numerous assembly (the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-the-Main) melodies which were sung (not very loudly) into the apparatus in another house (about three hundred feet distant) with closed doors. Other researches show that the sounding-rod {i.e. the knitting needle} is able to reproduce complete triad chords (" Dreiklange ") of a piano on which the telephone {i.e. the transmitter} stands; and that, finally, it reproduces equally well the tones of other instruments—harmonica, clarionet, horn, organ-pipes, &c., always provided that the tones belong to a certain range between F and f. {Silvanus Thompson comments that this range is simply due to the degree of tension of the tympanum ; another tympanum differently stretched, or of different proportions, would have a different range according to circumstances} It is, of course, understood that in all researches it was sufficiently ascertained that the direct conduction of the sound did not come into play. This point may be controlled very simply by arranging at times a good shunt-circuit directly across the spiral {i.e. to cut the receiving instrument out of circuit by providing another path for the currents of electricity}, whereby naturally the operation of the latter momentarily ceases. Until now it has not been possible to reproduce the tones of human speech with a distinctness to satisfy everybody. The consonants are for the most part tolerably distinctly reproduced, but the vowels not yet in an equal degree. Why this is so I will endeavour to explain. ..." Reiss then concludes: "... Whether my views with respect to the curves representing combinations of tones are correct, may perhaps be determined by aid of the new phonautograph described by Duhamel. (See Vierordt's ' Physiology,' p. 254.) There may probably remain much more yet to be done for the utilisation of the telephone in practice (zur praktischen Verwerthung des Telephons). For physics, however, it has already sufficient interest in that it has opened out a new field of labour." Note that there is some confusion about whether Leon Scott was the first to record to a cylinder, or Duhamel' with the "Vibrograph". Wilhelm Weber recorded the sound vibrations of a tuning fork onto a sooted glass plate in 1830. There is a claim that Duhamel was the first to record sound to a sooted glass cylinder in 1840. It seems clear that Reiss may be referring to Duhamel to take pressure off of himself for talking about what might be technology classified as secret by the government military by referring to Duhamel - it seems clear from the words of Silvanus Thompson that Reiss was murdered by galvanization at the age of 40. Perhaps Reiss is hinting about the possibility of recording the sounds for permenant storage. (see for full translation in English) (The use of "suggested" in the first sentence and "opened out" in the last sentence indicate that Reiss clearly understood in 1860 about the secret of remote muscle movement suggested images and sounds and the massive aparteid of insiders and outsiders, or included and excluded. Was Reiss an insider or outsider? Most insiders are not complete insiders, and certainly must be excluded from seeing many important recordings.) In 1862, Reis sends Professor Poggendorff a paper on the telephone for the Annalen Der Physiks and Poggendorff rejects the paper. before this in 1859, Reis sent a paper to Poggendorff entitled "On the Radiation of Electricity" which is now lost. Edison admits in court that he started his investigation into the carbon telephone by having a translation of Legat's report on Reis' telephone. Alexander Graham Bell also refers to Reis in his "Researches in Electric Telephony" read before the American Academy of Sciences and Arts in May 1876, and the Society of Telegraph Engineers in November 1877, refering to the original paper in Dingler's 'Polytechnic Journal', and to Kuhn's volume in Karsten's 'Encyclopaedia' in which diagrams and descriptions of two forms of Reis's telephone are given. In addition, in his British patent, Bell only claims "improvements in electric telephony (transmitting or causing sounds for Telegraphing Messages) and Telephonic Apparatus.". Reis only lives to 40 years which is a very short life, Silvanus Thompson writes that a portrait of Reis is "...modelled by the sculptor, A. C. Rumpf, and "executed galvanoplastically" by G. v. Kress." which implies that Reis was executed by galvanization. Possibly Reis was an excluded or outsider who duplicated technology already discovered by insiders, and rather than include or negotiate with Reis insiders just murdered Reis by galvanization which stopped Reis' possible capitalization on the telephone, microphone, and/or speaker. In this way, the insiders already in control of the distribution and sales of microphones, and speakers could maintain their monopoly or oligopoly which still exists to this day with the seeing of eyes and hearing of thoughts. Some people credit Antonio Meucci, in New York City in 1854. It seems unusual that Reiss did not also report on the idea of adding a feature to record sound using the telautograph, and then simply play back recorded sounds out loud with his receiver/speaker. Still at the time there is no known method of storing electric current for a duration of time in wire, and the first permanent storage of electrical information does not occur at least until Edison's tin foil phonograph. The recording of the strength of an electronic current will be recorded on to plastic tape by recording the varying intensity of light in 1923 by Lee De Forest, and then magnetic tape and disk, and burned by laser into compact disks and DVDs. | (built in workshop behind Reis's house and cabinet in Garnier's Institute, Friedrichsdorf, demonstrated before Physical Society) Frankfort, Germany |
139 YBN [11/07/1861 AD] | 3493) | (St. Bartholomew's Hospital) London, England |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 2651) After the Union Pacific Railroad is finished in 1869, much of the line is relocated to run along the railroad right-of-way (the land occupied by a railroad especially for its main line) to facilitate maintenance. | USA |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 2927) John Ericsson (CE 1803-1889), Swedish-American inventor, builds the "Monitor", an iron ship. Ericsson's ironclad Monitor, with the first revolving iron turret on a naval ship. It fought the CSS Virginia (the former USS Merrimack) to a draw on March 9, 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads. The Monitor is launched on January 30, 1862. Napoleon III had rejected Ericsson's model ironclad warship in 1854. | New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3015) | (Mint) London, England |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3193) | (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3214) | (University of Pest) Pest, (Hungary since 1873 is:)Budapest |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3320) Loschmidt is the son of peasants, but the village priest recognizes Loschmidt's talent and pays for his education. | (Vienna RealSchul) Vienna, (now:) Germany |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3324) | (Vienna RealSchul) Vienna, (now:) Germany |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3417) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3486) Broca founds the anthropology laboratory at the École des Hautes Études, Paris (1858), and the Société d’Anthropologie de Paris (1859), and then later in life the Revue d’anthropologie (1872), and establishes the École d’Anthropologie, Paris (1876), becomes its director. Broca is the first to trepan to treat an abscess (is?) on the brain. Trepanation is drilling a hole in the skull and is the oldest surgical procedure known to humans; skulls of Cro-Magnon people estimated to be 40,000 years old have been discovered with circular holes as large as 2 inches in diameter. In 1856 when an old skull is unearthed in Neanderthal (a valley near Düsseldorf in the Rhineland), Huxley and Broca support the theory that the skull of a primitive human while Virchow thinks it is a congenital skull malformation. Broca writes "Mémoires d’anthropologie", 5 vol. (1871–78; "Memoirs of Anthropology"), among other works. Much of anthropology at this time involves skull measurements, following Retzius' distinction among races on the basis of such measurements. Broca considers the major human racial groups as separate species. Broca is appointed a member of the French senate. | (University of Paris) Paris, France (presumably) |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3498) | London, England (presumably) |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3499) In 1865 Schultze founds the journal "Archiv für mikroskopische Anatomie" and serves as its editor until his death. | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3505) Thomas Henry Huxley (CE 1825-1895), English biologist, denies that human and ape brains differ significantly, sparking a raging dispute with Richard Owen that brings human evolution to public attention. | (Royal School of Mines) London, England |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3511) | Heidelberg, Germany (presumably) |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3541) | (U of Jena) Jena, Germany |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3582) | (University of Ghent) Ghent, Belgium |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3636) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3645) | (King's College, exhibit at the Royal Institution) London, England |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3672) Former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with thallium in London. Thallium is frequently referred to as the poison of choice: Only a gram of the colorless, odorless, water-soluble heavy metal can kill. It is as toxic as arsenic, and even more so than lead. | (private lab) London, England (presumably) |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 3779) Solvay invents a system of economy that replaces money with a complex credit system, which gains the name "technocracy". | (Solvay factory) Charleroi, Belgium |
139 YBN [1861 AD] | 4547) | unknown |
138 YBN [01/27/1862 AD] | 3369) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius (KLoUZEUS) (CE 1822-1888), German physicist, publishes his "sixth memoir" on the mechanical theory of heat, (translated from German) "On the Application of the Theorem of the Equivalence of Transformations to Interior Work" (1862), in which Clausius concludes that it is "impossible practically to arrive at the absolute zero of temperature by any alteration of the condition of a body.". (This is somewhat abstract. In addition, volume plays an important role in temperature and/or motion measurement. Absolute zero could be any space free of photons, for example. It may be possible that theoretically photons packed together in a way unable to move, in some dense object might be the equivalent of absolute zero over some volume of space, however, this {no space for photons to move, even in the densest star or galaxy} is an unlikely phenomenon.) | (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
138 YBN [01/31/1862 AD] | 3685) Among lenses made under Clark's direction are the 26-in. lens at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.; the 36-in. lens at Lick Observatory, California; and the 40-in. lens at Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin, which is the largest refracting telescope in the world. (still true?) Over the course of his life Clark will discover 16 double stars. Clark's father is a lens grinder who owns an optical shop and Clark also follows in this profession making telescopes recognized around the planet. The Clarks make some of the best telescopes of the late 1800s. | Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, USA |
138 YBN [01/??/1862 AD] | 3654) | (King's College) London, England |
138 YBN [02/??/1862 AD] | 3655) | (King's College) London, England |
138 YBN [02/??/1862 AD] | 3743) | (University of Berlin?) Berlin, Germany |
138 YBN [07/19/1862 AD] | 3242) I think this debate about the nature of temperature is interesting. Is temperature only a measure of mass density per unit space? or is it only velocity of mass per unit space with no regard to mass quantity? Or is temperature dependent on both quantity of mass and velocity of mass? It would seem if higher density = higher temperature, a solid would have a higher temperature than a liquid or gas, but perhaps the measuring device does not intercept the moving particles in a solid. In the center of a dense object like the Sun, perhaps the particles move less or not at all, so is the temperature colder? Heat depends to some extent on photons absorbed by atoms, so does temperature relate to velocity of photons absorbed or quantity of photons absorbed or both or neither? Is a volume of space with no matter required for a temperature of absolute 0 over that volume or can photons or other matter be present? (I think that the lowering of temperature may be from the simple fact that the molecules are farther apart, and therefore colliding less...perhaps even distance between molecules/atoms is temperature, I doubt that because then dense solids would be hotter, etc. It's less average velocity according to Maxwell. Could be quantity of collisions, but that is doubtful. But clearly heating water for example, involves more movement/collisions of the molecules. I think the losing energy because of overcoming a gravitational? or some other attraction theory is abstract, and needs to be explained in terms of electron orbits being closer, etc. ) (the more photons per volume the higher the temperature I think, although it all depends on the detection thermometer location – how many photons are absorbed by the mercury atoms. In addition temperature is difficult to measure, and is measured only in the space of the mercury. How measured? If photons are in a frequency reflected or not absorbed by the mercury, they are not included in measurement of temperature – if all were absorbed, temperature would be the equivalent measure of number of absorbed photons-if all have same velocity, and a measure of average velocity of absorbed photons-if different velocities) I think the key to temperature (and heat) is how temperature is measured. For example, if measured by the size of the volume occupied by mercury or some other liquid, the mercury absorbing free photons increases the temperature. if measured by heat detectors in skin, again the principle of how many free photons are absorbed by molecules in the detector are how heat is measured. How are very low temperatures measured? | Salford, England (presumably- verify) |
138 YBN [09/22/1862 AD] | 3287) | Paris, France (presumably) |
138 YBN [11/04/1862 AD] | 3219) Philip Van Doren Stern writes that "the definitive work on the subject is 'The Machine Gun', a four-volume work prepared for the (US) Navy Bureau of Ordnance by Lieutenant Colonel George M. Chinn, lately of the Marine Corps. (Volumes two and three of this work are classified and not available to the public)." A breech-loading weapon is a firearm (a rifle, a gun etc.) in which the bullet or shell is inserted or loaded at the rear of the barrel, or breech; the opposite of muzzle-loading. Modern mass produced firearms are breech-loading (though mortars are generally all muzzle-loaded). Early firearms were almost entirely muzzle-loading. The principle of a rapid fire gun is simple, since the powder is in the bullet casing, all that needs to be automated is loading, igniting (hammering) the powder, and unloading the empty casing. It would seem faster and less work to rotate the loading and igniting unit instead of the barrels. Parallellisation (of gun barrels) speeds the firing process. Perhaps multiple barrels could be loaded, fired and cleared at the same time increasing the quantity of projectiles. All moving parts can be made automated electronically. For example electric motors now turn the barrels of modern Gatling-style machine guns on airplanes. In my opinion, some weapons such as explosives and rapid fire guns need to be carefully monitored and kept from violent people. In particular those in the United States who planned and carried out 9/11, that did 7/7 in England, the murderers of John and Robert Kennedy, and any people involved with the murder or assault of nonviolent people should be not allowed to use guns. Obviously, first those people, the thousands involved in 9/11, 7/7, the Kennedy murders, Chandra Levy, James Jay, Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, Bonnie Bakley, JonBenet Ramsey...all the laser murderers...etc...the list is in the thousands, who have not been punished for their murders of nonviolent people, need to have their crimes shown to the public, and voted into prison first. | Indianapolis, Indiana (presumably) |
138 YBN [12/04/1862 AD] | 3175) | New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 2861) Pure acetylene is a colorless gas with a pleasant odour; as prepared from calcium carbide it usually contains traces of phosphine that cause an unpleasant garliclike odor. Pure acetylene under pressure in excess of about 15 pounds per square inch or in liquid or solid form explodes with extreme violence. Edmund Davy (cousin and lab assistant of Humprey Davy) first made acetylene in 1836 from a compound produced during the manufacture of potassium from potassium tartrate and charcoal, which under certain conditions yielded a black compound decomposed by water with considerable violence and the evolution of acetylene. This compound was afterwards fully investigated by J. J. Berzelius, who showed it to be potassium carbide. He also made the corresponding sodium compound and showed that it evolved the same gas, whilst in 1862 F. Wohler first made calcium carbide, and found that water decomposed it into lime and acetylene. It was not, however, until 1892 that the almost simultaneous discovery was made by T. L. Wilson in America and H. Moissan in France that if lime and carbon be fused together at the temperature of the electric furnace, the lime is reduced to calcium, which unites with the excess of carbon present to form calcium carbide. The cheap production of this material and the easy liberation by its aid of acetylene at once gave the gas a position of commercial importance. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 2884) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3037) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, publishes "The Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects" (1862) in which Darwin shows that orchid's are not "designed" by God but honed by selection to attract insect cross-pollinators; the petals guided the bees to the nectaries, and pollen sacs are deposited exactly where the pollen can be removed by a stigma of another flower. | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3146) | (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3165) Duchenne writes (translated from French) "Frontispiece A to this text volume illustrates the method of electrization that I have used to obtain an isolated contraction of the facial muscles. The electrodes, held in my right hand, communicate with my inductior apparatus (this precise apparatus, which I preferred for these experiments, is better represented in Plate 2b.) via some conducting wires and are positioned to stimulate the muscles of joy, (I, Plate 1 - muscles on face). The expressive lines of joy would have appeared on the face of the subject if I had sent current through my apparatus. But I must say that in this case the laughter is natural! I merely wanted to show a simulation of one of my electrophysiological experiments in this figure. These experiments were not as easy as one might suppose from just looking at this plate. They required a perfect knowledge of the method, which I invented, for limiting the electrical excitation to each individual organ. We should recall the principles required to perform electrization of the muscles of the face to understand better the electrophysiological photographs that make up this Album: (Electricity produced by an induction apparatus is the only type applicable to this kind of experiment; I have called it faradism, and its use faradization.) 1. The induction apparatus must be adapted to these types of experiments. The oscillations of its current must be rapid and regular enough to avoid the muscle trembling during contraction; gradation of the current must be very precise and adjusted to suit the differing excitability of each of the facial muscles. 2. The electrodes should be as small as possible, so as not to obscure the facial features. They are covered with a damp material and placed on the motor points. In the face, these motor points are simplistically the points under which the motor nerves enter the facial muscles. We see them in Plate 2a, where the motor nerve fibers of the facial muscles have been dissected with the greatest care, and in which the sensory nerves (from the Vth Nerve) have been cut away.". Duchenne spends most of the book trying to equate face muscle contractions with emotions, however, I think the real value of this work is in displaying photographically the effects of electricity on contracting muscles on a human body. This work is so closely related to the science of making muscles move remotely, which has developed into a massive secret industry, the vast majority of research being done secretly and still kept secret to this very day. It is possible that facial expressions were sexually selected or perhaps increased the ability to survive. | Paris, France |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3187) | (University of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3206) | (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3306) | (École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris) Paris, France |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3310) Herbert Spencer (CE 1820-1903), English sociologist, is an early advocate of the theory of evolution, and popularizes the word "evolution" and the phrase "survival of the fittest". Thomas Malthus (CE 1766-1834) was the first to put forward the view, in an anonymous pamphlet in 1798, that population is limited by food supply and the theory that feeding poor people only increases their suffering. In 1851 Spencer published "Social Statics" (reissued in 1955), which contains in embryo most of his later views, including his argument in favor of an extreme form of economic and social laissez-faire (an economic doctrine that opposes governmental regulation of or interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws.). In this year Spencer starts publishing "Synthetic Philosophy", a ten volume work spread over many years, in which all phenomena are to be interpreted according to the principle of evolutionary progress. Spencer enthusiastically elaborates on Darwin's process of natural selection, applying it to human society. Spencer states "If they are sufficiently complete to live, they do live, and it is well they should live. If they are not sufficiently complete to live, they die, and it is best they should die.". Social Darwinism, or Spencerism, is a view of life which justifies opposition to social reform on the basis that reform interfered with the operation of the natural law of survival of the fittest. In 1884 Spencer argues that people who are unemployable or burdens to society should be allowed to die rather than be made objects of help and charity. This leads to a brutal form of might-makes-right philosophy, where the winner claims to be the fittest. (Asimov says that this philosophy is used in international relations and as a glorification of war as a means of weeding out the "unfit"). This view justifies racist views where other races or nations can be judged as "unfit" (and dispensed with). Spencer throws a false claim of science over brutal practices, and this tends to discredit Darwinism among people who feel kindness, pity and mercy to be important values. Darwin has nothing to do with the views of Spencer. (Asimov states that evolution works over millenia, where social evolution happens over centuries.) (I think this idea of insensitivity to poor people suffering appeals generally to wealthy people. Clearly evolution, natural selection is happening to humans, although perhaps people would say that it is an unnatural selection happening as the result of who has more money, property, etc. The key idea is that we should end involuntary suffering, starvation, pain, etc for all living objects as best as possible. I think ultimately smart humans will create a live that maximizes intellectual and physical pleasure and minimizes pain for the most if not all species of Earth.) | Brighton?, England |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3375) | Paris, France (presumably) |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3517) In 1877, Hoppe-Seyler founds and edits the first journal dedicated to biochemistry, "Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie". Hoppe-Seyler's student Miescher identifies the nucleic acids. | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3521) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3556) | (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3559) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, with Péan de Saint Gilles, Berthellot produces an equation for the reaction velocity (1862). This is incorrect but inspires Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage to enunciate the law of mass action (1864). | (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3574) | Newcastle, England (presumably) |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3664) | Ecole des Mines, Paris, France (presumably) |
138 YBN [1862 AD] | 3686) In 1858, Wundt becomes an assistant to the physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz. This new course comes following the publication of his "Contributions to the Theory of Sense Perception (1858 – 62)". | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
137 YBN [02/07/1863 AD] | 3760) In 1860, Newlands joins Garibaldi's small army which invades the Kingdom of Naples and joins it to the Kingdom of Italy. Newlands collected his various papers in On the Discovery of the Periodic Law (1884). In 1887 Newlands is awarded the Davy medal for the paper that 25 years before he could not get published. | (Royal Agricultural Society) London, England |
137 YBN [02/18/1863 AD] | 3427) Huggins spends some time making maps of the terrestrial elements before moving to the stars, collaborating with William Miller, professor of chemistry at King's College, London. In 1856, Huggins builds a private observatory at Tulse Hill, London. After 1875 Huggins worked mainly in collaboration with his wife, Margaret Lindsay Huggins (CE 1848-1915). Huggins is president of the Royal Society from 1900 to 1905. | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
137 YBN [05/22/1863 AD] | 3731) Wislicenus' father, a Lutheran pastor, is ordered arrested in 1853 for unorthodox Bible studies, and the family fleas to the USA. The old and conservative Kolbe scorns Wislicenus' support for Van't Hoff's 3D method. | (Zurich University) Zurich, Switzerland |
137 YBN [11/05/1863 AD] | 3443) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 2804) In 1865, after a major revision of "the Principles of Geology" Lyell fully adopts Darwin's conclusions and adds powerful arguments of his own that win new supporters to Darwin's theory. Darwin explains Lyell's hesitation in accepting (the theory of natural selection) stating: "Considering his age, his former views, and position in society, I think his action has been heroic.". | London, England (presumably) |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 2869) | (In a cave ) La Madelaine, Perigord, France |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3016) | (Mint) London, England |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3212) | (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3314) John Tyndall (CE 1820-1893), Irish physicist publishes "Heat as a Mode of Motion" which explains the theory of heat as molecular vibration according to the new development of Maxwell. This book goes through many editions. | (Royal Institution) London, England |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3351) Alexander Ellis translates this book into English. | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3396) Galton is a child prodigy. Galton is first cousin to Darwin. The death of Galton's father in 1844 leaves Galton with a wealthy independence, and he abandons his studying to be a physician, to travel in Syria, Egypt, and South-West Africa. Galton tests the efficacy of prayer by statistical methods. (This would be interesting if Galton finds that it makes no difference, which is what I would expect, although with the thought-cam net, many humans try to make prayers they hear in thought come (or cam) true.) (chronology) Galton wrote 9 books and some 200 papers on a wide variety of topics. Under the terms of Galton's will, a eugenics chair is established at the University of London. | London, England (presumably) |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3406) | (University of Giesen) Giesen, Germany (presumably) |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3414) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3487) | (Freiberg University) Freiberg, Saxony, Germany |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3537) | (Redhill Observatory) Surrey, England |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3563) | (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3587) Marey writes more than 300 articles and seven books. | Paris, France (presumably) |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3665) | Ecole des Mines, Paris, France (presumably) |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3693) The father of Alfred, Immanuel Nobel had failed at various business ventures until moving to St. Petersburg in 1837, where he succeeds as a manufacturer of explosive mines and machine tools. Alfred's newly prosperous parents send him to private tutors and Alfred is a competent chemist by age 16 and fluent in English, French, German, and Russian, in addition to Swedish. Nobel's father invents a submarine mine, which the Russian government buys in 1842. While visiting the USA, Nobel sees the value of explosives in developing the undeveloped USA. In 1862, Alfred Nobel builds a small factory to manufacture nitroglycerin, and at the same time begins research in the hope of finding a safe way to control nitroglycerin's detonation. In 1864 Nobel's nitroglycerine producing factory blows up in killing his brother. The Swedish government refuses to let Nobel rebuild his factory. Nobel is undaunted and goes on to build several factories to manufacture nitroglycerin for use with his blasting caps. Nobel hires a barge anchored in the middle of Lake Mälaren to continue Nobel will obtained a total of 355 patents. | Paris, France (guess) |
137 YBN [1863 AD] | 3734) Baeyer proposed a "strain" (Spannung) theory that helped explain why carbon rings of five or six atoms are so much more common than carbon rings with other numbers of atoms. (chronology) In 1875, Baeyer succeeds Justus von Liebig as chemistry professor at the University of Munich, where he sets up an important chemical laboratory in which many young chemists of future prominence are trained. In 1881 the Royal Society of London awards Baeyer the Davy Medal for his work with indigo. In 1905 Baeyer wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work in synthetic carbon-based chemistry, and for his synthesis of indigo. To celebrate his seventieth birthday Baeyer's scientific papers are collected and published in two volumes (Gesammelte Werke, Brunswick, 1905). | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
136 YBN [02/23/1864 AD] | 3466) It is interesting that the spectra reflected off atoms and molecules is also characteristic of them, for example the color in the visible spectrum is different and unique for many objects. In addition, is there spectra for electron and positron collisions? for proton and antiproton collisions? What do those spectra look like? | (University of Bonn) Bonn (and Münster), Germany |
136 YBN [02/??/1864 AD] | 3742) | (University of Berlin?) Berlin, Germany |
136 YBN [03/11/1864 AD] | 3691) Guldberg and his brother-in-law Waage, publish these theories in a pamphlet on this day, 03/11/1864. Waage is deeply involved in the temperance (prohibition of alcohol) movement. Guldberg is the brother-in-law of Waage. | (Academy of Sciences) Cristiania (now Oslo), Norway |
136 YBN [08/05/1864 AD] | 3178) | Florence, Italy |
136 YBN [09/08/1864 AD] | 3428) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
136 YBN [10/27/1864 AD] | 3657) | (King's College) London, England |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 2752) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, publishes an autobiography "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher" (1864,London: Longman). | Cambridge, England (presumably) |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 2994) | (Polytechnic Institute of Riga) Riga, Latvia (presumably) |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 3207) | (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 3277) (Sir) George Gabriel Stokes (CE 1819-1903), British mathematician and physicist, publishes a paper on the absorption spectrum of blood. | Cambridge, England |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 3410) | (Collège de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 3445) Pierre Jules César Janssen (joNSeN) (CE 1824-1907), French astronomer, establishes that certain dark bands in the solar spectrum are of terrestrial origin and determines that the intensity of these bands is lessened at high elevations where the atmosphere is less dense and increased by high humidity. (verify high humidity chronology) In 1870, when Paris is besieged during the Franco-German War, Janssen fleas the surrounded city in a balloon so that he can reach the path of totality of a solar eclipse in Africa. (His effort is for nothing, since the eclipse is obscured by clouds.) | (observed in Italy and Switzerland, probably compiled at:) Paris, France (presumably) |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 3492) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 3502) | London, England |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 3569) | (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
136 YBN [1864 AD] | 3757) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
135 YBN [01/11/1865 AD] | 3429) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
135 YBN [02/??/1865 AD] | 3465) | (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
135 YBN [04/24/1865 AD] | 3370) | (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
135 YBN [08/12/1865 AD] | 3548) Lister is the son of Joseph Jackson Lister (CE 1786-1869) who had invented an achromatic microscope. Lister receives his formal schooling in two Quaker institutions, which lay far more emphasis on natural history and science than do other schools. In 1885 Lister succeeds Kelvin as president of the Royal Society. | (University of Glasgow) Glagow, Scotland |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 2633) August Ferdinand Möbius (mOEBEUS) (CE 1790-1868), German mathematician, discusses the properties of one-sided surfaces in a memoir, which includes the "Möbius strip", a one-sided and one-edge surface created by joining the ends of a strip of paper after giving the strip half a twist. This is the beginning of topology, the branch of mathematics that deals with those properties of figures that are not altered by deformations without tearing. Möbius discovered this surface in 1858. The German mathematician Johann Benedict Listing had discovered it a few months earlier, but Listing did not publish his discovery until 1861. Möbius is a descendant of Martin Luther through his mother. From 1813 to 1814 Möbius studies theoretical astronomy under Carl Friedrich Gauss at the University of Göttingen. Möbius then studies mathematics at the University of Halle. In 1816 Möbius obtains a position as a professor of astronomy at Leipzig. From 1818 to 1821 Möbius supervises the construction of the university's observatory, and in 1848 is appointed its director. Möbius publishes "De Computandis Occultationibus Fixarum per Planetas" (1815; "Concerning the Calculation of the Occultations of the Planets"), "Die Hauptsätze der Astronomie" (1836; "The Principles of Astronomy") and "Die Elemente der Mechanik des Himmels" (1843; "The Elements of Celestial Mechanics"). In mathematics, Möbius publishes "Der barycentrische Calkul" (1827; "The Calculus of Centres of Gravity"), in which Möbius introduces homogeneous coordinates (the extension of coordinates to include a "point at infinity") into analytic geometry and also deals with geometric transformations, in particular projective transformations. In the "Lehrbuch der Statik" (1837; "Textbook on Statics") Möbius gives a geometric treatment of statics, a branch of mechanics concerned with the forces acting on static bodies such as buildings, bridges, and dams. | George Peacock PEKoK
English mathematician
1791-1858
(he with Babbage, and John Herschel use the nomenclature of Leibniz, which is better than that of Newton (for calculus)). (A states that English math had suffered because of the popularity of Newton). Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 2991) | Berlin, Germany (possibly) |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 2993) Toepler's influence machine consists of two disks fixed on the same shaft and rotating in the same direction. Each disk carries two strips of tin-foil extending nearly over a semi-circle, and there are two field plates, one behind each disk; one of the plates is positively and the other negatively electrified. The carriers which are touched under the influence of the positive field plate pass on and give up a portion of their negative charge to increase that of the negative field plate; in the same way the carriers which are touched under the influence of the negative field plate send a part of their charge to augment that of the positive field plate. In this apparatus one of the charging rods communicates with one of the field plates, but the other with the neutralizing brush opposite to the other field plate. So one of the field plates would always remain charged when a spark is taken at the transmitting terminals. | (Polytechnic Institute of Riga) Riga, Latvia |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3122) (My own opinion on vivisection is generally on the side of the rights of those species with nervous systems to feel no pain, and to live. Currently, I vote against jailing, fining or physically stopping those who perform useful experiments on lower order species, however, my own opinion is against such experiments. I think the popular opinion must create the official laws that determine what is and what is not punished. I feel most strongly opposed to cutting into, drugging, and/or restraining of humans, and I extend this to primates, although I support consensual experimenting. My feelings are not absolute, and I think I am interesting in seeing what is happening. I think there are possibilities of my vote in favor of not punishing those who perform experiments where there is no pain, damage, or death to any mammals other than primates. It seems very likely that monkeys, mice, rabbits and other mammals are currently being injected with deadly viruses, bacteria and protists, having nerves and muscles severed, and being operated on while still alive. Some of this experimenting results in scientific gains, and some is not worth the price of violating the rights of a mammal, amphibian, or fish. I think the public needs to examine their opinions and the rights of other living objects. The extremes are, on one side, cutting into, poisoning, etc humans while still alive for scientific gain, which I think the majority oppose and are willing to lose any science that might be gained in the interest of human rights, on the other extreme are those who reject any experimentation on living objects at all, even including viruses, bacteria, protists and plants. So clearly, we as individuals should determine where exactly our views are on this issue of experimenting on living objects.) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3126) (My own opinion on vivisection is generally on the side of the rights of those species with nervous systems to feel no pain, and to live. Currently, I vote against jailing, fining or physically stoping those who perform useful experiments on lower order species, however, my own opinion is against such experiments. I think the popular opinion must create the official laws that determine what is and what is not punished. I feel most strongly opposed to cutting into, drugging, and/or restraining of humans, and I extend this to primates, although I support consensual experimenting. My feelings are not absolute, and I think I am interesting in seeing what is happening. I think there are possibilities of my vote in favor of not punishing those who perform experiments where there is no pain, damage, or death to any mammals other than primates. It seems very likely that monkeys, mice, rabbits and other mammals are currently being injected with deadly viruses, bacteria and protists, having nerves and muscles severed, and being operated on while still alive. Some of this experimenting results in scientific gains, and some is not worth the price of violating the rights of a mammal, amphibian, or fish. I think the public needs to examine their opinions and the rights of other living objects. The extremes are, on one side, cutting into, poisoning, etc humans while still alive for scientific gain, which I think the majority oppose and are willing to lose any science that might be gained in the interest of human rights, on the other extreme are those who reject any experimentation on living objects at all, even including viruses, bacteria, protists and plants. So clearly, we as individuals should determine where exactly our views are on this issue of experimenting on living objects.) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3141) | London, England |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3403) Mendel is raised in a rural setting, having a childhood of poverty. As the son of a peasant, Mendel tends fruit trees for the lord of a manor. Mendel's academic abilities are recognized by the local priest, who persuades Mendel's parents to send him away to school at the age of 11. Mendel takes the name "Gregor" upon becoming a monk. In 1850, Mendel fails an exam—introduced through new legislation for teacher certification—and is sent to the University of Vienna for two years. Mendel learns physics and mathematics, working under Austrian physicist Christian Doppler and mathematical physicist Andreas von Ettinghausen. In 1854 mendel is employed as a teacher at the Realschule (secondary school) in Brünn. Mendel fails an examination 3 times and so does not qualify to teach in more advanced schools than the Brünn Realschule. Mendel reads "Origin of Species" and writes notes in his copy, but he never mentions Darwin in his paper. In 1866 the Prussian army under Otto von Bismarck takes over Austria (and occupies Brünn). Mendel keeps careful records of daily weather (as Dalton had done). (Perhaps Mendel has a systematic mind.) Darwin dies in 1882 never knowing that the greatest weakness in his theory has been solved. | (Natural Science Society) Brünn, Austria (now: Brno, the Czech Republic) |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3514) | (U of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3558) A year later, in 1866 Berthelot enunciates the theory that the production of mineral oils may conceivably have been due to the action of water and carbonic acid on acetylides of the alkaline metals and to the subsequent resolutions of acetylene at a high temperature into other hydrocarbons. (Might this be important to the evolution of fats and oils {lipids} on earth?) | (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3583) | (University of Ghent) Ghent, Belgium |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3637) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3638) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3689) Sachs is an assistant to the physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkinje at the University of Prague. Sachs is the first to teach plant physiology at a German university (Prague, 1857-1859). Among his works are the famous (all translated from German) "Textbook of Botany" (1868, tr. 1882); "Lectures on Physiology" (1882, tr. 1887); and "History of Botany" (1875, tr. 1890). | (Agricultural Academy) Poppelsdorf, Germany |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3694) | Paris, France (guess) |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3702) Mendeléev is the youngest of a family of 14 to 17 children. Mendeléev's grandfather brought the first printing press to Siberia and published the first newspaper. Mendeléev studies abroad for two years at the University of Heidelberg, financed by a government fellowship. Instead of working closely with the prominent chemists of the university, including Robert Bunsen, Emil Erlenmeyer, and August Kekulé, Mendeléev creates a laboratory in his own apartment. Another source has Mendeléev working with Bunsen before establishing his own lab. In 1865 Mendeléev is appointed professor of chemical technology at the University of St. Petersburg. Mendeléev became professor of general chemistry in 1867 and continues to teach at the University of St. Petersberg until 1890. According to Isaac Asimov, as professor of chemistry at the University of Saint Petersburg Mendeléev is the most capable and interesting lecturer in Russia. In the 1870s the visit of a famous medium to St. Petersburg drew him to publish a number of harsh criticisms of "the apostles of spiritualism". In 1876 Mendeléev divorces his wife and marries a young art student. Another source states that Mendeleev never divorced and was illegally married a second time. For his work on the Periodic Law he was awarded in 1882, at the same time as Lothar Meyer, the Davy medal of the Royal Society. In 1899 Mendeleev, as chief of the Chamber of Standard Weights and Measures (verify), introduces the metric system into Russia. Mendeléev adheres to Gerhardt's theories and opposes Berzelius' electrical theory of the formation of chemical compounds. As a consequence of this, Mendeléev resists Arrhenius' electrical theory, rejecting the concept of the ion as an electrically charged molecular fragment, and refusing to recognize the electron. In general, Mendeléev is opposed to linking chemistry with electricity and prefers associating chemistry with physics as the science of mass. In "Popytka khimicheskogo ponimania mirovogo efira" (1902; "An Attempt Towards a Chemical Conception of the Ether"), Mendeleev explains radioactivity as movements of ether around heavy atoms, and tries to classify ether as a chemical element above the group of inert gases. In 1905 Mendeleev receives the Copley medal of the Royal Society. Mendeleev's published works include 400 books and articles, and numerous unpublished manuscripts are kept in the Dmitry Mendeleyev Museum and Archives at St. Petersburg State University. Over the course of his life, five Russian universities elect Mendeleev as an honorary member, Cambridge and Oxford designate him an honored scholar, and numerous academies and societies elect him member. Few Russians since have been able to match Mendeleev's worldwide recognition. In 1955 a newly identified element, number 101 is named mendelevium. | (St. Petersburg Technological Institute) St. Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3709) | (St. Bartholomew's Hospital) London, England |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3800) Kovalevski is a student of Haekel and therefore a strong evolutionist. | (St. Petersburg University) St. Petersburg, Russia |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 3870) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
135 YBN [1865 AD] | 4548) | unknown |
134 YBN [01/11/1866 AD] | 3431) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
134 YBN [02/08/1866 AD] | 3921) Ludwig Edward Boltzmann (BOLTSmoN) (CE 1844-1906), Austrian physicist reads his paper before the Academy of Vienna entitled "Ueber die mechanische Bedeutung des zweiten Hauptsatzes der Warmetheorie". This paper opens (translated from German): "The identity of the First Law of Thermodynamics with the principle of vis viva has long been known, on the other hand the Second Law occupies a peculiarly exceptional position, and its proof is based on methods which are not only uncertain here and there, but are in no case obvious. The object of this paper is to furnish a purely analytical and perfectly general proof of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, as well as to investigate the corresponding principle in Mechanics.". Boltzmann tries to establish a connection between the second law of thermodynamics ("Heat cannot of itself pass from a colder to a hotter body") and the mechanical principle of least action ("in all the changes that take place in the universe, the sum of the products of each body multiplied by the distance it moves and by the speed with which it moves is the least that is possible."). Boltzmann is a strong supporter of atomism. According to the Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Boltzmann engages in bitter debates with those who are opposed to "materialist" science and prefer empirical theories to atomic models such as Ernst Mach, Wilhelm Ostwald, Pierre Duhem and George Hehn. Boltzmann ends his life by hanging himself. | (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) |
134 YBN [05/17/1866 AD] | 3430) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
134 YBN [07/??/1866 AD] | 3304) In 1854, Field is one of the founders of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, formed to lay a cable across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1856, Field helps organize a British company, the Atlantic Telegraph Company. In August 1857 the first of several unsuccessful attempts to lay a cable across the Atlantic Ocean are made. Five attempts were made in 1857–58 and the first message goes the length of the cable on August 16, 1858, but the cable ceases working three weeks later. Field promotes other oceanic cables, notably cables from Hawaii to Asia and Australia. In 1877 Field resuscitates the New York City elevated train system. Field dies poor because of shady dealings of some of his financiers. | Atlantic Ocean |
134 YBN [09/??/1866 AD] | 3570) | (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 2949) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3007) Johann von Lamont (lomoNT) (CE 1805-1879), Scottish-German astronomer, publishes a major catalog in six volumes (1866-74) of 34,674 small stars. | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3140) Daubrée investigates methods of origin and formation of minerals performing experiments on the artificial production of minerals and rocks. | (Ecole des Mines {Imperial School of Mines}) Paris, France |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3149) | (Indiana University) Indiana, USA |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3162) Wunderlich publishes this as "Das Verhalten der Eigenwärme in Krankheiten." (Leipzig, Verlag von Otto Wigand, 1866). | (Leipzig University) Leipzig, Germany |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3267) | (Cambridge Observatory) Cambridge, England |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3357) I think it is possible that as a realist and supporter of a mechanical interpretation (for example anti-vitalism), with this paper Helmholtz tries to stop the growing popularity of the abstract (and inaccurate in my view) non-Euclidean interpretation of space. However, it seems clear that Helmholtz retreats and abandons this effort within a few years. In view of the massive growth of a non-euclidean interpretation of the universe with the theory of relativity, it seems a good effort. Helmholtz should have just let his single paper stand as a historical objection and not tried to smooth over and retreat from the argument. | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3491) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3496) | (Royal College) London, England |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3679) | (Sorbonne laboratory) Paris, France |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3695) | Paris, France (guess) |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3707) Haeckel's literary output is enormous, and at the time of the celebration of his sixtieth birthday at Jena in 1894 Haeckel had produced 42 works with 13,000 pages, besides numerous scientific memoirs. Building collections around his own, Haeckel founded both the Phyletic Museum in Jena and the Ernst Haeckel Haus. The Haus contains Haeckel's books and archives. | (Zoological Institute) Jena, Germany |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3728) | (Brera Observatory) Milan, Italy |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3736) In 1874 Lockyer is awarded the Rumsford medal. | (at home, employed at War Office) Wimbledon, England |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3744) Allbutt is also a health science historian. Two of his most important publications are" Diseases of the Arteries, Including Angina Pectoris" (1915) and "Greek Medicine in Rome" (1921). Allbutt also edits "A System of Medicine", 8 vol. (1896–99). Allbutt is a commissioner in lunacy (from 1889 to 1892). (The word "lunacy" is perhaps taken from the Lunar society, which if true would be evidence of an anti-science belief, since the lunar society included some of the smartest scientists. Perhaps there was a theory that the moon is linked to delusion or abnormal behavior. In the 1800s, I think that persecution by religious theory is largely replaced by persecution by psychology theory.) | (General Infirmary) Leeds, England |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 3792) | (University of Berlin?) Berlin, Germany |
134 YBN [1866 AD] | 6013) | Vienna, Austria |
133 YBN [12/19/1867 AD] | 3439) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 2821) | (Freiberg University) Freiberg, Saxony, Germany |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3147) | (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3176) In 1863 Rutherfurd becomes convinced of the possibility of obtaining better spectra by using a diffraction grating instead of prisms. The best fine-ruled plates existing at the time are those made by Nobertat Greifswald, and largely employed for studying the phenomena of interference and determinations of wave-lengths. Rutherfurd determines to prepare some glass plates of this sort and adapt them to a spectrometer. Nobert had succeeded in ruling a few small groups of lines on glass as tests for microscopes with about 296 lines to the millimeter—i. e., at intervals of less than 3.4 microns—while for less severe test-objects intervals of eighteen microns sufficed; but his method of ruling these and the diffraction gratings is jealously guarded as a "trade secret;" so that Rutherfurd needs to devise and test his own methods. In 1867 Rutherfurd constructs an elaborate ruling machine in which the plate (holding a glass to be ruled) is moved by a screw. Rutherfurd uses wedge-shaped edged diamond points to scratch the glass. By studying the plates, Rutherfurd can deduce the nature and amount of the periodic error of the screw and devises means for its correction. Eventually Rutherfurd's grating are better than those of Nobert. The toothed wheels for this machine Rutherfurd makes himself, on a dividing circle more than two feet in diameter, which he buys but refits. In 1870 Rutherfurd makes a grating on glass, with 255 lines to the millimeter. In 1875, or earlier, Rutherfurd silvers the gratings with a view to their more convenient spectroscopic use, produces gratings measuring about 16.4 millimeters by 24.5 millimeters and with 11,161 lines at intervals of 680.4 to the millimeter. Later still, similar gratings are made on speculum metal, in order to avoid the great wear upon the diamond, and Mr. Chapman, his assistant, produces a large number of these. According to a biographer B. A. Gould, with these gratings adjusted for spectroscopic use Rutherfurd obtains, from 1867 on, visual and photographic results for the study of both solar and stellar light, which command universal admiration and are not equaled until those of Draper many years later. | New York City, NY, USA |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3184) | (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3210) | (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3424) | (around London) ?, England |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3434) | (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3446) | (Possibly) Azores {archepelago in Atlantic} or Trani {Apulia, Italy} (verify) |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3485) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3506) | (Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 3530) Gramme is an indifferent student, prefering to work with his hands. In 1856 Gramme begins work in a Paris factory that produces devices for the infant electrical industry. | Paris, France (presumably) |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 6004) | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
133 YBN [1867 AD] | 6014) Petrovich Modest Mussorgsky (CE 1839-1881), Russian composer, composes "Night on Bald Mountain". | Saint Petersberg, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) |
132 YBN [03/24/1868 AD] | 5834) | Newark, New Jersey, USA |
132 YBN [04/23/1868 AD] | 3435) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
132 YBN [06/23/1868 AD] | 6252) | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA |
132 YBN [07/02/1868 AD] | 3432) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
132 YBN [07/02/1868 AD] | 4020) | (Tulse Hill)London, England (presumably) |
132 YBN [09/??/1868 AD] | 3571) | (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
132 YBN [10/08/1868 AD] | 3922) | (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) |
132 YBN [11/23/1868 AD] | 3648) | ?, France |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 2677) | New York City, New York, USA |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3036) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, publishes "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication" (1868), in which Darwin explores the causes of variation in domestic breeds. Darwin creates his hypothesis of "pangenesis" to explain the discrete inheritance of traits, imagining that each tissue of an organism throws out tiny "gemmules", which pass to the sex organs and permit copies of themselves to be made in the next generation. But Darwin's cousin Francis Galton fails to find these gemmules in rabbit blood, and the theory is dismissed. | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3080) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3418) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3447) | (?), India |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3495) | (Royal College) London, England |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3510) Erlenmeyer studies at Giessen under Justus von Liebig and at Heidelberg under Friedrich Kekulé, both German chemists. Erlenmeye is among the first to adopt structural formulas based on valence, Frankland's new theory. | (Munich Polytechnic) Munich, Germany |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3523) | (Queen's University) Dublin, Ireland |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3661) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879) publishes "On a method of making a direct comparison of electrostatic with electromagnetic force; with a note on the electromagnetic theory of light.". | Glenlair, England |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3737) | (at home, employed at War Office) West Hampstead, England |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3803) In 1875 Asimov claims Graebe suffers a nervous breakdown, what actually happens is an interesting mystery. It looks like he lost all his money in the inflation following WW I, and died penniless. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3808) | (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) (presumably) |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 3984) Westinghouse is the son of a manufacturer of agricultural implements, so as a child Westinghouse has access to a machine shop. At age 15, Westinghouse designed and constructed a rotary engine. Westinghouse serves in the union army in the Civil War. Westinghouse accumulates his fortune from the invention of the air brake. Westinghouse is a prolific inventor obtaining an average of more than a patent a month during the 1880s. Over 400 patents are credited to Westinghouse in his lifetime. Westinghouse's money is more or less destroyed in the Panic of 1907. But I imagine that much was restored in the years after. Westinghouse dies in New York March 12 1914. He was president of some 30 corporations with a capital of about $200,000,000, employing more than 50,000 persons. | (Westinghouse Air Brake Company) Pittsburg, PA, USA |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 4049) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 6005) According to Encyclopedia Britannica Brahms can be viewed as the protagonist of the Classical tradition of Joseph Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in a period when the standards of this tradition are questioned or overturned by the Romantics, and also that in Vienna, Brahms' music suffers constant attacks by the Wagnerites. | Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
132 YBN [1868 AD] | 6015) Edvard (Hagerup) Grieg (CE 1843-1907), Norwegian composer, composes "Piano Concerto in A minor" (opus 16). | (Christiania now) Oslo, Norway |
131 YBN [01/15/1869 AD] | 3315) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
131 YBN [01/30/1869 AD] | 4839) | London, England (presumably) |
131 YBN [02/12/1869 AD] | 3356) There is an interesting potential similarity in a capacitor connected to an inductor with a permanent magnet, in that, perhaps running through the center of a permanent magnet is a capacitor where particles accumulate, and then dissipate through the inductor channels that run around the outer layers. it seems like there are two particle centers at each pole of a permanent magnet, so perhaps this theory is wrong. beyond that, how does a permanent magnet, continue to supply particles without losing them to heat as a typical inductor-capacitor circuit eventually does? Is there some constant supply of free electrons, like some kind of internal battery, in permanent magnets? This is a major find, but is not listed in most major sources, is this because of the nature of electrical oscillations relation to secret thought seeing and spying technology or lack of science education and understanding on the part of historians? | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
131 YBN [02/18/1869 AD] | 4050) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
131 YBN [03/06/1869 AD] | 3703) Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeléev (meNDelAeF) (CE 1834-1907), Russian chemist publishes his first periodic table of elements. The problem of inaccurate atomic weights was solved by Stanislao Cannizzaro. Attempts to organize the chemical elements by increasing atomic weights had already been made by Alexandre Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois and by John Alexander Reina Newlands. Mendeléev, like Newlands and Beguyer de Chancourtois before him, starts to arrange the elements in order of atomic weight. Immediate he finds an interesting thing in connection with the property of valence, a concept put forward 15 years before by Frankland. Mendeléev finds that the first row, starting with Lithium, has a valence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 In this time, 63 elements are known. Mendeléev arranges the elements in rows so that elements with similar valence fall into a vertical column. These elements also show similarities in many other chemical properties (like what? appearance? density?). Mendeléev's table differs from Newlands' table in that Newlands tried to force all the elements into equal segments containing 6 elements each, where Mendeléev recognizes that while the first two periods contain seven elements, the next contain seventeen each. Asimov writes that for the first time in the history of science, the work of a Russian scientist is quickly recognized. Mendeléev states the periodic law "Elements placed according to the value of their atomic weights present a clear periodicity of properties". (Mendeléev does not use word atomic "mass"?) The majority of scientists do not accept Mendeléev's periodic law; the first textbook on organic chemistry to be based on the law is published in 1874 by Richter in St. Petersburg. The periodic table and accompanying observations are first presented to the Russian Chemical Society on March 6, 1869. Mendeleev's colleague Nikolai Menshutkin presents his paper because Mendeleev is inspecting dairies in Tversk. The paper is then published in the first volume of the new society's journal. This paper is titled "Sootnoshenie svoistv s atomnym vesom elementov" ("The Relation of the Properties to the Atomic Weights of the Elements") in the "Zhurnal Russkoe Fiziko-Khimicheskoe Obshchestvo" (Journal of the Russian Chemical Society). That same year, a German abstract of the paper, consisting of the table and eight comments, is published in "Zeitschrift für Chemie". In the translated abstract mendeleev writes (translated from a German translation of Russian): "On the Relationship of the Properties of the Elements to their Atomic Weights By ordering the elements according to increasing atomic weight in vertical rows so that the horizontal rows contain analogous elements, still ordered by increasing atomic weight, one obtains the following arrangement, from which a few general conclusions may be derived. (see image) 1. The elements, if arranged according to their atomic weights, exhibit an evident stepwise variation of properties. 2. Chemically analogous elements have either similar atomic weights (Pt, Ir, Os), or weights which increase by equal increments (K, Rb, Cs). 3. The arrangement according to atomic weight corresponds to the valence of the element and to a certain extent the difference in chemical behavior, for example Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F. 4. The elements distributed most widely in nature have small atomic weights, and all such elements are marked by the distinctness of their behavior. They are, therefore, the representative elements; and so the lightest element H is rightly chosen as the most representative. 5. The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the properties of the element. Therefore, in the study of compounds, not only the quantities and properties of the elements and their reciprocal behavior is to be taken into consideration, but also the atomic weight of the elements. Thus the compounds of S and Tl {sic--Te was intended}, Cl and J, display not only analogies, but also striking differences. 6. One can predict the discovery of many new elements, for example analogues of Si and Al with atomic weights of 65-75. 7. A few atomic weights will probably require correction; for example Te cannot have the atomic weight 128, but rather 123-126. 8. From the above table, some new analogies between elements are revealed. Thus Bo (?) {sic--apparently Ur was intended} appears as an analogue of Bo and Al, as is well known to have been long established experimentally.". Some historians argue that the periodic system is the result of the efforts of six scholar with William Odling (CE 1829-1921) taking priority in publishing a periodic table before Mendeleev. The major drawbacks of Mendeleev's table are that it has difficulty in accommodating the rare-earth group and that no provision is made for the chemically inert elements, helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. (It seems interesting to me that the order of element rows goes 2 8 8 18 18 32 32, which appears to have a dual nature in growing size, as opposed to a spherical growth which would, in my view, be a linear or exponential series such as 2 8 18 32 48 etc. Does this reflect a dual nature of the atom?) It is surprising but I cannot find an English translation of Mendeleev's classical 1869 paper. (I still think there is more to understand about the atoms and the periodic table, because why does it have a dual nature as opposed to spherical nature? Are there two parts to every atom that must be completed before going to the next level? Is the atom made of moving parts, statics parts, or both? Why are zinc and cadmium a solid, but when we get to mercury it is a liquid. What is special and different about Technetium, why is it not more like Manganese and Rhenium (non radioactive), and why is Tc, a radioactive element, in the middle of nonradioactive elements? Interesting that Copper and Gold are some of the only non-gray metals, and are both in the same column, but Silver is in between them, what explains this color difference? Why do the other elements reflect/absorb different wavelengths of visible light?) (It is also interesting that there are no valences higher than 7.) | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
131 YBN [04/30/1869 AD] | 3353) In 1870 Gustav Magnus' death leaves an opening the prestigious chair of physics at the University of Berlin. Helmholtz and Kirchhoff are the primary candidates, Kirchhoff is preferred but refuses the post, and Helmholtz accepts, but Helmholtz requires $4,000 taler a year plus the construction of a new physics institute to be under his full control, to which Prussia readily agrees to his terms. | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
131 YBN [06/01/1869 AD] | 4006) Edison is the son of a Canadian person whose grandfather was a US Tory who fled to Canada after the Revolutionary War. Edison's father fled back to the USA after the Canadian rebellion of 1837. Edison as a child asks many questions, is reconized as unusual by neighbors, and a schoolteacher tells his mother that he is "addled". Furious, Edison's mother takes him out of school and home schools him, being a teacher by profession. Edison is a fast reader, and remembers almost everything he reads. Edison builds himself a chemical laboratory, and to get money for chemicals and equipment, he starts to work at the age of 12 as a newsboy on a train between Port Huron and Detroit, in the state of Michigan. During the stop at Detroit Edison spends his time in the library (which is evidence of the value of libraries in contributing to science and general education on earth). In 1862, using his small handpress in a baggage car, Edison writes and prints a weekly newspaper, the "Grand Trunk Herald", which is circulates to 400 railroad employees. This is the first newspaper ever to be printed on a train. Edison uses earnings from this paper to make a chemical laboratory in the baggage car, but a chemical fire starts, and he and his equipment are thrown off the train. In 1862 Edison rescues a small boy on the train tracks, and the grateful father, who has no money, offers to teach Edison telegraphy. As a telegrapher Edison earns enough money to buy the writings of Faraday which solidifies his interest in electrical technology. In 1869 Edison goes to New York City to find employment, and while in a broker's office waiting to be interviewed, a telegraph machine breaks down, Edison is the only person there who can fix it, and is promptly offered a better job than he had expected to get. Edison sells a stock ticker he builds for $40,000 to the president of a large Wall Street firm. (Edison wanted to ask for $5,000 but lacked the courage, and so asked the president to make an offer.) Edison uses this money to start a firm of consulting engineers, and for the next six years works in Newark, New Jersey. Edison works 24 hours a day sleeping in small naps. From 1870 to 1875 Edison invents many telegraphic improvements: transmitters; receivers; the duplex (transmits and receives telegraph messages on the same wire), quadruplex, and sextuplex systems; and automatic printers and tape. In 1876 Edison creates a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, 12 miles south of Newark, the first industrial research laboratory on earth. This lab will be an invention factory, and Edison eventually has as many as 80 scientists working for him. Around 1900 Edison loses all his money in an effort to develop a new method of dealing with iron ore. (need more info) When eight thousands attempts to create a new storage battery fail, Edison famously states "Well, at least we know eight thousands things that don't work.". During World War I Edison heads the U.S. Navy Consulting Board and contributes 45 inventions, including substitutes for previously imported chemicals (especially carbolic acid, or phenol), defensive instruments against U-boats, a ship-telephone system, an underwater searchlight, smoke screen machines, antitorpedo nets, turbine projectile heads, collision mats, navigating equipment, and methods of aiming and firing naval guns. After the war Edison establishes the Naval Research Laboratory, the only American institution for organized weapons research until World War II. It seems very likely that Edison provided other secret products and services to the US military, perhaps like seeing eye images, thought-sound recordings, remote muscle movements/galvanizations - remote neuron activation, perhaps wireless videophone services...and similar secret inventions. Those people interested in researching secret technologies such as seeing and hearing thought, and sending images and sounds directly to brains and remote muscle movements should closely examine all available literature on and about Thomas Edison - in particular Nature, and other science journal articles on Edison. Clearly Edison must have been linked and involved in these industries - although it is clear that they have their origin in England, France, Germany and Italy. Edison is famous for saying: "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration", which expresses skepticism about the power of inspiration. Edison rejects religion stating: "So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake... Religion is all bunk." and rejects the inaccurate belief in a "soul" stating: "My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe it.". Before he dies Edison has patents on 1,300 inventions, more than any other inventor. Edison is called the Wizard of Menlo Park. Asimov describes Edison as the greatest inventor since Archimedes and possibly of all time. (Although, there remains the secret inventions of seeing eyes and thought which may be William Wollaston, hearing thought and sounds heard by the brain, and remote neuron activation, among other potential secret inventions and inventors.) (Edison is a fine example of how a poor person can earn money through science, in particular by using engineering skills to construct devices that make life better and more convenient for many people - with thoughts of what the future will look like - and trying to capitalize on those future conveniences.) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
131 YBN [09/01/1869 AD] | 3785) Cleveland Abbe (aBE) (CE 1838-1916), US meteorologist begins sending daily weather bulletins, taking advantage of telegraphic reports of storms (as Henry at the Smithsonian Institute had done). | Cincinnati, Ohio, USA |
131 YBN [12/??/1869 AD] | 3626) In 1882, with Mendeleev, Meyer receives the Davy medal for his work in the development of the periodic law. | (Karlsruhe Poltechnic Institute) Karlsruhe, Baden |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 2685) | Yokohama, Japan |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 2997) | Berlin, Germany (possibly) |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3127) | (Queen's College) Belfast, Ireland |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3316) John Tyndall (CE 1820-1893), Irish physicist is accused of materialism and atheism after his presidential address at the 1874 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Belfast, when he claims that cosmological theory belongs to science rather than theology and that matter has the power within itself to produce life. Although Tyndale is not so prominent as Huxley in detailed controversy over theological problems, Tyndale plays an important part in educating the public mind about natural philosophy, dogma and religious authority. | (Royal Institution) London, England |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3397) Galton tries to map the distribution of good looks in England. (chronology) Galton, like Darwin wrongly thinks that characteristics of individuals of two different types will blend, and the offspring will be in an intermediate state. Mendel will show this to be not true (that specific traits are inherited? Clearly skin color appears to sometimes blend the quantity of melanin.). | London, England (presumably) |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3470) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany (presumably) |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3494) | (at home, employed at War Office) West Hampstead, England |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3503) | London, England |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3504) | (University of London) London, England (presumably) |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3531) | Paris, France (presumably) |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3718) Young is the first to photograph the sun's corona. Young write some of the most popular and useful general astronomy textbooks of this period. | (Dartmouth College) Hanover, New Hampshire, USA |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3761) In 1914 Hyatt wins the Perkin medal for celluloid. Hyatt owns a factory that makes checkers and dominos. | Albany, NY, USA |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3763) Markovnikov is an assistant to Butlerov at Kazan University. From 1873 on Markovnikov is at the University of Moscow, where he establishes a new chemistry laboratory and trains a generation of chemists. | (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3804) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 3927) Miescher is from a distinguished scientific family from Basel in Switzerland: both his father and uncle, held the chair of anatomy at the University of Basel. Miescher dies at age 51 of Tuberculosis. | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
131 YBN [1869 AD] | 6008) | Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
130 YBN [04/28/1870 AD] | 3766) In 1875, Hitzig is named professor at the University of Zurich, and director of the Bergholzli mental asylum there. | (University of Berlin?) Berlin, Germany |
130 YBN [08/28/1870 AD] | 5997) | Munich, Germany |
130 YBN [10/05/1870 AD] | 3951) | |
130 YBN [12/30/1870 AD] | 3835) Strutt studies sound, water and earthquake waves. In his first paper, published in 1869, Strutt gives a clear demonstration of some aspects of the electromagnetic theory of James Clerk Maxwell, in terms of analogies that the average person could understand. This paper is "On some Electromagnetic Phenomena considered in connexion with the Dynamical Theory". In 1877, Strutt publishes the first volume of "The Theory of Sound" (2vol, 1877-8), in which he examines vibrations and the resonance of elastic solids and gases. As second Cavendish professor of experimental physics at Cambridge (1879–84), after James Clerk Maxwell, Rayleigh supervises the precise determination of electrical standards. Rayleigh helps to establish accurate determination of absolute units in electricity and magnetism, Rowland in the USA also contributing. Rayleigh leads a program to redetermine the three electrical constants, the ohm, the ampere, and the volt which is completed in 1884. In 1884, Rayleigh performs experiments on the rotation of the plane of polarized light first found by Faraday. In 1891 Rayleigh succeeded John Tyndall as professor of physics at the Royal Institution in London. In 1904 Strutt wins the Nobel prize in physics, and Ramsay in chemistry. Strutt donates the money from the award to Cambridge. In 1905 Strutt is the president of the Royal Society. In 1908 Strutt is the chancellor of Cambridge University. Like William James and Oliver Lodge, Strutt grows interested in psychic research around the turn of the century. Over the course of his life Rayleigh publishes over 450 scientific papers. Strutt's papers are published as "Scientific papers (1869-1919)" (1899) (6 vol.). | (private laboratory) Terling Place, England |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 2687) | |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 3081) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 3361) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 3634) Marsh is credited with the discovery of more than a thousand fossil vertebrates. Marsh publishes major works on toothed birds, gigantic horned mammals, and North American dinosaurs. Marsh spends his entire career at Yale University (1866–99) as the first professor of vertebrate paleontology in the United States. In 1866, Marsh persuades his rich uncle to endow the Peabody Natural History Museum at Yale. Marsh is a strong supporter of Darwinian evolution. In 1870 Marsh organizes the first Yale Scientific Expedition, in which he (with a group of students) explores the Pliocene (5.3 to 1.8 million years ago) deposits of Nebraska and the Miocene (23.8 to 5.3 million years ago) deposits of northern Colorado. Marsh employs William F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill") as a guide to scour the western United States for fossils. A succession of such expeditions follows throughout the 1870s. Marsh competes with Cope to find fossils. Together they find enough bones of ancestral horses to understand the complete line of descent of the horse. From 1883-1895, Marsh is the President of the National Academy of Sciences. | Smoky Hill River, (Western) Kansas, USA |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 3643) | (family estate) Glenlair, England |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 3735) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 3777) | (Perkin factory) Greenford Green, England (presumably) |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 3778) | (Perkin factory) Greenford Green, England (presumably) |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 3909) | (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
130 YBN [1870 AD] | 4701) | London, England (guess) |
129 YBN [01/07/1871 AD] | 3704) | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
129 YBN [01/??/1871 AD] | 3659) | (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
129 YBN [02/??/1871 AD] | 3705) Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeléev (meNDelAeF) (CE 1834-1907), Russian chemist publishes a chemistry textbook "Osnovy khimii" (2 vol., 1868-1871; tr. 1905, "The Principles of Chemistry"), after finding nothing that he can recommend as a text upon being appointed chair of chemistry at the University of St. Petersburg. According to Asimov this is one of the best chemistry books ever written in Russian. | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
129 YBN [05/10/1871 AD] | 3433) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
129 YBN [08/??/1871 AD] | 3814) | (private observatory) Bothkamp, Germany |
129 YBN [09/08/1871 AD] | 3113) Although the Royal Photographic Society awards Maddox the Progress Medal, its highest honor, Maddox dies in poverty. | Woolston, Southhampton, England |
129 YBN [11/17/1871 AD] | 4160) | Greenwich, England |
129 YBN [12/??/1871 AD] | 3876) | (Helmholtz Lab, U of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 2657) The term "baud" (used for computer modems), which is a measure of symbols transmitted per second, is named after Emile Baudot. | France |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 2662) | |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 2686) | Yokohama, Japan |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3169) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3355) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3518) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3526) | (Queen's University) Dublin, Ireland |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3542) | (U of Jena) Jena, Germany |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3560) | (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3575) | Newcastle, England (presumably) |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3633) | (Upper Jurasic) Wyoming, USA |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3666) | Ecole Normal, Paris, France (presumably) |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 3924) | (University of Graz) Graz, Austria (presumably) |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 4059) In his life Meyer publishes 275 papers himself. In 1897 Meyer kills himself by drinking prussic acid. | (University of Stuttgart), Stuttgart, Germany (presumably) |
129 YBN [1871 AD] | 4069) Klein serves in Franco-Prussian war. | ( University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
128 YBN [01/01/1872 AD] | 1249) | ? |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3197) Aldol is an oily colorless liquid obtained by the condensation of two molecules of acetaldehyde. Aldol contains an alcohol group (-OH) and an aldehyde group (-CHO). The word "aldol" also refers to any similar aldehyde containing the group CH3OH–CO–CHOH. | (Ecole de Médicine, School of Medicine) Paris, France |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3198) | (Ecole de Médicine, School of Medicine) Paris, France |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3317) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3566) | (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3630) Dedekind studies advanced mathematics at the University of Göttingen under the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. | (Technical High School in Braunschweig) Braunschweig, Germany |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3732) | (Zurich University) Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3748) Draper serves in the Union army as a surgeon. Henry Draper's father, John William Draper, in 1840 had made the first photograph of the Moon. Draper rules his own metal gratings. For his photography of the transit of Venus in 1874, Congress orders a gold medal struck in his honour. Draper's widow establishes the Henry Draper Memorial Fund at Harvard Observatory, financing the making of the great "Henry Draper Catalogue of stellar spectra". (This seems very late for the first photograph of the spectrum of a star, in particular if people see thought in 1810.) | (City University) New York City, NY, USA |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3770) Between 1873 and 1893 Mach develops optical and photographic techniques for the measurement of sound waves and wave propagation. In 1881 Mach proposes the use of electric discharges to produce photographs with extremely short exposure time. Einstein will refer to the Mach principle, which is Mach's view that the properties of space have no independent existence but are dependent on the mass content and mass distribution within it. (explain more accurately, to me clearly there is space and matter in space. One great question is: does matter fill space, or is matter part of space? In other words, does matter move from space to space, or do the matter and space move together? My own view is that matter occupies space, and moves from space to space. If matter is a kind of space, then it is a different kind, and that seem not logical to me.) According to Asimov, Mach is strongly influenced by the "psychophysics" of Fechner. Mach opposes the atomic theory, and most things that are not proven through direct sensory information. Mach rejects Einstein's theory of relativity, and plans on writing a book pointing out its flaws when he dies in 1916. | (Charles University) Prague, Czech Republic |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3911) | Berlin, Germany |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3923) Another explanation of the second law of thermodynamics, that heat moves from hot to cold, might be the interpretation that masses tend to move to where there is more space which can hold them - or basically the view that moving masses will naturally be collided into more open spaces (unmatter filled spaces) since there are less spaces for them to exist in, in a volume of more matter filled space - or in a volume where the matter has a higher velocity than an equivalent adjacent volume of space. - In this sense, this concept of the first law - of heat moving toward cold - is the natural result of gravitation+inertia+collision in a universe of matter-filled-space, empty-space and time (or simply, matter, space and time). I think a good effort might be to relate temperature to average velocity (and perhaps quantity of mass, or average density of mass in a volume of space) as opposed to average energy - but possibly quantity of mass effects temperature - then temperature has to do with absorption of mass used for measurement. It's interesting that lineages can be seen in the history of science how Boltzmann builds on Maxwell's work, Maxwell built upon Thomsen's who built on Joule's - in the heat as a mechanical movement group and those whose focus was thermodynamics, using the concept of vis-viva and then energy to describe the universe which shadowed any other physics models. | (University of Graz) Graz, Austria (presumably) |
128 YBN [1872 AD] | 3930) Cantor was hospitalized first in 1899 and dies in Halle University's psychiatric clinic. (try to find exact reason - checked in by self, or did something unusual?) The German mathematician Kronecker (who famously said "God made the integers, and all the rest is the work of man”), strongly opposes Cantor's work and blocks Cantor's appointment to the faculty at the University of Berlin. | (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
127 YBN [02/12/1873 AD] | 3336) | Valentia, Ireland |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 2782) | (Dorpat Observatory) Dorpat (Tartu), Estonia |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3049) Hermann Günther Grassmann (CE 1809-1877), German mathematician, writes a six-part "Wörterbuch zum Rigveda" (1873-1875) which is a complete glossery of the Rigveda (in German). | (Gymnasium in) Stettin, (Prussia now) Poland |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3371) Schliemann learns to read and write fluently between 8 and 13 languages including Russian and both ancient and modern Greek. Schlieman makes a fortune at the time of the Crimean War, mainly as a military contractor. Schlieman publishes "Ithaka, der Peloponnes und Troja" ("Ithaca, the Peloponnese, and Troy"), in which he argues that Hisarlık, in Asia Minor, and not Bunarbashi, a short distance south of it, is the site of ancient Troy and that the graves of the Greek commander Agamemnon and his wife, Clytemnestra, at Mycenae, described by the Greek geographer Pausanias, are not the tholoi (vaulted tombs) outside the citadel walls but lay inside the citadel. Schliemann publishes "Troja und seine Ruinen" (1875; "Troy and Its Ruins"). | Hisarlik, Turkey |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3409) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France (presumably) |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3586) Thomson is originally Wyville Thomas Charles, but changes his name when knighted. | (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3662) | Glenlair, England |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3753) In 1867 Proctor creates a map of Mars and names the features on Mars mostly after English astronomers, later Schiaparelli renames them to more objective, less nationalistic names. Proctor is a prolific writer and authors many works intended to inform the public of and popularize astronomy. | London, England (presumably) |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3758) In 1910 Waals wins the Nobel prize in physics for his gas equations. James Clerk Maxwell writes in Nature "The molecular theory of the continuity of the liquid and gaseous states forms the subject of an exceedingly ingenious thesis by Mr Johannes Diderik van der Waals, a graduate of Leyden. There are certain points in which I think he has fallen into mathematical errors, and his final result is certainly not a complete expression for the interaction of real molecules, but his attack on this difficult question is so able and so brave, that it cannot fail to give a notable impulse to molecular science. It has certainly directed the attention of more than one inquirer to the study of the Low-Dutch language in which it is written.". (Is "Low Dutch" an insult or describing a dialect of Dutch?) | (University of Leyden) Leyden, Netherlands |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3809) | (in his own home) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) (presumably) |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3850) In 1876 Ferrier is a founding member of the Physiological Society. In 1878, Ferrier is founding editor of the journal "Brain" still published today. Ferrier has an important influence on the science of brain surgery in urging his colleagues to remove cerebral lesions through operation. In 1882, a lawsuit is brought against Ferrier for cruelty against animals. In court Ferrier upholds the necessity and value of animal experimentation and wins the case. (I think there is definitely a line, in my own opinion, that no species should be made to endure pain and suffering, and even damage at least to higher order species. Clearly people accept the painless murder of many species for food and clothing, where I prefer the alternative of only murdering plants, fungi and protists for food and clothing. I vote against punishing those involved in clearly consensual health science experimental treatments.) (I think the violent laws should extend to all primates, and many mammals. In particular I think the right to life and to be free from pain should extend to primates and mammals. Clearly insects can be murdered. I support the cruelty to animals law in which people are punished for causing prolonged pain in any species - although I doubt the torture of insects and smaller species would win a vote of jail-time for the offender.) (I think for useful scientific research, I doubt a penalty of imprisonment would win popular support, or even fines, given the common murder of many species for food. It probably depends on the species, the quantity of pain and suffering they are made to endure, and the intended results. There are examples of where experimentation on other species directly leads to increased understanding and cures. One example, is stem cell research used in purposely paralyzed mammals which produced significant results that may lead to a cure for paralysis in all species. In this case, many people may forgive the murder, assault, or paralyzation of the less evolved species, in order to find cures that will stop the pain of many others. For example, millions of ova and sperm die every day, and I see nothing wrong with using the cells of human blastulas so long as there is no nervous system or pain involved, in particular when these cells are just going to be thrown away otherwise. I think possibly that animals caused to be in prolonged pain is avoided generally speaking - Hitzig gives an example of a dog in pain and how unpleasant it was, in addition to how it can be avoided. My vote is for free info so everybody can see and determine for each individual case if the intentional damage is acceptable, should be stopped, or punished, etc. Clearly unconsensually damaging developed humans outside of a woman's womb is punishable with jail, and no doubt many apparently useless or pseudoscientific-based damage of animals would not win popular support.) | (King's College Hospital and Medical School) London, England |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3863) Golgi is the president of the University of Pavia. In 1906 Golgi and Ramón y Cajal are awarded a Nobel prize for work on the structure of the nervous system. Golgi's works are published in "Opera Omnia" (v1-3:1903, v4:1929) in 4 volumes. | (Home for Incurables) Abbiategrasso, Italy |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3931) In 1908 Henri Poincaré remarks that later generations would regard Cantor's set theory "as a disease from which one has recovered.". | (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 3950) It seems clear at this time that people in science were engineering devices with very small dimensions aided by lens and gears. Some of Lippmann's colour photographs, specially mounted for viewing at an angle, are preserved in museums, the finest collection being at the Preus Museum at Horten, Norway. | University of Heidelberg, Germany |
127 YBN [1873 AD] | 4233) | Norway |
126 YBN [03/18/1874 AD] | 3483) William Thomson (CE 1824-1907) invents a new deep sea sounding method using piano forte wire. | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
126 YBN [09/05/1874 AD] | 4134) In 1901 Van't Hoff receives the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work on solutions, and is the first to receive the Nobel prize for chemistry. | (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
126 YBN [11/??/1874 AD] | 3992) Le Bel writes (translated from French to English):(read full text with text scrolling in video) Le Bel and Van't Hoff jointly receive the Davy Medal in 1893. | (Ecole de Médecine) Paris, France |
126 YBN [12/08/1874 AD] | 3855) Gill is educated in clock-making. Gill plans and supervised the building of an observatory for Lord Lindsay at Dun Echt, near Aberdeen (1872-1876). | Mauritius |
126 YBN [12/08/1874 AD] | 3856) | Ascension Island |
126 YBN [12/08/1874 AD] | 3857) | (Royal Observatory) Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
126 YBN [12/12/1874 AD] | 3872) | (Astrophysical observatory) Potsdam, Germany |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 2656) | New Jersey, USA |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 2661) | France |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 3450) | (?), Japan |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 3527) | (Queen's University) Dublin, Ireland |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 3780) Boisbaudran comes from a wealthy family of distillers of Cognac in southwestern France. With independent wealth and excited by the new spectroscopy of Gustav Kirchhoff, Boisbaudran builds his own laboratory. | (home lab) Cognac, France (presumably) |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 3795) Cleve disapproves of the young Arrhenius's Ph.D. dissertation, but twenty years later helps to pick Arrhenius for a Nobel prize for that same dissertation. | (Technological Institute in Stockholm) Stockholm, Sweden (presumably) |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 3816) | (private observatory) Bothkamp, Germany |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 3869) Abney is a prolific author, writing for both specialist practitioners and amateurs. Abney publishes a number of books to educate the public including his first book "Chemistry for Engineers" (1870). Abney's second book, "Instruction in Photography" (1871) becomes a standard text. Abney's papers in the Royal Society Catalog number over 100, and over 70 in the "Photographic Journal". From 1893 to 1897 Abney is successively president of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the Physical Society. | (School of Military Engineering) Chatham, England |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 3889) James Geikie (CE 1839-1915), publishes "The Great Ice Age" (CE 1874–84) which provides evidence that there were several ice ages separated by nonglacial epochs. Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin (CE 1843-1928) contributes the chapter on North America and shows that some deposits are composed of at least three layers. Chamberlin goes on to establish four major ice ages, which are named the Nebraskan, Kansan, Illinoian, and Wisconsin after the states in which they are most easily studied. Chamberlin is the son of a father who left North Carolina for Illinois because he disapproved of slavery. Chamberlin reports "Geology of Wisconsin" (4 vol. 1877–83) which examines the glacial deposits of the state and the ancient coral reefs. In 1887 Chamberlin is President of the University of Wisconsin. Chamberlin establishes the "Journal of Geology". (chronology) | (Government Geological Survey) Edinburgh, Scotland (and Wisconsin, USA) |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 4079) Kovalevsky is the daughter of a general, who uses marriage at 18 to go to Germany, where she is not allowed to attend university lectures, but where Weierstrass, impressed with her obvious talent, tutors her privately. In 1868 she entered into a marriage of convenience with Vladimir Kovalevsky, a young paleontologist and a translator of Darwin. Kovalevsky is elected into the Swedish and Russian Academy of Science. (first female?) Kovalevsky dies of pneumonia at age 41. (That seems too young - perhaps neuron written murder?) According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Kovalevsky is the first woman in modern Europe to gain a doctorate in mathematics, the first to join the editorial board of a scientific journal, and the first to be appointed professor of mathematics. Kovalevskaya also gained a reputation as a writer, an advocate of women's rights. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 4087) In 1909 Braun wins a share of a Nobel prize in physics (with Marconi) for Braun's improvements to radio technology. Braun goes to America to testify in a court case about radio patents but, when the United States enters World War I in 1917, he is detained as an alien and dies in New York a year later. | (Würzburg University) Würzburg, Germany |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 4146) Fischer is the assistant of Adolph von Baeyer for some time. In 1902 Fischer wins a Nobel prize in chemistry for researches in sugar and purines. Fischer loses 2 of 3 sons in WW I. (again showing how terrible, destructive, pointless and stupid war and any violence against nonviolent people is.) Fischer ends his own life when suffering from cancer. | (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, Germany |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 5994) | Weimar, Germany (presumably) |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 6000) | Milan, Italy |
126 YBN [1874 AD] | 6010) In 1876 an extraordinary relationship begins to develop between Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a wealthy railroad tycoon which is an important component of their lives for the next 14 years. A great admirer of his work, von Meck chooses to become his patroness and eventually arranges a regular monthly allowance for him which enabled him in 1878 to resign from the conservatory and devote his efforts to writing music. Although he and his benefactor agree never to meet, they engage in a voluminous correspondence that constitutes a remarkable historical and literary record. They frankly exchange their views on a broad spectrum of issues. In 1890 Tchaikovsky is informed by Nadezhda von Meck that she is close to financial ruin and can not continue his allowancem and their correspondence comes to an end. | (Moscow Conservatory) Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
125 YBN [03/03/1875 AD] | 6007) | (Opéra-Comique) Paris, France (verify) |
125 YBN [03/20/1875 AD] | 3674) | (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
125 YBN [04/27/1875 AD] | 3851) | (King's College Hospital and Medical School) London, England |
125 YBN [04/27/1875 AD] | 3852) | (King's College Hospital and Medical School) London, England |
125 YBN [08/28/1875 AD] | 5575) | Liverpool, England |
125 YBN [10/07/1875 AD] | 5332) | Bristol, England |
125 YBN [10/??/1875 AD] | 3788) In 1863 Gibbs receives the first doctorate of engineering to be conferred in the United States (from Yale). From 1866 to 1869 Gibbs studies in Paris, Berlin, and Heidelberg, where his teachers are some of the most distinguished mathematicians and physicists on earth. Maxwell constructs a model illustrating a portion of Gibb's work and sends a plaster cast to Gibbs.(chronology) In 1901 the Copley medal of the Royal Society of London is awarded to Gibbs as being "the first to apply the second law of thermodynamics to the exhaustive discussion of the relation between chemical, electrical and thermal energy and capacity for external work.". | (Yale College) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
125 YBN [11/12/1875 AD] | 3873) | (Surveyor-General's Office) Calcutta, India |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 2871) | Paris?,France |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 3436) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 3520) | (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, Germany |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 3567) | (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 3673) | (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 3798) Cope publishes scientific papers in his teens. (This is perhaps evidence that people in their teens deserve equal rights.) cope is independently wealthy. Cope is a professor of comparative zoology and botany at Haverford College, Pennsylvania (1864–67). Cope serves as paleontologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Cope is a Quaker and refuses to carry a gun, despite the danger from Native American people. When surrounded by a group of hostile Native American humans, Cope surprises them by taking out and putting back his false teeth over and over. Once all have a chance to watch this, they let him go. Cope competes with Othniel Marsh for fossils, and between the two they fill in the entire story of the evolutionary history of the horse. Cope and Marsh have a bitter feud for credit in being the first to discover American fossil dinosaurs which damages the reputations of both men. According to historian Mark Jaffe, one reason for the hostility between Cope and Marsh, is that Marsh is a Darwinian and Cope, raised a devout Quaker, can not accept the absence of divine design in nature. Cope is a leading exponent of the "Neo-Lamarckian" school of evolution. In the late 1800s, Neo-Lamarckian evolution is more popular in American than Darwinism. (Although see above quote which appears to support natural selection and survival of the fittest.) Another source states that during the 1860s Marsh and Cope have a friendly relationship, But when in the 1870's Arthur Lakes and O. W. Lucas discover dinosaurs in the Southwest United states and begin to ship them to Cope and Marsh, a harsh rivalry between Marsh and Cope breaks out. Marsh hires Lakes and Cope hires Lucas, and the bonewar is on. This bonewar lasts until their deaths. Similar to Lamarck, Cope wrongly believes in inherited characteristics. Believing that the movements of animals helps alter and develop the moving parts, Cope calls this kinetogenesis. In 1868 Cope attacks Darwin's theory of natural selection. Cope publishes the notable, "Reptilia and Aves of North America" (1869–70) and "The Vertebrata of the Tertiary Formations of the West" (1883). Financial difficulties compelled him to accept a position on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania (1889–97). In his life, Cope publishes 1,200 books and papers. Cope's large collection of fossil mammals is now at the American Museum of Natural History. | (Read before the American Association for the advancement of Science) Detroit, Michegan, USA |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 4172) Not yet twenty-five, Lorentz accepts an appointment as chair of theoretical physics at the University of Leiden. The Leiden theoretical physics chair is the first of its kind in the Netherlands, and one of the first in Europe. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Lorentz is a joint winner (with Pieter Zeeman) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902 for his theory of electromagnetic radiation, which, confirmed, by the findings of Zeeman, give rise to Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. Lorentz supervises the enclosure of the Zuider Zee, a project to make more agricultural land out of a shallow basin of the sea. | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 6009) | Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
125 YBN [1875 AD] | 6016) | Troldhaugen, Norway |
124 YBN [02/14/1876 AD] | 4036) Both Bell's father and grandfather had studied the mechanics of sound, and Bell's father was a pioneer teacher of speech to deaf people. In 1871 Bell goes to Boston to teach at Sarah Fuller's School for the Deaf, the first such school on earth. Bell also tutors private students, including Helen Keller. As professor of vocal physiology and speech at Boston University in 1873, Bell initiates conventions for teachers of the deaf. Throughout his life Bell continues to educate the deaf, and founds the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. Bell's other two brothers die of Tuberculosis. Bell falls in love with one of his deaf pupils. When Bell refers sadly to Henry of his own lack of electrical know-how, Henry tell Bell "Get it!". James Clerk Maxwell expected something far more complex of a device that can carry a voice. Bell wins France's "Volta Price", and with the prize money (50, 000 francs, about $10, 000) starts the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C. At the laboratory Bell and associates work on various projects during the 1880s, including the photophone, induction balance (metal detector), audiometer, and phonograph improvements. Aviation is Bell's primary interest after 1895. Bell experimentes with hydrofoil boats and with airplanes as early as the 1890s. Bell funds Samuel Langley. (plane, bolometer ... all research?) Perhaps Langley's publication of the heat sensing bolometer was Bell's and other people's coordinated effort to give the poor excluded victims of remote neuron activation, seeing, hearing and sending thought images and sounds a better chance at figuring out how to see thought. In addition, Langley is affiliated with the US Military - the Langley field being named after Langley. In 1915 the first transcontinental telephone line is opened, and Bell (in the East) speaks again to his old assistant Watson. Again Bell says 'Watson please come here. I want you.', and Asimov comments this time instead of the words going from one floor to another they went from one coast to the other. Bell performes studies on longevity. In 1918, Bell examines the familial transmission of human longevity using genealogical data on about 3,000 members of the Hyde family in New England. (verify) In his life Bell has 18 patents and 12 with collaborators. These include 14 for the telephone and telegraph, 4 for the photophone, 1 for the phonograph, 5 for aerial vehicles, 4 for hydroairplanes, and 2 for a selenium cell. (Kind of interesting that Bell's later work involves air planes - perhaps with great wealth comes a desire to escape the confines and limits of the earth.) | Salem, Massachusetts, USA |
124 YBN [02/14/1876 AD] | 4037) Gray invented a number of telegraphic devices and in 1869 was one of two partners who founded what will become Western Electric Company. (Perhaps Gray used the information gathered from telegraphs to learn about Reiss' invention - or perhaps from secret hidden thought cameras and microphones.) | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
124 YBN [02/15/1876 AD] | 4065) Rowland is the first president of the American Physical Society (1899–1901). Rowland dies of diabetes before Frederick Banting figures out how to isolate insulin, a treatment for diabetes. There is a funny story about Rowland, in that under oath, he testifies that he is the greatest living american physicist, and later explains that he had to say this because he was under oath. | (working for Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore) (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
124 YBN [05/01/1876 AD] | 3656) | (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
124 YBN [09/??/1876 AD] | 3572) | (work done at St. Peterburg University, paper presented at) Warsaw, Poland |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 2688) | ((Berlin or Frankfurt?)) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3038) | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3039) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, publishes "The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species" (1877), which is the result of work into the way evolution in some species favors different male and female forms of flowers to facilitate "outbreeding" (as opposed to inbreeding, that is to facilitate variety of mating partners). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Darwin had long been sensitive to the effects of inbreeding because he was himself married to a Wedgwood cousin, as was his sister Caroline. (To me, there is a strong natural inclination towards variety even in human sexuality. This phenomenon works against monogamy {and some might argue perhaps against reproducing in small numbers, or perhaps responsible parenting} in that for some humans sex is better between two people the first time, as opposed to later sex. In this way, it appears that biologically many humans are designed to prefer a wide variety of sexual partners, a constant stream of new partners, as opposed to a single mate for repeated sex throughout life, although the data on this phenomenon is somewhat abstract and in small quantity.) | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3040) Darwin's drawing of a hairy human ancestor with pointed ears leads to a number of caricatures in newspapers. | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3041) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, publishes "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" (1872), which is photographically illustrated to show the continuity of emotions and expressions between humans and animals. The goal of this book is to disprove the theory that facial expression are only in humans. | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3042) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, writes his autobiography (1876-1881). In this work Darwin writes about his dislike of Christian myths of eternal torment. | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3050) Hermann Günther Grassmann (CE 1809-1877), German mathematician, translates the hymns of the Rig-Veda (into German) in "Rig-Veda. Übersetzt und mit kritischen Anmerkungen versehen" (1876-77). The linguistic law reformulated by (and named for) Grassman holds that in Indo-European bases, especially in Sanskrit and Greek, successive syllables may not begin with aspirates (in linguistics the "H" sound). | (Gymnasium in) Stettin, (Prussia now) Poland |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3069) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3484) William Thomson (CE 1824-1907) invents a form of analog computer for measuring tides in a harbour and for calculating tide tables for any hour, past or future. Thomson also invents a mariner's compass. | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3669) In 1861, Otto builds his first gasoline-powered engine. In 1864, Otto forms a partnership with the German industrialist Eugen Langen. In 1867 Otto and Langen win a gold medal at the Paris Exposition for an improved engine that they develop together. | (Gasmotoren-Frabrik Deutz AG) Deutz, Cologne, Germany |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3696) | Paris, France (presumably) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3755) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3819) Linde's company also sells solid water ice. | (Technische Hochschule) Munich, Germany |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3892) Koch serves as an army surgeon on the Prussian side during the Franco-Prussian War. Late in life Koch divorces his wife and marries a much younger woman, shocking the Victorian society of the time. Koch trains many prominent bacteriologists such as Gaffky, Kitasato, Behring and Ehrlich. | (District Medical Officer) Wollstein, Germany |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3972) | University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, Alsace, Germany(now in France) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 3986) | Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England (presumably) |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 4094) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
124 YBN [1876 AD] | 6022) | Milan, Italy (presumably) |
123 YBN [04/14/1877 AD] | 4111) Berliner supports compulsory (a law?) pasteurizing of milk, which will ultimately contribute to the health of people in the USA. Berliner does useful work on airplane motors. (more specific) Berliner works as chief inspector for the Bell Telephone Company. Berliners is a supporter of women equality, and argues that women, given the opportunities for education equal to men, would equal men in the sciences. In 1908 Berliner founds amd funds the "Sarah Berliner Research Fellowship". Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, the first woman to earn a doctor's degree at Johns Hopkins University, is a charter member, and Berliner also obtains the cooperation of the American Association of University Women. The fellowship is made available for research in physics, chemistry or biology. From 1909 to 1926 awards are given to women each year in those fields as well as in psychology, physiology, paleontology, geology, nutrition, zoology and related subjects. Berliner is agnostic and writes a book ("Conclusions") explaining his views, which is published in 1889. | (own apartment) Washington, DC, USA |
123 YBN [04/27/1877 AD] | 3994) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
123 YBN [04/27/1877 AD] | 4294) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
123 YBN [06/??/1877 AD] | 3879) | (Sorbonne laboratory) Paris, France (verify) |
123 YBN [07/??/1877 AD] | 3749) | (City University) New York City, NY, USA |
123 YBN [08/11/1877 AD] | 3584) | (Naval Observatory) Washington, DC, USA |
123 YBN [08/17/1877 AD] | 3585) | (Naval Observatory) Washington, DC, USA |
123 YBN [08/28/1877 AD] | 4000) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
123 YBN [09/??/1877 AD] | 3729) | (Brera Observatory) Milan, Italy |
123 YBN [10/11/1877 AD] | 3925) (I think an important point is showing how any of these equations are found to be useful, practical and apply accurately to observable phenomena.) | (University of Graz) Graz, Austria |
123 YBN [12/02/1877 AD] | 3688) When young Cailletet works in his father's ironworks and later is in charge of the works. Cailletet invented automatic cameras. | (father's ironworks) Chatillon, France |
123 YBN [12/22/1877 AD] | 3961) | University of Geneva, Switzerland |
123 YBN [12/24/1877 AD] | 4002) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
123 YBN [12/??/1877 AD] | 3619) | Veinna |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 2690) The first electrical telegraph line in Tientsin (now Tianjin) China is constructed between the castle of the governor and the city arsenal by students of the local mining school. | Tientsin (now Tianjin), China |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3138) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3318) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3342) Muybridge murders a man who had sex with his wife, but is not convicted. (This shows how acceptable first degree murder and other violence is at the time and ironically how unacceptable consensual sex is.) | Sacramento, CA, USA |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3349) | Sacramento, CA, USA |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3667) | Sorbonne, Paris, France |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3756) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3901) | Wollstein, Germany |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3928) | Hong Kong (presumably) |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 3934) At 15, Pfeffer works for his father, who is an apothecary. Pfeffer's only son is killed in WWI 2 months before the armistice. | |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 4039) | Boston and New York, USA |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 4051) | The Haag, Netherlands (work possibly done at University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 4055) Lilienthal is trained as a mechanical engineer, and establishes his own machine shop and flight factory following service in the Franco-German War. During the early days of the Industrial Revolution, the idea of human flight is ridiculed. But Lilienthal disregards the social stigma associated with flying machine inventors and applies himself to the study of aerodynamic forces and design concepts. In the 1870s Lilienthal begins to conduct studies of the forces operating on wings in a stream of air and publishes his results in a book entitled "Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst" ("Bird Flight as the Basis of Aviation"). Between 1891 and 1896, Lilienthal completes some 2,000 flights in at least 16 distinct glider types. Images of Lilienthal flying through the air aboard his standard glider appear in newspapers and magazines around the earth and these pictures convince millions of readers in Europe and the United States that the age of flight is now. On August 9, 1896, while testing a glider with a new rudder design, Lilienthal has a crash which breaks his back, and he dies in a Berlin hospital the next day. Otto's brother, Gustav Lilienthal (CE 1849-1933), continues Otto's flight experiments after his brother's death. The Wright brothers, also experienced with gliders, will demonstrate that by mounting an engine (with a propeller) on a glider, it can be converted into an airplane. | (Weber Company and C. Hoppe machine factory) Berlin, Germany |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 4056) | Derwitz/Krilow (near Potsdam), Germany |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 4071) Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (PoVluF) (CE 1849-1936), Russian physicologist publishes his first work, "Experimental Data Concerning the Accommodating Mechanism of the Blood Vessels", which deals with the reflex regulation of the circulation of blood. Pavlov describes the role of the vagus nerve as a regulator of blood pressure. (chronology - in this 1877 work?) Pavlov is from a family of priests but at the theological seminary he reads Darwin's "Origin of Species" and finds that his natural call is for science and not priesthood. In 1904 Pavlov receives the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology. Asimov writes that Pavlov is anti-communist (which form of government did Pavlov support?), but the Soviet government does not punish this, even building him a laboratory in 1935, and Pavlov is an ornament of Russian science and a showpiece of Soviet toleration. In 1923, after returning from his first visit to the United States Pavlov publicly denounces Communism, stating that the basis for international Marxism is false, and says "For the kind of social experiment that you are making, I would not sacrifice a frog's hind legs!". (Notice the potential relation to remote neuron writing {galvanization} with frog legs.) In 1927, distressed that his was the only negative vote in the Academy of Sciences against the newly recommended "red professors", Pavlov writes to Joseph Stalin, protesting that "On account of what you are doing to the Russian intelligentsia—demoralizing, annihilating, depraving them—I am ashamed to be called a Russian!". | (Medico-Chirurgical Academy - renamed in 1881 the Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 4167) | Bromley, Kent, England |
123 YBN [1877 AD] | 4194) In 1908 Ehrlich wins the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology (shared with Élie Mechnikov) for Ehrlich's work on immunity and serum therapy. In 1887 Ehrlich becomes a teacher at the University of Berlin but is not paid because of the anti-Jewish feeling at the time – Ehrlich would not renounce his Jewish upbringing. Ehrlich's tomb, in a Jewish cemetery in Frankfort, is desecrated by Nazi people but restored after World War 2. | (Leipzig University) Leipzig, Germany |
122 YBN [01/11/1878 AD] | 3962) | University of Geneva, Switzerland |
122 YBN [04/29/1878 AD] | 3419) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
122 YBN [04/??/1878 AD] | 4275) | |
122 YBN [07/22/1878 AD] | 3949) George Darwin is the second son of Charles Darwin. Darwin's scientific papers are published in five volumes. (This paper is 93 pages long, and is highly mathematical in the style of Laplace, Maxwell, and Kelvin, etc. - heavily mathematical and somewhat abstract analysis rose to popularity around the time of Laplace - while math describes accurately physical phenomena, the problem is that there are so many particles, and many times, mathematical quantities are highly generalized, that the mathematical model may not represent the physical phenomenona.) (How can we be sure that the motions of the oceans might not speed up the earth's rotational speed? EX: We need to model the effect of a liquid on the surface of a spinning sphere. Does the rate of rotation decrease or increase? Do the simulations result in different results? Use different land masses, different rates of friction on the ocean floor. It is a very complex model. Atoms of liquid are difficult to model. I initially accepted this conclusion, but now have questions, because the number of atoms in the ocean is so large, friction with the sides of land very uneven, and the possibility of the rotation speed increasing. For a solid sphere, theoretically there would be no decelerating or accelerating (except as a result of crustal changes). Adding water in my novice view seems like it might slow the earth by causing extra frequencies, that tend to work against the rotation. I can imagine that there is someway of adding some material to a sphere in a way to make it's rotation speed up over time. It seems that absent any force increasing rotation, any rotating body could only slow down over time, yet, somehow bodies around stars start rotating, it is a collective effect of the seemingly random collisions of matter I think. Without some external source of acceleration, there would be no way to increase velocity relative to the Sun, however, acceleration from gravitation may change since the distance of the earth from the Sun may change. Other planets and masses may impart accleration on the Earth too. There must be non-rotating objects in the star system, perhaps some asteroids. Do all asteroids have one axis rotations? It's a complex simulation. It seems that without any more collisions, there is no way to add to the velocity of the earth. But perhaps a push by water could speed it up. I think a good case can be made for the slowing of all rotating bodies in the star system based on an absence of any force to accelerate them, although there is nothing but photons and surface liquid and gas to cause friction (perhaps gravity might add to rotation of uneven asteroids). If I had to guess, I would guess that the earth and all other planets are slowly slowing down, and even the sun is slowing down as it loses matter. If true, then the sun and planets probably were orbiting faster in the past (and each planet's year was shorter). It is interesting to think that the earth and other rotating bodies might be slowing down, and perhaps rotated faster in the past.) | (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
122 YBN [07/??/1878 AD] | 4158) In 1907 Michelson wins the Nobel prize in physics for his optical studies. Michelson is the first American to win a Nobel Prize. From 1923-1927 Michelson is the president of National Academy of Sciences. | (U.S. Naval Academy) Annapolis, Maryland |
122 YBN [08/01/1878 AD] | 4019) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
122 YBN [10/10/1878 AD] | 3878) | (King's College and Institute of Chemistry) London, England |
122 YBN [12/19/1878 AD] | 3105) (Sir) William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist examines the differences in the spectrum of positive and negative electrodes in vacuum tubes. | London, England |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 2995) | (Clapham) London, England (presumably) |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3188) Ytterbium is named for Ytterby, a town in Sweden. Ytterbium is a metallic chemical element that has symbol Yb, atomic number 70, atomic mass (weight) 173.04, melting point 819°C; boiling point about 1,194°C; relative density (specific gravity) about 7.0 and valence +2 or +3. Ytterbium is a soft, malleable, ductile, lustrous silver-white metal. Although ytterbium is one of the rare-earth metals of the lanthanide series in Group 3 of the periodic table, in some of its chemical and physical properties ytterbium more closely resembles calcium, strontium, and barium. Ytterbium exhibits allotropy; at room temperature a face-centered cubic crystalline form is stable. The Yterrbium metal tarnishes slowly in air and reacts slowly with water but rapidly dissolves in mineral acids. Ytterbium forms numerous compounds, some of which are yellow or green. The oxide (ytterbia, Yb2O3) is colorless. Ytterbium is widely distributed in a number of minerals, for example, gadolinite, and monazite. At about this same time C. A. von Welsbach independently discovered ytterbium and called it aldebaranium. Ytterbium has little commercial use. Ytterbium is among the less-abundant rare earths. Ytterbium occurs in minute amounts in many rare-earth minerals such as xenotime and euxenite and is found in the products of nuclear fission too. Natural ytterbium consists of seven stable isotopes. | (University of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3189) Gadolinium is a silvery-white, malleable, ductile, metallic rare-earth element obtained from monazite and bastnaesite and used in improving high-temperature characteristics of iron, chromium, and related alloys. Atomic number 64; atomic weight 157.25; melting point 1,312°C; boiling point approximately 3,000°C; relative density (specific gravity) from 7.8 to 7.896; valence 3. Gadolinium has unusual magnetic properties. At room temperature the metal is paramagnetic, but it becomes strongly ferromagnetic when cooled. Paramagnetism and Diamagnetism were first identified by Michael Faraday in 1845. A paramagnetic material is a substance in which an induced magnetic field is parallel and proportional to the intensity of the magnetizing field but is much weaker than in ferromagnetic materials. (This is somehow different from simply having a weaker magnetic field at a higher temperature?) Diamagnetic material is a substance in which has a magnetic permeability less than 1; materials with this property are repelled by a magnet and tend to position themselves at right angles to magnetic lines of force. (I think this clearly needs to be shown in videos. In experimenting with Bismuth metal powder I could not detect any movement from a small magnet.) Gadolinium has the highest absorption cross section for thermal neutrons of any natural isotope of any element (49,000 barns), which suggests its use in nuclear reactor control rods. | (University of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3372) | Mycenae, Greece |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3576) | Newcastle, England (presumably) |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3692) Bert is an anticlerical leftist and represents Yonne in the Chamber of Deputies (1872–86) and serves as minister of education (1881–82) in Léon Gambetta's Cabinet. Bert argues for free public education and the separation of church and state. Bert is one of the most determined enemies of clericalism, and an ardent advocate of "liberating national education from religious sects, while rendering it accessible to every citizen.". | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3716) Langley writes "The New Astronomy" (1884) and "Experiments in Aerodynamics" (1891). A unit of radiation equal to 1 calorie per square centimeter is called 1 Langley in his honor. (I think "radiation" is generally defined as light, electrons, and other particles emited from objects, but it is really too general to be useful in my opinion.) Langley Field, Virginia, and the Langley Research Center of NASA are named in Langley's honor. | (Western University of Pennsylvania now the University of Pittsburg) Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA (presumably) |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3721) | (Nautical Almanac Office) Washington, DC, USA |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3790) In 1914 Chardonnet is awarded the Perkin medal for rayon. | |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3864) | (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3902) | (District Medical Officer) Wollstein, Germany |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 3964) It is noteworthy, or somewhat unusual, that the reprint of the obituary of Edward Pickering from Science, by the National Academy of Sciences, has the first phrase changed from "By the death" to "At the death". Perhaps, it may mean that Pickering was murdered by galvanization by owners or somebody using the equipment owned by AT&T (since "At the" - may suggest "AT&T"), if perhaps insiders were somewhat unhappy about such a galvanization. But perhaps it is just a typo. Although Pickering was in his late 70s, which is somewhat old. EB2008 uses the word "utilized", instead of uses, perhaps should be "utility-ized"? | Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 4041) | New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 4063) | (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 4083) Sharpey-Schäfer argues for equal opportunities for women in health science (medicine). (as doctors?) Schäfer publishes two influential works: Essentials of Histology (1885) and Endocrine Organs (1916) and founds the important Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology in 1898. After the tragic death of both his sons in World War I Schäfer changed his own name to the hyphenated Sharpey-Schäfer taking the last name of William Sharpey, his anatomy and physiology teacher. | (University College) London, England |
122 YBN [1878 AD] | 4195) | (Charité Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
121 YBN [03/24/1879 AD] | 3797) | (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden. |
121 YBN [05/15/1879 AD] | 3847) | Paris, France |
121 YBN [07/22/1879 AD] | 3690) Nordenskiöld also writes "Facsimile-atlas to the Early History of Cartography" (1889) and "Periplus-An Essay on the Early History of Charts and Sailing Directions" (1897) which lay the foundations of the history of cartography. | Port Clarence, Alaska |
121 YBN [08/22/1879 AD] | 3681) | (British Association for the Advancement of Science)Sheffield, England |
121 YBN [10/21/1879 AD] | 4007) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, creates a light bulb that burns for 40 continuous hours. (Sir) Joseph Wilson Swan (CE 1828-1914) had built an electric lamp that uses a carbon fiber as a filament in 1860. Edison finds finds that a burned cotton thread can function as a light bulb filament for more time than other materials. Edison had spent $50,000 and a year to realize that (the ultraexpensive) platinum would not work as a filament. In 1878, when Edison announces that he will solve the problem of producing light from electricity, illuminating gas stock prices fall. | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
121 YBN [11/22/1879 AD] | 5653) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
121 YBN [12/11/1879 AD] | 3441) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
121 YBN [12/17/1879 AD] | 3874) | (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3550) Abel is born in London, the son of a well-known musician. Abel develops an early interest in science after visiting his uncle A. J. Abel, a mineralogist and pupil of Berzelius. Abel studies chemistry for six years under A. W. von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry (established in London in 1845). In 1852 Abel is appointed lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, succeeding Michael Faraday, who had held that post since 1829. In 1854 until 1888 Abel serves as ordnance chemist at the Chemical Establishment of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, establishing himself as the leading British authority on explosives. Among Abel's books are - "Handbook of Chemistry" (with C. L. Bloxam), "Modern History of Gunpowder" (1866), "Gun-cotton" (1866), "On Explosive Agents" (1872), "Researches in Explosives" (1875), and "Electricity applied to Explosive Purposes" (1884). Abel also writes several important articles in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. | (Royal Arsenal at Woolwich) Woolwich, England |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3687) In 1881 Wundt will found the first journal ("Philosophische Studien" changed to "Psychologische Studien" in 1903) devoted to experimental psychology. His later works include "Hypnotismus and Suggestion" (1892), "Outline of Psychology" (1896) and "Ethnic Psychology" (10 vol., 1900 – 20). | (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3719) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3730) Other important work by Stefan involves heat conduction in gases, and in the theory of mutual magnetic effects of two electric currents. Stefan shows, in opposition to Ampere and Grassman, that clear results can be achieved only by means of the Faraday-Maxwell theory of continuous action. (more detail) | (Physical Institute, University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3764) | (Moscow University) Moscow, Russia |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3782) | (home lab) Cognac, France (presumably) |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3796) | (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden. |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3853) For some time Flemming is an assistant to Willy Kuhne at the Institute of Physiology in Amsterdam. Flemming serves as physician on the Prussian side in Franco-Prussion War of 1870. | (University of Kiel) Kiel, Germany |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 3958) | Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 4064) Frege is an extreme nationalist (and racist) who hates all non-German races. According to the 2009 Encyclopedia Britannica: "Frege was, in religion, a liberal Lutheran and, in politics, a reactionary. He had a great love for the monarchy and for the royal house of Mecklenburg, and during World War I he developed an intense hatred of socialism and of democracy, to which he came to ascribe the loss of the war and the shame of the Treaty of Versailles. A diary kept at the end of his life reveals, as well, a loathing of the French and of Catholics and an anti-Semitism extending to a belief that the Jews must be expelled from Germany." With no regard to his racial beliefs, Frege's contributinos to science appear to be somewhat overvalued in some sources - the 2009 Encyclopedia Britannica has 7 pages on him. | (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 4106) | (École Normale) Paris, France |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 4183) In 1910 Kossel wins the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine for his work on proteins and nucleic acids. | (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg , Germany |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 4196) | (Leipzig University) Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
121 YBN [1879 AD] | 4231) According to Asimov, Neisser's attempts at inoculating against syphilis may actually spread the disease instead. Neisser is accused of having "maliciously inoculated innocent children with syphilis poison", and a scandal results. Neisser mistakenly draws on an analogy with the serum therapy that Behring had used against diphtheria and tetanus. Neisser inoculates young prostitutes with what is probably highly a infectious serum. (voluntarily?) | (Oskar Simon’s clinic) Breslau, Germany |
120 YBN [01/01/1880 AD] | 4009) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
120 YBN [02/09/1880 AD] | 3420) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
120 YBN [05/??/1880 AD] | 3750) | (City University) New York City, NY, USA |
120 YBN [06/03/1880 AD] | 4038) inventors.about.com ends with the sentence "Bell's photophone is recognized as the progenitor of the modern fiber optics that today transport over eight percent of the world's telecommunications." - and perhaps this is analogous to 8% of humans on earth see and hear thought - that amounts to about 480 million people of the 6 billion - and for the USA, 24 million of the 300 million people in the USA are allowed to pay for the service of seeing and hearing thought. But we can only guess. An earlier estimate from insiders was 10% for the USA - 30 million "insiders" of the 300 million people living in the USA. | (top of Franklin School) Washington, D. C., USA |
120 YBN [06/17/1880 AD] | 3829) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
120 YBN [07/03/1880 AD] | 4045) | (229 Broadway) New York City, New York, USA |
120 YBN [09/20/1880 AD] | 3845) | (Academy of Sciences) Paris, France |
120 YBN [09/30/1880 AD] | 3751) | (City University) New York City, NY, USA |
120 YBN [09/??/1880 AD] | 3759) | (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
120 YBN [10/10/1880 AD] | 3577) | Newcastle, England (presumably) |
120 YBN [11/23/1880 AD] | 3948) In 1907, Laveran wins a Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for his finding concerning protists and disease. Laveran's publishes many writings. | (Académie de Médecine) Paris, France |
120 YBN [12/12/1880 AD] | 3846) | (Academy of Sciences) Paris, France |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 2691) The "Imperial Chinese Telegraph Company" (ICT) is founded by the Chinese merchant Li Hongzhang in cooperation with the government. | (Tientsin (now Tianjin) or Shanghai?), China |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 3512) | (Munich Polytechnic School) Munich, Germany |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 3646) | ?, France |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 3768) In 1881 Beilstein is elected to the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, while Mendeléev, Asimov cites as the greater scientist, is rejected. Asimov claims that Russian science in the 1800s had a strongly pro-German and anti-Russian orientation. | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 3810) Although close for many years, Breuer and Freud separate in 1896 and never speak again due partly to quarrels over their work. | (in his own home?) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) (presumably) |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 3812) Nicolas Camille Flammarion (FlomorEON) (CE 1842-1925), French astronomer publishes "Astronomie populaire" (1880, tr. 1907; "Popular Astronomy"). Asimov states that this is the best book of its kind produced in the 1800s. In 1883 Flammarion creates a private observatory at Juvisy (near Paris) and continues his studies, especially of double and multiple stars and of the moon and Mars. Flammarion also publishes several science fiction novels. Flammarion writes a 500-page manuscript on the universe at a young age. Flammarion takes the side of advanced life and canals on Mars (and that all worlds are inhabited by living beings). In 1887, Flammarion founds the French Astronomical Society. Flammarion's later studies are on psychical research, on which he wrote many works, among them "Death and Its Mystery" (3 vol., 1920–21; tr. 1921–23), and "Des Forces naturelles inconnues" (1865; "Unknown Natural Forces"). | Paris?, France |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 3871) | (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 3914) | (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4012) | (private lab) Menlo Park, NJ, USA |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4095) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4100) Milne has Japanese wife. (How unusual "touch and sex partner" sounds, but yet, somewhat accurate.) | (Imperial College of Engineering) Tokyo, Japan |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4232) | (Oskar Simon’s clinic) Breslau, Germany (presumably) |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4348) Pierre is only 18 years old when he and Jacques discover piezoelectricity but the brothers apparently do not publish until 1880. Pierre Curie was run over by a dray, a low heavy sideless cart, on a Paris street and died instantly in 1906. Was this perhaps a murder? | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4549) | unknown |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4550) | unknown |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4551) | unknown |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 4552) | unknown |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 5839) In 1862 Röntgen entered a technical school at Utrecht, and is unfairly expelled, accused of having produced a caricature of one of the teachers, which was in fact done by somebody else. Röntgen publishes 55 scientific papers in his lifetime. | (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany |
120 YBN [1880 AD] | 6011) | Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) (verify) |
119 YBN [01/05/1881 AD] | 3608) | London, England (presumably) |
119 YBN [02/05/1881 AD] | 3877) In 1882, Abney is awarded the Rumsford medal for these researches. | (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England |
119 YBN [02/??/1881 AD] | 3421) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
119 YBN [02/??/1881 AD] | 3422) | (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
119 YBN [04/??/1881 AD] | 4256) The son of a bookseller, Thomson enters Owens College, now the Victoria University of Manchester when only 14 years old. Asimov states that through Thomson's direction and inspired teaching England maintains clear leadership in the field of subatomic physics for the first 3 decades of the 1900s. In 1906 Thomson wins the Nobel prize in physics for work on the electon. Seven of Thomson's research assistants will win Nobel prizes. Thomson's son,Sir George Paget Thomson (CE 1892–1975), will discover electron diffraction, for which he shares the 1937 Nobel Prize for physics with Clinton J. Davisson (1881–1958), who independently makes the same discovery. In 1884 there was a transition from Lord Rayleigh, who had succeeded Maxwell, as Cavendish Professorship of Experimental Physics, to Thomson. This may have been a somewhat important transition from a wave interpretation of light to a particle interpretation. According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Thomson was surprised to be elected, and some of Thomson's competitors, who included Fitzgerald, Glazebrook, Larmor, Reynolds, and Schuster, were annoyed. Among the electors were Stokes, William Thomson, W. D. Niven, and George Darwin. In the course of his life, Thomson publishes over a hundred scientific papers. | (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
119 YBN [10/??/1881 AD] | 4010) | (Paris International Exhibition) Paris, France |
119 YBN [12/15/1881 AD] | 3738) | (Solar Physics Observatory) South Kensington, England |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 3043) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, publishes his last major work "The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits" (1881). | Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 3330) Mortillet is a freethinker, takes part in Revolution of 1848 and is forced to leave France in 1849. | (School of Anthropology) Paris, France |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 3715) | (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 3793) Maxim is the eldest son of a farmer who is a locally notable mechanic, and is apprenticed at 14 to a carriage maker. Maxim has an early genius for invention, and obtains his first patent in 1866, for a hair-curling iron. Maxim spends time as a professional prize fighter. For this generator Maxim receives the Legion of Honour from France. In the 1890s Maxim experimented with airplanes, producing one powered by a light steam engine that dies rise from the ground. Maxim recognizes that the real solution to flight is the internal-combustion engine but did not develop any. Maxim receives 122 United States patents and 149 British patents. | Paris, France |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 3907) | (International Medical Congress) London, England |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 4040) | (Volta Lab) Washington, District of Columbia, USA |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 4136) In 1886 Halsted is the first professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University, and establishes the first separate surgical school in the USA there. At Johns Hopkins, halsted develops original operations for hernia, breast cancer, goitre, aneurysms, and intestinal and gallbladder diseases. Halsted develops an addiction to cocaine that requires 2 years to stop. But people of this draconian age should remember that drug addiction is no reason to be imprisoned, and certainly not for more than a week until an addiction is physically gone. Halsted is particularly noted for his skill in breast amputations. Halsted sends his shirts to Paris to have then laundered. | New York City, NY, USA |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 4157) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
119 YBN [1881 AD] | 4349) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
118 YBN [01/12/1882 AD] | 4011) | (57 Holborn Viaduct) London, England |
118 YBN [01/14/1882 AD] | 4013) | (Crystal Palace) Syndenham, England |
118 YBN [02/??/1882 AD] | 3996) | (University College) Bristol, England |
118 YBN [03/24/1882 AD] | 3903) In 1905 Koch will win the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology for findings relating to tuberculosis. | (Imperial Department of Health) Berlin, Germany |
118 YBN [03/??/1882 AD] | 3752) | (City University) New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
118 YBN [05/25/1882 AD] | 4066) | (Johns Hopkins University), Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
118 YBN [07/17/1882 AD] | 4825) | (Royal College of Science) Dublin, Ireland |
118 YBN [09/04/1882 AD] | 4014) | (Edison Electric illuminating Company, 255 and 257 Pearl Street), New York City, NY, USA |
118 YBN [12/??/1882 AD] | 3620) | (Tuft's College) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3513) | (Munich Polytechnic School) Munich, Germany |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3515) | (Munich Polytechnic School) Munich, Germany |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3516) Jean Martin Charcot (soRKO) (CE 1825-1893), French physician Charcot presented a summary of his findings on the phenomenon of mesmerism to the French Academy of Sciences, where they are favorably received, in this way the phenomenon of mesmerism (hypnotism) is officially recognized as a real and legitimate phenomenon. In his study of muscular atrophy, Charcot described the symptoms of locomotor ataxia, a degeneration of the dorsal columns of the spinal cord and of the sensory nerve trunks. He is also first to describe the disintegration of ligaments and joint surfaces (Charcot’s disease, or Charcot’s joint) caused by locomotor ataxia and other related diseases or injuries. (chronology) Charcot uses the techniques of mesmerism (hypnosis) that Braid had introduced, to treat hysteria. Charcot studies the cure of hysterical disorders (psychoneuroses). These disorders involve what appear to be physiological disturbances such as convulsions, paralyses, blindness, deafness, anesthesias, and amnesias. However, there is no evidence of physiological abnormalities in psychoneuroses since the root of the problem is psychological (or based on badly ordered neuron connections, as opposed to physical problems with neurons or neuron connections themselves). In Charcot's time hysteria is thought to be a disorder found only in women (the Greek word hysterameans uterus). Charcot continues to think of hysteria as a female disorder. One of the major problems for psychology in this time is determining whether behavioral abnormalities originate in psychological or in physiological disturbances and, if physiological, where in the central nervous system the abnormality might be located. Charcot becomes noted for his ability to diagnose and locate the physiological disturbances of nervous system functioning. Charcot conducts pioneering research in cerebral localization, the determination of specific sites in the brain responsible for specific nervous functions, and discovers miliary aneurysms (dilation of the small arteries feeding the brain), demonstrating their importance in cerebral hemorrhage. (How was this done, with electronic devices?) (To me, hysteria is a questionable disease, in addition to being somewhat trivial and open to abuse in the form of forced treatment. People can be frantic, overly excited perhaps, but it usually does not last in my experience, and is not something that I interpret as an abnormality or disease, but as a natural, albeit maybe annoying, physical part of genetic structure or the result of learning.) (Neurology is an actual science, psychology is a dubious science, but as long as it is consensual only and not used as an excuse to imprison people {for which only law is a valid excuse, and then, the dubious theories of psychology should not serve as the basis for any law in my opinion}, I think psychology should be legal. The value of psychology is very doubtful to me, but if people enjoy the drugs, or consensual only treatments of those in psychology I see no reason to outlaw it, and perhaps there is a beneficial purpose, if people truly feel they are being helped, as is the case for any drug or substance that directly harms no other person.) (Between neurology and psychology there is a fine line, which separates these two as completely different sciences. I think it is important to be able to distinguish between the two.) (Does Charcot forcibly treat? drug? restrain? objecting people?) Charcot is with Guillaume Duchenne one of the founders of modern neurology. In 1862 Charcot establishes a major neurological department at La Salpêtrière Hospital for nervous and mental disorders. In 1887 Charcot writes, "What I call psychology is the rational physiology of the cerebral cortex.". Charcot gives impetus to the new field (of psychology) with the creation, in 1890, of the Laboratory of Psychology at the Salpêtrière hospital. In 1885 one of Charcot's students is Freud who also becomes interested in treating hysteria with hyponotism. Charcot’s writings include "Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux", 5 vol. (1872–83; "Lectures on the Diseases of the Nervous System") and "Leçons du mardi à la Salpêtrière" (1888; "Tuesday Lessons at the Salpêtrière"). | Paris, France |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3528) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3579) | (Owens College) Manchester, England (presumably) |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3588) | (College de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3854) | (University of Kiel) Kiel, Germany |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3908) | (Imperial Department of Health) Berlin, Germany |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3947) According to Asimov, Mechnikov has poor eyesight, and a violent temper. After his wife dies, Mechnikov tries to end his own life by swallowing a large dose of opium, but does not die. Virchow is not impressed after a demonstration of phagocytes. In 1888 Pasteur invites the Russian Mechnikov to join the Pasteur Institute which Mechnikov does. (The French version of Ilya is Élie Metchnikoff.) In 1895 On Pasteur's death Mechnikov succeeds Pasteur as director of the Institute. Mechnikov believes that the natural lifespan of humans is 150 years and that drinking cultured milk helps a person attain it. In 1908 Mechnikov shares a Nobel Prize with Paul Ehrlich for their researches illuminating the understanding of immunity. Mechnikov publishes "The Comparative pathology of inflammation" (1892) and "Immunity in infectious diseases" (1901). Mechnikov's later years are largely centered studying aging factors in humans and methods of inducing longevity, which are discussed in "The Nature of Man" (1904) and "The Prolongation of Human Life" (1910). One biography of Metchnikoff was made by his wife, Olga Metchnikoff, "Life of Élie Metchnikoff" (trans. 1921). | (In his own private laboratory) Messina, Italy |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3956) Hall initially intended to enter the ministry. Hall is inspired by a partial reading of Physiological Psychology (1873–74), by Wilhelm Wundt, generally considered the founder of experimental psychology. Hall then studies in Germany becoming acquainted with Wundt and the German physicist and physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz. There Hall discovers the value of the questionnaire for psychological research. Hall and his students will devise more than 190 questionnaires which stimulate the field of child development. (Interesting that psychology started in Germany and spread to other nations.) In 1878, Hall earns, from Harvard University, the first Ph.D. degree in psychology in America. (To me this shows the seeds and growth of what in some sense can be seen as a cancer, until made "strictly-consensual only" health care, or certainly at least "treatment with no-objection only" health care. The inaccurate claims of pscyhological disorders have slowed the stopping of violence - since those who tell the truth about the JFK, MLK, RFK, 9/11 murders are labeled as "insane", and the murderers continue to live free and unknown by the majority. In addition the stigma and fear of being labeled with a psychological disorder has slowed creativity and diversity. Beyond this, the locking up of humans without trial, injecting with drugs, restraining, and holding indefinitely all violate the most basic principles of the 1200s habeus corpus law and many other basic laws and principles.) Hall pioneers the study of child psychology. (psychology as applied to adults and children too is in large part a total pseudoscience, as far as I can see. Perhaps there is value in examining patterns of behavior and certainly understanding physiological development in humans and other species.) Hall gives an early impetus and direction to the development of psychology in the United States and is frequently regarded as the founder of child psychology and educational psychology. Hall promotes the ideas of Sigmund Freud. In 1888 Hall helps to establish Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and becomes the university's president and a professor of psychology. (This shows how pseudoscience, and involuntary torture was still very respectable in 1889 and is even today.) (documentation of people in psychology serves more to track the growth and development of pseudoscience industries, and has little if anything to do with actual science (for example sciences of health and healing). However, I think, if voluntary only, psychology, although with fraudulent, highly abstract and speculative theories rarely based on factual science, may serve as experiment, mainly in drugs (and other non-violent, voluntary only methods, such as talk, computer games, etc) might serve to create new drugs that some people enjoy voluntarily and find helpful in solving abstract ununderstood individually perceived problems.) (I think the question for psychology is, who tortured/treated involuntarily and who did not? and in addition, who subscribed to pseudoscience erroneous theories? who worked against those aims? I think those in psychology need to work on a different definition of "voluntary-only experimental treatment/therapy for unknown disease or unwanted behavior, thoughts or beliefs". The key idea is "voluntary only".) (I equate the history of psychology similar to the history of message therapy, although message therapy probably has less inaccurate claims, and certainly no involuntary injection or torture. Perhaps a closer comparison is the history of prisons and treatment of prisoners.) (Clark, as is the case with many soft-science people appears to me to be highly over-valued with many biographies, but few actual science contributions, and possibly undocumented human rights violations such as involuntary drugging, restraint, electrocution, etc.) (One interesting book title by Hall: Jesus, the Christ, in the Light of Psychology (1917). This appears to describe how people have drawn Jesus over the centuries and how Jesus was protrayed to reflect some belief. Possibly there are minor anti-religious, or exposing the truth about religions, contributions there.) (I think that in the transition from religions to science, much if not all of psychology will probably fall to the past as more and more people focus on science and accurate analysis of the universe.) | Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 3965) | Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 4015) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 4061) | (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 4126) Lindemann spends 6 years trying to solve Fermat's last theorem, and in 1907 publishes a very long paper in which he claims to have succeeded, however there is an error in the beginning. | (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 4130) Löffler works in the same laboratory with Koch for a period of time. | (Imperial Health Office) Berlin, Germany |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 4805) | London, England |
118 YBN [1882 AD] | 6029) | Paris, France (guess) |
117 YBN [01/??/1883 AD] | 3733) | (University College Hospital) London, England |
117 YBN [03/05/1883 AD] | 3880) | (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England |
117 YBN [03/??/1883 AD] | 4070) | (laboratory of brewer Carl Jacobsen) Kopenhagen, Denmark |
117 YBN [04/09/1883 AD] | 3955) Wroblewski endured a six-year exile (in Siberia) for participating in the January Uprising (1863), an unsuccessful Polish rebellion against Russian rule.. In 1888, while working on the physical properties of hydrogen, Zygmunt Wróblewski is heavily burned and dies soon afterwards at a Krakow hospital. | Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Austria (now Poland) |
117 YBN [05/24/1883 AD] | 3683) | (Bakerian Lecture, Royal Society) London, England |
117 YBN [05/26/1883 AD] | 4076) Fleming was the author of more than a hundred scientific papers and books, including the influential "The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy" (1906) and "The Propagation of Electric Currents in Telephone and Telegraph Conductors" (1911). | (Edison Electric Light Company) London, England |
117 YBN [06/06/1883 AD] | 4339) In 1903 Arrhenius is awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry. | (Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
117 YBN [11/15/1883 AD] | 4016) | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3400) | London, England (presumably) |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3407) | (University of Liepzig) Liepzig, Germany (presumably) |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3578) | Newcastle, England (presumably) |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3629) In 1850 Suess is imprisoned for being on the side of the liberals during a revolution in 1848. Another source has Suess imprisoned simply for participating in revolutionary demonstrations of 1848. In 1856, Suess is appointed extraordinary professor of paleontology at the University of Vienna without a doctorate degree. From 1873 on, Suess spends 30 years in the Austrian legislature. | (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3699) When World War I starts Weismann renounces all his British honors and awards. | (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3710) In 1872 Daimler becomes technical director in the firm of Nikolaus A. Otto, the man who had invented the four-stroke internal-combustion engine. In 1882 Daimler and his coworker Wilhelm Maybach left Otto's firm and started their own engine-building shop. In 1890 Daimler founds the Daimler motor company. in 1899, the Daimler motor company produces the first Mercedes automobile, which is named for the daughter of the financier backing Daimler. | (factory) Stuttgart, Germany |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3771) | (Charles University) Prague, Czech Republic |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3794) | (Maxim's shop, Hatton Garden) London, England |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3815) More than half of these 4051 stars proof to be of Secchi's first type (represented by Sirius, Vega, Altair and other bluish-white stars, characterized by the intensity of the hydrogen lines). (Probably because they are the brightest and easiest to see.) | (Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam) Potsdam, Germany |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3865) | (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3904) | (Imperial Department of Health) Berlin, Germany |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3916) | (University of Liege) Liege, Belgium |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3959) | University of Liège, Liège, Belgium |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 3987) George Westinghouse (CE 1846-1914) US engineer, applies his knowledge of air brakes to the problem of safely piping natural gas. Westinghouse develops a system of transporting gases through pipes over long distances, which makes gas ovens and gas furnaces practical. This work enables Westinghouse to understand the problems involved in distributing electrical power. | (Westinghouse Air Brake Company) Pittsburg, PA, USA (presumably) |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 4044) | (Volta Lab) Washington, District of Columbia, USA |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 4072) | (Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 4203) | (Physiology Institute) München, Germany |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 4245) Tesla is from a family of Serbian origin. Tesla's father is an Orthodox priest; and Tesla's mother is an unschooled but highly intelligent. The unit of magnetic flux density (symbol B) is named the tesla in Tesla's honor. Magnetic flux density is the amount of magnetic flux through a unit area taken perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic flux. Also called magnetic induction. Magnetic flux is defined as the quantity of magnetism, being the total number of magnetic lines of force passing through a specified area in a magnetic field. (Those lines are presumably lines of particles in my opinion, however, this is not explicitly stated by authoritative sources.) (In particle terms, perhaps the magnetic flux density is the quantity of particles in an electric current summed over an area of space which includes various mediums - like metals, and air in addition to the empty space surrounding an electromagnetic conductor.) In 1932 Tesla publicly rejects the theory that space can be curved stating in the New York Herald Tribune: "I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view ...". (verify) (I reject the curvature of space, because in particular, surface geometry is actually a subset of Euclidean geometry, in addition to a simple 4 variable universe seems more logical, intuitive and simple to me.) In 1935 Tesla critisizes Einstein's relativity work, calling it a: "... magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king ... its exponents are brilliant men but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists ...". Many sources claim Tesla is insane in later life, but I think people need to put things into perspective and realize that there is a lot of propaganda and money put towards the many times completely inaccurate myth that all scientists are insane (for example, the "nutty professor"), much of this comes from an anti-science anti-technology group, in particular those trying to preserve traditional religions. In addition, when people talk about Tesla's unusual activities, why are these no comparisons to the illogical nature of praying to a person who died hundreds of years ago before going to sleep as thousands do? Worshipping relics of the past as if they had supernatural properties...beliefs in superstitions...horoscopes...fortune telling...palm reading.... or to worshipping a person who died thousands of years ago every 7 earth rotations....all activities which are based on very inaccurate and doubtful theories and beliefs - while perhaps common and popular...they are certainly not sane in the sense of being logical, accurate, and wise activities. Beyond this, at least Tesla never resorts to violence - so no matter what inaccurate beliefs, they never resulted in violence - Tesla and many others labeled with pseudoscience psychiatric disorders express strong will power and control to not engage in first-strike violence against non-violent people, while many so-called sane people show much less restraint. In later life Tesla breeds pigeons and lavishes his affection on them. (I wonder how much is beyond simply a hobby and love for birds. I think there is a tradition to make usual behavior appear unusual if there is a myth about insanity.) Tesla fights a long battle with Marconi over priority in the invention of radio. Asimov states that the last 25 years of Tesla's life degenerated into wild eccentricity. (Tesla tries to develop a method of transporting electricity without wires and would not give up, and Westinghouse eventually stops funding Tesla.) While at his Colorado laboratory, Tesla announced that he had received signals from foreign planets, a statement that is greeted with some skepticism. Encyclopedia Britannica states that this claim is met with derision in some scientific journals. This appears to originate from a January 7, 1900 letter, Tesla writes to the Red Cross stating that he received a message that signaled "one ... two ... three ...". Among Tesla's public claims are: 1) communication with other planets, 2) his assertions that he could split the Earth like an apple, and 3) his claim of having invented a death ray capable of destroying 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 250 miles (400 km). | Strasbourg, France |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 4304) Tsiolkovsky has permanently impaired hearing at age nine as a result of scarlet fever and four years later his mother dies. In 1881 Tsiolkovsky works out the kinetic theory of gases, unaware that Maxwell had already done this 25 years earlier. (interesting that they both reach the same conclusion that velocity of particles is heat, while there still exists a potential problem with a constant velocity for photons {or perhaps x or some smaller particle} which may be the basis for all matter, although I have doubts about a constant velocity for any material object, and there are possibilities for a constant velocity for material particles. I view all particles as material. In addition to velocity, clearly quantity of space and matter plays a part in my opinion.) In 1895 Tsiolkovsky's book "Gryozy o zemle i nebe" (Dreams of Earth and Sky) is published. In 1896 Tsiolkovsky publishes an article on communication with inhabitants of other planets and starts to write his largest and most serious work on astronautics, "Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices", which deals with theoretical problems of using rocket engines in space, including heat transfer, a navigating mechanism, heating resulting from air friction, and maintenance of fuel supply. Tsiolkovsky writes a science fiction novel "Outside the Earth". Asimov indicates Tsiolkovsky is held back by the scientific backwardness of Tsarist Russia. (there are few people that contribute to science in Russia, but then perhaps like China there is a language barrier. Some in math, and Mendeleev.) Twenty-two years after his death the Soviet government plans to launch the first human-made satellite, Sputnik 1, on the 100th anniversary of Tsiolkovsky's birth, but is 29 days late. Tsiolkovsky's grave has the phrase "Mankind will not remain tied to earth forever". | Borovsk, Russia |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 4336) | (Steel Works Company) Sheffield, England (presumably) |
117 YBN [1883 AD] | 6025) Léo Delibes (CE 1836-1891), French opera and ballet composer, composes the opera "Lakmé". | Paris, France (presumably) |
116 YBN [01/06/1884 AD] | 3621) Nipkow studies physiological optics with Hermann von Helmholtz, and physiological optics and electro-physics with Adolf Slaby. | Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN [01/11/1884 AD] | 3859) | (Royal Observatory) Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
116 YBN [03/07/1884 AD] | 4209) When younger Eastman read in British magazines that photographers make their own gelatin emulsions. Plates coated with this emulsion remain sensitive after they are dry and can be exposed at any time later as opposed to wet plates. Using a formula taken from one of these British journals, Eastman begins making gelatin emulsions. Eastman starts his business manufacturing dry plates in April 1880. Clearly Eastman's work is on the side of bringing captured images to the public - although these images are mainly only of the visible spectrum and do not include images or sound recordings of thoughts - Eastman's work clearly brings these awesome truths many steps closer to the public. How deeply was Eastman involved in neuron reading and writing? Only the remaining historical secret movies might tell us. In Eastman's October 5, 1884 patent, eastman uses the words "tension" and "web", which imply either an awareness of 1810 and the wireless internet, or perhaps an echoing of neuron writing done to Eastman without his knowledge. Eastman is from poor parents, and by working supports himself at age 14. Eastman, as head of a large business, introduces sickness benefits, retirement annuities, and life insurance for his employees, long before these are popular. Eastman is also one of the first to introduce the idea of profit sharing as employees incentive. Eastman gives away half his fortune in 1924 in gifts totaling more than $75,000,000. Eastman donates $54 million to the University of Rochester, and $19 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology so that others may receive the education he never had. Eastman systematically gives money to the University of Rochester (especially the medical school and Eastman School of Music), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hampton Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Rochester Dental Dispensary, and European dental clinics. Interesting that Eastman donates to education and not religions. In 1932, Eastman ends his own life at age 77, leaving a note with the words, "My work is done. Why wait?". Eastman's house in Rochester, now known as the George Eastman House, has become a renowned archive and museum of international photography in addition to a popular tourist site. (Eastman's death sounds very suspicious. In particular in an era of secret neuron reading and writing. This was just before world war 2, and perhaps the message was written by the murderers with the last word "why wait" - perhaps hinting - this is why people should wait to show and tell the public about neuron reading and writing and the massive injustice of a two tier planet where one group of people sees a square with the thought-images above the head of each person, while the other group of people does not even know such technology has existed for hundreds of years. In addition, "ww" might be some reference to William Wollaston who may have been the first to see and/or hear thought images and sounds, and finally a reference to "world war" and an appeal to nationalism and secrecy for the ironic cause of national security. The kodak.com webpage states that Eastman "... was a modest, unassuming man... an inventor, a marketer, a global visionary, a philanthropist, and a champion of inclusion." - notice "inclusion" - clearly Eastman brought the average person closer to seeing inside houses and heads than many people. | (Eastman Dry Plate Company) Rochester, NY, USA |
116 YBN [04/23/1884 AD] | 4206) Charles Parsons is the youngest son of the famous astronomer William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse. In retirement Parsons tries unsuccessfully to make diamonds. | (Clarke, Chapman and Company) Gateshead, England |
116 YBN [08/10/1884 AD] | 4047) In 1910 Wallach is awarded a Nobel in chemistry for his work on terpenes. In his life Wallach publishes 126 papers on the terpenes. At the start of World War I six of Wallach's assistants are killed in action. | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 3398) | London, England |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 3787) | (Freiberg School of Mining) Freiberg, Germany |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 3831) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 3905) | Egypt|India (more specific) |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 3906) | (Imperial Department of Health) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 3926) Perhaps there should be distinguished a difference between a "black body", an "all color emitting body" and a total reflective body. | (University of Graz) Graz, Austria |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4042) | Boston and New York (City?), USA |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4080) | (Imperial Health Office) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4097) Le Châtelier is the first to translate the work of Gibbs into French. | (École des Mines) Paris, France |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4107) | (École Normale) Paris, France |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4131) | (Imperial Health Office) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4182) | (lab of microbiologist Karl Friedländer ) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4184) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4185) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN [1884 AD] | 4315) | (General Hospital in Vienna) Vienna, Austria |
115 YBN [01/30/1885 AD] | 3500) Balmer teaches at a girl's school in Basel. From 1865-1890, Balmer also lectures on geometry at the University of Basel. Balmer reports his find at age 60. | (Secondary School) Basel, Switzerland |
115 YBN [05/23/1885 AD] | 4017) It is interesting to note that at this time, there has been no heavier-than-air vehicle, rockets that go above the earth atmosphere, or photographs of the earth from orbit. | (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
115 YBN [07/27/1885 AD] | 4078) | (University College) London, England |
115 YBN [07/??/1885 AD] | 3827) | (father's ironworks) Chatillon, France (presumably) |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 3711) | (factory) Stuttgart, Germany |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 3712) | (factory) Stuttgart, Germany |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 3866) | (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 3967) | Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 3985) From 1885-1888 Pickering is vice president of the American Society for Psychical Research and serves on the society's Committee on Thought Transference. Pickering participates in the statistical analysis of experiments in telepathy using cards, dice, and numbers, a precursor to the methods later championed by parapsychology. That the science of seeing, hearing and sending images and sonuds to and from brains got mixed into psychology is an interesting phenomenon, because on the negative side, it is more easily dismissed as outlandish pseudoscience, however, on the positive side, it allows people to talk publicly about the concept of seeing, hearing and sending images and sounds to and from brains. After the publication of Kamitani and others in December, 2008, talking about seeing, hearing and sending images and sounds too and from brains is entering into non-psychology scientific and public discussion. Pickering writes: "Possibility of Errors in Scientific Researches, Due to Thought-Transference." and "Discussion of Returns in Response to Circular No. 4.". Possibly there are solid hints about the names, dates and other events surrounding the secrets surrounding the seeing, hearing and sending images and sounds to and from brains and remote muscle contraction (galvanization) in these works. | Bostom, Massachusetts, USA |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 3990) George Westinghouse (CE 1846-1914) US engineer, imports a set of Gaulard-Gibbs transformers and a Siemens AC generator and creates an AC electrical distribution system in Pittsburgh. Perhaps the distribution of gas and electricity led to the distribution of secret microphones, cameras, neuron activation devices, etc.? Perhaps Westinghouse served as an alternative neuron zapper to the phone company. In the biography, "His Life and Achievements" there is no "galvanize", but there is "camera" and "confederate" in the same sentence. State how many people receive electricity and/or gas from Westinghouse to show growth of gas and electricity distribution systems (along with telephone). There are at least two alternatives in providing people electricity, gas, and other services: 1) send the electricity or gas to them all from a central location, or 2) they produce their own electricity and/or gas individually. | (Westinghouse Air Brake Company (presumably)) Pittsburg, PA, USA |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 4132) | (hygienic laboratory at the First Garrison Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 4137) | New York City, NY, USA |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 4329) Auer's baronal motto is "more light". | (University of Vienna) Vienna |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 4330) | (University of Vienna) Vienna |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 4388) Bateson translates Mendel's papers into English. | (St. John’s College) Cambridge, England |
115 YBN [1885 AD] | 4461) | (Royal Observatory of Brusells) Bruselles, Belgium |
114 YBN [02/23/1886 AD] | 4431) Hall's teacher stated that any body that can find a cheap way of making aluminum would grow rich and famous. After several failures to interest financial backers, Hall obtains the support of the Mellon family, and the Pittsburgh Reduction Company (later the Aluminum Company of America) is formed. In 1890 Hall becomes the company's first vice president. Hall leaves Oberlin more than $5,000,000 after his death. | (Oberlin (Ohio) College Hall) Oberlin, Ohio, USA |
114 YBN [04/??/1886 AD] | 4415) | (family tannery) Gentilly, France |
114 YBN [05/03/1886 AD] | 3881) | (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England (verify) |
114 YBN [06/26/1886 AD] | 4139) In 1906 Moissan wins a Nobel prize in chemistry for isolating Fluorine (winning over Mendeléev by one vote, who Asimov argues, probably deserves the prize more). | (École Supérieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
114 YBN [07/27/1886 AD] | 4096) | (University of Berlin - verify) Berlin, Germany |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3145) Gabriel Auguste Daubrée (DOBrA) (CE 1814-1896), French geologist, categorizes meteorites and gives information on their composition, relationship to terrestrial rocks, and their change in shape in passing through the Earth atmosphere in "Météorites et la constitution géologique du globe" ("Meteorites and the Geologic Constitution of the World"). | Paris, France |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3170) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3426) Kronecker is a Jewish professor at the University of Berlin starting in 1861 (even though not a Christian). | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3625) | (University of Grenoble) Grenoble, France |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3632) | Anhalt-Bernburg, Germany |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3741) | (Solar Physics Observatory) South Kensington, England (presumably) |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3769) | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3783) | (home lab) Cognac, France (presumably) |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3786) | (Freiberg School of Mining) Freiberg, Germany |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3799) Krafft-Ebing is professor of psychiatry (Is called psychiatry?) at Strasbourg (1872), Graz (1873), and Vienna (1889). Krafft-Ebing is the director of an insane asylum in Graz. Krafft-Ebing publishes a textbook on psychiatry that goes through seven editions in his lifetime. (Is the issue of consent ever raised? For example the view that psychiatric disorder can be treated without consent? This concept is still popular - the view that the decision and opinions, in particular the objection of a person with a psychiatric disorder can be overruled, ignored, etc - is like the opinion of a lesser species or possessed victim who doesn't know what is good for themselves.) Krafft-Ebing performs experiments in hypnosis. (One interesting view of psychology is that, the view I have of psychology, is that, consent is required, or at least objection must be honored. In terms of crime, I view the reasons why as secondary, as opposed to the modern system which views supposed root causes as more important than punishment of crimes. So I reject the approach where a person violating a law goes through a decision branch between unconsensually to a jail and a hospital, anywhere along the line of the penal process. In my view it must always be jail only, and then if people want to consensually only offer health services geared towards reducing the repetition of another similar crime that if fine. So I basically reject the verdict of non-responsible because of insanity - although I accept the concept of different levels of intent and responsibility.) | Graz, Austria |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 3989) George Westinghouse (CE 1846-1914) US engineer, organizes the Westinghouse Electric Company. Westinghouse supports the side of alternating current (as opposed to direct current supported by Edison). Westinghouse acquires European patents covering single-phase alternating-current transmission and buys the patents of Nikola Tesla's AC motor (in May 1885). Westinghouse hires Tesla to improve and modify the motor for use in Westinghouse's power system.. (Do all nations use alternating current?) (Could have Edison and Westinghouse provided both AC and DC? There probably were patent limits with AC, although it seems, like DC too simple and old to be patented.) | (Westinghouse Electric Company) Pittsburg, PA, USA (presumably) |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 4099) Hans is the brother of Eduard Buchner who will win a Nobel prize. | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 4135) | (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 4168) Petrie theorizes about the origin of the alphabet in "The Formation of the Alphabet" (1912). His views the origin of the alphabet create strong opposition. | Nile River Delta, Egypt |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 4197) | (Charité Hospital) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 4359) | (Columbian University, now George Washington University), Washington, D.C, USA |
114 YBN [1886 AD] | 6006) (Charles) Camille Saint-Saëns (CE 1835-1921), French composer, pianist and organist, composes "Le carnaval des animaux" ("The Carnival of The Animals"). Saint-Saens is outspoken against the music of Claude Debussy and the French impressionist school. | Austria (verify) |
113 YBN [02/21/1887 AD] | 4122) | London, Ontario, Canada |
113 YBN [03/04/1887 AD] | 3713) | (factory) Stuttgart, Germany |
113 YBN [03/??/1887 AD] | 4285) | (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
113 YBN [05/02/1887 AD] | 3762) | Newark, New Jersey |
113 YBN [05/??/1887 AD] | 4286) (Hertz's full paper:) Hertz writes in (an English translation) "On An Effect of Ultra-Violet Light Upon The Electric Discharge": "In a series of experiments on the effects of resonance between very rapid electric oscillations which I have carried out and recently published, two electric sparks were produced by the same discharge of an induction-coil, and therefore simultaneously. One of these, the spark A, was the discharge-spark of the induction-coil, and served to excite the primary oscillation. The second, the spark B, belonged to the induced or secondary oscillation. The latter was not very luminous; in the experiments its maximum length had to be accurately measured. I occasionally enclosed the spark B in a dark case so as more easily to make the observations; and in so doing I observed that the maximum spark-length became decidedly smaller inside the case than it was before. On removing in succession the various parts of the case, it was seen that the only portion of it which exercised this prejudicial effect was that which screened the spark B from the spark A. The partition on that side exhibited this effect, not only when it was in the immediate neighbourhood of the spark B, but also when it was interposed at greater distances from B between A and B. A phenomenon so remarkable called for closer investigation. The following communication contains the results which I have been able to establish in the course of the investigation :— 1. The phenomenon could not be traced to any screening effect of an electrostatic or electromagnetic nature. For the effect was not only exhibited by good conductors interposed between A and B, but also by perfect non-conductors, in particular by glass, paraffin, ebonite, which cannot possibly exert any screening effect. Further, metal gratings of coarse texture showed no effect, although they act as efficient screens. 2. The fact that both sparks A and B corresponded with synchronous and very rapid oscillations was immaterial. For the same effect could be exhibited by exciting two simultaneous sparks in any other way. It also appeared when, instead of the induced spark, I used a side-spark (this term having the same significance as in my earlier paper). It also appeared when I used as the spark B a side-discharge (according to Riess's terminology), such as is obtained by connecting one pole of an induction-coil with an insulated conductor and introducing a spark-gap. But it can best and most conveniently be exhibited by inserting in the same circuit two induction-coils with a common interrupter, the one coil giving the spark A and the other the spark B. This arrangement was almost exclusively used in the subsequent experiments. As I found the experiment succeed with a number of different induction-coils, it could be carried out with any pair of sets of apparatus at pleasure. At the same time it will be convenient to describe the particular experimental arrangement which gave the best results and was most frequently used. The spark A was produced by a large Ruhmkorff coil (a, Fig. 18), 52 cm. long and 20 cm. in diameter, fed by six large Bunsen cells (b) and provided with a separate mercury-break (c). With the current used it could give sparks up to 10 cm. long between point and plate, and up to about 3 cm. between two spheres. The spark generally used was one of 1 cm. length between the points of a common discharger (d). The spark B was produced by a smaller coil (originally intended for medical use) of relatively greater current-strength, but having a maximum spark-length of only 1/2-1 cm. As it was here introduced into the circuit of the larger coil, its condenser did not come into play, and thus it only gave sparks of 1 - 2 mm. length. The sparks used were ones about 1 mm. long between the nickelplated knobs of a Riess spark-micrometer (f), or between brass knobs of 5 to 10 cm. diameter. When the apparatus thus arranged was set up with both spark-gaps parallel and not too far apart, the interrupter set going, and the spark-micrometer drawn out just so far as to still permit sparks to pass regularly, then on placing a plate (p) of metal, glass, etc., between the two sparks-gaps d and f, the sparks are extinguished immediately and completely. On removing the plate they immediately reappear. 3. The effect becomes more marked as the spark A is brought nearer to the spark B. The distance between the two sparks when I first observed the phenomenon was 1 1/2 metres, and the effect is, therefore, easily observed at this distance. I have been able to detect indications of it up to a distance of 3 metres between the sparks. But at such distances the phenomenon manifests itself only in the greater or less regularity of the stream of sparks at B; at distances less than a metre its strength can be measured by the difference between the maximum spark-length before and after the interposition of the plate. In order to indicate the magnitude of the effect I give the following, naturally rough, observations which were obtained with the experimental arrangement shown in Fig. 18 :— {ULSF: table omitted} It will be seen that, under certain conditions, the sparking distance is doubled by removing the plate. 4. The observations given in the table may also be adduced as proofs of the following statement which the reader will probably have assumed from the first. The phenomenon does not depend upon any prejudicial effect of the plate on the spark B, but upon its annulling a certain action of the spark A, which tends to increase the sparking distance. When the distance between the sparks A and B is great, if we so adjust the spark-micrometer that sparks no longer pass at B, and then bring the spark-micrometer nearer to A, the stream of sparks in B reappears; this is the action. If we now introduce the plate, the sparks are extinguished; this is the cessation of the action. Thus the plate only forms a means of exhibiting conveniently and plainly the action of the spark A. I shall in future call A the active spark and B the passive spark. 5. The efficiency of the active spark is not confined to any special form of it. Sparks between knobs, as well as sparks between points, proved to be efficient. Short straight sparks, as well as long jagged ones, exhibited the effect. There was no difference of any importance between faintly luminous bluish sparks and brilliant white ones. Even sparks 2 mm. long made their influence felt to considerable distances. Nor does the action proceed from any special part of the spark; every part is effective. This statement can be verified by drawing a glass tube over the spark-gap. The glass does not allow the effect to pass through, and so the spark under these conditions is inactive. But the effect reappears as soon as a short bit of the spark is exposed at one pole or the other, or in the middle. I have not observed any influence due to the metal of the pole. And in arranging the experiment it is not of importance that the active spark should be parallel to the passive one. 6. On the other hand, the susceptibility of the passive spark to the action is to a certain extent dependent upon its form. I could detect no susceptibility with long jagged sparks between points, and but little with short sparks between points. The effect was best displayed by sparks between knobs, and of these most strikingly by short sparks. It is advisable to use for the experiments sparks 1 mm. long between knobs of 5-10 mm. diameter. Still I have distinctly recognised the effect with sparks 2 cm. long. Perhaps the absolute lengthening which such sparks experience is really as great as in the case of shorter sparks, but at all events the relative increase in length is much smaller; and hence the effect disappears in the differences which occur between the single discharges of the coil. I have not discovered any perceptible influence due to the material of the pole. I examined sparks between poles of copper, brass, iron, aluminium, tin, zinc, and lead. If there was any difference between the metals with respect to the susceptibility of the spark, it appeared to be slightly in favour of the iron. The poles must be clean and smooth; if they are dirty, or corroded by long use, the effect is not produced. 7. The relation between the two sparks is reciprocal. That is to say, not only does the larger and stronger spark increase the spark-length of the smaller one, but conversely the smaller spark has the same effect upon the sparklength of the larger one. For example, using the same apparatus as before, let us adjust the spark-micrometer so that the discharge in it passes over regularly; but let the discharger be so adjusted that the discharges of the large coil just miss fire. On bringing the spark-micrometer nearer we find that these discharges are again produced; but that on introducing a plate the action ceases. For this purpose the spark of the large coil must naturally be fairly sensitive; and, inasmuch as long sparks are less sensitive, the effect is not so striking. If both coils are just at the limit of their sparking distance complications arise which have probably no connection with the matter at present under discussion. One frequently has occasion to notice a long spark being started by other ones which are much smaller, and in part this may certainly be ascribed to the action which we are investigating. When the discharge of a coil is made to take place between knobs, and the knobs are drawn apart until the sparks cease, then it is found that the sparking begins again when an insulated conductor is brought near one of the knobs so as to draw small side - sparks from it. I have proved to my entire satisfaction that the side-discharges here perform the function of an active spark in the sense of the present investigation. It is even sufficient to touch one of the knobs with a nonconductor, or to bring a point somewhat near it, in order to give rise to the same action. It appears at least possible that the function of an active spark is here performed by the scarcely visible side-discharges over the surface of the nonconductor and of the point. 8. The effect of the active spark spreads out on all sides in straight lines and forms rays exactly in accordance with the laws of the propagation of light. Suppose the axes of both of the sparks used to be placed vertically, and let a plate with a vertical edge be pushed gradually from the side in between the sparks. It is then found that the effect of the active spark is stopped, not gradually, but suddenly, and in a definite position of the plate. If we now look along the edge of the plate from the position of the passive spark, we find that the active spark is just hid by the plate. If we adjust the plate with its edge vertical between the two sparks and slowly remove it sideways, the action begins again in a definite position, and we now find that, from the position of the passive spark, the active spark has just become visible beyond the edge of the plate. If we place between the sparks a plate with a small vertical slit and move it backwards and forwards, we find that the action is only transmitted in one perfectly definite position, namely, when the active spark is visible through the slit from the position of the passive spark. If several plates with such slits are interposed behind each other, we find that in one particular position the action passes through the whole lot. If we seek these positions by trial, we end by finding (most easily, of course, by looking through) that all the slits lie in the vertical plane which passes through the two sparks. If at any distance from the active spark we place a plate with an aperture of any shape, and by moving the active spark about fix the limits of the space within which the action is exerted, we obtain as this limit a conical surface determined by the active spark as apex and by the limits of the aperture. If we place a small plate in any position in front of the active spark we find, by moving the passive spark about, that the plate stops the action of the active spark within exactly the space which it shelters from its light. It scarcely requires to be explained that the action is not only annulled in the shadows cast by external bodies, but also in the shadows of the knobs of the passive spark. In fact, if we turn the latter so that its axis remains in the plane of the active spark, but is perpendicular to it instead of being parallel, the action immediately ceases. 9. Most solid bodies hinder the action of the active spark, but not all; a few solid bodies are transparent to it. All the metals which I tried proved to be opaque, even in thin sheets, as did also paraffin, shellac, resin, ebonite, and india-rubber; all kinds of coloured and uncoloured, polished and unpolished, thick and thin glass, porcelain, and earthenware; wood, pasteboard, and paper; ivory, horn, animal hides, and feathers; lastly, agate, and, in a very remarkable manner, mica, even in the thinnest possible flakes. Further investigation of crystals showed variations from this behaviour. Some indeed were equally opaque, e.g. copper sulphate, topaz, and amethyst; but others, such as crystallised sugar, alum, calc-spar, and rock-salt, transmitted the action, although with diminished intensity; finally, some proved to be completely transparent, such as gypsum (selenite), and above all rock-crystal, which scarcely interfered with the action even when in layers several centimetres thick. The following is a convenient method of testing :—The passive spark is placed a few centimetres away from the active spark, and is brought to its maximum length. The body to be examined is now interposed. If this does not stop the sparking the body is very transparent. But if the sparking is stopped, the spark-gap must be shortened until it comes again into action. An opaque substance is now interposed in addition to the body under investigation. If this stops the sparking once more, or weakens it, then the body must have been at any rate partially transparent; but if the plate produces no further effect it must have been quite opaque. The influence of the interposed bodies increases with their thickness, and it may properly be described as an absorption of the action of the active spark; in general, however, even those bodies which only act as partial absorbers, exert this influence even in very thin layers. 10. Liquids also proved to be partly transparent and partly opaque to the action. In order to experiment upon them the active spark was brought about 10 cm. vertically above the passive one, and between both was placed a glass vessel, of which the bottom consisted of a circular plate of rock-crystal 4 mm. thick. Into this vessel a layer, more or less deep, of the liquid was poured, and its influence was then estimated in the manner above described for solid bodies. Water proved to be remarkably transparent; even a depth of 5 cm. scarcely hindered the action. In thinner layers pure concentrated sulphuric acid, alcohol, and ether were also transparent. Pure hydrochloric acid, pure nitric acid, and solution of ammonia proved to be partially transparent. Molten paraffin, benzole, petroleum, carbon bisulphide, solution of ammonium sulphide, and strongly coloured liquids, e.g. solutions of fuchsine, potassium permanganate, were nearly or completely opaque. The experiments with salt solutions proved to be interesting. A layer of water 1 cm. deep was introduced into the rock-crystal vessel; the concentrated salt solution was added to this drop by drop, stirred, and the effect observed. With many salts the addition of a few drops, or even a single drop, was sufficient to extinguish the passive spark; this was the case with nitrate of mercury, sodium hyposulphite, potassium bromide, and potassium iodide. When iron and copper salts were added, the extinction of the passive spark occurred before any distinct colouring of the water could be perceived. Solutions of sal-ammoniac, zinc sulphate, and common saltl exercised an absorption when added in larger quantities. On the other hand, the sulphates of potassium, sodium, and magnesium were very transparent even in concentrated solution. 11. It is clear from the experiments made in air that some gases permit the transmission of the action even to considerable distances. Some gases, however, are very opaque to it. In experimenting on gases a tube 20 cm. long and 2.5 cm. in diameter was interposed between the active and passive sparks; the ends of this tube were closed by thin quartz plates, and by means of two side-tubes any gas could at will be led through it. A diaphragm prevented the transmission of any action excepting through the glass tube. Between hydrogen and air there was no noticeable difference. Nor could any falling off in the action be perceived when the tube was filled with carbonic acid. But when coal-gas was introduced, the sparking at the passive spark-gap immediately ceased. When the coal-gas was driven out by air the sparking began again; and this experiment could be repeated with perfect regularity. Even the introduction of air with which some coalgas had been mixed hindered the transmission of the action. Hence a much shorter stratum of coal-gas was sufficient to stop the action. If a current of coal-gas 1 cm. in diameter is allowed to flow freely into the air between the two sparks, a shadow of it can be plainly perceived on the side remote from the active spark, i.e. the action of this is more or less completely annulled. A powerful absorption like that of coal-gas is exhibited by the brown vapours of nitrous oxide. With these, again, it is not necessary to use the tube with quartz-plates in order to show the action. On the other hand, although chlorine and the vapours of bromine and iodine do exercise absorption, it is not at all in proportion to their opacity. No absorptive action could be recognised when bromine vapour had been introduced into the tube in sufficient quantity to produce a distinct coloration; and there was a partial transmission of the action even when the bromine vapour was so dense that the active spark (coloured a deep red) was only just visible through the tube. 12. The intensity of the action increases when the air around the passive spark is rarefied, at any rate up to a certain point. The increase is here supposed to be measured by the difference between the lengths of the protected and the unprotected sparks. In these experiments the passive spark was produced under the bell-jar of an air-pump between adjustable poles which passed through the sides of the bell-jar. A window of rock-crystal was inserted in the bell-jar, and through this the action of the other spark had to pass. The maximum sparklength was now observed, first with the window open, and then with the window closed; varying air-pressures being used, but a constant current. The following table may be regarded as typical of the results :— {ULSF: table omitted} It will be seen that as the pressure diminishes, the length of the spark which is not influenced only increases slowly; the length of the spark which is influenced increases more rapidly, and so the difference between the two becomes greater. But at a certain pressure the blue glow-light (Glimmlicht) spread over a considerable portion of the cathode, the sparking distance became very great, the discharge altered its character, and it was no longer possible to perceive any influence due to the active spark. 13. The phenomenon is also exhibited when the sparking takes place in other gases than air; and also when the two sparks are produced in two different gases. In these experiments the two sparks were produced in two small tubulated glass vessels which were closed by plates of rock-crystal and could be filled with different gases. The experiments were tried mainly because certain circumstances led to the supposition that a spark in any given gas would only act upon another spark in the same gas, and on this account the four gases—hydrogen, air, carbonic acid, and coal-gas—were tried in the sixteen possible combinations. The main conclusion arrived at was that the above supposition was erroneous. It should, however, be added that although there is no great difference in the efficiency of sparks when employed as active sparks in different gases, there is, on the other hand, a notable difference in their susceptibility when employed as passive sparks. Other things being equal, sparks in hydrogen experienced a perceptibly greater increase in length than sparks in air, and these again about double the increase of sparks in carbonic acid and coal-gas. It is true that no allowance was made for absorption in these experiments, for its effect was not known when they were carried out; but it could only have been perceptible in the case of coal-gas. 14. All parts of the passive spark do not share equally in the action; it takes place near the poles, more especially near the negative pole. In order to show this, the passive spark is made from 1 to 2 cm. long, so that the various parts of it can be shaded separately. Shading the anode has but a slight effect; shading the cathode stops the greater part of the action. But the verification of this fact is somewhat difficult, because with long sparks there is a want of distinctness about the phenomenon. In the case of short sparks (the parts of which cannot be separately shaded) the statement can be illustrated as follows :—The passive spark is placed parallel to the active one and is turned to right and left from the parallel into the perpendicular position until the action stops. It is found that there is more play in one direction than in the other; the advantage being in favour of that direction in which the cathode is turned towards the active spark. Whether the effect is produced entirely at the cathode, or only chiefly at the cathode, I have not been able to decide with certainty. 15. The action of the active spark is reflected from most surfaces. From polished surfaces the reflection takes place according to the laws of regular reflection of light. In the preliminary experiments on reflection a glass tube, 50 cm. long and 1 cm. in diameter, was used; this tube was open at both ends, and was pushed through a large sheet of cardboard. The active spark was placed at one end so that its action could only pass the sheet by way of the tube. If the passive spark was now moved about beyond the other end of the tube it was affected when in the continuation of the tubular space and then only; but in this case a far more powerful action was exhibited than when the tube was removed and only the diaphragm retained. It was this latter phenomenon that suggested the use of the tube; of itself it indicates a reflection from the walls of the tube. The spark-micrometer was now placed to one side of the beam proceeding out of the tube, and was so disposed that the axis of the spark was parallel to the direction of the beam. The micrometer was now adjusted so that the sparking just ceased; it was found to begin again if a plane surface inclined at an angle of 45° to the beam was held in it so as to direct the beam, according to the usual law of reflection, upon the passive spark. Reflection took place more or less from glass, crystals, and metals, even when these were not particularly smooth; also from such substances as porcelain, polished wood, and white paper. I obtained no reflection from a well-smoked glass plate. In the more accurate experiments the active spark was placed in a vertical straight line; at a little distance from it was a largeish plate with a vertical slit, behind which could be placed polished plane mirrors of glass, rock-crystal, and various metals. The limits of the space within which the action was exerted behind the slit were then determined by moving the passive spark about. These limits were quite sharp and always coincided with the limits of the space within which the image of the active spark in the mirror was visible. On account of the feebleness of the action these experiments could not be carried out with unpolished bodies; such bodies may be supposed to give rise to diffused reflection. 16. In passing from air into a solid transparent medium the action of the active spark exhibits a refraction like that of light; but it is more strongly refracted than visible light. The glass tube used in the reflection experiments served here again for the rougher experiments. The passive spark was placed in the beam proceeding out of the tube and at a distance of about 3 0 cm. from the end farthest from the active spark; immediately behind the opening a quartz-prism was pushed sideways into the beam with its refracting edge foremost. In spite of the transparency of quartz, the effect upon the passive spark ceased as soon as the prism covered the end of the tube. If the spark was then moved in a circle about the prism in the direction in which light would be refracted by the prism, it was soon found that there were places at which the effect was again produced. Now let the passive spark be fixed in the position in which the effect is most powerfully exhibited; on looking from this point towards the tube through the prism the inside of the tube and the active spark at the end of it cannot be perceived; in order to see the active spark through the tube the eye must be shifted backwards through a considerable distance towards the original position of the spark. The same result is obtained when a rock-salt prism is used. In the more accurate experiments the active spark was again fixed vertically; at some distance from it was placed a vertical slit, and behind this a prism. By inserting a Leyden jar the active spark could be made luminous, and the space thus illuminated behind the prism could easily be determined. With the aid of the passive spark it was possible to mark out the limits of the space within which was exerted the action here under investigation. Fig. 19 gives (to a scale of 1/2) the result thus obtained by direct experiment. The space a b c d is filled with light; the space a' b' c' d' is permeated by the action which we are considering. Since the limits of this latter space were not sharp, the rays a' b' and c' d' were fixed in the following way :—The passive spark was placed in a somewhat distant position, about c', at the edge of the tract within which the action was exerted. A screen m n (Fig. 19) with vertical edge was then pushed in sideways until it stopped the action. The position m of its edge then gave one point of the ray c' d'. In another experiment a prism of small refracting angle was used, and the width of the slit was made as small, and the spark placed as far from it as would still allow of the action being perceived. The visible light was then spread out into a short spectrum, and the influence of the active spark was found to be exerted within a comparatively limited region which corresponded to a deviation decidedly greater than that of the visible violet. Fig. 2 0 shows the positions of the rays as they were directly drawn where the prism was placed, r being the direction of the red, v of the violet, and w the direction in which the influence of the active spark was most powerfully exerted. I have not been able to decide whether any double refraction of the action takes place. My quartz-prisms would not permit of a sufficient separation of the beams, and the pieces of calc-spar which I possessed proved to be too opaque. 17. After what has now been stated, it will be agreed (at any rate until the contrary is proved) that the light of the active spark must be regarded as the prime cause of the action which proceeds from it. Every other conjecture which is based on known facts is contradicted by one or other of the experiments. And if the observed phenomenon is an effect of light at all it must, according to the results of the refraction-experiments, be solely an effect of the ultra-violet light. That it is not an effect of the visible parts of the light is shown by the fact that glass and mica are opaque to it, while they are transparent to these. On the other hand, the absorption-experiments of themselves make it probable that the effect is due to ultra-violet light. Water, rock-crystal, and the sulphates of the alkalies are remarkably transparent to ultra-violet light and to the action here investigated; benzole and allied substances are strikingly opaque to both. Again, the active rays in our experiments appear to lie at the outermost limits of the known spectrum. The spectrum of the spark when received on a sensitive dry-plate scarcely extended to the place at which the most powerful effect upon the passive spark was produced. And, photographically, there was scarcely any difference between light which had, and light which had not, passed through coal-gas, whereas the difference in the effect upon the spark was very marked. Fig. 21 shows the extent of some of the spectra taken. In a the position of the visible red is indicated by r, that of the visible violet by v, and that of the strongest effect upon the passive spark by w. The rest of the series give the photographic impressions produced—b after simply passing through air and quartz, c after passing through coal-gas, d after passing through a thin plate of mica, and e after passing through glass. 18. Our supposition that this effect is to be attributed to light is confirmed by the fact that the same effect can be produced by a number of common sources of light. It is true that the power of the light, in the ordinary sense of the word, forms no measure of its activity as here considered; and for the purpose of our experiments the faintly visible light of the spark of the induction-coil remains the most powerful source of light. Let sparks from any induction-coil pass between knobs, and let the knobs be drawn so far apart that the sparks fail to pass; if now the flame of a candle be brought near (about 8 cm. off) the sparking begins again. The effect might at first be attributed to the hot air from the flame; but when it is observed that the insertion of a thin small plate of mica stops the action, whereas a much larger plate of quartz does not stop it, we are compelled to recognise here again the same effect. The flames of gas, wood, benzene, etc., all act in the same way. The nonluminous flames of alcohol and of the Bunsen burner exhibit the same effect, and in the case of the candle-flame the action seems to proceed more from the lower, non-luminous part than from the upper and luminous part. From a small hydrogen flame scarcely any effect could be obtained. The light from platinum glowing at a white-heat in a flame, or through the action of an electric current, a powerful phosphorus flame burning quite near the spark, and burning sodium and potassium, all proved to be inactive. So also was burning sulphur; but this can only have been on account of the feebleness of the flame, for the flame of burning carbon bisulphide produced some effect. Magnesium light produced a far more powerful effect than any of the above sources ; its action extended to a distance of about a metre. The limelight, produced by means of coalgas and oxygen, was somewhat weaker, and acted up to a distance of half a metre; the action was mainly due to the jet itself: it made no great difference whether the lime-cylinder was brought into the flame or not. On no occasion did I obtain a decisive effect from sunlight at any time of the day or year at which I was able to test it. When the sunlight was concentrated by means of a quartz lens upon the spark there was a slight action; but this was obtained equally when a glass lens was used, and must therefore be attributed to the heating. But of all sources of light the electric arc is by far the most effective; it is the only one that can compete with the spark. If the knobs of an induction-coil are drawn so far apart that sparks no longer pass, and if an arc light is started at a distance of 1, 2, 3, or even 4 metres, the sparking begins again simultaneously, and stops again when the arc light goes out. By means of a narrow opening held in front of the arc light we can separate the violet light of the feebly luminous arc proper from that of the glowing carbons; and we then find that the action proceeds chiefly from the former. With the light of the electric arc I have repeated most of the experiments already described, e.g. the experiments on the rectilinear propagation, reflection, and refraction of the action, as well as its absorption by glass, mica, coal-gas, and other substances. According to the results of our experiments, ultra-violet light has the property of increasing the sparking distance of the discharge of an induction-coil, and of other discharges. The conditions under which it exerts its effect upon such discharges are certainly very complicated, and it is desirable that the action should be studied under simpler conditions, and especially without using an induction-coil. In endeavouring to make progress in this direction I have met with difficulties. Hence I confine myself at present to communicating the results obtained, without attempting any theory respecting the manner in which the observed phenomena are brought about.". A summary of Hertz's work "Ueber einen Einfluss des ultravioletten Lichtes auf die electrische Entladung" ("Influence of Ultra-Violet Light on the Electric Discharge") reads: "The author has discovered that ultra-violet radiation favours the electric discharge between two conductors in a remarkable way. As sources of such radiation, the sun, burning magnesium, or even ordinary flame, may be used; but by far the most effective are the electric arc and an induced electric discharge. To produce the phenomenon, the primary circuits of two induction coils, a large one (10 cm.) and a smaller one (1 cm.), are joined in circuit with the same battery (six Bunsens) and interruptor. Perfect synchronism in the induced discharge is thus secured. The terminals of the large coil being arranged to give a good spark 1 cm. in length, the two coils are placed close together, and an opaque screen interposed. The terminals of the small coil are then drawn apart until sparks just cease to pass. On now removing the screen the discharge is re-established. The author describes many experiments to test the nature of the effect. The influence is not electrical, since non-conducting screens are effective as well as metal plates. It varies in some inverse ratio with the distance, and is distinctly produced when the coils are 1 m. apart. In the above experiment, the larger spark may be either short and dense, or long and zig-zag, and every part of it is effective. The smaller spark, however, should be short (between knobs) ; the seat of the action upon it appears to be in the neighbourhood of the cathode or negative pole. The influence is reciprocal; that is, the smaller spark also favours the larger. The action is propagated in straight lines, like light, and may be reflected from polished surfaces. It may also undergo refraction ; but its refrangibility (roughly measured by means of a quartz prism) is much greater than that of the violet rays. Most solid substances are opaque to it; amongst these glass, paper, agate, and mica, even in the thinnest sheets, are noticeable. Amongst crystalline substances, copper sulphate, topaz, and amethyst are opaque to it; but it is transmitted by sugar, alum, calc-spar, and rock-salt; transparent gypsum and rock crystal transmit it perfectly. Amongst liquids, water transmits it freely; sulphuric and hydrochloric acids, alcohol, and ether, less so; whilst melted paraffin and petroleum, benzene, bisulphide of carbon, ammonium hydrosulphide, and coloured liquids generally, stop it completely. Solutions of potassium, sodium, and magnesium sulphates, are fairly transparent to it; those of mercuric nitrate, sodium thiosulphate, potassium bromide and iodide, are very opaque. Amongst gases, air, hydrogen, and carbonic anhydride are very transparent; chlorine, and bromine and iodine vapours, partially so; and coal-gas and nitric peroxide very opaque. Even an ordinary candle-flame may produce effects similar to those described, and may cause the reappearance of sparks between the terminals of an induction-coil after they have been drawn so far apart that the discharge has ceased. Similar effects are produced by the luminous flames of gas, wood, and benzene, and the non-luminous flames of alcohol, carbon bisulphide, and the Bunsen burner. Incandescent platinum, and the flames of sodium, potassium, sulphur, and phosphorus, and of pure hydrogen, are without effect. The effective rays are more refrangible even than the so-called photographic rays; for the latter are not sensibly absorbed by coal-gas.". (Possibly - that the effect is not electrical may refer to light not being an electric phenomenon - and kind of a subtle putting forward of that secret truth.) | (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
113 YBN [07/07/1887 AD] | 4046) Bell's share of the royalties from the Graphophone finance the Volta Bureau and the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (since 1956 the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf). | (Volta Lab) Washington, District of Columbia, USA |
113 YBN [07/??/1887 AD] | 4159) | (Case School of Applied Science) Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
113 YBN [09/26/1887 AD] | 4112) Émile Berliner (BARlENR) (CE 1851-1929), German-US inventor invents a flat phonograph record in which the needle vibrates from side to side as opposed to up and down which Edison's phograph uses. Berliner's first discs are wax-coated zinc pieces, on which a sound vibration is carved. The discs are dipped in acid, which burns the pattern into the metal, and the wax is stripped. On September 26, 1887, Berliner patents his entire playback apparatus as the "gramophone." Berliner displays his invention at the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia in 1888, but first markets it in Germany. A toy manufacturer, Kummerer & Reinhardt of Waltershausen, produces his gramophones. At this time, his gramophone is turned by hand with a crank. back in the USA, Berliner employs several musicians to record on his discs, and begins making discs from a new material composed of shellac, soot, and fur. In 1893, Berliner secures investment from friends to found the United States Gramophone Company in order to market the gramophone and control its patent rights. In late 1895, investors contribute another $25,000 to launch the Berliner Gramophone Company, a manufacturing enterprise. Initially, sales of this new technology are slow, but when Eldridge R. Johnson of New Jersey introduces a wind-up spring motor to replace the tedious hand-crank in 1896, sales improve dramatically. Over the next four years, nearly 25,000 of these motors are manufactured for the Berliner Gramophone Company. The Berliner flat disk will eventually replace Edison's cylinder phonograph, and amazing that these flat records will last until the compact disk of the 1990s - while clearly much more advanced technology is kept secret by the phone company and those who routinely read and write to and from neurons. | (own lab) Washington, DC, USA |
113 YBN [10/12/1887 AD] | 4246) | (Tesla's private lab) New York City, NY, USA |
113 YBN [11/07/1887 AD] | 4114) Émile Berliner (BARlENR) (CE 1851-1929), German-US inventor invents a flat phonograph record in which the needle vibrates from side to side as opposed to up and down which Edison's phograph uses. Berliner's first discs are wax-coated zinc pieces, on which a sound vibration is carved. The discs are dipped in acid, which burns the pattern into the metal, and the wax is stripped. On September 26, 1887, Berliner patents his entire playback apparatus as the "gramophone." Berliner displays his invention at the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia in 1888, but first markets it in Germany. A toy manufacturer, Kummerer & Reinhardt of Waltershausen, produces his gramophones. At this time, his gramophone is turned by hand with a crank. back in the USA, Berliner employs several musicians to record on his discs, and begins making discs from a new material composed of shellac, soot, and fur. In 1893, Berliner secures investment from friends to found the United States Gramophone Company in order to market the gramophone and control its patent rights. In late 1895, investors contribute another $25,000 to launch the Berliner Gramophone Company, a manufacturing enterprise. Initially, sales of this new technology are slow, but when Eldridge R. Johnson of New Jersey introduces a wind-up spring motor to replace the tedious hand-crank in 1896, sales improve dramatically. Over the next four years, nearly 25,000 of these motors are manufactured for the Berliner Gramophone Company. The Berliner flat disk will eventually replace Edison's cylinder phonograph, and amazing that these flat records will last until the compact disk of the 1990s - while clearly much more advanced technology is kept secret by the phone company and those who routinely read and write to and from neurons. | (own lab) Washington, DC, USA |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 3083) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 3697) | Paris, France(presumably) |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 3739) | (Solar Physics Observatory) South Kensington, England (presumably) |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 3772) | (Charles University) Prague, Czech Republic |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 3957) Granville Stanley Hall (CE 1846-1924), US psychologist, founds the American Journal of Psychology, the first American journal in the field of psychology and the second of any significance outside Germany. | Johns Hopkins University (presumably), Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 3960) | University of Liège, Liège, Belgium |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 4027) | (private lab) East Newark, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 4048) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 4098) | (École des Mines) Paris, France |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 4219) | (Leiden University) Leiden, Netherlands |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 4224) Johann Elster and Hans Geitel jointly carry out and publish almost all of their investigations from 1884 to 1920. | (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 4341) | (Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
113 YBN [1887 AD] | 4369) Electricity of heart beat measured and recorded. Augustus Desire Waller (CE 1856-1922) measures the electric potentials of the heart muscle, finds them to coincide with each heart muscle contraction, and publishes the first electrocardiograph images. Waller publishes his findings with images in an 1887 report, "A Demonstration on Man of Electromotive Changes Accompanying the Heart's Beat". This is the first published account of human electrocardiography. Waller uses zinc covered by leather and moistened with salt-water to measure the electricity. Waller records the electrical activity of the living mammalian heart from the body surface and in some of the recordings associates that recording with the mechanical apex beat. While some of the recording devices are of Waller's own devising Waller primarily uses the Lippmann capillary electrometer which consists largely of a mercury column supporting a column of dilute sulphuric acid. With the passage of minute electric currents through the instrument, the mercury column fluctuates. A light transilluminating the fluctuating level of the mercury meniscus surface projects the mercury column's movements. This discovery that cardiac mechanical activity is associated with the generation of minute electrical currents which Waller names "electrogram" defines the remainder of Waller's career, as well as being the beginning of a search in the physiologic community for better techniques for their detection and recording. To record the light beam photographically Waller devises a technique of slowly moving a glass photographic plate past the light beam at a constant speed, using a spring motor driven toy train. Willem Einthoven will improve on the Waller electrograms with a more robust and sensitive string galvanometer. Einthoven initially drops the photographic plates at a controlled speed, in a gravity and then later in a motor driven track. Waller writes: "IF a pair of electrodes (zinc covered by chamois leather and moistened with brine) are strapped to the front and back of the chest, and connected with a Lippmann's capillary electrometer, the mercury in the latter will be seen to move slightly but sharply at each beat of the heart'. If the movements of the column of mercury are photographed on a travelling plate simultaneously with those of an ordinary cardiographic lever a record is obtained as under (fig. 1) in which the upper line h.h. indicates the heart's movements and the lower line e.e. the level of the mercury in the capillary. Each beat of the heart is seen to be accompanied by an electrical variation. The first and chief point to determine is whether or no the electrical variation is physiological, and not due to a mechanical alteration of contact between the electrodes and the chest wall caused by the heart's impulse. To ascertain this point accurate time-measurements are necessary; a physiological variation should precede the movement of the heart, while this could not be the case if the variation were due to altered contact. Fig. 2 is an instance of such time-measurements taken at as high a speed of the travelling surface as may be used without rendering the initial points of the curves too indeterminate. It shews that the electrical phenomenon begins a little before the cardiographic lever begins to rise. The difference of time is however very small, only about .025", and this amount must further be diminished by .01" which represents the "lost time" of the cardiograph. The actual difference is thus no greater than .015", and the record is therefore, although favourable to the physiological interpretation, not conclusively satisfactory. We know, from the experiment of the secondary contraction made by Helmholtz' on voluntary muscle, by Kolliker and Muller and by Donders on the heart, that the negative variation of muscle begins before its visible movement, and the current of action of the heart begins before the commencement of the heart's contraction. For muscle the time-difference given is 1/200", for the heart (rabbit) 1/70"; for the frog's heart the rheotome observations of Marchand are to the effect that the variation begins .01" to .04" after excitation, while the contraction does not begin until .11" to .33". The capillary electrometer may with advantage be employed to measure this time-difference, the electrical and the mechanical events being simultaneously recorded. This I carried out on voluntary and upon cardiac muscle with the same instrument as that which I employed for the human heart, and thus ascertained that its indications are trustworthy in this capacity. In all these cases the antecedence of the electrical variation is clear and measurable. In the case of the excised kitten's heart the time-difference is about .05" with a length of contraction of about 2", i.e. the interval between the electrical and the mechanical event is increased in the sluggishly acting organ. In the case of the human heart the time difference appears to be about .015" with a length of systole of .35"-a value which corresponds with that obtained by Donders for the rabbit's heart in situ by the method of the secondary contraction, viz. 1/70" (the length of systole being presumably about 1/3"). That a true electrical variation of the human heart is demonstrable, may further be proved beyond doubt by leading off from the body otherwise than from the chest wall. If the two hands or one hand and one foot be plunged into two dishes of salt solution connected with the two sides of the electrometer, the column of mercury will be seen to move at each beat of the heart, though less than when electrodes are strapped to the chest. The hand and foot act in this case as leading off electrodes from the heart, and by taking simultaneous records of these movements of the mercury and of the movements of the heart it is seen that the former correspond with the latter, slightly preceding them and not succeeding them, as would be the case if they depended upon pulsation in the hand or foot. This is unquestionable proof that the variation is physiological, for there is here of course no possibility of altered contact at the chest wall, and any mechanical alteration by arterial pulsation could only produce an effect .15" to .20" after the cardiac impulse. A similar result is obtained if an electrode be placed in the mouth while one of the extremities serves as the other leading off electrode. The electrical variation precedes the heart's beat as in the other cases mentioned. In conclusion it will be well to allude to the difficulties which arise in the interpretation of the character of the electrical variation of the human heart. By mere inspection of the electrometer it is often most difficult to determine the direction of very rapid movements of the mercury, and photography must be employed. But even then, owing to the small amplitude of movement, it is still difficult to say whether the variation consists of two movements, and whether each movement indicates a single or a double variation in the same direction. Differences in the position of the electrodes also give rise to differences of the apparent variation. Thus with the following position of the electrodes (Hg electrode over the apex beat, H2So4 electrode on the right side of the back) the variation as watched through the microscope appears usually nN, and changes to SN if the Hg electrode be shifted to the sternum. If the Hg electrode is on the back and the H2So4 electrode over the apex beat, the variation appears to be sS and to become nS when the H2So4 electrode is shifted away from the apex beat. The variations accompanying the heart's beat observed as carefully as possible (without the aid of photography) on a healthy person with different positions of the leading off electrodes were as follows. It is to be remarked that the direction of variation as observed in this series is not such as to indicate negativity of the cardiac electrode but the reverse. {ULSF: table omitted} It is on account of these sources of doubt that I have not thought it advisable at this stage to attempt a definite interpretation of the character of the variation, which although as shewn, especially by the experiments illustrated in figs. 6 and 7, is certainly physiological, may nevertheless be physically complicated by the conditions of demonstration on the human body.". | (St. Mary's Hospital) London, England |
112 YBN [01/10/1888 AD] | 4023) Le Prince disappears in 1890 and is never heard from again, perhaps he was murdered to stop his priority to a patent claim on moving pictures? | New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
112 YBN [02/02/1888 AD] | 3840) | (Strutt Laboratory) Terling, England |
112 YBN [02/02/1888 AD] | 4288) | (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN [02/??/1888 AD] | 4287) | (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN [04/??/1888 AD] | 4289) | (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN [05/03/1888 AD] | 3971) | Institute of Plant Physiology at the University of Prague, Prague, Austria |
112 YBN [09/08/1888 AD] | 6260) Smith was Vice President of the Men's League for Women Suffrage. | Bridgeton, New Jersey, USA |
112 YBN [09/??/1888 AD] | 3833) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
112 YBN [11/??/1888 AD] | 4290) | (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN [12/13/1888 AD] | 4291) | (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3402) | Belfast, Ireland |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3631) | (Technical High School in Braunschweig) Braunschweig, Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3745) Waldeyer-Hartz's name originally is just Waldeyer. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3801) | (faculte Libre des Sciences of Lyons) Lyons, France |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3813) Nicolas Camille Flammarion (FlomorEON) (CE 1842-1925), French astronomer publishes "L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire" (second edition? first is 1872? 1888; "The Atmopshere: Popular Meterology"), which includes the famous "flat earth" woodcut drawing (p. 163). (verify) | Juvisy (near Paris), France (presumably) |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3817) | (Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam) Potsdam, Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3826) In 1875, Dewar is made a professor at the University of Cambridge, and in 1877 at the Royal Institution in London, and holds both posts throughout his life. In his early career Dewar writes papers on measurement of high temperatures, for example, on the temperature of the sun and of the electric spark, others on electro-photometry and the chemistry of the electric arc.(describe more with original papers) With Professor J. G. Kendrick, of Glasgow, Dewar investigates the physiological action of light, and examines the changes which take place in the electrical condition of the retina under the influence of light. (perhaps trying to see thought/what eye sees from behind head?) With Professor G. D. Liveing, a colleague at Cambridge, Dewar begins in 1878, a long series of spectroscopic observations, the later part which are devoted to the spectroscopic examination of various gaseous constituents separated from atmospheric air by the aid of low temperatures; and Dewar is joined by Professor J. A. Fleming, of University College, London, in the investigation of the electrical behavior of substances cooled to very low temperatures. (finding a decrease in electrical resistance at low temperatures?) From 1892-1893 Dewar and Fleming measures the electrical resistance of metals under very cold temperatures and confirm that the resistance of many metals is decreased by a decrease in temperature. Dewar publishes many papers, just over 100 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography states that "Dewar was a superb experimentalist; he published no theoretical papers.". | (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3915) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 3935) | (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4025) | (College de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4067) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4073) | (Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4108) | (Dutch Yeast and Spirit Factory) Delft, Netherlands |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4118) Beginning in 1883, Lodge becomes interested in psychic research—telepathy, telekinesis, and communication with the dead—an interest that is intensified after his son’s death and his own retirement in 1919. On two occasions Lodge serves as president of the Society for Psychical Research. Perhaps Lodge was either excluded from movies beamed in front of his eyes or did get movies in front of his eyes and worked to try to make neuron reading and writing public. Lodge writes a book about photon (wireless) communication in "Signalling across space without wires: Being a description of the work of Hertz and His Successors". | (University College) Liverpool, England |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4179) According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Ostwald believes that thermodynamics is the fundamental theory of science and has roughly two themes in his philosophy. First Ostwald asserts the primacy of energy over matter (matter being only a manifestation of energy) in opposition to widespread scientific materialism. Ostwald reformulates older concepts of dynamism dating back to Gottfried Leibniz of the 1600s with the principles of thermodynamics to form a new metaphysical interpretation of the world that he names "energetics".(I think thermodynamics is inaccurate and violates the principle of conservation of matter and motion, and support a material universe - the concept of energy is also only a generalization in my view, because mass and motion cannot be converted into each other or exchanged in the view I support.) Secondly Ostwald asserts a form of positivism in the sense of rejecting theoretical concepts that are not strictly founded on empirical grounds. Ostwald is considered one of the primary founders of modern physical chemistry. Physical chemistry is defined as the branch of chemistry that deals with the interpretation of chemical phenomena and properties in terms of the underlying physical processes, and with the development of techniques for their investigation. In 1887 Ostwald with friend Van't Hoff establish the first journal exclusively for physical chemistry "Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie" (Journal of Physical Chemistry). Ostwald has Gibbs' work translated into German. In 1909 Ostwald wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work on catalysis. (unclear ) Ostwald rejects atom theory until Perrin analyzes Brownian motion, when a clearly visible phenomenon can be easily measured. In 1889 Ostwald starts republishing famous historical science papers in his series "Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften" ("Classics of the Exact Sciences"), with more than 40 books published during the first four years. Ostwald is the first exchange professor at Harvard University and gives a series of lectures (1905–06). In 1902 Ostwald creates a journal dedicated to the philosophy of science. Ostwald views both war and traditional religion as wasting energy and dedicates himself to the international peace movement and serves as president of the Deutscher Monistenbund, a scientistic quasi-religion founded by the German zoologist and evolutionary proponent Ernst Haeckel. Ostwald's house is turned into a museum after his death. In his life Ostwald wrote 45 books and many booklets, about 500 scientific papers, some 5,000 reviews, and more than 10,000 letters. | (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4193) Roux is an assistant at Pasteur's laboratory in Paris and is director from 1904 until his death in 1933. | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4210) | (Eastman Dry Plate Company) Rochester, NY, USA (presumably) |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4350) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4390) Fridtjof Nansen (noNSeN) (CE 1861-1930), Norwegian explorer and five other people are the first to cross Greenland by land, taking six weeks to travel from the eastern shoe to the inhabeted western shore. On 04/08/1895 Nansen reaches 86°14' latitude, very near the north pole. In 1922 Nansen is awarded the Nobel Peace prize for caring for prisoners of war, those suffering in famines, the displaced and persecuted. | Greenland |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4412) | (Würzburg University) Würzburg, Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 4448) Paschen is ousted from the presidency of a scientific association by the pro-Nazi Stark. Paschen survives WW II and sees the defeat of the Nazis but loses his house and possessions in a bombing raid in 1943. | (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg , Germany |
112 YBN [1888 AD] | 6021) Erik (Alfred Leslie) Satie (CE 1866-1925), French composer, composes "Gymnopédies". | Paris, France (presumably) |
111 YBN [01/20/1889 AD] | 4057) Eötvös is one of the founders of the Hungarian Mathematical and Physical Society. | (given at Hungarian Academy of Sciences, at the time worked at University of Budapest) Budapest, Hungary |
111 YBN [02/16/1889 AD] | 211) Dr. John A McWilliam reports in the British Medical Journal his experiments in which application of an electrical impulse to the hearts of animals and recommends electric shock as a way of stimulating a feeble or stopped heart into beating. McWilliam also shows that electrical stimulation can result in a stronger heart beat. McWilliam writes: "... Such a mode of excitation seems to be available in the form of a periodic series of single induction shocks sent through the heart at approximately the normal rate of cardiac action. A single induction shock readily causes a beat in an inhibited heart, and a regular series of induction shocks (for example, sixty or seventy per minute) gives a regular series of heartbeats at the same rate. Never on any occasion have I seen fibrillar contraction excited by such a mode of stimulation. In order to elucidate more fully the influence of a series of induction shocks upon the inhibited heart, I have frequently (in the dog, cat, and rabbit) performed such experiments as the following. The animal being chloroformed, and means being taken to preserve, as far as possible, the normal temperature, the thorax and pericardial sac were laid open; artificial respiration was kept up through a cannula introduced into the trachea. The heart was inhibited by stimulation of the vagus nerve in the neck, and then a periodic series of induction shocks (regulated by a metronome) was applied to the apex of the ven- tricles. Contraction of the autricles and ventricles was recorded by an adaptation of the graphic method; a blood-pressure tracin was simultaneously made in the usual manner. In this way I was able to obtain an accurate record of the various changes, while at the same time some further information was obtained by direct inspection of the heart. A series of single induction shocks excites a corresponding series of cardiac beats; the ventricular contraction precedes the auricular contraction when the exciting shocks are applied to the ventricles. Each systole causes the ejet:- tion of a considerable amount of blood into the aorta and pulmonary artery, and a marked rise of the blood-pressure at each beat. The mean pressure is raised from the low point to which it had fallen ... Such a method, it seems to me, is the only rational and effective one for stimulating by direct means the action of a heart which has been suddenly enfeebled or arrested in diastole by causes of a temporary and transient character. Of course, at the same time, the expedient of artificial respiration must by no means be neglected, but, on the contrary, most sedulously attended to.". (Note that McWilliam uses the phrase "borne in mind", which probably implies that he gets D2B and to go public with this may have been a collective D2B decision.) (Perhaps a similar electrical stimulation could cause the lung muscles to work.) | (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
111 YBN [03/12/1889 AD] | 6255) | Kansas City, Missouri, USA |
111 YBN [03/14/1889 AD] | 3844) | (Royal College of Science) Dublin, Ireland |
111 YBN [04/09/1889 AD] | 4211) | (Eastman Dry Plate Company) Rochester, NY, USA |
111 YBN [04/27/1889 AD] | 3805) In 1862 Dutton joins the Union army, reaching the rank of major in 1890. | Washington, D.C., USA. |
111 YBN [05/02/1889 AD] | 4117) FitzGerald greatly advances the development of technical education in Ireland. FitzGerald is one of the initial group, which includes Heaviside, Hertz, and Lorentz, that takes Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory seriously and begins to explore its consequences. FitzGerald extends Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light to try to explain light reflection and refraction in terms of waves in an ether medium, in his paper "Electromagnetic Theory of the Reflection and Refraction of Light" (1878). In 1878 FitzGerald publishes a short note on "On the Theory of Muscular Contraction" which ends with the word "tension". | Dublin, Ireland |
111 YBN [06/03/1889 AD] | 4834) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
111 YBN [06/21/1889 AD] | 4021) Motion picture camera and projector. Moving images captured and stored on plastic film and projected onto a screen. The moving images are played together with sound from a phonograph. William Friese-Greene (CE 1855-1921), makes thin sheets of celluloid, which he then cuts into a series of narrow strips, and joins them together, sensitized. Friese-Greene then takes a series of photographs taken at about thirty photos per second. He prepares similar celluloid transparencies from these negatives and exhibits these at the Crystal Palace in 1889. William Friese-Greene and Mortimor Evans patent (number 10,131) the first known plastic film strip moving picture camera and projector. This is the first known perforated celluloid film used for recording and projecting images of moving objects. It seems clear that, if images of thought were seen in 1810, that capturing and projecting moving images occurred much earlier, but was kept secret from the public and not immediately published. A few months earlier in the USA, the George Eastman company had filed a patent for celluloid photo-sensitized roll film for still image capture on April 09, 1889. Two years earlier in the USA Hannibal Goodwin had patented photo-sensitized celluloid roll film. A report on the perforated celluloid film camera is published in the British "Photographic News" on February 28 1890. On 18 March, Friese-Greene sends a clipping of the story to Thomas Edison, whose laboratory had been developing a motion picture system known as the Kinetoscope. The report is reprinted in "Scientific American Supplement" on April 19, 1890. (Find full documents of patent, "Friese-Greene" book only has part and there is no mention of plastic or celluloid - but it is clearly a film roll camera - although Marey had accomplished this in 1888.) In June 1889 Friese-Greene wrote to Edison describing his camera. On November 15, 1889 issue of the "Optical Magic Lantern Journal" prints an illustration and technical description of Friese-Greene's celluloid movie camera using the word "transparencies", and including the information that "...When the reproduction of speech is also desired this instrument is used in conjunction with the phonograph". The "Daily News" publishes an article about the invention on December 6, 1889. (find both articles if possible) The Bath Photographic Society holds the first public show of motion-pictures taken on celluloid in the rooms of the Bath Literary and Scientific Society on February 25, 1890. In April 1890, the "Scientific American Supplement" carries an article on the Friese-Greene camera. According to at least one source, this is the first practical moving image capturing and playing camera. The Scientific American Supplement article does not explicitly state that this is a celluloid, transparent or plastic film camera. The article concludes "Mr. Greene stated to the meeting that the latern had been invented by an acquantance of his in the west of England. By an improvement upon that latern, now in the course of manufacture, Mr. Greene hopes to be able to reproduce upon the screen, by means of photographs taken with his machine camera, stret scenes full of life and motion; also to represent a man making a speech, with all the changes in his countenance, and, at the same time, to give the speech itself in the actual tones of the man's voice by means of a loud-speaking phonograph.". This article also uses the word "render" which is a very early use of the secret keyword "render" in 1890, this keyword may imply that people and other moving objects are currently rendered in three-dimensions in real-time by computers - as hard as that is to believe. In fact, it seems so difficult to accept, that this must be viewed as highly speculative, but it might fit if people saw thought in October 1810. In particular thinking of the precise pin-point accuracy needed for galvanically contracting a muscle by activating a single or small quantity of neurons in a moving object. In November 1910, a US court will rule that Friese-Greene's patent has priority over that over that of Edison's. In a biography of Friese-Greene the author writes "Many people, and most Americans, gave Edison credit for inventing the motion-picture camera, though none of Edison's biographer's seem to have attached much importance to it. But the "Encyclopedia Britannica", of which the tenth edition was sold over here by "The Times" in 1902, gave the credit to Edison in edition after edition.". Perhaps this is because Friese-Green did not really sell and widely distribute the moving camera as Edison did and clearly Marey in France had a working film roll camera, although with paper film, before Friese-Greene (see ) in 1888. It seems clear that there are always several people of each nation working on the same technological advance like the motion picture film camera Friese-Greene writes an article in 1889 describing how he captures an image from his eye - by looking at an arc light for a few seconds and then exposing a photographic plate to his eye, then using a microscope to confirm that the image of the arc light is captured on the photographic plate. This is very close to talking about capturing images from behind the head of what the eyes see, and thought-images. In 1888 Étienne Jules Marey (murA) (CE 1830-1904) used a roll of sensitized paper to capture images of moving objects, with an electromagnetic film stopping device to avoid blurry images. It should be noted that "Nature" magazine for 1889 and 1890 list nothing about Friese-Green's device of 1889, and only mention Edison's work on the phonograph, and an article about Muybridge's photographs of the galloping horse that refers to Marey. For excluded outsiders, there are many questions about the life of Friese-Greene. Was he an outsider who figured out that people had kept seeing eyes and thought a secret, to be enjoyed by only a twisted elite few? Or was Friese-Greene an insider (insofar as an insider is defined as at least regularly seeing and hearing thoughts...at least at the consumer "insider" level) that worked with other insiders to bring some small progressive technology to the public? Was this plastic film movie camera at this time, far outdated, behind the phone company and government secret electronic microscopic camera with electronic digital storage media, what was the nature of the storage being used by those who see thought at this time? Clearly the cameras and microphones were "wireless" using low frequency photons to transmit ultimately to a large storage device, presumably at the phone company and secret military buildings. The one biographical book on Friese-Greene writes that Friese-Green "did SEE", but it seems unlikely, and more likely that Friese-Greene spent his entire life as an outsided excluded person with most of the rest of the public. | (Piccadilly) London, England |
111 YBN [06/21/1889 AD] | 4024) The full text of the article contains numerous hints and is as follows: "PHOTOGRAPH S MADE WITH THE EYE. (Read before the London and Provincial Photographic Association.) By way of preface to the subject I am about to bring before you to-night, may I ask if you have ever seen anything with your eyes shut? And when I say with your eyes shut, do not mistake me and run away with the notion that I am in any way referring to any imaginary mental vision one can conjure up in the dark. For instance, look at an object that is fairly illuminated, steadily for a few seconds, then suddenly close your eyes, and a similar object can be seen. I do not attempt to explain this, though it is evidently governed by some law; and it leads me at last, after no end of failures, to the discovery which is one of the subjects of my paper to-night, namely, that you can obtain a photograph with the human eye if you have a light strong enough and a plate sensitive enough. After no end of failures, I obtained an impression with the aid of an electric arc lamp, 2,000 candle-power, which I have at my place, 92 Piccadilly, for taking photographs. I looked at the arc light for fifteen seconds, then switched the light off and exposed a very quick plate (a plate coated in different layers, which makes it much more sensitive), and held it to my eye for a minute or more. On developing it I found a spot, which pleased me very much. If you put the spot under a powerful microscope you can see the image of the arc. I have, obtained marks with the magnesium flash-light, but they are not so good as with the electric arc ; in fact, there is nothing definite about them. I have my flash-light here, so if any of you would like to try the experiment, I shall be very pleased to watch the proceedings, for I begin to value my eyes more than I did at first, because after one experiment I did at Piccadilly, I had a black spot hovering about the retina for some days. With Mr. Debenham's advice, and that of others, I have come to the conclusion that it is dangerous ; and the black spot did not go off until I put a piece of red glass before the arc light and looked at it for two minutes, which seemed to counterbalance the effect I shall not try it many more times, for, after all, sight is very precious. I have only chanced one eye always, but it may affect the other, so I intend to be careful. I may say, here, just one or two things with regard to the eye. It is by it we alone can judge, not only of its own perfection, but also of the comparative value of any given optical combination. It is endowed with considerable freedom of motion ; and no doubt we shall have to go to the eye for many optical points. I may here say the retina is a transparent substance composed of nerve fibres spread out into a thin layer, and corresponding to the ground-glass of the camera. The retina receives the picture from the object in front, and being connected with the optic nerve behind, the picture is conveyed to the brain. 1 believe if one could analyze them, there are salts in the retina corresponding to those used in photography, though probably of a much more sensitive nature ; and the electric magnetic effect of light conducts to the brain, where there is always an alkali and acid to develop, and the atom deposit in the cells can be called at will to answer our memory. Perhaps I am going a little too far, both for myself and others who may think in a similar way, also for those who do not think in the same way ; but there is no harm in giving you my thoughts, as it seems to me we like dabbling in ideas that are a perpetual mystery. But now to offer some suggestions with regard to the picture produced by the eye. Can it be reflected from the retina, from the cornea, or from the back surface of the lens ? Is there a kind of phosphorescence which can affect a photographic plate ? Is it some kind of electric phenomena, and our latent image a galvanic action ? Of course, these suggestions are very wild ; for I must confess although I discovered the effect, I cannot explain it, and the more I try to do so the more ignorant I feel. It may lead to something important as time rolls on. Photography is now making huge strides ; its history becomes a clueless labyrinth of confusion and uncertainty ; it has vigorous health and plenty of practical and mental ingenuity always at hand, which affords ample proof of the earnestness with which experimental investigators work. Experimenters should work out their internal nature, with the aid of experiments]of things contained in the varied world around them, then they will have something original to tell us, and be continually adding atoms to the progress of our fascinating art. I know, for my own part, I have formed a love and veneration for photography—with all its worry, disappointments, etc.—which has almost the nature of a passion ; 'every act of seeing leads to consideration, consideration to reflection, reflection to combination, and combination to ideas which ought to be worked out with method and system, then we shall be sure to discover something quite new and original, especially if we work earnestly and patiently. Friese Greene.". | (London and Provincial Photographic Association) London, England |
111 YBN [08/30/1889 AD] | 3973) | Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, Germany |
111 YBN [11/12/1889 AD] | 3966) | Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
111 YBN [11/28/1889 AD] | 3818) | (Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam) Potsdam, Germany |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 3399) | London, England (presumably) |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 3549) | London, England (presumably) |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 3701) | (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 3765) | (Moscow University) Moscow, Russia |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 3953) | Sorbonne, University of Paris, Paris, France (presumably) |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4074) | (Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4081) Heaviside is almost entirely self-taught. Heaviside is forced to publish his papers at his own expense because of their unorthodoxy. (Perhaps also because of his lack of doctorate degree and no formal education.) Heaviside publishes "Electrical Papers" in 1892, in which he makes use of an unusual calculatory method called operational calculus, now better known as the method of Laplace transforms, to study transient currents in networks. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Heaviside's early results are not recognized, possibly because the papers are written using his own notation. A year later in 1893, Heaviside publishes his "Electromagnetic Theory" (1893–1912). | London, England (presumably) |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4090) In 1913 Richet wins a Nobel prize in medicine and physiology for work on anaphylaxus. In later years Richet grows interested in telepathy and extrasensory perception. (Probably Richet's work in this area might provide some whistleblowing information to people who have been excluded, which may be as many as 90% of the humans on earth. What kind of research into neuron reading and writing did Richet discuss and perform? How far did he get to reading from or writing to neurons? Was he an excluded or included? Was he trying to expose it?) | (University of Paris) Paris, France |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4128) Ramón y Cajal is born in a poverty stricken and isolated village in Navarre, the son of a barber-surgeon. In 1906 Ramón y Cajal shares the Nobel prize for medicine and physiology with Golgi. Ramón y Cajal wrote some 20 books and 250 scientific papers. Among Ramón y Cajal's many books concerning nervous structure is "Estudios sobre la degeneración y regeneración del sistema nervioso", 2 vol. (1913–14; "The Degeneration and Regeneration of the Nervous System") and the classic "Histology" (tr. 1933). Ramón y Cajal determined that Spain should have a place on the scientific and intellectual stage. He succeeds in founding a Spanish school of histology. It is rare to see a person (Ramon y Cajal is one person - people might think because of the "y" that this is two people) in Spain credited for science advances, and perhaps this is because, like much of South America, the terrible influence of the followers of Jesus who have tended to frown upon science, learning and all things positive, logical and pleasureful, although no evidence exists that Jesus was opposed to science, learning or consensual pleasure - and there were contemporary and earlier scientists like Thales, Anaxagoras, Archimedes, Euclidos, etc - so plenty to comment on - the view may have been one of either not informed of these people's written works, or informed but not caring enough to comment or leave any record expressing any opinion of science or earlier or contemporary scientists. A similar problem exists in Arab nations because of similar views of many in Islam. It is interesting to note any comments Muhammad had about earlier and contemporary scientists. Only a few years after Muhammad, Al-Razi criticizes Islam and religion in general. | (University of Barcelona) Barcelona, Spain |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4225) | (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4277) | (Robert Koch’s laboratory) Berlin, Germany |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4278) | (Robert Koch’s laboratory) Berlin, Germany |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4342) | (Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4396) In 1905 Lenard is awarded the Nobel prize in physics for studies of cathode rays in open air. In August 1914 Lenard is swept along by the wave of patriotism and nationalism. Most scientists eventually find their way back to a more sober view, but Lenard persists in his position of supernationalism. Lenard is openly anti-Semitic and supports the Nazi doctrines, one of only 2 important scientists, the other being Stark. Lenard denounces "Jewish science", perhaps forgetting his debt to Hertz who is of Jewish descent. Lenard denounces Einstein and the theory of relativity purely on racial grounds and advances no scientific arguments of merit (of which there are in my view more than one, for example that space dilation is taken from an excuse to save the ether theory, that photons are probably the basis of all matter, but obviously never on racial grounds.) Lenard rejects the theory of quantum mechanics too. Lenard knows Hitler personally and coaches Hitler on the racial interpretation of physics. This will help Hitler to ignore progress in physics, in particular in atomic research, and fail to develop the atomic bomb, despite the German people initially leading the field. For an examination of Hertz and Lenard's relationship see "Heinrich Hertz and Philipp Lenard: Two Distinguished Physicists, Two Disparate Men". (The rise of Nazism and nationalism is Germany stopped the solid lead in science they had, and most science was geared towards war and destruction, and based on fraudulent false theories.) (Perhaps Lenard represents the terrible transistion from the wise days of Bunsen, Kirckhoff, Helmholtz, Rontgen, and Hertz, to the war-based views that perhaps lead to or are popular up to and including the time of World Wars 1 and 2.) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4439) Nernst says that Roentgen should have patented the X ray and got money from it. In 1893 Nernst publishes a textbook on theoretical chemistry which makes use of the thermodynamic ideas of people such as Ostwald. Both Nernst's sons die in WW I. In 1920 Nernst wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for his third law of thermodynamics. Two of Nernst's daughters marry Jewish people and his last years are spent in disfavor because this is a considerable crime under Nazi rule in Germany (Nernst dies in November 1941). | ( University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 4521) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
111 YBN [1889 AD] | 6031) | (U.S. Marines) Washington, District of Columbia, USA |
110 YBN [02/??/1890 AD] | 4223) | (University of Lund) Lund, Sweden |
110 YBN [06/11/1890 AD] | 3974) | University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany |
110 YBN [09/04/1890 AD] | 4301) | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, CA, USA |
110 YBN [11/15/1890 AD] | 3243) | New York City, NY, USA |
110 YBN [12/17/1890 AD] | 4458) Steinmetz has a hunchback which his father and grandfather also had. Steinmetz joins a student socialist club at the University of Breslau, which was banned by the government after becoming affiliated with the German Social Democrats. When some of his fellow party members are arrested, Steinmetz takes over the editorship of the party newspaper, “The People's Voice.” One of the articles Steinmetz writes is considered inflammatory, the police began a crackdown on the paper, and Steinmetz has to leave Breslau (1888). Steinmetz builds generators capable of producing electricity at extremely high potential (voltage), high enough to make large lightning bolts. Steinmetz's last major project working at the General Electric Company, is designing a generator that produces a discharge of 10,000 amperes and more than 100,000 volts, equivalent to a power of more than 1,000,000 horsepower for 1/100,000 of a second. Steinmetz holds 200 patents for electrical inventions. | (Rudolf Eickemeyer's company) New York City, USA |
110 YBN [12/26/1890 AD] | 4123) The Union Sulphur Company, of which Frasch is president, becomes the earth's leading sulfur-mining company. | Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 3740) The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica state that Lockyer's "The Meteoritic Hypothesis" (1890) propounds a comprehensive scheme of cosmical evolution, which has evoked more dissent than approval. | (Solar Physics Observatory) South Kensington, England (presumably) |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 3807) In 1876 James switches professions from physiology to psychology, a science in its infancy. James views psychology as an experimental science based on physiology and not as a vague form of philosophy. In later life James is interested in "psychic research", which has grown fashionable at the turn of the century. (what does "psychic research" mean? research into how the brain functions? ultimately this interest must have resulted in the work of Pupin, the student of Hemholtz who was very interested in the senses, and perhaps tried to see thought.) In 1907 James publishes "Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking" in which he supports an idea of reality based only on experience. It is interesting how this universe interpreted only by sensed theory plays out into the 1900s. The popular view is summed many times with the question: if nobody can hear a tree fall, does it actually fall? To me the answer is yes, because I believe in an external universe, even without humans, but the other view is that the universe does not exist without the viewer. It is interesting that this view seems so closely linked to George Berkeley is his efforts to disprove the theory of gravity and atheism of Newton by appealing to all space, time and motion as being relative as opposed to absolute, and then to Mach whose work inspires Einstein who accepts the non-euclidean theory and space-dilation. So are these simply mistakes that the majority and in particular wealthy people believe and propagate or is there something more to it? Is it just a coincidence and piecing together of theories through out history that many of these theories seem to be found together or a directed effort at inaccuracy and misinformation? I don't know if it is just mistaken beliefs or systematic deception. I probably lean towards honest mistaken views, with an element of natural selection, as inaccurate, abstract and complex ideas appeal to the majority who have been tricked by the obviously inaccurate claims of religions. It is amazing how over-valued this person is - even with no serious science contributions - there is a lot of data documented about this person. What a terribly misplaced focus - and so it is on all of psychology. For some as of yet unexplained reasons, psychology rose up and has found enormous popularity among average people. I think it has to do with people being easily tricked by abstract terminology, by authority, and abstract theories about health and because they never receive a basic history of science. It's stomach turning to see this kind of misplaced popularity - but this is typical of the centuries under Christianity and in particular the secret of seeing, hearing and sending images and sounds and remote neuron activation where murderers hold vast wealth and power and the honest are murdered and persecuted. Documenting some of this is important for the story of the rise of pseudosciences, and popular mistaken beliefs. (My current appraisal of psychology is that 1) there needs to be the stringent requirement of consent-only incarceration and treatment, and at least no-treatment-when-objection and 2) some parts of psychology may be viewed as a science, which I would describe as a science that seeks to cure diseases perceived with no known physiological cause, or in the realm of healing people with perceived problems through talking - in a similar way that teaching the history of science may have a healing effect in a person's brain and mind. Unfortunately, the unconsensual abuse of many millions of people will, I think, always leave an unpleasant association with psychology. If consensual only, clearly the popularity of psychology would go down as would the money earning potential of those in psychology. People would still seek consensual psychology or psychiatric health services. I think it very well may be that psychology falls to be similar to seeing a psychic, astrologer, tribal witchdoctor, or herbologist, and so-called homeopathic health. science. It seems clear that psychology has found a space where physiology does not accommodate - in perceived problems where there is no physical explanation or cause, or a person simply wants to talk toa somebody. Definitely there is a focus on the science of the "mind" as something different from anatomy or physiology of the brain. in some sense the mind, in a physical sense is how the brain is wired - the connections the owner of the brain makes. My own feeling is that, with certainly, I will never need and certainly never buy the services of a person in psychology. Then thinking beyond this, I don't think there is anybody who really should buy psychology services - but of course, if consensual and it helps a person according to their own view, I see nothing wrong with that, and I think it can be called science when consent and is experimentally shown to improve a person according to their own view. Possibly psychology should be defined only as "Science of the mind". It is amazing how this science has been used, I think, unlike any other science to violate and torture people's bodies. Perhaps because when the issue is the mind, as opposed to the brain, a person can question all the words and writings of another person as being unrepresentative of their "sane" mind and so the wants of one person can therefore be set aside and replaced by the wants of a different person. It is the total loss of a person's right to decide for themselves, to own property, to reject health care operations, etc.) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 3968) | Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 4138) | (Johns Hopkins Medical School) Bartimore, Maryland, USA |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 4166) | Lynn, Massachusetts, USA |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 4169) | Tel Hasi, Palestine |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 4173) | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 4200) In 1901 Behring wins the first Nobel prize in physiology and medicine. | (Robert Koch Institute of Hygiene) Berlin, Germany |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 4241) Freud praises cocaine highly, which supposedly contributes to a wave of cocaine addiction in Europe. In 1886 Freud enters private practice as a neurologist. In 1938 one month after the Nazi occupation of Austria, the 82 year old Freud is taken to safety in London where he will spend the last year of his life, dying of cancer of the jaw. | (private practice at the Vienna Institute for Child Diseases and teaching at the University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 4293) Thomson founds a company that merges with Edison's company to form General Electric in 1892. By the end of his life Thomson holds some 700 patents and has received many awards. | Lynn, Massachusetts, USA |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 4487) In 1913 Werner wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for his coordination theory. | (Polytechnikum) Zurich, Switzerland |
110 YBN [1890 AD] | 6020) (Achille-)Claude Debussy (1862-1918), French composer, composes "Clair de Lune" ("Moonlight", in "Suite bergamasque", 1890–1905). The title refers to a folk song that was the conventional accompaniment of scenes of the love-sick Pierrot in the French pantomime. The name comes from Paul Verlaine's poem of the same name which also refers to 'bergamasques' in its opening stanza, and should not be confused with "Au clair de la lune" a traditional song and the first publicly known recorded song. (verify) | Paris, France (presumably) |
109 YBN [01/15/1891 AD] | 4257) | (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
109 YBN [01/30/1891 AD] | 4186) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
109 YBN [03/17/1891 AD] | 3610) | Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
109 YBN [03/26/1891 AD] | 3522) After graduation from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1848 Stoney works as an assistant to the astronomer, Lord Rosse, at his observatory at Parsonstown until 1853 when Stony is appointed professor of natural philosophy at Queen's College, Galway. In 1857-1893 Stoney becomes secretary of the Queen’s University in Dublin. | (Queen's University) Dublin, Ireland |
109 YBN [04/25/1891 AD] | 4247) | (Tesla's private lab) New York City, NY, USA |
109 YBN [05/20/1891 AD] | 4018) Edison will greedily try to claim priority on the process of "cinematography", but loses in court because of earlier patents by Le Prince, and Friese-Greene. | (private lab) West Orange, New Jersey, USA |
109 YBN [11/??/1891 AD] | 4292) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
109 YBN [12/10/1891 AD] | 3822) | (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 3639) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 3746) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 3832) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 3918) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 3952) In 1908, Lippmann will win the Nobel prize in physics for his method of color photography. | University of Paris, Sorbonne Laboratories of Physical Research, Paris, France |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 3963) | Cracow Academy, Crakow, Austria (now Poland) |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 3969) 1903 Pickering is the first to publish a photographic map of the entire sky. | Arequipa, Peru |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 3993) | (Ecole de Médecine) Paris, France |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 4147) | (University of Würzburg ) Würzburg , Germany |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 4171) | Tell El-Amarna, Egypt |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 4239) In 1881, working for Edison, Acheson, had installed the first electric lights in Italy, Belgium, and France. | (Carborundum Company) Monongahedla City, Pennsylvania, USA |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 4242) | Greenland |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 4417) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 4488) | (Polytechnikum) Zurich, Switzerland |
109 YBN [1891 AD] | 6030) | Michoacán, Mexico (verify) |
108 YBN [05/??/1892 AD] | 3624) | (Needles Lighthouse) Alum Bay |
108 YBN [05/??/1892 AD] | 4399) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
108 YBN [07/??/1892 AD] | 4363) | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
108 YBN [08/17/1892 AD] | 6259) | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
108 YBN [08/??/1892 AD] | 3834) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
108 YBN [09/03/1892 AD] | 4316) In 1889 Barnard begins to photograph the Milky Way with large-aperture lenses, revealing much new detail. In the 1890s Barnard sees craters on Mars, when the sun is in a good position to cast shadows on Mars, but does not publish thinking it could be an illusion, but his observation is correct. In the course of his life, Barnard discovers 16 comets. Barnard and Hale are the first to realize that the dark patches in the Milky Way are clouds of obscuring gas and dust. (but what specifically are they composed of? Hydrogen and Helium? perhaps ice chunks of water and other molecules?) (chronology) | (Lick Observatory) Mt. Hamilton, California, USA |
108 YBN [12/??/1892 AD] | 4140) | (Academy of Sciences) Paris, France |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 3623) Preece attended graduate studies at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, under Michael Faraday. Preece encourages Guglielmo Marconi by obtaining assistance from the Post Office in furthering Marconi’s work. Preece also introduces into Great Britain the first telephones, patented by Alexander Graham Bell. | London, England (presumably) |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 3700) | (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 3823) | (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 3867) | (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 3932) | (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 3933) | (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 4174) | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 4236) | (Cross and Bevan's private business) New Court, Lincoln's Inn, England |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 4306) | Kaluga, Russia (presumably) |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 4310) In 1920 Sharrington is President of the Royal Society. Sherrington publishes text-books and papers on neurophysiology. In 1932 Sharrington with Edgar Adrian, win the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology. Sherrington lives to 95. | (Brown Institution Animal Hospital) London, England |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 4326) Diesel is a pacifist and internationalist. Diesel is funded by a St. Louis brewer and the first diesel engine is built in the United States. In 1913 Diesel disappears from the deck of the mail steamer "Dresen" while on the way to London and is presumed to have drowned. Perhaps neuron writing - one of the list of millions and millions of neuron writing victims - the murderers probably never punished or even seen by the public. | (Carle von Linde firm) Berlin, Germany |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 4360) | (Columbian University, now George Washington University), Washington, D.C, USA |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 4397) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 4446) | (St. Petersburg University) Saint Petersburg, Russia |
108 YBN [1892 AD] | 6012) | Klin (outside Moscow), (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) |
107 YBN [03/04/1893 AD] | 3841) | (Strutt Home Laboratory) Terling, England |
107 YBN [04/17/1893 AD] | 4161) | (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
107 YBN [04/18/1893 AD] | 4393) | (Edison's company) West Orange, N.J., USA |
107 YBN [05/03/1893 AD] | 3888) | (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England (verify) |
107 YBN [07/??/1893 AD] | 4459) | (International Electrical Congress) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
107 YBN [09/05/1893 AD] | 3244) | Indianapolis, Indiana (guess) |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 3220) | Hartford, Connecticut, USA (presumably) |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 3449) From 1891-1893 Janssen erects an observatory on Mount Blanc. | (Mount Blanc Observatory) Mount Blanc, France |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 3668) | Sorbonne, Paris, France |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 3811) Josef Breuer (BROER) (CE 1842-1925), Austria physician, and Sigmund Freud publish ("On the psychical mechanism of hysterical phenomena: preliminary communication", 1893) which becomes the foundation of psychoanalysis. This is published in book form as "Studien über Hysterie" ("Studies on Hysteria") in 1895. Breuer and Freud write: "A chance observation has led us, over a number of years, to investigate a great variety of different forms and symptoms of hysteria, with a view to discovering their precipitating cause - the event which provoked the first occurence, often many years earlier, of the phenomenon in question. In the great majority of cases it is not possible to establish the point of origin by a simple interrogation of the patient, however thoroughly it may be carried out. This is in part because what is in question is often some experience which the patient dislikes discussing; but principally because he is genuinely unable to recollect it and often has no suspicion of the causal connection between the precipitating event and the pathological phenomenon. As a rule it is necessary to hypnotize the patient and to arouse his memories under hypnosis of the time at which the symptom made its first appearance; when this has been done, it becomes possible to demonstrate the connection in the clearest and most convincing fashion. This method of examination has in a large number of cases produced results which seem to be of value from a theoretical and a practical point of view.". Here is a modern definition of "hysteria": "The term 'hysteria' has been in use for over 2,000 years and its definition has become broader and more diffuse over time. In modern psychology and psychiatry, hysteria is a feature of hysterical disorders in which a patient experiences physical symptoms that have a psychological, rather than an organic, cause; and histrionic personality disorder characterized by excessive emotions, dramatics, and attention-seeking behavior.". (I think it is obvious that "hysteria" is hardly a disease, or if a problem, at the very least certainly not a serious problem.) Although close for many years, Breuer and Freud separate in 1896 and never speak again due partly to quarrels over their work. | (in his own home?) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 3861) Dorothea Klumpke Roberts (CE 1861-1942) is the first woman to earn a PhD at the University of Paris. | (University of Paris) Paris, France |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 3917) | (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 3988) George Westinghouse (CE 1846-1914) US engineer, wins contracts for supplying alternating current (AC) electricity for the Chicago World's Fair and Niagara Falls, which is a large victory for AC electricity in the USA. | (Westinghouse Electric Company) Pittsburg, PA, USA |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4116) | (University College) Liverpool, England (presumably) |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4187) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4379) In 1896 Finsen establishes a Light Institute in Copenhagen. In 1903 Finsen wins the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology. In 1904 Finsen dies at age 43. (cause? a says failing health) | |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4421) Henry Ford (CE 1863-1947) US industrialist builds his first working gasoline engine. Ford is a machinist's apprentice at age 16. Ford admires Hitler, and is openly anti-Jewish. Asimov claims that Ford was incredibly shrewd in business, but stupid in intellectual matters. (probably from religion.) | (Detroit Edison Company) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4427) According to Asimov, Baekeland planned to ask $50,000 and go down to $25,000 but Eastman made an offer first. Baekeland graduates high school at 16, and gets a doctor's degree at 21. In 1924 Baekeland is the president of American chemical society. | (Baekeland's business) New York City, NY, USA |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4432) In 1911 Wein wins a Nobel prize in physics for his work on black body radiation. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4440) | ( University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4449) | (University of Hannover) Hannover , Germany |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 4489) | (Polytechnikum) Zurich, Switzerland |
107 YBN [1893 AD] | 6017) | (National Conservatory) New York City, New York, USA |
106 YBN [01/19/1894 AD] | 3828) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
106 YBN [04/14/1894 AD] | 2996) M. Bonetti invents an influence machine (static electricity generator). This machine is based on the Wimhurst design but uses sectorless disks and sets of several brushes in the neutralizer bars. The idea of a sectorless machine, can be traced back to Holtz and Poggendorff, by 1869. In this configuration, output is taken at the front disk only, combs (that do not touch the disk) are used instead of (contact) brushes in the neutralizer bars, and a different driving system is used. | |
106 YBN [05/??/1894 AD] | 4092) According to the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Righi discovered and described magnetic hysteresis in 1880, a few months before Warburg, who is credited with the discovery, and Righi also patented a microphone using conductive powder and a loudspeaker. Magnetic hysterisis is the lagging of the magnetization of ferromagnetic material, such as iron, behind variations of the magnetizing field. Righi is a prolific writer, writing more than 130 papers before 1900. | (Institute of Physics, University of Bologna) Bologna, Italy |
106 YBN [07/25/1894 AD] | 3611) In 1916 Jenkins helps found the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, later renamed the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), and is elected as the organization's first president. | Washington, D.C., USA. |
106 YBN [10/??/1894 AD] | 4258) A possible pro-sexual reference, in the Faraday style, may be found when Thomson writes "The method I employed is as follows :- ...". Notice the "ass follows" then the universal penis and testicles symbol ":-". The funniness is that the method Thomson employs is his penis. The sentence kind of jumps out of the page and that gives it humor too. But it's speculation. | (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 2692) | Tianjin (and Shanghai), China |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 3144) | (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 3913) | Hong Kong |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 3919) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 3929) | London, England (presumably) |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4085) | (University College) London, England |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4110) | (Royal Observatory) Greenwich, England |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4115) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4204) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4220) In 1887 Takamine founds the chemical fertilizer industry in Japan when he builds the first super-phosphate factory in Tokyo, the Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Company. (Takamine and this time may mark the beginning of the rise of Japanese modern science and technology which will greatly advance, in particular with the computer, image and sound and data capture and storage, robot, and vehicle industries.) | (His private laboratory) Tokyo, Japan (presumably) |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4226) | (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4237) | (Cross and Bevan's private business) New Court, Lincoln's Inn, England |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4279) | Hong Kong |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4305) | Kaluga, Russia |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4311) | (Brown Institution Animal Hospital) London, England |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4318) | Java |
106 YBN [1894 AD] | 4333) A book of Tyndall's popular essays on science turns him from liberal arts to physics. In 1890 Pupin joins the faculty of Columbia. Pupin's autobiography "From Immigrant To Inventor" wins the Pulitzer Prize in 1924. (Does this FITI have a meaning of fight-eye?) | (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
105 YBN [01/31/1895 AD] | 3842) Both Ramsay and Rayleigh win a Nobel award in 1904 for the discovery of argon. Ramsay blows his own glass instruments. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Ramsay's discovery of the noble gases makes him the most famous chemist in Britain. | (Own Laboratory) Terling, England |
105 YBN [03/06/1895 AD] | 4351) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
105 YBN [03/26/1895 AD] | 4141) | (University College) London, England |
105 YBN [04/??/1895 AD] | 4032) | New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
105 YBN [05/05/1895 AD] | 4345) In December 1905 Popov is ordered by the governor of St. Petersburg to take repressive measures against student political disturbances. Popov refuses, and this event severely affects his health. Popov dies soon afterward. (It looks like Popov was probably murdered - in particular only aged around 47.) | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersberg, Russia |
105 YBN [05/13/1895 AD] | 4534) In 1927 Wilson wins the Nobel prize in physics for the cloud chamber. | (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
105 YBN [05/29/1895 AD] | 3820) | (Munich Thermal Testing Station) Munich, Germany |
105 YBN [06/20/1895 AD] | 4450) | (University of Hannover) Hannover , Germany |
105 YBN [11/05/1895 AD] | 3936) Members of the New Jersey State government try to create a law banning the use of X rays in opera glasses to protect women's privacy. In 1896 Roentgen shares the Rumford medal with Lenard. In 1901 Roentgen wins the first Nobel prize in physics. Roentgen rejects offer of ennoblement and the right to add "von" before his last name. Roentgen dies in somewhat poor finances from the hyper-inflation that followed World War I. The unit of X-ray dosage is called the roentgen. | (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
105 YBN [12/28/1895 AD] | 4031) | Paris, France (presumably) |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 3529) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 3722) | (Nautical Almanac Office) Washington, DC, USA |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 3954) | Sorbonne, University of Paris, Paris, France (presumably) |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 3991) Interesting that Baumann dies so closely to the year of his big discovery. In the "Science" obituary, the death is described using the word "suggestion" which is a key word, "baumann was actively engaged in the solution of many probelms suggested by this last great discovery when, after an illness of only two days, death put an end to a brief but brilliant career.". | (University of Freiberg) Freiberg, Germany |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4029) | (Edison's Black Maria Studio) West Orange, New Jersey, USA |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4175) | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4176) | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4188) | (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4201) Jules Henri Poincaré (PwoNKorA) (CE 1854-1912), French mathematician develops the theory of topology in his "Analysis Situs" (1895). Analysis Situs is the name for the theory of topology (also known as surface geometry) at the time. Before this Poincaré had worked on celestial mechanics, the three-body problem. This is before computers, and equations can take days to calculate and plot. Now calculating the mutual effect, moving, and plotting millions of points according to Newton's law of gravity may take only seconds. In examining the positions of celestial orbits Poincaré discovers that even small changes in the initial conditions can produce large, unpredictable changes in the resulting orbit. This idea of a small change in initial conditions causing largely different results relates to what is now called chaos theory. Poincaré summarizes his new mathematical methods in astronomy in "Les Méthodes nouvelles de la mécanique céleste", 3 vol. (1892, 1893, 1899; "The New Methods of Celestial Mechanics"). In 1905, Poincaré writes a paper on the motion of the electron, which, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, with other papers of his at this time, comes close to anticipating Albert Einstein's discovery of the theory of special relativity. But Poincaré never takes the decisive step of combining space and time into space-time. Poincaré does theoretical work on tides and rotating fluid spheres which support the work of G. H. Darwin. Poincaré's first cousin Raymond Poincaré is President of France during World War I. | (University of Paris) Paris, France |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4208) Hampson also published two volumes of science for the public: "Radium Explained" (1905) and "Paradoxes of Science"(1906). | London, England (presumably) |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4243) | Greenland |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4302) | (Allegheny Observatory) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4420) In 1947 Walden publishes an important history of chemistry. | (Riga Polytechnical School) Riga, Latvia |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4513) Sabine does not get a doctorate degree before teaching. | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4703) In 1919 Bordet wins the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology for work on complement fixation. Bordet holds out against the theory of viruses, thinking the bacteriophages identified by Twort are not living organisms but only toxins, that is non-living chemicals. Bordet contributes significantly to the foundation of serology, the study of immune reactions in body fluids. | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4717) Perrin supports the De Gaulle (anti-Nazi) government in France from the USA after France fell to the Nazism. (For the pronounciation of Perrin's last name is "PeraN" correct? because I don't think there is an "a" sound in the French language - but perhaps there was adapted from England for English words, for example.) | (École Normale) Paris, France |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4810) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
105 YBN [1895 AD] | 4826) In 1894 Marconi reads an article about the electromagnetic waves uncovered by Hertz eight years earlier, and realizes that radio waves might be used in signaling, and by the end of the year is ringing a bell at a distance of thirty feet. In 1895 Marconi sends a signal from his house to his garden, and later over a mile and a half. In 1896 The Italian government is uninterested (in Marconi's radio message sending) and Marconi goes to England (his mother is Irish and speaks perfect English) where he sends a signal nine miles. In 1897 in Italy Marconi sends a signal from land to a warship 12 miles. In 1898 in England, Marconi sends a signal 18 miles. 1899 Marconi uses the word "rendered" in a paper on wireless telegraphy. In 1904 a demonstration of radio operation is very popular at the St, Louis World's Fair. (How would have seeing and hearing thought been? That would have been popular.) In 1909 Marconi shares the Nobel Prize in physics with Braun. (Mainly Marconi developed the process Hertz first found, but Marconi must have made some improvements, and transmitting a signal over the Atlantic Ocean is important.) Marconi is in charge of Italy's radio service during World War I. Marconi enthusiastically supports Mussolini's Fascist government. Marconi is sent as a delegate to the peace conference of World War I in Paris (1919) and there signs the peace treaties with Austria and with Bulgaria. From 1921 on Marconi uses his steam yacht "Elettra" as home, laboratory, and mobile receiving station in propagation experiments. (Interesting that perhaps being at sea he wanted to be able to detect people or particle devices trying to move close to him, although this would require underwater sensors too.) In 1929 Marconi is created marchese and nominated to the Italian senate. In 1930 Marconi is chosen president of the Royal Italian Academy. (It's not clear if Marconi was aware of neuron reading and writing before going public with his radio communication devices. Being from a wealthy family implies that Marconi is somehow selected by the insider group to bring wireless particle communication to the public. This also implies that the Marconi family may have been a secret provider of radio service already - and simply extend it to the public at small "phony" planned increments demonstrating devices they were surpassed long before.) (Possibly something started the public release of wireless communication. Joseph Henry, Ampere, Faraday, Edison and others had already publicly described electric induction to communicate signals from one wire to another. But clearly, to bring particle (wireless) message sending to the masses instead of keeping it for an elite few must have required some kind of volitility inside the group maintaining the secret telegraph and neuron reading/writing networks - which ultimately is the telegraph and telephone companies, and presumably the military part of governments.) Accoring Answers Biographies Marconi is educated by private tutors and attended the Livorno (Leghorn) technical institute for a short time. In his 1899 paper, Marconi cites help from assistants. This may imply possibly that Marconi supervised wireless work done by others without actually assembling devices himself, in particular as a wealthy person most likely involved in ownership, development and administration of neuron reading and writing. Possibly Marconi was some kind of counter to AT&T because the initials att are used by Marconi in 1899 and by others in biographies of Marconi. An alternative theory is that Marconi was a subset of AT&T to make them not appear too large.] (The view from those who control neuron reading and writing must be an incredibly interesting view - and is somewhat difficult to imagine for those who do not see people's thought screens. It seems clear that these people are familiar with most of the typical thought images that people have, and how to minimally activate certain neurons in any humans brain to get them to move and make decisions that those neuron writers want them to make. In particular, the view must have been terrible during the World Wars. Clearly those humans in the telecommunications had the best view of all the eyes and thoughts - and perhaps even used neuron writing to advance the poor people employed in the militaries. Perhaps even some part of the wars were fought virtually by humans controlling computers, which in turn fight against each other using poor humans in the armies more or less as unthinking pawn on a chess board - absolutely controlling their every movement. It's not clear how advanced the particle beam technology was and is, but clearly, it has rendered and continues to render and track many objects on earth in real-time.) | (father’s estate) Bologna, Italy |
104 YBN [01/24/1896 AD] | 3941) | (City and Guilds Technical College) Finsbury, England |
104 YBN [01/26/1896 AD] | 3939) | (Reale Istituto Veneto di science) Veneto, Italy |
104 YBN [02/10/1896 AD] | 3938) | Renfrew, England |
104 YBN [02/12/1896 AD] | 4334) | (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
104 YBN [02/22/1896 AD] | 3940) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (presumably) |
104 YBN [02/24/1896 AD] | 4150) Henri Becquerel is a member of a scientific family extending through several generations, the most notable being his grandfather Antoine-César Becquerel (1788–1878), his father, Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (1820–1891), and his son Jean Becquerel (1878–1953). Becquerel's father, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel did important work with fluorescence. In 1903 Becquerel shares the Nobel prize in physics with the Curies. | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
104 YBN [03/02/1896 AD] | 4151) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
104 YBN [03/03/1896 AD] | 4535) | (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
104 YBN [03/09/1896 AD] | 3937) | (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
104 YBN [03/18/1896 AD] | 4276) | (Private Lab) New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
104 YBN [03/25/1896 AD] | 4152) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
104 YBN [04/06/1896 AD] | 4335) | (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
104 YBN [04/23/1896 AD] | 4033) | (Koster and Bial's Music Hall) New York City, NY, USA |
104 YBN [04/??/1896 AD] | 4445) Carver was the son of a slave woman owned by Moses Carver. In 1865 slavery outlawed in the USA. In 1889 Carver is the first black person to attend Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. After graduating from Simpson, Carver graduates from Iowa State Agricultural College at the head of his class. In 1892 Carver earns a master's degree and joins the staff of Iowa State Agricultural College. In 1896 Carver accepts a job for $1500 a year plus room and board, turning away other offers with more money, to be a professor at Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama, a black college founded by Booker T. Washington, to help young black people get a higher education which Booker T. Washington himself had been unable to find. In 1939 Carver is awarded the Roosevelt medal. Late in his career Carver declines an invitation to work for Thomas A. Edison at a salary of more than $100,000 a year. Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt visit him, and his friends included Henry Ford and Mohandas K. Gandhi. In 1931 Joseph Stalin invites Carver to superintend cotton plantations in southern Russia and to make a tour of the Soviet Union, but Carver refuses. In 1953 the plantation on which Carver was born is made a national monument. Asimov describes Carver as a "chemical Burbank", developing not new plant varieties but new plant products. Asimov explains that Carver serves as an example of the use of educating people of every race. (It is interesting how people see things differently and appear to have different callings perhaps based mostly on their education, upbringing or surroundings, but perhaps somethings are genetic.) (This story of Carter and Booker T too are wonderful and inspirational stories, that I think would be nice to see on the big screen, or even television, but as of yet, no.) | (Tuskegee University) in Tuskegee, Alabama, USA |
104 YBN [05/06/1896 AD] | 3717) | Potomac River, Washington DC, USA |
104 YBN [05/12/1896 AD] | 4340) | New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
104 YBN [05/19/1896 AD] | 4715) | Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, USA |
104 YBN [06/02/1896 AD] | 4337) In 1917 Bose founds and becomes director of the Bose Research Institute, Calcutta. Bose is the first Indian to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society. | (Presidency College) Calcutta, India |
104 YBN [06/02/1896 AD] | 4827) | (father’s estate) Bologna, Italy |
104 YBN [06/11/1896 AD] | 4728) Rutherford was one of a dozen children as the son of a wheelwright (builds and repairs wheels) and small-scale farmer. Rutherford has a scholarship to New Zealand University. Rutherford gets a scholarship to Cambridge University. The first place winner refuses the scholarship in order to stay in New Zealand and get married. In addition, the University of Cambridge had recently changed its rules to allow graduates of other institutions to earn a Cambridge degree after two years of study and completion of an acceptable research project. The news reaches Rutherford on his father's farm and he throws down his spade and says “That's the last potato I'll dig.”, postpones his marriage and leaves for England. In 1908 Rutherford win the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the theory of radioactive disintegration of elements, for determining the nature of alpha particles, for the theory of the nuclear atom. Zinc sulfide containing a trace of radium is used on watch faces to create luminous figures that can be seen at night, but the women painting the figures absorb traces of radium and get serious, slowly fatal cases of radiation sickness. This is stopped once the dangers of radioactivity are made clear. (I guess a radioactive atom may stay in the body continuously emitting photons that cause mutation. There still needs to be some way of flushing them out of the system. Maybe if they stay together they could be traced and surgically removed, but possibly if charged they could be removed with a strong magnetic field. If uncharged, maybe they could be charged somehow and then pulled out with a strong magnetic field. Maybe some could be flushed out with a large blood draining and transfusion/filtering based on radioactivity.) Rutherford is the President of the Royal Society from 1925-1930. In 1933 Rutherford is strongly anti-Nazi and helps to arrange help for Jewish scientists forced out of Germany, but does not help Haber because Rutherford feels Haber's development of gas warfare was too terrible. In 1933 Rutherford wrongly calls doubts that the vast energy of the atomic nucleus as revealed in radioactivity can someday be controlled, calling the idea “moonshine”. Rutherford dies 2 years before the find of uranium fission by Hahn. Rutherford doubts Einstein's theory of relativity. (State Rutherfords quotes if any.) At McGill University Rutherford welcomes increasing numbers of research students to his laboratory, including women at a time when few females study science. For example, Rutherford's first graduate student is a woman, Harriet Brooks, and Rutherford publishes a paper with Brooks. Rutherford and William Pope write in "The Times" of London, in December 1920: "For our part, we welcome the presence of women in our laboratories on the ground that residence in this University is intended to fit the rising generation to take its proper place in the outside world, where, to an ever increasing extent, men and women are being called upon to work harmoniously side by side in every department of human affairs.". Rutherford also actively contributes to using radioactivity to show that the rocks of earth are far older than Kelvin's estimate of millions of years. (cite papers) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
104 YBN [06/11/1896 AD] | 4737) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
104 YBN [07/25/1896 AD] | 3278) | Cambridge, England |
104 YBN [09/02/1896 AD] | 4828) | Slisbury Plain, England |
104 YBN [11/25/1896 AD] | 4153) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
104 YBN [11/??/1896 AD] | 4165) | (Lick Observatory) Mt. Hamilton, California, USA |
104 YBN [11/??/1896 AD] | 4259) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
104 YBN [12/10/1896 AD] | 3698) From his explosives and from oil fields in Russia that he owns, Nobel amassed a vast fortune. Nobel traveled widely and was a committed pacifist. Although Nobel is unpopular, and viewed as the inventor of horrible tools of war, Nobel actually thinks that his explosives would outlaw war by making it too horrible. The Encyclopedia Britannica explains that in 1888 Alfred's brother Ludvig had died while staying in Cannes, France. The French newspapers reported Ludvig's death but confused him with Alfred, and one paper has the headline "Le marchand de la mort est mort" ("The merchant of death is dead."), and perhaps from this Alfred Nobel established the prizes in his will to avoid this kind of posthumous reputation suggested by this premature obituary. The awards Nobel creates reflect his lifelong interest in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology, and literature. There is evidence that his friendship with the prominent Austrian pacifist Bertha von Suttner inspires him to establish the prize for peace. The Nobel Institute in Sweden is named for Alfred Nobel. Element 102 is first isolated at the Nobel Institute in Sweden in 1958 and is named nobelium. (I think a good idea for an award is one which awards those who popularize science, full and constant democracy, stopping violence and torture, freeing the unjustly imprisoned in hospitals and prisons, promoting tolerance of consensual sexuality and nudity, promoting history of science, complete free information, for invention in mechanics, electronics, robotics, transportation, basically all those topics I have explained and desire for the Photon award. I wonder how the secret camera-thought network affects the award decision. The Nobel prize is not democratically decided as I would like the Photon award to be. But I wouldn't doubt that many awards reflect a popular opinion. Some winners, I think have not made serious contributions to science. Any awards for theories or procedures of psychology, like Moniz and the lobotomy, will be viewed as perhaps not the best choice. In particular in physics, since the rise of non-Euclidean theory, almost all physics theories awarded will probably be thought clearly to have no scientific value 500 years from now. In particular theories about a big bang, expanding universe, background radiation, time dilation, black holes in space-time, nuclear forces, quarks, light as an electromagnetic wave, and similar theories, I think are doubtful or highly speculative. Many of these awards appear to go to wealthy, mainstream people in science, supporting mainstream theories. It is true that many new advances in science probably require expensive technology. Clearly those developing secret technology are not being recognized. Whoever first saw images from eyes has never been recognized with a prize, so far as I know. The seeing and sending of brain images has gone unrecognized, and may now contribute to secret behind the thought curtain arrangements, but we excluded can only guess. On a positive note, there have been many people who have won Nobel awards who probably did deserve them and generally these and many other awards greatly advance science on earth.) | (dies at) San Remo, Italy|(will, and awards are in)Stockholm, Sweden |
104 YBN [12/12/1896 AD] | 3444) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. |
104 YBN [12/29/1896 AD] | 4759) Around 1932 Cannon will elaborate on an elaboration of Claude Bernard’s concept of the constancy of the milieu intérieur by developing the concept of “homeostatis” (as a result of his work studying hemorrhagic and traumatic shock among wounded people in World War I). Homeostatis is the effort by the body to maintain a stable internal environment despite fluctuations of the outside environment. Hormones are primarily responsible for this effect, in particular adrenalin. (this needs specific examples, otherwise it is too general.) Cannon identifies the compound secreted from nerve endings (particularly influenced by adrenalin) which he names “sympathin” (because the nerve endings belong to what is called in this time the sympathetic nervous system). (chronology) | (Harvard Medical School) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 4052) | (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 4170) | Thebes, Egypt |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 4240) | (Carborundum Company) Monongahedla City, Pennsylvania, USA |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 4328) In 1929 Eijkman with Fred Hopkins, wins the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine. | Javanese Medical School in Batavia (now Jakarta) (presumably) |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 4343) | (Stockholms Högskola {now the University of Stockholm}) Stockholm, Sweden |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 4381) In 1920 Guillaume is awarded the Nobel prize for "invar". | (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) Sèvres, France |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 4422) | (Detroit Edison Company) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 4494) | (Mareseilles University) Mareseilles, France |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 5499) | (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
104 YBN [1896 AD] | 6019) | Munich, Germany |
103 YBN [01/07/1897 AD] | 4262) | (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
103 YBN [01/??/1897 AD] | 4460) In 1902 Zeeman and Lorentz are awarded the Nobel prize in physics. | (University of Leiden) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
103 YBN [03/10/1897 AD] | 3942) | (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
103 YBN [03/15/1897 AD] | 4536) | (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
103 YBN [04/30/1897 AD] | 4260) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
103 YBN [05/27/1897 AD] | 3437) | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
103 YBN [07/19/1897 AD] | 4730) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
103 YBN [08/20/1897 AD] | 4296) Ross wins the 1902 Nobel prize in physiology and medicine. | |
103 YBN [09/02/1897 AD] | 4250) | (Private Lab) New York City, NY, USA |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 3802) | (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 3912) | Calcutta, India |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4088) Electric display (Oscilloscope). Oscilloscope demonstrated publicly. This leads to the first television, and in some sense is the first television. (Electronic images-images stored in electronic format as changes in electric current can now be publicly displayed.) The first image to be displayed on an oscilloscope (also called "Braun", or "Cathode Ray" Tube) is by Boris Rosing of Russia. (Is this the first use of an electromagnet to move an electron beam in a vacuum tube? Did Plucker use electromagnets?) | (Physikal Institute) Strassburg, France |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4093) According to the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Righi discovered and described magnetic hysteresis in 1880, a few months before Warburg, who is credited with the discovery, and Righi also patented a microphone using conductive powder and a loudspeaker. Magnetic hysterisis is the lagging of the magnetization of ferromagnetic material, such as iron, behind variations of the magnetizing field. Righi is a prolific writer, writing more than 130 papers before 1900. | (Institute of Physics, University of Bologna) Bologna, Italy |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4105) | (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4207) Charles Parsons is the youngest son of the famous astronomer William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse. In retirement Parsons tries unsuccessfully to make diamonds. | (The Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Co., Ltd., ) Wallsend on Tyne, England |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4222) In 1912 Sabatier shares the Nobel prize for chemistry with Victor Grignard. | (University of Toulouse) Toulouse, France |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4297) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4307) | Kaluga, Russia |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4313) | (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4346) | (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4433) | (technical college in Aachen) Aachen, Germany |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4441) | ( University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4469) Gomberg's family flees Russia when Moses' father is accused of anti-Tsarist activity, and settle in Chicago. | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4503) | (University of Munich?) Munich, Germany |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4522) The Yerkes telescope is completed which is supervised by George Ellery Hale (CE 1868-1938) and funded by Charley Yerkes a wealthy US street-car company owner. This is the largest refracting telescope, 40 inches, yet built. Hale convinced Yerkes to fund this telescope. | Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4712) Claude produces liquid chlorine for use in poison gas attacks during World War I. Claude produces inert gases in quantity. Claude supplies Ramsey with liquid air in Ramsay's search for inert gases. In 1945 Claude spends 5 years in prison for supporting the Vichy government in France, which was considered a tool of the Nazis. | (Compagnie Francaise Houston-Thomson) Paris, France |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 4793) | (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 6032) | (Europe and ship crossing) Atlantic ocean |
103 YBN [1897 AD] | 6033) | (49th Austro-Hungarian Regiment) Sarajevo, (Austria-Hungary now)Bosnia (verify) |
102 YBN [04/12/1898 AD] | 4352) Curie's mother is the principle of a girl's school and her father is a physics teacher, but her mother dies of tuberculosis and her father loses his job. In 1891 Curie leaves Poland after saving enough money and enters the Sorbonne in Paris. (How does Curie learn French?) Curie lives a frugal life, fainting in class from hunger at one point. Marie had placed first on the women’s agrégation in physics (15 August 1896). In 07/25/1895 Marie Sklodowska and Pierre Curie (after his piezoelectricity find) married in a civil ceremony both being anti-clerical, with no wedding dress or rings, but instead buy two bicycles for transportation on their honeymoon trip. Pierre abandons his own research and joins Marie as a willing and admiring assistant for the last 7 years of his life. In 1903 the Curies and Henri Becquerel share the Nobel prize in physics for their work in radioactive radiations. The Curies are too ill to make the trip to Stockholm. In 1906 Pierre is killed in a traffic accident with a horse-drawn vehicle. Marie takes over Pierre's position at the Sorbonne and is the first woman to ever teach there. (Asimov comments that this is remarkable in the notoriously conservative world of French science.) Marie is not elected into the august French Academy, losing by one vote because she is a woman. In 1911 Marie wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for identifying two unknown elements. During WWI Marie drives an ambulance. The Curie's daughter Iréne Joliot-Curie, son-in-law Frédéric Joilot-Curie, and neighbor Perrin all will win Nobel prizes. In 1934 Marie Curie dies of leukemia (a form of cancer in the leukocyte-forming cells of the body) from overexposure to radioactive radiation. (This makes clear how radiation (mainly photons in gamma and X ray wavelengths can be used as a terrible weapon to kill living objects.) Asimov describes Marie Curie as the greatest woman scientist that ever lived. (Asimov typed that Marie Curie comments on the vast energies poured out continuously from a material such as radium, but the source of this energy will remain a mystery until Einstein in 1905 shows how mass can be converted into energy. t: To me this is not correct, because this is an example of photons, electrons and possibly helium nuclei emitting from atoms due to a natural process that probably results from gravity. I reject the idea of photons as energy, and here clearly the word "energy" was applied to matter (photons). I don't see how e=mc^2 which I view as meaningless, because energy does not relate to anything real, is needed to explain why photons emit constantly from radioactive atoms. Updating this with my current view - I would say that the concept of energy is simply a combination - the product of mass and motion - and I still reject the idea that matter and motion are interchangable.) The story of Marie Curie is, like that of George Carver, very inspirational and interesting. It shows that females can succeed in science. But as of yet, this amazing story has never been made for the large screen or even television which is truly stupid. | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
102 YBN [04/12/1898 AD] | 4693) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
102 YBN [04/??/1898 AD] | 3868) | (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
102 YBN [05/02/1898 AD] | 4380) | (Business: TH. Goldschmidt) Essen-on-the-Ruhr, Germany |
102 YBN [05/10/1898 AD] | 3824) | (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
102 YBN [06/03/1898 AD] | 4142) | (University College) London, England |
102 YBN [06/13/1898 AD] | 4143) | (University College) London, England |
102 YBN [07/01/1898 AD] | 4255) | (Tesla's private lab) New York City, NY, USA |
102 YBN [07/18/1898 AD] | 4353) | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
102 YBN [07/18/1898 AD] | 4354) | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
102 YBN [09/01/1898 AD] | 4731) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
102 YBN [09/08/1898 AD] | 4144) | (University College) London, England |
102 YBN [10/29/1898 AD] | 4689) | (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
102 YBN [12/??/1898 AD] | 4261) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 3524) After graduation from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1848 Stoney works as an assistant to the astronomer, Lord Rosse, at his observatory at Parsonstown until 1853 when Stony is appointed professor of natural philosophy at Queen's College, Galway. In 1857-1893 Stoney becomes secretary of the Queen’s University in Dublin. | Dublin, Ireland (presumably) |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 3723) | (John's Hopkins University ?) Washington, DC, USA |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4109) Martinus Willem Beijerinck (BIRiNK) (CE 1851-1931), Dutch botanist theorizes that the infectious agent from the tobacco mosaic disease identified by Dmitry I. Ivanovsky in 1892, is a new kind of infectious agent, which he named "contagium vivum fluidum", meaning that it is a live, reproducing organism that differs from other organisms. Beijerinck is led by several observations to conclude that the tobacco mosiac agent is a unique type of pathogen. First, he finds that sap from plants infected with tobacco mosaic disease does not lose infectivity after passage through a filter impervious to microorganisms. In addition the agent can be precipitated by alcohol, a property not normally associated with living organisms. Second, Beijerinck observes that a filtered extract from infected plants can diffuse in a solid agar medium. To Beijerinck this means that the agent had to be "fluid" or non-particulate, since the capacity to diffuse is then believed to be a means of distinguishing molecular substances from larger, supposedly nondiffusing particles and cells. Third, he notes that the pathogen is unable to reproduce outside the host and seems to multiply only in parts of the plant undergoing rapid cell division. Reluctant to accept the idea of an actively self-reproducing molecule, he suggests that replication might occur passively by incorporation of the pathogen into the reproductive machinery of the host cell. On the basis of these observations, Beijerinck concludes that tobacco mosaic disease is caused by a contagium vivum fluidum. a term coined to convey his concept of a living infectious agent in fluid (noncellular) form. Beijerinck publishes his conclusion that tobacco mosaic disease is caused by an infective agent that is not bacterial calling the disease agent a "filterable virus" (virus is Latin for "poison"). Beijerinck presses out the juice of diseased tobacco leaves, and passes it through a porcelain filter that can remove any known bacterium, and finds that the resulting liquid can still infect a healthy plant, and that this infected plant can then be used to infect other plants. Beijerinck concludes that whatever the infecting germ is, that it grows and multiplies. Earlier, Pasteur, finding no causative agent for rabies, speculated that there are germs too small to see with a microscope. Ivanovsky had observed that the tobacco mosaic disease can be transmitted by a filtered liquid, but thought the disease is bacterial. Beijerinck is the first to name this new class of disease agent, but the work of Stanley will show that viruses are not liquid but are individual units (particles). Beijerinck believes that the liquid is alive, and there is a debate whether a virus is living. In my view, anything connected to DNA and/or RNA I would describe as a form of life - even if not apparently alive. | (Dutch Yeast and Spirit Factory) Delft, Netherlands |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4125) An explosion while working with nitrogen and sulfur destroys sight in one of Demarçay's eyes. | (personal lab) Paris, France |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4133) | (University of Greifswald) Greifswald, Germany |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4228) | (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4280) | (Institute for Infectious Diseases) near Tokyo, Japan (presumably) |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4312) | (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4331) | (University of Vienna) Vienna (presumably) |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4434) | (technical college in Aachen) Aachen, Germany |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4514) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4698) Electromagnetic writing and reading of data. Sound recorded and played back magnetically. | (Copenhagen Telephone Company) Copenhagen, Denmark |
102 YBN [1898 AD] | 4704) | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
101 YBN [03/03/1899 AD] | 4900) | (Marconi Company) London, England (verify) |
101 YBN [03/17/1899 AD] | 4319) Like Lowell, Pickering says that he saw signs of life on the planet by observing what he supposes are oases in 1892. Pickering also claims to observe signs of life on the Moon. By comparing descriptions of the Moon from Giovanni Riccioli's 1651 chart onward, Pickering thinks that he has detected changes that could be due to the growth and decay of vegetation. There may be anaerobic bacteria, I would not be surprised, and how interesting if there is not one cell of life of any kind on the moon of earth. If not now, there certainly would be anaerobic bacteria living there very soon after humans live there. William Pickering also calculates the orbit of a possible trans-Neptunian planet with results close to Lowell's. Both William and Edward Pickering, I think, are examples of decent scientists who spoke more truth, but generally lost to bad people who have more money and power - mostly the controllers of the neuron reading and writing networks - and whoever tries to sell relativity and any fraudulent or less accurate theories in order to purposely mislead the public, to stop women's legal equality, and supports other bad similar views. | (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
101 YBN [03/27/1899 AD] | 4829) | South Foreland, England and Wimereux, France |
101 YBN [04/18/1899 AD] | 4089) | (Physics institute at Strasbourg) Strasbourg, France |
101 YBN [05/01/1899 AD] | 4455) | (University College Dublin) Dublin, Ireland |
101 YBN [05/11/1899 AD] | 4690) | (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
101 YBN [05/??/1899 AD] | 4885) | London, England (presumably) |
101 YBN [08/??/1899 AD] | 4491) Wilbur and his brother Orville bicycle, glide, and build an airplane together. Several years after the first flight the US government is not interested in the airplane. (Unlike neuron reading and writing, the motorized airplane happily becomes public knowledge and on the open market - although, like helicopters, the sale of and usage are highly restricted.) In 1908 Wilbur Wright takes the plane to France. In 1912 Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever. Both brothers are sons of a minister, do not use tobacco, alcohol, don't marry and always wear business suits even in the machine shop. Orville in later life explains that in their home "there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity.", and in a less-nourishing environment, Orville believed, "our curiosity might have been nipped long before it could have borne fruit.". Both brothers only have high school educations. (Some time in the future flying cars will probably outnumber land only vehicle. But the design will probably be an adapted helicopter for earth, and probably hydrogen thrust vehicles for the moon.) | 08/1899|Dayton, Ohio |
101 YBN [09/13/1899 AD] | 4732) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
101 YBN [09/??/1899 AD] | 4739) | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
101 YBN [10/03/1899 AD] | 4830) | New York City, NY, USA |
101 YBN [10/03/1899 AD] | 4831) | New York City, NY, USA |
101 YBN [11/20/1899 AD] | 4376) | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
101 YBN [11/22/1899 AD] | 4733) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
101 YBN [12/11/1899 AD] | 4374) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
101 YBN [12/??/1899 AD] | 4265) | (British Association Meeting) Dover, England |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 3724) | (John's Hopkins University ?) Washington, DC, USA |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 3727) | (John's Hopkins University ?) Washington, DC, USA |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 3825) | (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 3891) Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin (CE 1843-1928), US geologist, argues against William Thomson's theory that the Earth is only 100 million years old, arguing that there were several ice ages which goes against Thomson's argument that a single ice age is evidence of uniform cooling. | (University of Chicago), Chicago, Illinois, USA |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4154) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4177) | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4347) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4364) | (University College) London, England |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4391) | (Cape Observatory) South Africa |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4423) Henry Ford (CE 1863-1947) US industrialist founds a company (the Detroit Automobile Company) to manufacture cars he designs. Eli Whitney had introduced the manufacture of standardized parts a century earlier. | (Detroit Automobile Company) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4425) English chemists William Henry Perkin, Jr. (1860-1929) and Frederic Stanley Kipping (CE 1863-1949) publish one of he first textbooks dedicated strictly to organic chemistry. This book remains the standard organic textbook for 50 years. (Find image of Kipping) | (Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4472) | (Moscow State University) Moscow, Russia |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4473) | (Moscow State University) Moscow, Russia |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4533) | ( University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4720) Pope leave school at 15, is an assistant to Kipping, and becomes a professor at the University of Manchester at 1901. During WWI Pope develops methods for producing large quantities of mustard gas. | (Institute of the Goldsmiths’ Company) New Cross, England |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 4836) Debierne is friends of the Curies and is associated with their work. | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
101 YBN [1899 AD] | 6046) | (George R. Smith College for Negroes) Sedalia, Missouri, USA (presumably) |
100 YBN [01/18/1900 AD] | 4372) | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
100 YBN [03/05/1900 AD] | 4373) | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
100 YBN [03/26/1900 AD] | 4155) A Google translation of Becquerel's work is all I can find: "The part of radiation from radium déviable by a magnetic field is open to different experiences, from which I quote the following on rays that pass through the black paper "I ° deviation in the magnetic gap. In order to investigate whether air exerted a significant influence on the propagation speed radiation in question, I prepared the experience of my deviation - ence in a vacuum. I did not observe any noticeable difference with this that obtained in air. The experiment was conducted in the following way a glass tube, closed at one end and connected by another, through a tube lead, with a trunk to mercury, was placed horizontally between poles of an electromagnet and normally in a field. In this tube, side of a little phosphoric acid to dry air, was placed a small photographic plate, horizontal, wrapped in black paper; on the plate was placed in a small bowl lead omm, 94 thick - sor, containing the active ingredient collected in a hole about imm diamete r hole in a card kept below by paper black and above by a very thin foil. In these con - ditions, the material can remain for several hours on the plate without veil, and only gives. impression directly beneath the source, through the lead. "It is now more or less completely in a vacuum tube, then is passed through the electromagnet currents that also maintains constant as possible. Rays back on the photographic plate by the magnetic field impressed it on one side of the source. After ten minutes of installation, it interrupts the current; Leaving the return air is then passed to the electromagnet a neck - rant equal to the first, during the same time, but in the opposite direction of to reject the impression the other side of the source and can thus compared to the same test the effects obtained in vacuum and in air atmospheric pressure. "We operated with pressures'] mm, 2mm, of omm i mercury and the almost absolute vacuum. In all cases, the two impressions, all the board below the source of an impression due to rays which are reduced. If it has, in space, on the path of rays, various screens, their shadow is reproduced in the plate, showing that the rays normal field is reduced below the source itself, and that oblique rays are back on the field axis through the source. Finally, if, next to the horizontal plate, there is a plaque ver - tical plan which extends above and below the first, obtains a section of the trajectories of all rays which meet and we recognize that they are back on the axis that passes through the source. "It reflects all the appearance assimilating the radiation ing into question the cathode rays, and considering the radiation tion as subject to forces that seek the negative electrical masses tions across the magnetic field with great speed. In these conditions, the trajectories of rays normal to a uniform field is circles passing through the source, tangential to the original direction of radiation and these circles have equal radius R, whose value is inversely proportional to the intensity of the field. The rays emitted nor - mally to a photographic plate parallel to the magnetic field return cut it normally, and produce an impression maximum intensity. The rays emitted tangentially to the plate re - come on themselves tangentially to it and produce no printing. For an oblique direction of propagation, making with the axis of field angle x, the trajectory is a helix which winds on a cy - Lindre sinx radius R, having an axis parallel to the axis of the field, and tangential component of the trajectory at the start. The helix is wound in the sense of movement clockwise if the propagation takes place in the direction of the field, and in reverse if the propagation takes place in a direction otherwise. i> These results, known for cathode rays, apply to déviables rays of radium. The location of maximum impressions on the plate Photography is horizontal instead of intersections with this Plan rays whose directions are original in a vertical plane paralle l to the field. This place is an arc of an ellipse whose semi-axes 2R is the direction perpendicular to the field, and the other would Shooting for the direction of the axis, but the rays do not reach this point. All trajectories of these rays have the same length TCR. "The place of intersection with a plane normal to the axis of the scope, trajectories of oblique rays whose original elements are in plane through the axis is a curve whose starting point is on the axis through the source, and whose tangent at the origin is the intersection two planes at an angle equal to "> d is the distance from the plane to the source, and R is the radius of the circular path described above. Experience verify this theoretical value. In a magnetic field equal to 4OO ° CGS units were obtained for R values close to 3mm, 7. "40 dispersion in the magnetic field. It follows from the form of trajectories that, in the experiment described earlier this Note, if the radiation was homogeneous, the impressions should be arcs Ellipse intense toward the outer edge and diffuse toward the inner edge. Even with a radiant source of very small diameter arcs of el - Lipsius are very diffuse outward, and the diffusion increases when, decreas ing the magnetic field increases the value of 2R. This dif - merger appears to be attributable to a dispersion of the magnetic field tion, the beam of radiation which my previous experiences ( ') had already reported heterogeneity. "If we have the photographic plate wrapped in paper black, and placed parallel to the field, displays of various kinds, such a strip of aluminum omm, i thick, a strip of copper omm, O85, output in these screens consists of elliptical arcs shifted against each other. In a field of approximately 2400 units, and another screen without the black paper, the elliptical arc is in the minor axis region of maximum intensity about 2R = 12 ™ 2. Under the aluminum 2R = i6mm 5. Under the copper, the value of R 2 is approximately twice that obtained without the screen and these numbers are given here only as an indi - tion. The impressions are the kinds of absorption spectra showing that most rays deflected by the magnetic field are the most easily arrested under these conditions. But if, instead of placing the screen aluminum on the photographic plate is placed near the source, although the rays pass through successively aluminum and black paper, the elliptical arc obtained on the plate has the same position if there was no aluminum. It seems that aluminum, a very small (2IO) distance from the source is transparent to certain rays, and that the stops when they traveled in the air a distance of 2cm. I return - drai shortly on these phenomena. "5 Considerations electrostatic deflection. - The facts newly exposed part of the show that radiation Radium is quite similar to cathode rays, or masses of negative electricity carried with great speed. We has been able to recognize the existence of these electrical charges. He But could we find himself in the presence of masses of material excessively low, carrying loads also very low, too small to be easily identified, but such that report - the mass of the load was a significant order of magnitude in a magnetic field. We know that if v is the speed, intensity H field and p the radius of curvature of the trajectory, we must have - V = H p. However, we found for H = 4000, p = o0, we have e therefore approximately - v = i5oo. It should be noted that this number is the same order of magnitude as those found for cathode rays by J.-J. Thomson ((), by W. Wien (*) and Mr. Lenard (3) which gave values of - v varying from io3o to 1273, with values of v between o, 67.10 'and 0.81. io10. These masses must undergo movement in an electric field intensity F, a deviation 9 = F1 = F? is the length of iooo y ° m - V * e path in the field. We know we could not get far no electrostatic deflection for rays of radium. Maybe Therefore it is that field employees were not sufficiently intense. It is reduced to this point assumptions, if we accept as likely that the speed v is, as the cathode rays of the magnitude of the speed of light, such as in the experiments of Lenard, a quarter of that speed, we see that for out on a journey of icm deviation 0 of a few degrees or 6 to 0.20 io = i, 4> should make at least one electric field 2.iot2 units or a potential difference of 20,000 volts between two pla - Castles remote icm; should therefore, for a deflection electromagnet significant static, employing different potentials equal to or greater nal to those that cause explosive discharge between conductors in the air, which can be achieved in a vacuum, and does not appear have been done so far. We can not say anything until we have completed experience in electric fields of the order of magnitude of those which were used for the study of cathode rays. " | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
100 YBN [03/26/1900 AD] | 4375) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
100 YBN [04/09/1900 AD] | 4371) | (chemistry laboratory of the École Normale) Paris, France |
100 YBN [04/12/1900 AD] | 4429) Cannon is the oldest daughter of Wilson Cannon, a Delaware state senator, and Mary Jump. In 1896 Cannon joins the staff at Harvard University, during a time before even having the right to vote, as a women, in the United States before 1920. Jump is the first women to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford (1925), is awarded the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1931) and is also the first woman to become an officer in the American Astronomical Society. | (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
100 YBN [05/03/1900 AD] | 3675) | (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
100 YBN [06/??/1900 AD] | 3843) | (Own Laboratory) Terling, England |
100 YBN [07/02/1900 AD] | 3784) In 1906 Zeppelin builds an airship that has a speed of 30 mi (48 km) per hr. In 1928 is the first flight of the most successful dirigible, the Graf Zeppelin, (Graf is German for count). This ship will go around the earth in 1929. In 1937, the Hindenburg (a large Hydrogen filled directable balloon), bearing a swastika, goes down in flames over New Jersey (which greatly lowers the popularity of these vehicles). | Lake Constance, Germany |
100 YBN [07/17/1900 AD] | 4833) | London, England |
100 YBN [08/27/1900 AD] | 4205) James Carroll (CE 1854-1907), English-US physician on this day Carroll, working in Cuba, as second in command to Reed in the now-famous commission sent to Cuba to study yellow fever, doubting the theory of Carlos Finlay that a mosquito acts as the vector in yellow fever, allows an infected mosquito to bite his arm. Four days later Carroll has the first experimental case of yellow fever. Carroll nearly dies, and acquirs a heart disease from which he will die a few years later. Lazear a fellow investigator will die from the disease. A year before in 1899 Reed and Carroll had disproved Sanarelli’s theory that Bacillus icteroides is the specific agent in yellow fever. | Cuba |
100 YBN [10/19/1900 AD] | 4327) Planck has considerable ability in music, and is an excellent performer on the piano and organ. For example, Planck commissions the construction of a harmonium with 104 tones in each octave. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Planck is the first prominent physicist to champion Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905). Planck states that "The velocity of light is to the Theory of Relativity as the elementary quantum of action is to the Quantum Theory; it is its absolute core.". In 1914 Planck and the physical chemist Walther Hermann Nernst succeed in bringing Einstein to Berlin. (It is interesting that Planck may be largely responsible for the rise of the theory of relativity - perhaps larger neuron forces and wealth were influential - only the phone comapny and government eye and thought videos will show some century. Perhaps Planck and Einstein were corpuscularists, non-believers in aether theory- but had to compromise - but it seems unlikely given the unwavering support for the space and time-dilation of Fitzgerald and Lorentz. in addition both apparently viewed light as non-material - at least publicly.) According to Asimov, Planck accepts Einstein's theory of relativity, but rejects the quantum theory as applied to the photoelectric effect. In 1918 Planck receives the Nobel prize in physics for the quantum theory. Einstein and Bohr will receive the Nobel a few years later. In 1930 Planck becomes president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society of Berlin and it is renamed the Max Planck Society. Planc k never lends his voice to the Hitler regime. In 1937 Planck intercedes personally with Hitler on behalf of Jewish colleagues, unsuccessfully, and is forced to resign his presidency of the Max Planck Society as a result, but will be restored after WW II. Planck's house is destroyed by allied bombing in WW II. Planck is rescued by allies while in flight during the last days of confusion before the Nazi's final defeat. Planck loses a son in WW I, 2 daughters in childbirth, and his son Erwin, executed in 1944, accused of taking part in a plot against Hitler's life. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 3858) | Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 3860) (Sir) David Gill (CE 1843-1914), Scottish astronomer proposes that the nations of the world join together and create an atlas of all the stars. The Director of the Paris Observatory, Admiral Ernest Mouchez, suggestes that a meeting should be held in Paris and this initiates the "Carte du Ciel" project. The Carte du Ciel project requires that all of the sky be photographed down to the 14th magnitude on standard sized photographic plates. | Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 3890) Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin (CE 1843-1928), US geologist, together with Moulon raise the theory Buffon had advanced 150 years before, that a star once passed close to our star and that matter from both stars cooled into small fragments, which then condensed into planets (as opposed to Laplace's theory that planets formed simply from gravitational collapse). This is the "planetesimal hypothesis". Chamberlin and Moulin publish their work in "The Two Solar Families" (1928), independently of a similar work by British astronomer Sir James Jeans. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Scientists, the planetesimal hypothesis has little support today as cannot account for the distribution of angular momentum in the solar system. (Does this presume that no objects form from gravitational collapse? Does this view presume that gas does not accumulate and contract into stars and planets as is thought for endo-nebuli? As it stands I doubt this theory exclusively, but I can accept that stars collide. I think that planets probably can form as a result of gravitation and collision of matter around a star.) The current view is that planets and other orbiting objects formed from a cloud of matter that condensed under gravity. in my view, these kinds of collisions must happen, and how often could be calculated. Initially I am guessing that collisions between stars are far more rare than time moving without any star-star collision. (This is an interesting theory and there need to be more simulations of the accumulation of matter in star systems. These are massive and time consuming simulations, star systems take billions of years to evolve, perhaps there is no faster way to model this process. In addition, since modeling photons, atoms or smaller objects would take too long, people generally model millions of collective pieces of matter.) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4053) | (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4058) | (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4189) | (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4215) | (Eastman Kodak Company) New York City, NY, USA |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4303) | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, CA, USA |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4384) In 1925 Hopkins wins the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology with Eijkman for enunciating what will ater be known as the "vitamin concept". From 1930-1935 Hopkins is president of the Royal Society. | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4395) | |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4426) | (University College, Nottingham, now Nottingham University) Nottingham, England |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4465) | (Army Medical School) Netley, England |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4470) | (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4478) Fessenden holds 500 patents at the time of his death, second only to Edison. Fessenden works for Edison in the 1880s and Edison's greatest rival Westinghouse from 1890-1892. (AM works by having a regular periodic sine wave, for example one at 10 million cycles per second, and adding in a source signal. At the receiving station the 10 million cycles per second sine wave is subtracted leaving the source signal.) (Clearly amplitude modulation must have been recognized much earlier - for people to have started neuron reading and writing in at least 1810. Perhaps Feesenden was a person excluded from the technology who reinvented it, or was included and purposely allowed to release the truth about amplitude modulation to the public.) (Amplitude modulation is so simple an idea, that it occurs naturally in any object that emits a periodic frequency of particles, which is pretty much all matter. For example, sounds reaching the ear may impart an amplitude modulation - which is a strength modulation - a quantity of particle modulation to any regular interval signal emitted from the nerves of the ear portion of the brain.) (Probably amplitude modulation of wired recording of sound was the first instance of listening to hidden microphones.) | (Western University of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh) Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4504) | (Mikhail Artillery Academy ) St. Petersburg, Russia |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4725) During World War I, Grignard creates methods for producing phosgene, a poisonous gas, and for detecting the first traces of mustard gas. In 1912 Grignard wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Paul Sabatier. | (University of Lyons) Lyons, France |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 4806) Schwarzschild attended a Jewish primary school in Frankfurt, Germany. (At the time were schools separated by race? Were Jewish children prevented from attending non-all Jewish schools?) Schwarzschild volunteers for military service in 1914 at the beginning of World War I and is sent home in 1916 with a rare skin disease from which he dies. (Possibly murdered?) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany (presented, but photos captured in Vienna, Austria) |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 6018) | Saint Petersberg, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) |
100 YBN [1900 AD] | 6024) Jean Sibelius (original name Johan Julius Christian Sibelius) (CE 1865-1957), Finnish composer, the most noted symphonic composer of Scandinavia, composes around this time. | Helsinki, Finland |
99 YBN [01/01/1901 AD] | 4252) | (University of Kansas) Kansas, USA |
99 YBN [01/23/1901 AD] | 4485) | Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
99 YBN [02/07/1901 AD] | 4119) Many people from the United States die in the Spanish-American War not because of weapons but because of disease. Some doctors actually allow themselves to be bitten by mosquitoes to see if they get yellow fever. William Lazear does and dies. | (Pan American Medical Congress) Habana, Cuba |
99 YBN [02/14/1901 AD] | 6342) Rollins publishes this a "X-Light Kills" in the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal". | Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
99 YBN [03/02/1901 AD] | 4435) | (Wurzburg University) Wurzburg, Germany |
99 YBN [04/19/1901 AD] | 4266) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
99 YBN [05/??/1901 AD] | 4028) | (private lab) West Orange, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
99 YBN [10/27/1901 AD] | 6026) Sergey (Vasilyevich) Rachmaninoff (CE 1873-1943), composer who is the last great figure of the tradition of Russian Romanticism, composes his second piano concerto. (Somehow I don't think the melodrama will stop any time soon.) | Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
99 YBN [12/12/1901 AD] | 4832) | Poldhu, Cornwall, England to St. John’s, Newfoundland |
99 YBN [12/31/1901 AD] | 4120) | (Society of American Bacteriologists) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4054) | (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4124) | (personal lab) Paris, France |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4148) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4156) | (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4221) | (his private laboratory) Clifton, New Jersey, USA |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4227) | (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4357) Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906), French chemist confirms Becquerel's finding that radium can induce skin burns in a dangerous experiment whose danger was unknown at the time. Curie measures the heat given off by radium as 140 calories per gram per hour. This is the first indication of the huge energy (that is large quantity of mass and motion) available inside the atom. (There must be a huge number of photons (and composite particles) inside atoms and the number of atoms in a piece of material that is small compared to the size of a human. ). | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4499) Despite his scientific achievements, Perrine and his office become a target for nationalist politicians and Perrine is attacked verbally by deputies in the Argentine Congress. In 1931 Perrine is barely missed by a sniper’s bullet and in 1933 the Argentine Congress passes legislation removing authority from the director of the observatory. (There are clearly parallels for me in living in Orange County.) In 1936 Perrine is forced into retirement (from the Argentine National Observatory in Córdoba) by Argentine "rightests". | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4515) In 1930 Landsteiner wins the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology for identifying blood groups. | (Pathological-Anatomical Institute) Vienna |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4705) | (Institut Antirabique et Bacteriologique, in 1903 the Institut Pasteur du Brabant) Brussells, Belgium |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4711) | Dolgoe Village, Orlovskaya guberniya, Russia |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 4787) De Forest grows up in Alabama, and his father, a minister, had moved to Alabama in 1879 to serve as a principal of a school for black people. The family is ostracized for this and young Lee finds his friends only amoung black children. De Forest's father wants him to enter the ministry but De Forest wants to go into science. De Forest's Ph.D. dissertation is probably the first in the USA that relates to radio (Hertzian) waves. De Forest is indicted in 1912 but later acquitted of federal charges of using the postal system to defraud by seeking to promote a "worthless device"—the Audion tube. During the 1930s De Forest develops Audion-diathermy machines. Diathermy is the heating of body tissues due to their resistance to the passage of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, electric current, or ultrasonic waves. During World War II De Forest works on military research at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. De Forest has more than 300 patents, the last when he is 84 years old. (To broadcast photons in with radio frequencies, only a large current is needed, and a larger transmitting antenna. Clearly the conversion of sound to electric current had been done already with the invention of the telephone. The triode can simply amplify weak electronic current signals, which is useful perhaps in amplifying the weak AM signals at the receiving end. A signal may start with very dense photons, but as the distance from the source transmitter increases the quantity of photons decreases by the square of the distance. So only far fewer photon beams reach distant receivers, which must take those weak voltages and currents created by the photon beams and amplify them to play through a speaker. State what kinds of speakers are in use at the time.) (Was DeForest excluded from direct to neuron reading and writing?) (It is interesting that DeForest is one of those people who actively tried to bring radio communication to the public. This is interesting in light or what must have been the, already by this time, thriving secret particle communication (wireless) neuron reading and writing networks.) | (Western Electric Company) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 5510) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 6023) From 1905 to 1908 Elgar is the University of Birmingham’s first professor of music. | Malvern, Worcestershire, England (presumably) |
99 YBN [1901 AD] | 6253) | |
98 YBN [02/15/1902 AD] | 4091) | (Société de Biologic) Paris, France (presumably) |
98 YBN [02/??/1902 AD] | 4835) | (US ship Philadelphia) Atlantic Ocean (presumably) |
98 YBN [03/17/1902 AD] | 4398) The interpretation of this relationship of light and electricity is provided in 1905 by Albert Einstein’s hypothesis of light quanta in applying the quantum theory of Planck to light. (I think a light quantum can be interpreted as a mass multiplied by it's velocity or perhaps its velocity squared. There could be two quanta, one that is mv, and another that is mv2, and others that are mv3, m2v2, etc.) This finding persuades people in science that atoms contain electrons as part of their structure. Lenard shows that only certain wavelengths of light bring about electron emission. Lenard shows that for any particular wavelength, electrons of fixed energies (that having a fixed product of mass and velocity) are given off. Increasing the intensity of light increases the number of electrons but not their individual energy. Lenard is the first to suppose that the atom is mostly made of empty space when he tries to explain this phenomenon. Ernest Rutherford will establish this a few years later. Lenard proposes a model of the atom in which the atom is made from "dynamids", units of positive and negative charge. This will be soon replaced by the nuclear atom of Ernest Rutherford. (what device does Lenard use to create light of many different specific frequencies? Lenard probably filters incandescent light from carbon electrodes. I think there is some amount of photoelectric effect in all photons that collide with atoms, and that perhaps photons are, or are closely related to electrons and only show electric effect when in metals or atom lattices. Show and explain exactly how Lenard finds only certain frequencies cause electron emission.) (how was this electron energy measured, with what devices? is this measured as electric potential?) (Show how Leonard determines the velocity of electricity - is this simply measured by electric potential? This again presumes that the speed of electricity is faster for a higher potential and slower for a lower potential, which I can accept - but I don't know if that is the majority view.) (State paper, and translate) (presumably) | (University of Kiel) Kiel, Germany |
98 YBN [03/28/1902 AD] | 4857) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
98 YBN [03/??/1902 AD] | 4734) Soddy is profoundly disturbed by World War I and “enraged” by the death of Moseley. In 1921 Soddy wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for finding isotopes. | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
98 YBN [04/28/1902 AD] | 4235) | (Observatoire de météorologie dynamique {Dynamic Meteorology Observatory})Trappes, France |
98 YBN [05/27/1902 AD] | 4735) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
98 YBN [05/??/1902 AD] | 4338) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
98 YBN [10/17/1902 AD] | 4253) | (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
98 YBN [10/17/1902 AD] | 4254) | (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
98 YBN [10/27/1902 AD] | 3983) | University of Nancy, Nancy, France (presumably) |
98 YBN [11/10/1902 AD] | 4736) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
98 YBN [11/19/1902 AD] | 4738) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 3609) The book "Trailblazer to Television", is a book written by Arthur Korn's wife Elizabeth and daughter-in-law Terry, after his death, and published by Scribner's Sons, who also publish the "Dictionary of Scientific Biography". So like Harper Brothers, Scribner, clearly are informers to the public in these secretive and terrible times. There are some interesting hints in this book: The second sentence of the preface uses the word "eye". On page 6 "Arthur's mother was only a dim image in his mind.". On page 45: "'Yes.' She beamed.". | München, Germany |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 3821) | (Munich Thermal Testing Station) Munich, Germany (presumably) |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4062) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany (presumably) |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4082) | London, England (presumably) |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4180) | (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4181) | (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4365) | (University College) London, England |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4394) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4457) In 1925, Zsigmondy wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for work on colloids. | (private research) Jena?, Germany (verify) |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4480) | (National Electric Signalling Company) Brant Rock, Massachusetts, USA |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4713) | (Compagnie Francaise Houston-Thomson) Paris, France |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4714) | (Compagnie Francaise Houston-Thomson) Paris, France (presumably) |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4721) | (Municipal School of Technology) Manchester, England |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4766) Russell's parents died by the time he is four, and his grandfather John Russell raises him. This grandfather had been prime minister of Great Britain from 1846-1852, and 1865-1866. His grandfather dies in 1878 and his grandmother raises him. Russell supports women's suffrage. (more specific, right to vote?)) Russell's published views on sex are used by people in the clergy and the Hearst press to arouse a storm of disapproval against Russell, and a state court order withdraws his appointment (job) on the staff of the City College of New York. In 1916 Russell publishes a leaflet protesting against the harsh treatment of a conscientious objector and is prosecuted on a charge of making statements likely to prejudice recruiting for and discipline in the armed services, and fined £100. The Council, the governing body of Trinity, then dismisses Russell from his lectureship, and Russell breaks all connection with the college by removing his name from the books. In 1918 another article of Russell's is judged seditious, and Russell is sentenced to imprisonment for six months. After the war, however, in 1925 the college invites Russell to give the Tarner lectures and from 1944 until his death Russell is again a fellow of the college. In 1950 Russell is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. In 1961 Russell is jailed again in England. (explain) Russell lives until 1970 and reaches 97 years old. | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 4784) In 1912 Carrel wins the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for developing a method of suturing blood vessels. In 1935 Carrel publishes a book, "Man, the Unknown", with authoritarian views about the planet run by an intellectual elite. Carrel writes in "Man, the Unknown": "Criminality and insanity can be prevented only by a better knowledge of man, by eugenics, by changes in education and in social conditions. Meanwhile, criminals have to be dealt with effectively. Perhaps prisons should be abolished. They could be replaced by smaller and less expensive institutions. The conditioning of petty criminals with the whip, or some more scientific procedure, followed by a short stay in hospital, would probably suffice to insure order. Those who have murdered, robbed while armed with automatic pistol or machine gun, kidnapped children, despoiled the poor of their savings, misled the public in important matters, should be humanely and economically disposed of in small euthanasic institutions supplied with proper gases. A similar treatment could be advantageously applied to the insane, guilty of criminal acts.". In the 1936 preface to the German edition of his book, Alexis Carrel added a praise to the eugenics policies of the Third Reich, writing that: "(t)he German government has taken energetic measures against the propagation of the defective, the mentally diseased, and the criminal. The ideal solution would be the suppression of each of these individuals as soon as he has proven himself to be dangerous." Also in this book, Carrel supports the concept of telepathy writing: "CLairvoyance and telepathy are a primary datum of scientific observation. Those endowed with this power grasp the secret thoughts of other individuals without using their sense organs. They also perceive events more or less remote in space and time. This quality is exceptional. It develops in only a small number of human beings. but many possess it in a rudimentary state. ... The reading of thoughts seems to be related simultaneously to scientific, esthetic, and religious inspiration, and to telepathy. Telepathic communications occur frequently. ". (notice att-and to telepathy. In addition, this may be a cover used by those who receive videos direct-to-neuron - to mislead those excluded by thinking that occurances of people saying what they are thinking must be this 'latent' ability.) Carrel views homosexuality as a disease in writing: "...Homosexuality flourishes. Sexual morals have been cast aside. ...". Carrel works with the Vichy government and when France is liberated Carrel is dismissed from his posts, but but died before a trial is arranged. A similar occurance may happen for accessories who helped cover-up the truth about how Frank Fiorini killed JFK, Thane Cesar killed RFK, 9/11 and all other murders. | (University of Lyons) Lyons, France |
98 YBN [1902 AD] | 6047) | Saint Louis, Missouri, USA (presumably) |
97 YBN [03/17/1903 AD] | 3676) | (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
97 YBN [03/23/1903 AD] | 4492) | Dayton, Ohio |
97 YBN [03/23/1903 AD] | 4493) | Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, USA |
97 YBN [05/14/1903 AD] | 4263) | (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
97 YBN [05/19/1903 AD] | 3970) | Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
97 YBN [05/28/1903 AD] | 3677) | (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
97 YBN [05/28/1903 AD] | 3830) | (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
97 YBN [06/??/1903 AD] | 4893) In 1917 Barkla wins a Nobel Prize in physics for work on X rays. | (University College) Liverpool, England |
97 YBN [07/17/1903 AD] | 3438) Huggins may be hinting about secret sending of images to brains with this sentence: "...has already thrown many beams of suggestive light into the very obscure regions of the constitution of matter." in 1903. It could be knowledge of the secret research that has not yet produced anything. Working with spectra, and wealthy, Huggins was certainly in a position to know and understand. By this time the CRT is public, and so probably the electric camera has already been invented. The electric camera must be quickly integrated into the microphone networks of the phone and telegraph companies. This implies already by 1903 that people were either sending images, or actively trying to, and Huggins had access to see or hear about this secret research. All this is before even World War I or II, to think of how many lives would have been saved had they shared with the public these science and technology advances instead of hording them for many decades still to come even now. In fact, much of Huggins and other scientists writing can be used as a measurement device to determine when people first saw eyes. For example, in 1897 Huggins writes that Airy said "It seems to me a case of 'Eyes and No Eyes'.". The use of the word "eyes", "suggest", "beam", "ears", "thought", and many others, all can be weighted to find a curve from historical documents. In particular from honest and wise sources. Simply examining the papers of major indicators such as Huggins, Henry Crew, and others. First a good hinter must be determined, before their writings are evaluated for clear secret technology hinting. Even then, it is very difficult to solidly conclude anything other than...it is very likely that by this time people were seeing eyes. Seeing eyes from behind the head in infrared is one of those science breakthroughs that you either know about because somebody told you or you have no idea. It is generally an all or none type of knowledge. There might be a small period of time before the actual technology where people are actively experimenting trying to see eyes, etc. I have to think that period must be brief, but some science breakthroughs do take decades until possible. | (Tulse Hill)London, England |
97 YBN [07/28/1903 AD] | 4145) Soddy is profoundly disturbed by World War I and “enraged” by the death of Moseley. In 1921 Soddy wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for finding isotopes. | (University College) London, England |
97 YBN [11/23/1903 AD] | 4264) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
97 YBN [11/??/1903 AD] | 4026) | (private lab) West Orange, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
97 YBN [12/??/1903 AD] | 4462) | (Tokyo University) Tokyo, Japan |
97 YBN [1903 AD] | 4075) | (Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
97 YBN [1903 AD] | 4127) | (University of Madrid) Madrid, Spain |
97 YBN [1903 AD] | 4308) Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (TSYULKuVSKE) (CE 1857-1935), Russian physicist starts a series of articles which thoroughly describe the theory of rocketry for an aviation magazine. | Kaluga, Russia (presumably) |
97 YBN [1903 AD] | 4368) In 1924 Einthoven wins the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology. | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
97 YBN [1903 AD] | 4756) Schaudinn dies at age 34. (state how if known) | (German-Austrian zoological station) Rovigno (now Rovinj, Yugoslavia) |
97 YBN [1903 AD] | 4768) Tsvet died when only 47. (Probably neuron'd) | (University of Warsaw) Warsaw, Poland |
96 YBN [02/14/1904 AD] | 4837) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France (presumably) |
96 YBN [03/17/1904 AD] | 4894) | (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
96 YBN [06/18/1904 AD] | 4500) | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
96 YBN [06/29/1904 AD] | 4707) | (Mining Engineering and Chemistry company) New Haven, Conneticut, USA |
96 YBN [09/08/1904 AD] | 4401) In 1915 Bragg wins the Nobel prize in physics with his son (Laue won in 1914). In 1925 Bragg writes about science for the public in "Concerning the Nature of Things", and "The universe of light", helping to popularize science. In 1935 Bragg is elected president of the Royal Society. | (University of Adelaide) Adelaide, Australia |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 3448) | (observatory of Meudon) Paris, France |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 3615) | Paris, France (presumably) |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 3647) | France |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 3708) | (Zoological Institute) Jena, Germany |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 3975) | Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, Germany |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4077) | (University College) London, England |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4084) | (Edinburgh University) Edinburgh, Scotland |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4101) | (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4102) | (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4178) | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4198) | (Serum Institute) Frankfurt, Germany |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4202) | (University of Paris) Paris, France |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4218) William Crawford Gorgas (GoURGuS) (CE 1854-1920), US army surgeon, helps to completely end both malaria and yellow fever in Panama by destroying the mosquito populations. This will make the building of the Panama Canal (completed in 1914) possible. | Panama |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4229) | (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4366) | (University College) London, England |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4377) | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4382) | (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) Sèvres, France |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4400) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4402) | (University of Adelaide) Adelaide, Australia |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4413) | (Würzburg University) Würzburg, Germany |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4447) | (Potsdam Observatory) Potsdam, Getmany |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4463) In 1929 Harden wins the Nobel prize in chemistry with Euler-Chelpin for work in fermentation. | (Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine) London, England |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4757) | (Institute for Protozoology at the Imperial Ministry of Health) Berlin, Germany |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4873) Kettering is the son of a farmer. In 1909 Kettering founds the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco), which eventually merges with other companies to form General Motors. In 1919 Kettering becomes the head of the General Motors Research Corporation. | (National Cash Register Company) Dayton, Ohio, USA |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 4920) In 1903 Nieuwland is ordained a priest. In 1904 Nieuwland receives his Doctor's degree from a Catholic University. (It is rare after the 1700s to see religious people ordained as priests make contributions in science, so Nieuwland is truly an exception. Nieuwland is evidence that even those (under the influence and burden of religions) who believe the lies of religions can make contributions in science.) | (Catholic University of America), Washington, D.C, USA |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 5099) | Düsselsorf, Germany (presumably) |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 5779) | (University of Manchester) Machester, England |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 6100) "Give my regards to Broadway" is released (written by George M. Cohan). | New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
96 YBN [1904 AD] | 6343) | |
95 YBN [01/05/1905 AD] | 4501) | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
95 YBN [01/30/1905 AD] | 4267) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
95 YBN [03/17/1905 AD] | 4928) Einstein drops out of high school following the invitation of the teacher who said “You will never amount to anything, Einstein.”. Einstein goes to Italy for a vacation to avoid qualifying for military service. Einstein graduates from college in Switzerland. In 1901 Einstein gets a job as a junior official in the patent office in Berne, Switzerland. In 1905 Einstein earns a Ph.D. In 1909 Einstein gets a low paying job as professor at the University of Zürich. In 1913 Einstein gets a high paying job as professor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute in Berlin, thanks to Planck, who is greatly impressed with Einstein's work. (Probably Planck in particular supported Einstein's use of Planck's theory to explain the photoelectric effect. This also shows Planck to honorably be not anti-Jewish.) After World War I starts, Einstein as a Swiss citizen does not have to serve. When many German scientists sign a nationalistic pro-war proclamation, Einstein is one of the few to sign a counterproclamation calling for peace. In 1930 Einstein visits California to lecture at the California Institute of Technology and is still there when Hitler comes to power. Einstein accepts a job as professor in Princeton, New Jersey at the Institute for Advanced Studies, a private, academic, non-degree granting institution founded in 1930 in Princeton, New Jersey. Students are postdoctorate or senior scholars who conduct independent, intensive research through any of the institute's four schools. It is not affiliated with any other academic institution but has an informal relationship with Princeton University. (Einstein does believe in a god), and states in objecting to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle that “God may be subtle, but He is not malicious.”. In 1930 Bohr proves Einstein's argument against Heisenberg's uncertainty principle that time and energy can be simultaneously determined with complete accuracy wrong. (I think exact positions and times may always be impossible, although I can see an all integer universe perhaps, at least in terms of space, the smallest space being the size of a photon. But I reject the idea of probability being anything other than a useful tool, and I reject the idea of particles being created or destroyed. My view is that particles have a real location and velocity even if a completely accurate description of what that location or velocity is impossible. In other words, particles occupy space and move through space, they do not appear simply because particles in an observer interact with them. ) Einstein is persuaded by Szilard to write a letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to put into effect a gigantic research program designed to develop a nuclear bomb. (Clearly FDR and others routinely watched people in their houses, saw and heard thoughts, and probably routinely got updated motion pictures from Einstein's thoughts beamed onto their brain through neuron reading and writing.) The result of this is the Manhattan Project (named for the location of its origin at Columbia University, although it would later move to the University of Chicago) which in six years develops the first atomic bomb. Einstein rejects Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty because he cannot accept that the universe could be run by chance. (I reject the idea of chance too, but I also reject the idea of any kinds of gods.) Einstein opposes McCarthyism (which is the persecution of those suspected of supporting Communism) in the early 1950s. Einstein spends the last decades of his life unsuccessfully searching for a theory that will explain both gravitation and electromagnetic phoenomena (the unified field theory). Element 99 is named Einsteinium in Einstein's honor. Asimov states that no scientist was as revered in his own time since Newton. (To credit Einstein, I think his efforts in the interest of peace are good, his intermediate interpretation of the photo electric effect is a contribution to science. For criticisms: I wish Einstein had used his popularity and wealth to make a movie about the history of science (to bring science to the public), exposed the seeing and hearing of thought -as a note Einstein wrote a preface to Sinclair Lewis' German edition of the book "Mind Radio" about telepathy. I wish Einstein had fully explained the situation of science more, sponsored a history of science movie for the public, had expressed doubts and flaws in his theory, had entertained the idea of a photon as matter, had explain the GToR with simple examples many times over for all to see and make it simple and clear to understand what his theory is. He could have rejected religion and the theory of the existence of gods, promoted free info, questioned copyright, secrecy, spoken out against violence, for full democracy, not the representative democracy, against prohibition or drugs, alcohol and prostition, etc.) (I can only really credit Einstein with an intermediate explanation of the photoelectric effect, the Borwnian motion equation, and for a creative but untrue interpretation and equations describing the universe. The combining of space and time into space-time, which Minkowski is credit with, is creative, but clearly time is the same throughout all of space. E=mc2 is meaningless as far as I can see since, or at best a useful combination of mass and motion - however, the implication that mass and motion can be interchanged is an error in my view. I credit Einstein with rejecting the light as a wave theory and heading back towards Newton's corpuscular interpretation. My view of the theories of relativity, both special and general, are that they are completely wrong, inaccurate, unsalvageable, but a creative math and geometry that does not apply to the universe, mainly because time-dilation and space-dilation are wrong, non-Euclidean geometry does not apply to the universe in the view I support, a photon is a piece of matter and the basis of all matter (both of which Einstein never stated publicly).) (Clearly something must explain Einstein's extreme popularity, in my view, the scientific achievements do not justify the popularity Einstein received and still receives. The two achievements I think are moving a step closer to viewing light as a particle, and an equation to estimate the size and number of molecules. In my view the theories of relativity are completely inaccurate and of no value, if only because time and space dilation is false. In my view Einstein is one of the most over-valued scientists of history. Perhaps his appearance, or wit, or being Jewish which served as an iconic opposition hero to the rising anti-Jewish views popular in Nazi Germany explain his popularity. Perhaps wealthy people embraced his views. Perhaps the neuron reading and writing owners supported his abstract theories as being useful in removing the public's interest in science or feeling of being able to make contributions to science and therefore keeping them away from realizing the truth about neuron reading and writing, or trying to accomplish neuron reading and writing technology by themselves. Perhaps many people who would be critics of Einstein's theory of relativity in favor of a more accurate truth felt overwhelmed and unqualified to debate or criticize with such complex math involved. Another reason may be that so few people, at this time, know enough about the history of science, or science itself to care. There were critics, in particular William Pickering, Herbert Dingle, and Charles Lane Poor, however, the critics clearly have not won yet.) (Over the course of Einstein's life, he publishes many papers. todo: determine how many papers Einstein published.) | Bern, Switzerland |
95 YBN [03/30/1905 AD] | 4502) | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
95 YBN [05/01/1905 AD] | 4740) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
95 YBN [05/01/1905 AD] | 4741) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
95 YBN [06/30/1905 AD] | 4929) | Bern, Switzerland |
95 YBN [09/27/1905 AD] | 4930) | Bern, Switzerland |
95 YBN [09/??/1905 AD] | 4251) | (Nettie Stevens) Bryn Mawr University, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, PA, USA (E. B. Wilson) Columbia University, NY City, NY, USA |
95 YBN [11/05/1905 AD] | 4823) In 1919 Stark wins the Nobel prize in physics. Stark fully supports Hitler and his racial theories. Asimov states that Stark is one of few scientists of note who supports Hitler. Stark terms Sommerfeld and Heisenberg “white Jews”. Stark eventually rejects both quantum and relativity theories. In 1947 Stark is sentenced to 4 years in prison by a denazification court. Asimov comments this is a far milder punishment than if Stark was the judge. I wonder what crimes Stark is charged with. This raises the issue of who can be imprisoned for violent crimes, and can a person be imprisoned for unknowlingly or even knowlingly voting for a murderer? The debate of jailing people who plan, pay for, or actively coverup violence is a battle of free speech and trade versus how much responsibility a person has for some violence. 9/11 is a perfect example of how this principle applies. In the USA, most people view accessory to murder before the fact as requireing the same punishment as a first degree murder, and being an accessory to murder after the fact as deserving a few years in jail, so most people in the USA currently take the view against the idea that non-violent involvement with a murder is protected by free speech and support the idea of punishment for all those people involved in violence and in particular for all those people involved with premeditated murder of nonviolent people, even those who simply fund, order or somehow knowingly participate before, during or after the actual murder or murders. For example, I doubt seriously that those who voted for President George Bush, who presided over the 9/11 mass murders, should be imprisoned for any length of time - even those who knew of his plans to murder, but I think certainly this point is open to debate. For myself, I tend to support the side of free thought and speech, but I can see given the extreme and widespread violence voting to imprison any and all people directly involved in violence against nonviolent innocent people - certainly at the level of conpiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder before and/or after the fact- although some might view those as protected under a strict interpretation of freedom of speech. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
95 YBN [11/21/1905 AD] | 6103) (Possibly) earliest recording of popular Scottish song "Auld Lang Syne". "Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song (Roud # 6294). It is well known in many countries, especially in English-speaking nations. "Auld Lang Syne" is traditionally used to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight. By extension, it is also sung at funerals, graduations, and as a farewell or ending to other occasions. | New York City, New York, USA |
95 YBN [11/27/1905 AD] | 4436) | (Wurzburg University) Wurzburg, Germany |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4034) | (private studio) Brighton, England (presumably) |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4234) Percival Lowell (CE 1855-1916), US astronomer theorizes that a planet beyond Neptune is responsible for discrepancies in the motion of Uranus that are not resolved by the finding of Neptune, calling this planet "Planet X". 15 years after Lowell's death Tombaugh will identify the planet which will be named Pluto, although now Pluto is not considered a planet by the majority of astronomers Does Pluto have enough mass to explain the discrepancy Lowell found in Uranus' orbit? In 1894 Lowell establishes an observatory in Arizona. | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4282) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4283) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4300) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4370) | Meteor Crater, Arizona |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4389) | (St. John’s College) Cambridge, England |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4464) | (Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine) London, England |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4708) | (Mining Engineering and Chemistry company) New Haven, Conneticut, USA |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4758) | (Institute for Protozoology at the Imperial Ministry of Health) Berlin, Germany |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4760) Langevin popularizes Einstein's theories for the French public as Eddington does for the English and US public. (To me this implies that Langevin, like Einstein, was more in the Lorentz camp than in the Michelson corpuscular camp. The Lorentz camp, in my view, is possibly some kind of light-as-a-wave-in-an-aether, keep-neuron-reading-and-writing-and other-science-findings-secret-from-the-public half of scientists. Many viewed Einstein's theory of relativity as being an advance because of the supposed view of light as being particulate that Einstein had at least first supported, however the adoption of Fitzgerald and Lorentz's unlikely space and time contraction and dilation theory puts most if not all of relativity in the light-as-a-wave-in-aether view - that light is massless and not material.) Lange vin is the great-great-grandnephew of Pinel on his mother's side. Langevin is an outspoken anti-Nazi and is imprisoned (under the puppet Vichy regime), but escapes to Switzerland, is restored to his post in 1944, and lives to see France free again. Langevin's daughter Hélène, is imprisoned in Auschwitz and on her return, both have seats in the Assemblée Consultative as members of the Communist Party. | (École Municipale de Physique et Chimie) Paris, France |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4771) in 1926 Amundsen flies a dirigible from Spitsbergen to Alaska passing over the North Pole. Amundsen had failed on 3 previous attempts. In June 1928 Amundsen dies in a flight (in an air plane?) over the Arctic in a search for survivors of a shipwreck. | Herschel Island, Yukon |
95 YBN [1905 AD] | 4815) | (National Bureau of Standards) Washington D.C., USA |
94 YBN [01/13/1906 AD] | 5502) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
94 YBN [01/17/1906 AD] | 4898) | (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
94 YBN [02/09/1906 AD] | 4901) | (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
94 YBN [04/17/1906 AD] | 3806) | Washington, D.C., USA. |
94 YBN [06/??/1906 AD] | 4268) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
94 YBN [07/20/1906 AD] | 4743) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
94 YBN [12/21/1906 AD] | 4788) | (De Forest Radio Telephone Company) New York City, New York, USA |
94 YBN [12/24/1906 AD] | 4479) Fessenden holds 500 patents at the time of his death, second only to Edison. Fessenden works for Edison in the 1880s and Edison's greatest rival Westinghouse from 1890-1892. (AM works by having a regular periodic sine wave, for example one at 10 million cycles per second, and adding in a source signal. At the receiving station the 10 million cycles per second sine wave is subtracted leaving the source signal.) (Clearly amplitude modulation must have been recognized much earlier - for people to have started neuron reading and writing in at least 1810. Perhaps Feesenden was a person excluded from the technology who reinvented it, or was included and purposely allowed to release the truth about amplitude modulation to the public.) (Amplitude modulation is so simple an idea, that it occurs naturally in any object that emits a periodic frequency of particles, which is pretty much all matter. For example, sounds reaching the ear may impart an amplitude modulation - which is a strength modulation - a quantity of particle modulation to any regular interval signal emitted from the nerves of the ear portion of the brain.) (Probably amplitude modulation of wired recording of sound was the first instance of listening to hidden microphones.) | (National Electric Signaling Company and General Electric?) Brant Rock, Massachusetts, USA |
94 YBN [12/24/1906 AD] | 4796) | (University of Copenhagen, and at the Urania Observatory in Frederiksberg) Copenhagen, Denmark (verify) |
94 YBN [12/24/1906 AD] | 4797) | (University of Copenhagen, and at the Urania Observatory in Frederiksberg) Copenhagen, Denmark (verify) |
94 YBN [12/27/1906 AD] | 4710) | (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 3920) | (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4035) | (private lab) Southwick, Sussex, England |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4103) | (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4314) | (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4355) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) is the first women to teach at the Sorbonne. | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4385) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4419) | (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4442) | ( University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4471) | (Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases) Berlin, Germany |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4706) | (Institut Pasteur du Brabant) Brussells, Belgium |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4722) In 1911 Ricketts gets typhus while working with it and dies. (Asimov uses “contracts typhus”, maybe murdered by muscle contraction? Even so, there are dangers with working closely with infrectious bacteria, viruses, and protists.) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
94 YBN [1906 AD] | 4868) Diels' two sons are killed on the eastern front in World War II. (what were' Diels' opinions of Nazism?) Diels' home and laboratory are destroyed in bombing raids. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
93 YBN [04/03/1907 AD] | 4763) | (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
93 YBN [05/??/1907 AD] | 4269) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
93 YBN [06/13/1907 AD] | 4897) | (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
93 YBN [07/09/1907 AD] | 4950) In 1953 Staudinger wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry. | (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, Germany |
93 YBN [07/30/1907 AD] | 4938) In 1914 Laue wins the Nobel Prize in physics "for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals". Laue champions Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, does research on the quantum theory, the Compton effect (change of wavelength in light under certain conditions), and the disintegration of atoms. In 1939 in Switzerland Laue denounces Hitler's policy of refusing to allow Germans to accept Nobel Prizes. In 1943 Laue resigns from the University of Berlin in protest against the Nazis. In 1960 Laue dies in an automobile accident at age 81. (with seatbelt? because of age?) | ( University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
93 YBN [09/14/1907 AD] | 6254) | Canton, Ohio, USA |
93 YBN [09/21/1907 AD] | 4709) | (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
93 YBN [11/13/1907 AD] | 354) | |
93 YBN [11/26/1907 AD] | 6263) | Petrograd, Russia |
93 YBN [12/04/1907 AD] | 4931) | (Moskau Ingenieure-Hochschule {Moscow Engineering School}) Moscow, Russia? (verify) |
93 YBN [1907 AD] | 4149) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
93 YBN [1907 AD] | 4386) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
93 YBN [1907 AD] | 4416) | (Societe Electro Metallurgique Francaise) Froges, Isere, France (presumably) |
93 YBN [1907 AD] | 4438) Einstein was a pupil of Minkowski. Minkowski dies at age 44. (Neuron/particle beam murder?) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
93 YBN [1907 AD] | 4456) | (Zurich Polytechnikum) Zurich, Switzerland |
93 YBN [1907 AD] | 4516) | (Pathological-Anatomical Institute) Vienna |
93 YBN [1907 AD] | 4764) | (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
93 YBN [1907 AD] | 4884) In 1928 Windaus wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for studies on cholesterol (steroid) structure, and showing the connection between steroids and vitamins. The sterols are complex alcohols. Although Windaus is not a supporter of the Hitler regime, Windaus is allowed to continue his work because of the reputation he had established. | (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
92 YBN [03/26/1908 AD] | 5881) | (University College) London, England (presumably) |
92 YBN [05/30/1908 AD] | 4902) | (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
92 YBN [06/06/1908 AD] | 3616) | London, England |
92 YBN [06/18/1908 AD] | 4742) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
92 YBN [06/18/1908 AD] | 4744) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
92 YBN [06/20/1908 AD] | 4523) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
92 YBN [06/27/1908 AD] | 4190) In 1894 Kamerlingh Onnes establishes the Cryogenic Laboratory at Leiden University. In 1912 Kamerlingh Onnes is awarded the Rumford medal. In 1913 Kamerlingh Onnes wins the Nobel prize in physics for liquefying helium. | (Leiden University) Leiden, Netherlands |
92 YBN [08/12/1908 AD] | 4451) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen , Germany |
92 YBN [09/24/1908 AD] | 3617) | (Hotel Cecil) London, England (presumably) |
92 YBN [12/09/1908 AD] | 4960) In 1946 Bridgman wis the Nobel prize in physics. Bridgman writes thoughtful books on the nature of physics. (hints about thoughts?) In 1961 Bridgman is incurably and painfully ill, Bridgman shoots himself to death, writing a note stating that it was indecent of society to turn its back and force him to end his life without help or sympathy. (Neuron writing could have ended the pain. Stopping pain should be the focus of research. Maybe some way of disabling the pain nerve cells in the nerves or brain. In addition, probably a legal and consentual lethal injection would be much less painful.) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 3836) | (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4212) | (Eastman Kodak Company) New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4214) | (The Eastman Company) Rochester, NY, USA |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4238) | Paris, France (presumably) |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4344) | (Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry) Stockholm, Sweden |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4378) German inventor Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe (CE 1872-1931) develops the first workable gyrocompass. A device which, once properly aligned, always points to true north. US inventor, Elmer Ambrose Sperry (CE 1860-1930), also invents a gyroscopic compass. A gyroscopic compass uses the fact that a turning gyroscope maintains it plane of rotation and resists being turned out of that plane. A gyroscope is mounted on gimbals on a ship so that the ship's movements can not move the gyroscope out of it's plane, and so the compass can identify north and south correctly. This is the first improvement to the compass (or new compass design) in 1000 years. This compass is first used on board the battleship "Delaware" in 1911 and is adopted immediately by the US navy. If you try to tip a spinning gyroscope, it will turn to one side in a predictable way - called "precession." In the same way, the force of a spinning gyrostabilizer pushes a rolling ship in the opposite direction from the push of the waves. Sperry invents a motion sensor, a motor to amplify the effect of the sensor on the gyroscope, and an automatic feedback and control system. All work together to make a much more effective gyrostabilizer. Perry extends the gyro principle to guidance of torpedoes, to gyropilots for the steering of ships and for stabilizing airplanes, and finally to a ship stabilizer. (needs visual. How is the gyroscope spun? How does the gyroscope stay spinning? does it have to or can people routinely give it a spin to find north?) (GPS, particle communication with satellites probably has replaced most location determining equipment on more vehicles on and around earth.) Starting in 1894 Sperry makes electric automobiles powered by his patented storage battery. | Kiel, Germany (presumably) |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4424) | (Detroit Automobile Company) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4474) During 1902-1904 Miller works with Morley to confirm the Michelson-Morley results. Repeating the measurement by himself on Mt. Wilson, California, between 1921 and 1926, Miller finds a positive effect corresponding to an apparent relative motion of the earth and the ether of some ten kilometers per second in the plane of the interferometer. Though this velocity is about 70 percent less than expected, Miller puts forward this result as a evidence against Einstein’s theory of relativity, which Miller rejects to the end of his life. Miller rejects Einstein's theories that arise out of the Michelson-Morley experiment and continues to search for evidence of an "ether-drift", which would disprove relativity. (Note that I don't think that evidence for ether would disprove relativity, which grew from the Fitzgerald-Lorentz attempt to save the ether theory. So evidence against an aether, in addition to evidence against the supposed space contraction/dilation claimed by George FitzGerald, and applied to time by Hendrik Lorentz, would probably do more to disprove the claims of the theory of relativity. Beyond that, evidence disputing the claim of light having a constant velocity, like the Pound-Rebka experiment would perhaps do more to directly dismantle the theories of relativity or at least the light as a constant velocity massless particle theory.) See also for descriptions of Miller's efforts. | (Case School of Applied Science) Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4517) | (Royal-Imperial Wilhelminen Hospital) Vienna |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4527) One result of Leavitt's work on stellar magnitudes is her discovery of some 2,400 variable stars, more than half of all variable stars known even by 1930. Variable stars need to have their intensities compared over time. In addition Leavitt discovers 4 novas. (nova as in exonebula?) Like her colleague Annie Cannon, Leavitt is extremely deaf. (Neuron writing may cure deafness for some people, but is being withheld and selfishly horded by terrible people.) | (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4531) | (Fridericiana Technische Hochschule) Karlsruhe, Germany |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4718) | (École Normale) Paris, France |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4723) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4773) Early in his career, Willstätter works on the structure of alkaloids and throws light on such important compounds as cocaine, which he synthesizes in 1923, and atropine. In 1915 Willstätter wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on plant pigments. In the 1920s Willstätter claims to have isolated active enzymes with no trace of protein, and this view is widely accepted until Sumner and Northrop demonstrate that enzymes are proteins in 1930. In 1924, being a Jewish person Willstätter resigns his post at Munich in protest against anti-Semitic pressures. Willstätter continues his work privately, first in Munich and, from 1939, in Switzerland. | (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, Switzerland |
92 YBN [1908 AD] | 4813) Coolidge with Langmuir develops the first successful submarine-detection system during World War I. During World War II, Coolidge is involved in atomic bomb research in Hanford, Washington. Coolidge is a distant cousin of US President Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge lives to 101. | (Research Laboratory of the General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, in 1900. |
91 YBN [02/08/1909 AD] | 4428) | (announced at: American Chemical Society lecture) New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
91 YBN [04/06/1909 AD] | 4244) | Greenland |
91 YBN [05/??/1909 AD] | 4903) | (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
91 YBN [07/12/1909 AD] | 4475) | (Pasteur Institute in Tunis) Tunis, Tunisia |
91 YBN [09/??/1909 AD] | 4729) Jean Baptiste Perrin (PeraN, PeriN or PeroN) (CE 1870-1942), French physicist, determines the "corpuscular mass" of an atom of hydrogen writing (translated from French): "...Lastly, the mass of one of the identical corpuscles which carry the negative electricity of the cathode-rays or of the B-rays is itself obtained accurately, since it is known that it is 1775 times smaller than that of the atom of hydrogen (Classen). This corpuscular mass, the latest element of matter revealed to man, is thus c=0.805 x 10-27. ... Lastly, even the diameter of the corpuscle can be arrived at, if it is supposed, with Sir J. J. Thomson, that all its inertia is of electromagnetic origin, in which case its diameter is given by the equation D=4/3 e2/mV2 , where V signifies the velocity of light, m the mass of the corpuscle and e its charge, that is to say 4.1 x 10-10. From this there results for D the value 0.33 x 10-12, a value enormously smaller than the diameter of the smallest atoms. ...". (This is perhaps as close as any person has publicly tried to determine the mass of a particle of light, or some basic particle that is thought to be the basis of all matter, that is, to express matter in terms of number of light particles, or smallest known particles.) Perrin gives early evidence of microscopic neuron reader and writer devices writing (translated to English): "..The singular phenomenon discovered by Brown {ULSF: Brownian motion} did not attract much attention. It remained, moreover, for a long time ignored by the majority of physicists, and it may be supposed that those who had heard of it thought it analogous to the movement of the dust particles, which can be seen dancing in a ray of sunlight, under the influence of feeble currents of air which set up small difference of pressure or temperature. When we reflect that this apparent explanation was able to satisfy even thoughtful minds, we ought the more to admire the acuteness of those physicists, who have recognised in this, supposed insignificant, phenomenon a fundamental property of matter. ...". The statistical probability of finding the word "thought" three times in the same paragraph and "dust particles" implies that this is a historical reference indicating that microscopic secret camera, and neuron reading and writing devices have already been created by 1909. Looking through the rest of the work, there is very little use of the word "thought" in any other part. The French part in question reads: "... Le phénomène singulier découvert par Brown n'attira pas beaucoup l'attention. Il resta d'ailleurs longtemps ignoré de la plupart des physiciens, et l'on peut supposer que ceux qui en avaient entendu parler le croyaient analogue au mouvement des poussières qu'on voit danser dans un rayon de Soleil sous l'action des faibles courants d'air que provoquent de petites différences de pression ou de température. Si l'on comprend que cette apparente explication aitpu satisfaire même des esprits réfléchis, on doit admirer d'autant plus la pénétration des physiciens qui ont su distinguer une propriété fondamentale de la matière dans le phénomène qu'on pensait insignifiant. ...". Note that "croyaient" is "thought", "réfléchis" is "thoughtful" ("esprits réfléchis" is "thoughtful minds") and third "pensait" is "thought". | (École Normale, University of Paris) Paris, France |
91 YBN [10/23/1909 AD] | 4508) | |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4113) | Washington, DC, USA |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4284) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4332) | (University of Vienna) Vienna (presumably) |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4466) | (Army Medical School) Netley, England |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4506) | (Carlsberg Laboratory, University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4532) In 1915 Haber directs the use of the poison gas chlorine and the far worse Mustard gas in 1917. In 1919 Haber wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for haber process of converting Nitrogen from the air into the more usable ammonia (ammonia synthesis). Haber tries to isolate gold from seawater but fails. Haber is Jewish and is forced to leave his post even after helping in WW I. | (Fridericiana Technische Hochschule) Karlsruhe, Germany |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4694) | (Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4719) | (École Normale) Paris, France |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4724) | Mexico City, Mexico |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4841) Bosch directs a huge ammonia plant at Oppau that is still under construction when World War I starts. In 1931 Bosch wins the Nobel prize in chemistry for his investigations of the type of high-pressure reactions that make it possible to produce ammonia from nitrogen (gas). Bosch lives under the Nazis but does not bow to Nazi principles, for example openly honoring Haber, after Haber's exile. | (BASF) Oppau, Germany |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4872) Stock dies after fleeing from the advancing Russian army to a small town on the Elbe River. | |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4889) In 1927 Wieland wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for describing the structure of steroids. Wieland is openly anti-Nazi during World War II, and some of his student are involved in the 1944 treason trials. Wieland protects Jewish humans in his laboratory and in 1944 testifies on behalf of students who are accused of treason. (verify) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
91 YBN [1909 AD] | 4899) | (Marconi Company) London, England (verify) |
90 YBN [04/??/1910 AD] | 4199) | (announced at the Congress for International Medicine, Wiesbaden, Germany, but work performed at Serum Institute) Frankfurt, Germany |
90 YBN [08/??/1910 AD] | 4320) | (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA (presumably) |
90 YBN [09/??/1910 AD] | 4403) | (University of Adelaide) Adelaide, Australia (presumably) |
90 YBN [09/??/1910 AD] | 4418) | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
90 YBN [10/31/1910 AD] | 4273) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
90 YBN [11/28/1910 AD] | 4509) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4230) | (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4281) | (University of Zagreb) Zagreb, Croatia |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4356) | (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4409) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4476) In 1926 Morgan publishes "The Theory of the Gene" which establishes and extends the Mendelian scheme. In 1933 Morgan wins the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology. In the Soviet Union, under the influence of Lysenko a believer in the acquired characteristics theory, Morganism is virtually a dirty word. From 1927-1931 Morgan is president of the National Academy of Sciences. | (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4779) Nevil Vincent Sidgwick (CE 1873-1952), English chemist publishes a book specializing in the organic chemistry of nitrogen (perhaps "chemistry of carbon and nitrogen compounds" might be more simplified) and will expand it into a two-volume work in 1947. | (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4807) | (Astrophysical Observatory) Potsdam, Germany |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4844) In 1920 Krogh wins the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine. In 1940 when Denmark is occupied by the Nazis, Krogh is forced to go underground and then to escape to Sweden. Krogh returns to Denmark after the war. | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4952) | (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 4961) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 5021) In 1973 Frisch shares the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology. | (Munich Zoological Institute) Munich, Germany |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 6098) "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" is written (music by Leo Friedman and lyrics by Beth Slater Whitson). | |
90 YBN [1910 AD] | 6099) "America The Beautiful" is published (music by: Samuel A. Ward, words by: Katharine Lee Bates). | (Colorado College) Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA |
89 YBN [01/??/1911 AD] | 4321) | ? |
89 YBN [03/07/1911 AD] | 4745) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
89 YBN [03/20/1911 AD] | 5064) | (Imperial College of Science and Technology) London, England |
89 YBN [03/??/1911 AD] | 3945) | New York City, NY |
89 YBN [04/19/1911 AD] | 4691) | (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
89 YBN [04/28/1911 AD] | 4192) | (Leiden University) Leiden, Netherlands |
89 YBN [04/??/1911 AD] | 4746) On learning that Ernest Marsden found that alpha particles are reflected by more than 90 degrees by atoms in gold foil, Rutherford’s is often quoted as having said: “It was almost as incredible as if you fired a fifteen-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you.”. | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
89 YBN [06/12/1911 AD] | 3977) | Sorbonne, University of Paris, Paris, France |
89 YBN [06/15/1911 AD] | 4874) | (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co) Dayton, Ohio, USA |
89 YBN [06/21/1911 AD] | 5778) | Prague, Czechlslovakia |
89 YBN [06/??/1911 AD] | 3944) Perhaps it is no coincidence that this may be just over 100 years from the first seeing of eyes and internal images produced by the brain, presumably by William Wollaston in October 24, 1810. | New York City, NY |
89 YBN [07/07/1911 AD] | 4799) | Potsdam, Germany |
89 YBN [07/??/1911 AD] | 3946) | New York City, NY |
89 YBN [11/13/1911 AD] | 4270) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
89 YBN [12/14/1911 AD] | 4772) | South Pole |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 3976) | Sorbonne, University of Paris, Paris, France |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4358) Reid is the great-grandnephew of George Washington on his mother's side. | ( Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4477) | (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4498) Andrew Ellicott Douglass (CE 1867-1962), US astronomer develops a system of dendrochronology (chronology based on tree ring patterns), by noticing that the tree ring patterns have similar patterns, the width of the rings relating to the pattern of growth of a tree during wetter and drier seasons. When viewing a cross section of a tree, for certain species of trees, wide rings are produced during wet years, and narrow rings are produced during dry years. In this way Douglass works out a pattern covering many centuries. In Arizona many dead trees are well preserved because of the dry air. The patterns are different based on the region, and Douglass makes maps of different regions, finding that each tree fits into a certain chronological period of a regional map. This is the first of the sensitive dating methods which will produce Libby's carbon-14 method. By the late 1920s Douglass will have sequenced of over a thousand tree rings with six thin rings, presumably records of a severe drought, correlated with the end of the 1200s. In 1929 Douglass finds some trees that contain the six thin rings and a further 500 in addition. This takes him to the 700s and over the years Douglass manages to get as far as the first century. Modern scholars have taken tihs timeline going back almost to 5000 BCE. | (Lowell Observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4798) | Potsdam, Germany |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4846) In 1917 Weismann helps to get the Balfour Declaration put forth, which agrees to the reestablishment of a Jewish national state in Palestine. But the Balfour Declaration will not implemented until 1948 after the barbarity of Hitler and his followers. In 1948 Weismann is the first president of Israel, and is one of the very few research scientists to serve as head of a state. | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4851) In 1936 Dale and Loewi share Nobel prize in medicine and physiology. In 1940-1945 Dale is president of the Royal Society. | (Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories) London, England |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4890) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4908) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4936) In 1928 Richardson wins the Nobel Prize in physics. | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4937) In 1966 Rous shares the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology. | (Rockefeller Institute, now called Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 4986) Hess has a Jewish wife and leaves Austria shortly before Hitler's invasion of Austria. After WW II, Hess measures radioactive fallout from nuclear bombs, and strongly opposes nuclear tests. | Victor Franz Hess|(CE 1883-1964) |
89 YBN [1911 AD] | 5093) | (Faculté des Sciences de Paris - University of Paris) Paris, France |
88 YBN [01/05/1912 AD] | 5301) | Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany |
88 YBN [03/03/1912 AD] | 4528) | (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
88 YBN [04/20/1912 AD] | 4918) (1927 Russell publishes an astronomy text (book) that is the first to shift the main emphasis from the solar system and celestial mechanics to the stars and astrophysics.) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA. |
88 YBN [05/04/1912 AD] | 4939) In 1914 Laue wins the Nobel Prize in physics. Laue champions Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, does research on the quantum theory, the Compton effect (change of wavelength in light under certain conditions), and the disintegration of atoms. In 1939 in Switzerland Laue denounces Hitler's policy of refusing to allow Germans to accept Nobel Prizes. In 1943 Laue resigns from the University of Berlin in protest against the Nazis. In 1960 Laue dies in an automobile accident at age 81. (with seatbelt? because of age?) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
88 YBN [05/06/1912 AD] | 4271) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, publishes a paper "The Unit Theory of Light" in which he rejects the idea that light is made of constant and invariable units. (Possibly Thomson rejects the theory publicly in word, in order to offset the publication of an article discussing a particle theory for light.) (EX: I think a major experiment, is trying to detect even a tiny portion of light particles reflecting off each other - it seems like an obvious experiment. It is mysterious why I have never heard of this kind of experiment being done - focused lasers aimed at each other with detectors on the sides trying to pick up photons that may have reflected off other photons. This could also be done in a vacuum container.) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
88 YBN [06/07/1912 AD] | 4692) | (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
88 YBN [07/01/1912 AD] | 4861) | (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
88 YBN [07/16/1912 AD] | 5203) | (University College) London, England |
88 YBN [08/??/1912 AD] | 4274) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
88 YBN [10/??/1912 AD] | 4912) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland (verify) |
88 YBN [11/11/1912 AD] | 4404) William Lawrence Bragg enters the University of Adelaide at age 15, and graduates age 18. In 1915 both Bragg father and son share the Nobel prize for physics. Bragg is interested in lecturing on science to young people. | (Cavindish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
88 YBN [11/??/1912 AD] | 5096) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
88 YBN [12/12/1912 AD] | 4816) | (National Bureau of Standards) Washington D.C., USA |
88 YBN [12/20/1912 AD] | 4862) | (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4298) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4383) Alfred North Whitehead (CE 1861-1947), English mathematician and philosopher , in collaboration with Bertrand Russell (CE 1872-1970), publishes “Principia Mathematica", in which he tries to build up mathematics from symbolic logic. Gödel will show that there are unresolvable paradoxes in any system of logic, such as the statement Russell creates about a set containing all sets of which it is not a member being a member of itself. (in my view there is no need for a logical basis to math, math simply is, and needs no explanation or logical foundation. In someway, math can be applied to the universe, but also to imaginary phenomena.) (There are many logical apparent errors - for example the statement "can we be certain that there is no certainty" - a statement which cannot be either true or false, because if true it would be proven false, if false, then proven true.) | (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4454) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen , Germany |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4495) | (Mareseilles University) Mareseilles, France |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4697) | (University of Innsbruck) Innsbruck, Austria |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4789) | (De Forest Radio Telephone Company) New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4791) | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4845) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4891) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4892) | (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4913) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4941) | Greenland |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4993) | (Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine) London, England |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 4994) In 1936 Debye wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for dipolar moments in particular. In 1935 as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin, Debye renames it the Max Planck Institute. In 1939 The Nazi government orders Debye to become a citizen, he refuses and moves to the Netherlands. In 1940 two months before the Netherlands is invaded by Hitler, Debye leaves for the United States and stays there. (Perhaps he knew from the cam-thought net?) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 5001) | (Technical University at Hannover) Hannover, Germany |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 6104) "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" is published. "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" is written by Chauncey Olcott and George Graff, Jr., set to music composed by Ernest Ball, for Olcott's production of "The Isle O' Dreams", and Olcott sings the song in the show. | New York City, New York, USA (guess) |
88 YBN [1912 AD] | 6262) | (Metropolitan Opera House) New York City, New York, USA |
87 YBN [01/17/1913 AD] | 4405) | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
87 YBN [01/27/1913 AD] | 4272) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
87 YBN [02/18/1913 AD] | 4909) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
87 YBN [04/05/1913 AD] | 5005) In 1920 in Copenhagen, Bohr heads an institute for atomic studies that is funded by the Carlsberg brewery. And this institute is a magnet for theoretical physicists, Asimov describing it as almost a new Alexandria. In 1922 Bohr wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his “electron shell” theory. Bohr will donate his Nobel Prize to Finnish war relief. In 1933 when Hitler comes to power in Germany, Bohr helps to get many Jewish physicists to safety. In 1943 Bohr escapes from Denmark to Sweden, Hitler had invaded Denmark in 1940. Before leaving Denmark Bohr dissolves the gold Nobel medals of Franck and Laue in a bottle of acid to keep them safe (after the war the gold will be precipitated and the medals recast]. From Sweden Bohr will help to arrange the escape of nearly every Danish Jewish person from death in Hitler's poison gas chambers. On 10/06/1943 Bohr is flown from Denmark in a tiny plane to England and nearly dies from lack of oxygen. Bohr will work on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos until 1945. Bohr's desire to share the secret of the atomic bomb with other allies in order to secure international control causes Winston Churchill to nearly order Bohr to be arrested. (It seems likely that Bohr wanted to go public with neuron reading and writing.) In 1957 Bohr wins the Atoms for Peace award. | (University of Manchester) Machester, England |
87 YBN [04/07/1913 AD] | 4406) William Henry Bragg will state in 1920 that “The outbreak of war, practically put a stop to the work with the spectroscope , ...", and this may reflect the general development of science, in particular, how much is allowed to reach the public. it may very well be that the two world wars greatly reduced the progress of science, from the perspective of public knowledge. | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
87 YBN [04/07/1913 AD] | 6245) | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
87 YBN [05/09/1913 AD] | 4814) | (Research Laboratory of the General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, in 1900. |
87 YBN [05/28/1913 AD] | 4932) | (Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland |
87 YBN [05/29/1913 AD] | 6035) | (Théâtre des Champs Élysées) Paris, France |
87 YBN [06/21/1913 AD] | 4408) | (Cavindish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
87 YBN [07/18/1913 AD] | 4800) | Potsdam, Germany |
87 YBN [07/30/1913 AD] | 4407) | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
87 YBN [10/20/1913 AD] | 4863) | (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
87 YBN [10/29/1913 AD] | 5067) Armstrong studies electrical engineering under Pupin at Columbia. Lee De Forest, the inventor of the triode, the first electric switch and vacuum tube amplifier, sues Armstrong over who owns the rights for the regenerative circuit. Armstrong will lose this case after 14 years and two appeals to the Supreme Court, but Asimov says that the scientific community felt that Armstrong should have won. In 1954 Armstrong apparently jumped to his death from his apartment window. According to Asimov Armstrong thought there was a conspiracy against him. (This could be a murder, the nanocameras probably show the truth.) | Yonkers, New York City, New York, USA |
87 YBN [11/05/1913 AD] | 4824) | (Physical Institute of Technology) Aachen, Germany |
87 YBN [11/27/1913 AD] | 4911) | |
87 YBN [12/04/1913 AD] | 4910) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
87 YBN [12/??/1913 AD] | 5039) World War I starts and Moseley enlists as a lieutenant of the Royal Engineers. Rutherford tries to get Moseley reassigned to scientific labors but fails. On 06/13/1915 Moseley ships out to Turkey and two months later is killed at Gallipoli. Asimov states that Moseley definitely would have won a Nobel prize as Siegbahn did who carried on Moseley's work. (Possibly murdered for being a corpuscularist or just random, perhaps his eye image and thought-sound recordings may show? Being a corpuscularist, Moseley could have potentially been a powerful force as he aged had he not been murdered. Moseley unquestionably would have won a Nobel prize.) | (University of Manchester) Machester, England |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4030) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931) introduces to the public a kinetophone different from the earlier version of 1895. This time, the sound is made to synchronize with a motion picture projected onto a screen instead of in the kinetophone box. A celluloid cylinder record measuring 5 1/2" in diameter is used for the phonograph. Synchronization is achieved by connecting the projector at one end of the theater and the phonograph at the other end with a long pulley. Nineteen talking pictures are produced in 1913 by Edison, but by 1915 Edison abandons sound motion pictures. Breaks in the film cause the motion picture to get out of step with the phonograph record. | New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4129) | (University of Madrid) Madrid, Spain |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4361) | (University of Wisconsin) Wisconsin, USA |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4496) | (Mareseilles University) Mareseilles, France |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4507) In 1914 Richards receives the Nobel prize in chemistry for his atomic weight determinations the first chemist in the United States to be so honored. | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4727) | (Technische Hochschule) Hannover, Germany |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4811) | Paris, France |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4849) Michaelis, being of Jewish ancestry, is denied the opportunity to participate fully in the education of future German scientists and physicians. | (Berlin Municipal Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4942) Schaefer and Vonnegut will develop methods to create rain working in Langmuir's lab at General Electric. Langmuir develops high vacuum tubes which are needed for radio broadcasting. Langmuir creates a theory of catalysis based on the formation of gas films on platinum wires. Langmuir receives 63 patents and publishes over 200 papers and reports between 1906 and 1956. In 1932 languir wins the Nobel prize chemistry for his work on surface chemistry. | (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 4963) Geiger participates briefly in Germany's abortive attempt to develop an atomic bomb during World War II. In 06/1945 Geiger flees the Russian occupation to Potsdam and dies there two months after the atomic bomb explodes over Hiroshima. | (Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt) Berlin, Germany |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 5019) In 1922 Hill wins the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology shared with Meyerhof. | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 5057) | (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
87 YBN [1913 AD] | 5083) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN [02/??/1914 AD] | 4747) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN [04/02/1914 AD] | 5235) Chadwick will spend the years of World War I in a civilian internment camp in Ruhleben. | (Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt) Charlottenburg, Germany |
86 YBN [04/20/1914 AD] | 5676) | (Sorbonne, University of Paris) Paris, France |
86 YBN [04/??/1914 AD] | 5107) | (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
86 YBN [05/??/1914 AD] | 4762) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN [05/??/1914 AD] | 5085) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN [05/??/1914 AD] | 5879) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN [07/28/1914 AD] | 4792) | Berlin, Germany (verify) |
86 YBN [07/??/1914 AD] | 4879) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
86 YBN [07/??/1914 AD] | 4973) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA (verify) |
86 YBN [08/13/1914 AD] | 5007) After World War II, Shapley is active in the cause of civil liberties and peace. Shapley clashes frequently with people such as Senator Joseph McCarthy. | (Mount Wilson Solar Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
86 YBN [08/??/1914 AD] | 5109) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 4497) | (Mareseilles University) Mareseilles, France |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 4785) | (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 4852) | (Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories) Herne Hill, England |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 4962) In 1925 Franck wins the Nobel Prize in physics shared with Gustav Hertz. In 1933 Franck resigns his university position in protest against the policies of the new Nazi government. In 1934 Franck is forced to flee Hitler's anti-Jewish Nazi Germany. Franck first joins Bohr in Copenhagen, then goes to the USA. Franck works on the atomic bomb project in the USA, and strenuously opposes dropping the atomic bomb on Japan favoring a demonstration before representatives of the United Nations instead, in the hope this would encourage a ban of the bomb instead of its use. (Hertz works with Franck to establish the quantized nature of the atom's internal structure.) (needs specifics and I think there are some.) -Hertz is severely wounded in World War I fighting on the German side. -1925 Nobel prize in physics shared with Franck. -1934 Hertz is forced to resign his job because he is of Jewish descent, but remains in Germany through World War II and survives. -n | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 4965) Goddard is the only child of a bookkeeper, salesman, and machine-shop owner . In 1898 young Goddard’s imagination was fired by the H.G. Wells space-fiction novel War of the Worlds, then serialized in the Boston Post. Over the course of his life, Goddard accumulates 214 patents. Only during World War II does the US government finance Goddard and then to design small rockets to help navy planes take off from carriers. Nazi Germany will develop rockets, and the captured German rocket experts explain with surprise that they had learned almost everything they know about rockets from Goddard. In 1960 the US Government issues a grant of one million dollars for the use of Goddard's patents, half to the Goddard's estate and half to the Guggenheim Foundation. (It seems possible that much of Goddard's work may still be secret. Was Goddard actually secretly funded by the US Government? Perhaps no since the 1 million dollar settlement for patent use in 1960.) (Did Goddard receive neuron written windows?) | (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 4977) Spiral "nebulae" recognized to be other galaxies. (Sir) Arthur Stanley Eddington (CE 1882-1944), English astronomer and physicist suggests that spiral nebulas are galaxies in "Stellar movements and the structure of the universe". Eddington writes: "If the spiral nebulae are within the stellar system, we have no notion what their nature may be. That hypothesis leads to a full stop. It is true that according to one theory the solar system was evolved from a spiral nebula, but the term is here used only by a remote analogy with such objects as those depicted in the Plate. The spirals to which we are referring are, at any rate, too vast to give birth to a solar system, nor could they arise from the disruptive approach of two stars; we must at least credit them as capable of generating a star cluster. If, however, it is assumed that these nebulae are external to the stellar system, that they are in fact systems coequal with our own, we have at least an hypothesis which can be followed up, and may throw some light on the problems that have been before us. For this reason the "island universe" theory is much to be preferred as a working hypothesis; and its consequences are so helpful as to suggest a distinct probability of its truth. —— If each spiral nebula is a stellar system, it follows that our own system is a spiral nebula. The oblate inner system of stars may be identified with the nucleus of the nebula, and the star clouds of the Milky Way form its spiral arms. There is one nebula seen edgewise (Plate IV) which makes an excellent model of our system, for the oblate shape of the central portion is well-shown. From the distribution of the Wolf-Rayet stars and Cepheid Variables, believed to belong to the more distant parts of the system, we infer that the outer whorls of our system lie closely confined to the galactic plane; in the nebula these outer parts are seen in section as a narrow rectilinear streak. The photograph also shows a remarkable absorption of the light of the oblate nucleus, where it is crossed by the spiral arms. We have seen that the Milky Way contains dark patches of absorbing matter, which would give exactly this effect. Moreover, quite apart from the present theory, a spiral form of the Milky Way has been advocated. Probably there is more than one way of representing its structure by means of a double-armed spiral; but as an example the discussion of C. Easton11 may be taken, which renders a very detailed explanation of the appearance. His scheme disagrees with our hypothesis in one respect, for he has placed the Sun well outside the central nucleus, which is situated according to his view in the rich galactic region of Cygnus. The two arms of the spiral have an interesting meaning for us in connection with stellar movements. The form of the arms—a logarithmic spiral—has not as yet given any clue to the dynamics of spiral nebulae. But though we do not understand the cause, we see that there'is a widespread law compelling matter to flow in these forms. It is clear too that either matter is flowing into the nucleus from the spiral branches or it is flowing out from the nucleus into the branches. It does not at present concern us in which direction the evolution is proceeding. In either case we have currents of matter in opposite directions at the points where the arms merge in the central aggregation. These currents must continue through the centre, for, as will be shown in the next chapter, the stars do not interfere with one another's paths. Here then we have an explanation of the prevalence of motions to and fro in a particular straight line; it is the line from • which the spiral branches start out. The two starstreams and the double-branched spirals arise from the same cause.". | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 5040) Joseph Stalin will support Lysenko's rejection of Mendelism and Vavilov will be arrested on 08/06/1940 and sentenced to death, although this will be reduced to 10 years. During World War II Vavilov will be evacuated to Saratov where he will die from maltreatment in 1943. | (Agricultural Higher School) Moscow, Russia |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 5088) | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 5179) | (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
86 YBN [1914 AD] | 6034) | (93rd Highlanders, British army) Scotland, UK (verify) |
85 YBN [01/25/1915 AD] | 4043) | New York City and San Francisco, USA |
85 YBN [01/??/1915 AD] | 4410) | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England (and Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
85 YBN [01/??/1915 AD] | 4864) | (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
85 YBN [06/04/1915 AD] | 4748) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
85 YBN [09/15/1915 AD] | 4510) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
85 YBN [11/??/1915 AD] | 4840) Goldberger marries a Gentile (non-Jewish person), and Asimov comments that this is when mixed race marriages are uncommon. | (US Public Health Service) Washington, DC, USA (verify) |
85 YBN [12/01/1915 AD] | 4881) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
85 YBN [12/03/1915 AD] | 4995) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
85 YBN [12/04/1915 AD] | 4917) | (Brown Institution) London, England |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 4392) | (Cape Observatory) South Africa |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 4777) | (London University) London, England |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 4817) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 4818) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 4878) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 4933) | ( Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics) Berlin, Germany |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 4934) | (Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics) Berlin, Germany |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 4970) | (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
85 YBN [1915 AD] | 6048) First Jazz composition in print, Jelly Roll Morton's "Jelly Roll Blues". Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (1885-1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, US ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer, composed "Jelly Roll Blues" around 1905, and this composition is the first jazz arrangement in print (1915), introducing more musicians to the New Orleans style. (verify) | (Will Rossiter) Chicago, Illinois, USA (where published) |
84 YBN [01/13/1916 AD] | 4808) | Berlin, Germany (published), Russia (written) |
84 YBN [01/26/1916 AD] | 4855) Lewis is an early supporter of Einstein's 1905 theory of relativity. In 1917 Lewis creates a compilation of entropy data and creates an empirical verification of Nernst’s third law. To me, without trying to sound rude, both these examples show how Lewis apparently accepted a large portion of inaccurate, abstract scientific theories. | (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
84 YBN [01/26/1916 AD] | 4856) | (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
84 YBN [02/08/1916 AD] | 4880) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
84 YBN [02/24/1916 AD] | 4809) | Berlin, Germany (published), Russia (written) |
84 YBN [11/27/1916 AD] | 4437) | (Wurzburg University) Wurzburg, Germany |
84 YBN [11/??/1916 AD] | 4982) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
84 YBN [1916 AD] | 4086) | (Edinburgh University) Edinburgh, Scotland |
84 YBN [1916 AD] | 4317) | (Yerkes Observatory University of Chicago) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
84 YBN [1916 AD] | 4511) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
84 YBN [1916 AD] | 4530) Sommerfeld publishes an influential work that goes through a number of editions in the 1920s, "Atombau und Spektrallinien" (Atomic Structure and Spectral Lines). Sommerfeld, although not Jewish, opposes the Fascism and anti-Jewishness in Germany after WW I, and in 1940 Sommerfeld is denounced and forced into retirement, but survives WW2. Sommerfeld is killed at age 83 by an automobile. | |
84 YBN [1916 AD] | 4776) | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
84 YBN [1916 AD] | 4944) | (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
84 YBN [1916 AD] | 5013) In 1950 Kendall, Hench, and Reichstein share the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology. | (Mayo Foundation) Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
84 YBN [1916 AD] | 5023) In 1924 Siegbahn wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his development of X-ray spectroscopy. | (University of Lund) Lund, Sweden |
83 YBN [03/03/1917 AD] | 4529) | (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
83 YBN [04/15/1917 AD] | 4945) | (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
83 YBN [06/??/1917 AD] | 4702) In 1937 Honda wins the Cultural Order of the Rising Sun, an equivalent award to the Nobel prize. (Is this prize only for those in Japan? How much money is the award?) Relation to the Honda Soichiro of Honda motor? | (Tokyo Imperial University) Tokyo, Japan |
83 YBN [07/28/1917 AD] | 4769) | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
83 YBN [09/??/1917 AD] | 4865) | (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
83 YBN [10/18/1917 AD] | 5025) Curtis is famous for debating Harlow Shapley in 1920, Curtis taking the more accurate "island universe" theory against Shapley who takes the view that the spiral nebulae are part of our galaxy. | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
83 YBN [1917 AD] | 4295) In 1927 Wagner von Jauregg is awarded a Nobel prize for physiology and medicine. (One of a number of dubious people to win the Nobel prize - Moniz for the involuntary lobotomy being another.) The Oxford Dictionary of Scientists reports that Wagner von Jauregg finds it difficult to obtain an academic post in orthodox medicine, and so turns to psychiatry in 1883 and in 1889 succeeds Krafft-Ebbing as professor of psychiatry at the University of Graz. (kind of funny - in stating that psychiatry is not an orthodox health science - I think if strictly consent-only it could possibly be called a highly experimental science, but with many fields of science, in particular because of the neuron reading/writing secret, the theoretical basis behind experiments is many times highly inaccurate and unlikely.) | (University of Vienna Hospital for Nervous and Mental Diseases) Vienna, Austria |
83 YBN [1917 AD] | 4524) A 100-inch reflecting telescope is completed on Mount Wilson, planned and supervised by George Ellery Hale (CE 1868-1938), and funded by the wealthy Los Angeles hardware business owner John D. Hooker. This will remain the largest telescope on earth for 40 years. Hale has for a third time built the largest telescope on earth. | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
83 YBN [1917 AD] | 4716) | (unknown) Paris, France (presumably, verify) |
83 YBN [1917 AD] | 4761) Langevin earns his Ph.D. under Curie. | (Collège de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
83 YBN [1917 AD] | 4765) (read and show full paper) | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
83 YBN [1917 AD] | 5026) Köhler is outspoken in his criticism of Adolf Hitler’s government and goes to the United States in 1935. (perhaps an outsider - unaware of neuron reading and writing, as millions are?) | (Prussian Academy of Sciences at Tenerife) Canary Islands |
83 YBN [1917 AD] | 6049) The first recording of a jazz musical composition is made by the "Original Dixieland Jass Band", a New Orleans, Dixieland Jazz band. Their "Livery Stable Blues" is the first jazz single issued. The band consists of five musicians who previously had played in the Papa Jack Laine bands, a diverse and racially integrated group of musicians who played for parades, dances, and advertising in New Orleans. In late 1917 the spelling of the band's name is changed to "Original Dixieland Jazz Band". (verify) | New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (presumably) |
83 YBN [1917 AD] | 6097) "Over There" is written and recorded (by George M. Cohan during World War I). | New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
82 YBN [03/16/1918 AD] | 4923) In 1902 Meitner becomes interested in science when she reads of the Curies' identifying radium. Emil Fischer makes Meitner promise never to enter laboratories where males are working at first. In 1938 when the Nazis take over Austria, Meitner, being Jewish, is forced to leave. Through the help of Debye and Coster, Meitner enters the Netherlands without a visa. Meitner then goes to Bohr in Denmark and Bohr helps her get a job with Siegbahn. In 1966 Meitner is awarded a share of the Fermi Award issued by the Atomic Energy Commission, and is the first woman to win the award. Meitner never married. In 1945 Hahn wins the 1944 Nobel prize in chemistry "for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei". Fortunately the Nazis do not recognize the potential destruction possible from uranium fission. In 1946-1960 Hahn is the president of the West German Max Planck Society. | (Institut für Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem) Berlin, Germany |
82 YBN [04/??/1918 AD] | 5008) The Sun is determined to be in the outer part of our galaxy. Harlow Shapley (CE 1885-1972), US astronomer, determines that the sun is in the outer part of a galaxy by measuring the position of globular clusters using the variable-star method to determine the distance of variable stars within each globular cluster. Between 1915 and 1920 Shapley uses the 100-inch telescope at Mount Wilson to study the globular clusters, which are very dense groups of stars, some containing as many as a million stars each. At this time 100 such clusters are known. Shapley finds that the globular clusters are all concentrated in the direction of Sagittarius, one-third of the clusters are found within the boundaries of Sagittarius. In 1914 Shapley worked out the variable star distance measuring method worked out by Henrietta Swan Leavitt a few years earlier, and applied the period-luminosity curve to the variable stars in each globular cluster. From the period and apparent brightness of these variable stars, Shapley calculates their distances. Shapley finds that the clusters are distributed roughly in the shape of a sphere around a center in Sagittarius. It seems logical to Shapley that these globular clusters are centered around the center of our galaxy. Shapley calculates this center to be 50,000 light years away. Oort will later reduce this to 30,000 light years. This is a much larger estimate than all previous estimates. Astronomers from Herschel to Kapteyn thought the sun was near the center of the galaxy, because the Milky Way is equally bright in all directions. Shapley explains that dark dust clouds block the bright center and allow only a view of stars near us, and outside the plane of the galaxy. Radio astronomy will confirm that the bright center of the Milky Way is hidden behind clouds of matter. At first, according to Asimov, there was bitter opposition to this view of the galaxy. Just as Aristarchos and Copernicus had moved the earth from the center of the universe, Shapley moved the sun from the center of the galaxy. Shapley writes in an article titled "Remarks on the Arrangement of the Sidereal Universe" in Astrophysical Journal: " Introduction.—A fairly definite conception of the arrangement of the sidereal system evolves naturally from the observational work discussed in the preceding Contributions. We find, in short, that globular clusters, though extensive and massive structures, are but subordinate items in the immensely greater organization which is dimly outlined by their positions. From the new point of view our galactic universe appears as a single, enormous, allcomprehending unit, the extent and form of which seem to be indicated through the dimensions of the widely extended assemblage of globular clusters. The fundamental nature of the galactic plane, in the dynamical structure of all that we now recognize as the sidereal universe, is manifested by the distribution of clusters in space. Near this plane lie the celestial objects that we customarily study. The open clusters, the diffused and planetary nebulae, the naked-eye stars, most variables, the objects that define and compose the star streams—all of these appear to be far within a relatively narrow equatorial region of the greater galactic system, a region in which globular clusters are not found. The Orion nebula and even the Magellanic clouds are miniature organizations in this general scheme, and undoubtedly are dependents of the Galaxy. The adoption of such an arrangement of sidereal objects leaves us with no evidence of a plurality of stellar "universes." Even the remotest of recorded globular clusters do not seem to be independent organizations. The hypothesis that spiral nebulae are separate galactic systems now meets with further difficulties. ... 3. Relation of present interpretation to earlier hypotheses.—In order to show where the earlier working hypotheses stand with respect to the interpretation now offered, it may be of interest to note the development, during the course of this work on clusters and variable stars, of the ideas concerning the relation of globular clusters to the galactic organization. Until the last year or so most students of stellar problems believed rather vaguely that the sun was not far from the center of the universe, and that the radius of the galactic system was of the order of iooo parsecs. From the earlier observational data Seeliger and Newcomb derived a fairly central position for the sun. Hertzsprung in 1906 estimated the "Dimensionen" of the visible Milky Way system to be of the order of 2000 parsecs, and some years later Walkey, from consideration of extensive distributional data, estimated a distance of about seventeen hundred parsecs for the galactic main stream. In 1914, referring to the apparently lens-shaped sidereal system, Eddington wrote, "There is little evidence as to the sun's position with respect to the perimeter of the lens; all that we can say is that it is not markedly eccentric"; and the diameter of the whole system (possibly excluding the peripheral ring of galactic clouds) was placed at some two or three thousand parsecs, with emphasis on the uncertainty. For a later computation Eddington assumed the distance of the Milky Way to be 2000 parsecs. The work on the hypothetical parallaxes of Cepheids and O-type stars by Hertzsprung, and of eclipsing binaries and Cepheids by Professor Russell and the writer, began to give concrete numerical expression to the distances of remote galactic objects, and in 1914 we have the statement: "Our 'universe' of stars must be some thousands of light-years in diameter," but the computed radius of 2500 parsecs was reduced to 1200 by allowing for a presumably reasonable and necessary scattering of light in space. The necessity for such a correction seems now definitely to have vanished, but the general conception of the size of the stellar system has not materially changed. .... 5. The Milky Way and its asymmetry; regions of maximum star density.-—According to the present view of the galactic system the phenomenon of the Milky Way is largely an optical one. Although the existence of local and occasionally very extensive condensations of Milky Way stars is not denied, the conception of a narrow encircling ring is abandoned. The Milky Way girdle is chiefly a matter of star depth, and its long recognized weakness between longitudes 90° and 180° is now taken to be a reflection of the eccentric position of the sun. On the basis of the third and fourth diagrams of the seventh paper we estimate provisionally that the limit of the Galaxy is three times greater in longitude 325° than in the opposite direction. This does not require an impossible difference of stellar density in the two directions, even if there is a considerable condensation toward the center. A star of a given absolute luminosity situated in the galactic plane would appear less than two and a half magnitudes fainter at the boundary of the system beyond the center than at the opposite point, which is nearest the sun. The remarkable one-sidedness of the Milky Way has been little considered heretofore in works on stellar distribution. Nort, in studying the Harvard map, has made an important beginning by showing that the star density is four or five times greater in the direction of the southern star clouds than in some of the shallower galactic regions of the north. The surpassing stellar density in the direction now assigned to the center of the galactic system is particularly remarked by Chapman and Melotte1 in their study of the Franklin-Adams plates. They state that one plate with center in a = 18h, δ= — 30° covers the Sagittarius region of the Southern Milky Way, and the star clouds on limited portions of it are so thick that in the case of twelve out of the twenty-five areas counted on it, it was found impossible to count every star shown; the images of the faintest stars in these regions merged into one another forming a continuous gray background. On every other plate of the Franklin-Adams series even the faintest star images shown were separate and distinct, and the counts included all stars visible. The extreme richness of the Sagittarius region may be judged of, then, when it is noticed that the incomplete counts on it show far more stars than are found in any other part of the Milky Way. The fathoming of the sidereal universe need not long depend on globular clusters alone. If the nearest part of its boundary in the general direction of Auriga and Gemini is not more distant than 30,000 parsecs, no stars in that locality with absolute magnitude of zero or brighter will be fainter than the apparent magnitude 17.5. B -type stars will therefore contribute in future measurement of the extent of the system; and the Cepheid variables fainter than the fourteenth magnitude will in time be fully as valuable as the globular clusters in outlining the diameter and contour of the equatorial segment. As a ready qualitative check of the direction and distance of the center, the blue stars in the Milky Way should persist to a fainter magnitude in the southern sky than in the direction of the anti-center. The possibly ellipsoidal form of the system of globular clusters is indicated in Fig. 1, which gives a projection on the galactic plane of the 60 clusters for which R sin/3< 15,000 parsecs. If the elongation be accepted as a real characteristic of the stars also, it is evident that the apparently densest star regions, depending on the faintness of the stars involved in the estimate, may he in a longitude differing considerably from that of the center. The general direction of the galactic center is clearly toward the dense star clouds of Sagittarius and Scorpio; but the adopted galactic longitude, 325°, and the corresponding equatorial co-ordinates of the center, 0 = 17*5, S =—30°, are necessarily approximate. The statistical center derived by Charlier from B-type stars is in Carina, in longitude 236°, a result referring entirely to the local group (within 500 parsecs of the sun) and not influenced by the arrangement of the general system. Stromberg, from bright stars of the redder spectral types, finds the dynamical center in longitude 257°. Nort,1 using stars to the eleventh magnitude on the Harvard map of the sky, gets farther outside the bounds of the local cluster and obtains a maximum stellar density in the Milky Way between longitudes 280° and 290°; he finds a density but one-fifth as great in longitude 120°, the direction of the anti*center. Chapman 270° Scorpio and Melotte, working to the still fainter limit of the FranklinAdams plates, find in the clouds of Sagittarius the only region too dense for counting. This progressive increase of the longitude of maximum star density from 236° to 325° (with the increasing predominance of the general system over the local group), and the appearance to be expected of the star clouds in the directions of the two centers, are both in striking agreement with Gould's observations of the brightness of the Milky Way:1 Its brightest portion is unquestionably in Sagittarius {the galactic center}; that in Carina {the local center} being slightly inferior to this as regards intrinsic brilliancy, although far more magnificent and impressive on account of the great number of bright stars with which it is there spangled. ...". A parsec is a unit of astronomical length based on the distance from Earth at which stellar parallax is one second of arc and is equal to 3.258 light-years, 3.086 × 1013 kilometers, or 1.918 × 1013 miles. (Interesting to think that our Galaxy may somehow relate to atomic structure-for example our galaxy may be an atom or photon at some larger scale.) (there must be many phenomena around Sagittarius being in the direction of the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy). (It is interesting that the Milky Way must extend completely around the earth.) In modern times, about 150 globular clusters have been identified in the Milky Way Galaxy. | (Mount Wilson Solar Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
82 YBN [06/21/1918 AD] | 6199) Electronic read and write memory. This is the first use of the electric switch as memory. This is the first publicly known electronic reading and writing, electronic memory, which with transistors develops into memory chips (ROM, RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash, etc). Unlike laser (optical) reading and writing (CDs, DVDs), and magnetic reading and writing (cassette tapes, VCR tapes, hard disks), the only moving parts are electrons so electronic memory uses less electricity, but is not as permanent and does not last as long as laser and magnetic recording. William Henry Eccles and Frank Wilfred Jordan describe this circuit in a patent filed in England entitled "Improvements in Ionic Relays". They write: The relay is designed to produce a large and permanent change in the current flowing in an electrical circuit by means of a small electrical stimulus received from outside. In its simplest form it consists of two three-electrode ionic tubes with resistances. it is well-known that when the potential of the grid electrode relative to the filament is increased and decreased within certain limits, the current that can be sent through the tube from anode to filament by means of a battery of constant voltage increases and decreases correspondingly. In what follows the circuit comprising the space in the tube between anode and filament, the external conductors and the source of E.M.F. will be called the plate circuit and the current flowing in it the plate current. The circuit comprising the space in the tube between the grid and the filament, external conductors and a source of E.M.F. will be called the grid circuit and the current flowing in it the grid current. The principle of the relay is most easily explained when two tubes, each with resistances and battery in its plate circuit and with a resistance and battery in its grid circuit, are used and interconnected in the following manner:- The electrical stimulus from outside which it is desired to detect is applied in the grid circuit of the first tube so as to make the grid transiently more positive in potential relative to the filament. This causes an increase of current in the plate circuit of the first tube and consequently an increase of the potential difference between the terminals of the plate circuit resistance. This increased potential difference is transferred to the grid circuit of the second tube in such a manner the the grid becomes more negative than before relative to its filament. Consequently the plate current of the second tube decreases and the potential difference between the terminals of its plate circuit resistance decreases also. This decrease of potential difference is now transferred to the grid circuit of the first tube in such a manner that it tends to make the grid more positive relative to the filament. The result of these processes is that a positive stimulus from outside given to the grid of the first tube initiates a chain of changes, which result finally in the plate current of the first tube attaining the highest value possible under the E.M.F. of its battery and the plate current of the second tube falling to its lowest possible value. This condition persists after the disappearance of the initial stimulus. In the initial condition with the two-tube arrangement just described the plate current of the first tube is made very small and that of the second tube large; after the reception of the outside stimulus on the grid of the first tube the final condition is a large plate current in the first tube and a small plate current in the second tube. Either the decreases or the increases of plate current can be used for indicating. In order to restore the initial conditions it is necessary to interrupt for an instant the linkage between the tubes or to stop the operation of one or both of the tubes, as for instance by dimming its filament. in the above described arrangements only two tubes have been used. More than two tubes may be used, and when, more than two are used inductance and capacity transformers may be utilised as essential parts between tubes in addition to resistances. ...". | (City and Guilds Technical College) London, UK |
82 YBN [10/??/1918 AD] | 5880) | (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
82 YBN [11/10/1918 AD] | 4974) | (Aberdeen Proving Ground) Aberdeen, Maryland, USA |
82 YBN [1918 AD] | 4430) | (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
82 YBN [1918 AD] | 4443) | ( University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
82 YBN [1918 AD] | 4978) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
82 YBN [1918 AD] | 4979) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
82 YBN [1918 AD] | 5002) With the rise of the Nazi Party, Hevesy, who was of Jewish descent, leaves Germany for Copenhagen in 1934. The Nazis occupy Denmark in 1940, and in 1942 Hevesy escapes to Sweden. In 1943 Hevesy wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry. In 1959 Hevesy wins the Atoms for Peace Award. | (University of Budapest) Budapest, Hungary |
82 YBN [1918 AD] | 5070) In 1959 Heyrovský wins a Nobel prize in chemistry. | (Charles University) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
82 YBN [1918 AD] | 6027) | (St. Paul’s Girls’ School or Morley College) London, England |
81 YBN [02/08/1919 AD] | 5068) | Paris, France |
81 YBN [04/??/1919 AD] | 4749) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
81 YBN [04/??/1919 AD] | 4750) Atomic transmutation. Humans change atoms of nitrogen into atoms of oxygen (transmutation) by colliding accelerated alpha particles with nitrogen gas. Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, changes atoms of nitrogen into atoms of oxygen (transmutation) by colliding accelerated alpha particles with nitrogen gas. Rutherford publishes this in a paper with the phrase "Light Atoms" in the title which implies that light particles are atomic in nature. Rutherford is the first to change one element into another, by using helium nuclei to push out protons (Hydrogen) from nitrogen converting it to oxygen. Rutherford sends alpha particles through a cylinder that can be filled with various gases. He observes that oxygen lowers the number of scintillations (illuminated dots on a luminescent screen), and concludes that the gas absorbs some of the alpha particles before they reach the zinc sulfide screen. When the cylinder is filled with hydrogen, very bright scintillations appear, and Rutherford concludes that alpha particles knock forward the single proton nucleus of the hydrogen atom, which then collide with the screen and cause the bright scintillations. However, Rutherford finds that when nitrogen gas is in the cylinder, the alpha particle scintillations are reduced but occasional scintillations of the hydrogen kind appear. Rutherford concludes that the alhpa particles are knocking protons out of the nitrogen atoms, and what remains has to be oxygen. Rutherford is therefore the first to change one element into another. This was a dream of the alchemists. Asimov claims that this is the first "nuclear reaction". however, I think that simple combustion can only be the complete separation of an atom into light particles, or certainly a large portion of the atom including light particles in the so-called nucleus are emitted in a typical combustion. Asimov states that because only one atom in around 300,000 interacts with nuclei, this is not a very practical form of transmutation. However it seems clear that transmutation of atoms is extremely important, and clearly a large part of secret research has been focused on the goal of greatly increasing the quantity of atomic conversions. In particular, to convert common atoms like silicon and iron into more useful atoms like Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. This progress, like most of neuron reading and writing, sadly remains currently secret. If no such research has occured and is occuring this would seem extremely stupid and short sighted. By 1924 Rutherford will have knocked protons out of the nuclei of most of the lighter elements. This is a very rich source of research, and it seems clear that many people must have developed this method of transmutation, trying to make it economical (perhaps recycling the alpha particles, certainly trying many many more, trying solids, trying other particles. Fermi will use neutrons to transmutate atoms. One very important invention is a machine/process that can convert the common abundant atoms of moons and planets into more useful atoms in particular hydrogen and oxygen. In this way, all the silicon, aluminum, iron, the most common elements on planets and moons, (for example on the earth moon) can be converted into oxygen and hydrogen for use as fuel, to breathe, and for water. To some extent converting these into nitrogen too is of value, and no doubt phosphorus. Although Fermi finds that all such elements are radioactive. I can't believe over 80 years of experimenting, the vast majority of which is completely secret, people did not find, methods to create oxygen in bulk, probably using any radioactivity to simply heat water to create electricity, all contained and completely safe for everything outside the chamber. Rutherford writes in his paper titled "Collision of α Particles with Light Atoms": "It has been shown in paper I. that a metal source, coated with a deposit of radium C, always gives rise to a number of scintillations on a zinc sulphide screen far beyond the range of the α particles. The swift atoms causing these scintillations carry a positive charge and are deflected by a magnetic field, and have about the same range and energy as the swift H atoms produced by the passage of α particles through hydrogen. These "natural" scintillations are believed to be due mainly to swift H atoms from the radioactive source, but it is difficult to decide whether they are expelled from the radioactive source itself or are due to the action of α particles on occluded hydrogen. The apparatus employed to study these "natural" scintillations is the same as that described in paper I. The intense source of radium C was placed inside a metal box about 3 cm. from the end, and an opening in the end of the box was covered with a silver plate of stopping power equal to about 6 cm. of air. The zinc sulphide screen was mounted outside, about 1 mm. distant from the silver plate, to admit of the introduction of absorbing foils between them. The whole apparatus was placed in a strong magnetic field to deflect the beta rays. The variation in the number of these "natural" scintillations with absorption in terms of cms. of air is shown in fig. 1, curve A. In this case, the air in the box was exhausted and absorbing foils of aluminium were used. Then dried oxygen or carbon dioxide was admitted into the vessel, the number of scintillations diminished to about the amount to be expected from the stopping power of the column of gas. A surprising effect was noticed, however, when dried air was introduced. Instead of diminishing, the number of scintillations was increased, and for an absorption corresponding to about 19 cm. of air the number was about twice that observed when the air was exhausted. It was clear from this experiment that the α particles in their passage through air gave rise to long-range scintillations which appeared to the eye to be about equal in brightness to H scintillations. A systematic series of observations was undertaken to account for the origin of these scintillations. In the first place we have seen that the passage of α particles through nitrogen and oxygen gives rise to numerous bright scintillations which have a range of about 9 cm. in air. These scintillations have about the range to be expected if they are due to swift N or O atoms, carrying unit charge, produced by collision with α particles. All experiments have consequently been made with an absorption greater than 9 cm of air, so that these atoms are completely stopped before reaching the zinc sulphide screen. It was found that these long-range scintillations could not be due to the presence of water vapour in the air; for the number was only slightly reduced by thoroughly drying the air. This is to be expected, since on the average the number of additional scintillations due to air was equivalent to the number of H atoms produced by the mixture of hydrogen at 6 cm. pressure with oxygen. Since on the average the vapour pressure of water in air was not more than 1 cm., the effects of complete drying would not reduce the number by more than one sixth. Even when oxygen and carbon dioxide saturated with water vapour at 20° C. were introduced in place of dry air, the number of scintillations was much less than with dry air. It is well known that the amount of hydrogen or gases containing hydrogen is normally very small in atmospheric air. No difference was observed whether the air was taken directly from the room or from outside the laboratory or was stored for some days over water. There was the possibility that the effect in air might be due to liberation of H atoms from the dust nuclei in the air. No appreciable difference, however, was observed when the dried air was filtered though long plugs of cotton wool, or by storage over water for some days to remove dust nuclei. Since the anomalous effect was observed in air, but not in oxygen, or carbon dioxide, it must be due either to nitrogen or to one of the other gases present in atmospheric air. The latter possibility was excluded by comparing the effects produced in air and in chemically prepared nitrogen. The nitrogen was obtained by the well-known method of adding ammonium chloride to sodium nitrite, and stored over water. It was carefully dried before admission to the apparatus. With pure nitrogen, the number of long-range scintillations under similar conditions was greater than in air. As a result of careful experiments, the ratio was found to be 1.25, the value to be expected if the scintillations are due to nitrogen. The results so far obtained show that the long-range scintillations obtained from air must be ascribed to nitrogen, but it is important, in addition, to show that they are due to collision of α particles with atoms of nitrogen through the volume of the gas. In the first place, it was found that the number of the scintillations varied with the pressure of the air in the way to be expected if they resulted from collision of α particles along the column of gas. In addition, when an absorbing screen of gold or aluminium was placed close to the source, the range of the scintillations was found to be reduced by the amount to be expected if the range of the expelled atom was proportional to the range of the colliding α particles. These results show that the scintillations arise from the volume of the gas and are not due to some surface effect in the radioactive source. In fig. 1 curve A the results of a typical experiment are given showing the variation in the number of natural scintillations with the amount of absorbing matter in their path measured in terms of centimetres of air for α particles. In these experiments carbon dioxide was introduced at a pressure calculated to give the same absorption of the α rays as ordinary air. In curve B the corresponding curve is given when air at N.T.P. is introduced in place of carbon dioxide. The difference curve C shows the corresponding variation of the number of scintillations arising from the nitrogen in the air. It was generally observed that the ratio of the nitrogen effect to the natural effect was somewhat greater for 19 cm. than for 12 cm. absorption. In order to estimate the magnitude of the effect, the space between the source and screen was filled with carbon dioxide at diminished pressure and a known pressure of hydrogen was added. The pressure of the carbon dioxide and of hydrogen were adjusted so that the total absorption of α particles in the mixed gas should be equal to that of the air. In this way it was found that the curve of absorption of H atoms produced under these conditions was somewhat steeper than curve C of fig. 1. As a consequence, the amount of hydrogen mixed with carbon dioxide required to produce a number of scintillations equal to that of air, increased with the increase of absorption. For example, the effect in air was equal to about 4 cm. of hydrogen at 12 cm. absorption. For a mean value of the absorption, the effect was equal to about 6 cm. of hydrogen. This increased absorption of H atoms under similar conditions indicated either that (1) the swift atoms from air had a somewhat greater range than the H atoms, or (2) that the atoms from air were projected more in the line of flight of the α particles. While the maximum range of the scintillations from air using radium C as a source of α rays appeared to be about the same, viz. 28 cm., as for H atoms produced from hydrogen, it was difficult to fix the end of the range with certainty on account of the smallness of the number and the weakness of the scintillations. Some special experiments were made to test whether, under favourable conditions, any scintillations due to nitrogen could be observed beyond 28 cm. of air absorption. For this purpose a strong source (about 60 mg. Ra activity) was brought within 2.5 cm. of the zinc sulphide screen, the space between containing dry air. On still further reducing the distance, the screen became too bright to detect very feeble scintillations. No certain evidence of scintillations was found beyond a range of 28 cm. It would therefore appear that (2) above is the more probable explanation. In a previous paper (III.) we have seen that the number of swift atoms of nitrogen or oxygen produced per unit path by collision with α particles is about the same as the corresponding number of H atoms in hydrogen. Since the number of long-range scintillations in air is equivalent to that produced under similar conditions in a column of hydrogen at 6 cm. pressure, we may consequently conclude that only one long-range atom is produced for every 12 close collisions giving rise to a swift nitrogen atom of maximum range 9 cm. It is of interest to give data showing the number of long-range scintillations produced in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure under definite conditions. For a column of nitrogen 3.3 cm. long, and for a total absorption of 19 cm. of air from the source, the number due to nitrogen per milligram of activity is .6 per minute on a screen of 3.14 sq. mm. area. Both as regards range and brightness of scintillations, the long-range atoms from nitrogen closely resemble H atoms, and in all probability are hydrogen atoms. In order, however, to settle this important point definitely, it is necessary to determine the deflexion of these atoms in a magnetic field. Some preliminary experiments have been made by a method similar to that employed in measuring the velocity of the H atom (see paper II.). The main difficulty is to obtain a sufficiently large deflexion of the stream of atoms and yet have a sufficient number of scintillations per minute for counting. The α rays from a strong source passed through dry air between two parallel horizontal plates 3 cm. long and 1.6 mm. apart, and the number of scintillations on the screen placed near the end of the plates was observed for different strengths of the magnetic field. Under these conditions, when the scintillations arise from the whole length of the column of air between the plates, the strongest magnetic field available reduced the number of scintillations by only 30 per cent. When the air was replaced by a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen of the same stopping power for α rays, about an equal reduction was noted. As far as the experiment goes, this is an indication that the scintillations are due to H atoms; but the actual number of scintillations and the amount of reduction was too small to place much reliance on the result. In order to settle this question definitely, it will probably prove necessary to employ a solid nitrogen compound, free from hydrogen, as a source, and to use much stronger sources of α rays. In such experiments, it will be of importance to discriminate between the deflexions due to H atoms and possible atoms of atomic weight 2. From the calculations given in paper III., it is seen that a collision of an α particle with a free atom of mass 2 should give rise to an atom of range about 32 cm. in air, and of initial energy about .89 of that of the H atom produced under similar conditions. The deflexion of the pencil of these rays in a magnetic field should be about .6 of that shown by a corresponding pencil of H atoms. Discussion of results. From the results so far obtained it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the long-range atoms arising from collision of α particles with nitrogen are not nitrogen atoms but probably atoms of hydrogen, or atoms of mass 2. If this be the case, we must conclude that the nitrogen atom is disintegrated under the intense forces developed in a close collision with a swift α particle, and that the hydrogen atom which is liberated formed a constituent part of the nitrogen nucleus. We have drawn attention in paper III. to the rather surprising observation that the range of the nitrogen atoms in air is about the same as the oxygen atoms, although we should expect a difference of about 19 per cent. If in collisions which give rise to swift nitrogen atoms, the hydrogen is at the same time disrupted, such a difference might be accounted for, for the energy is then shared between two systems. It is of interest to note, that while the majority of the light atoms, as is well known, have atomic weights represented by 4n or 4n+3 where n is a whole number, nitrogen is the only atom which is expressed by 4n+2. We should anticipate from radioactive data that the nitrogen nucleus consists of three helium nuclei each of atomic mass 4 and either two hydrogen nuclei or one of mass 2. If the H nuclei were outriders of the main system of mass 12, the number of close collisions with the bound H nuclei would be less than if the latter were free, for the α particle in a collision comes under the combined field of the H nucleus and of the central mass. Under such conditions, it is to be expected that the α particle would only occasionally approach close enough to the H nucleus to give it the maximum velocity, although in many cases it may give it sufficient energy to break its bond with the central mass. Such a point of view would explain why the number of swift H atoms from nitrogen is less than the corresponding number in free hydrogen and less also than the number of swift nitrogen atoms. The general results indicate that the H nuclei, which are released, are distant about twice the diameter of the electron (7x10-13 cm.) from the centre of the main atom. Without a knowledge of the laws of force at such small distances, it is difficult to estimate the energy required to free the H nucleus or to calculate the maximum velocity that can be given to the escaping H atom. It is not to be expected, a priori, that the velocity or range of the H atom released from the nitrogen atom should be identical with that due to a collision in free hydrogen. Taking into account the great energy of motion of the α particle expelled from radium C, the close collision of such an α particle with a light atom seems to be the most likely agency to promote the disruption of the latter; for the forces on the nuclei arising from such collisions appear to be greater than can be produced by any other agency at present available. Considering the enormous intensity of the force brought into play, it is not so much a matter of surprise that the nitrogen atom should suffer disintegration as that the α particle itself escapes disruption into its constituents. The results as a whole suggest that, if α particles--or similar projectiles--of still greater energy were available for experiment, we might expect to break down the nucleus structure of many of the lighter atoms. I desire to express my thanks to Mr. William Kay for his invaluable assistance in counting scintillations.". | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
81 YBN [05/26/1919 AD] | 4966) | (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
81 YBN [05/29/1919 AD] | 4980) | Príncipe Island, West Africa |
81 YBN [05/??/1919 AD] | 3882) | New York City, NY (presumably) |
81 YBN [06/08/1919 AD] | 3849) | Syracuse, NY |
81 YBN [08/??/1919 AD] | 4905) In 1922 Aston wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for for his discovery of a large number of isotopes (atoms of the same element that differ in mass), using a mass spectrometer, and for formulating the “whole number rule” that isotopes have masses that are integer values of the mass of the hydrogen atom. Aston recognizes the possibility of using the energy in the atom (which Rutherford did not) and in his Nobel speech he speaks of the dangers involved in such an eventuality. (see specifics.) Rutherford publicly doubted the use of energy from atoms calling it "moonshine", however, Rutherford appears to have hinted about atomic fission explosives as early as 1915. Aston leaves much of his large estate to Trinity College. | (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
81 YBN [09/12/1919 AD] | 4790) | (De Forest Phonofilm Corporation) New York City, New York, USA |
81 YBN [11/??/1919 AD] | 4163) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
81 YBN [12/30/1919 AD] | 6095) | (University of Budapest) Budapest, Hungary |
81 YBN [1919 AD] | 4452) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen , Germany |
81 YBN [1919 AD] | 4906) | (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
81 YBN [1919 AD] | 4943) | (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
81 YBN [1919 AD] | 4997) In 1922 Meyerhof wins the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology shared with Hill. In 1938 Meyerhof leaves Nazi Germany for France. In 1940 after France falls to Nazi Germany Meyerhof moves to the USA. | (University of Kiel) Kiel, Germany |
81 YBN [1919 AD] | 5022) Starting in 1911, Frisch conditions bees to relate the color black to locations for food, showing that the conditioned bees fly to a black location instead of a location emitting ultraviolet light (which bees can see but humans cannot). Frisch finds that bees communicate the distance and direction of a food supply to other members of the colony by two types of rhythmic movements or dances: circling and wagging. The circling dance indicates that food is within 75 m (about 250 feet) of the hive, while the wagging dance indicates a greater distance. Frisch finds that a bee's sense of smell is similar to that of humans. Frisch also shows that bees are unable to distinguish between certain shapes, that they have a limited range of color perception, but can see light of shorter wavelength than humans. (What is the proof of this - somehow matching the motions to some particular food source?) | (Munich Zoological Institute) Munich, Germany |
81 YBN [1919 AD] | 5043) In 1933 Stern leaves Germany when Hitler comes to power. Stern moves to the USA, and is professor of physics at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon university) in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1943 Stern wins the Nobel Prize in physics for work on molecular beams. (The number of people leading the field in particle physics that leave Germany on the rise of Hitler is amazing. Clearly the people in Germany had a strong particle physics program (as did England), and must have completely lost that advantage with the rise of Hitler. The particle beam technology clearly is massive, in particular with the neuron reading and writing flying nano devices.) | (University of Frankfurt) Frankfurt, Germany |
81 YBN [1919 AD] | 5071) Muller is part Jewish descent and leaves Germany with the rise of Hitler and goes to Russia on the invitation of Vavilov. In 1937 Muller leaves Russia after openly opposing Lysenko's views on genetics. In 1955 Muller joins Einstein and 6 other scientists in a plea to outlaw nuclear bombs. Like Galton, Muller promotes eugenics to improve the “genetic health” of the human species. | (Rice Institute) Houston, Texas |
80 YBN [01/??/1920 AD] | 4914) | (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
80 YBN [02/28/1920 AD] | 4819) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
80 YBN [04/19/1920 AD] | 4322) | Jamaica |
80 YBN [04/26/1920 AD] | 4770) | (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
80 YBN [06/03/1920 AD] | 4751) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
80 YBN [12/01/1920 AD] | 5110) | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4309) | Kaluga, Russia (presumably) |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4411) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4453) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen , Germany |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4553) | unknown |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4554) | unknown |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4555) | unknown |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4556) | unknown |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4557) | unknown |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4877) | (DuPont's Redpath Laboratory) Parlin, New Jersey |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4921) | (Notre Dame University) Notre Dame, Indiana, USA |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4922) In 1934 Whipple wins the Nobel Prize in medicine sharing with Minot and Murphy for the cure for pernicious anemia. (How common is anemia? Perhaps common because many people lose blood when injured, still how quickly can liver work to cure anemia? Perhaps there has been some more specific finds about why liver works to cure anemia since then.) | (University of California) San Francisco, California, USA |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 4959) | (Technical Academy in Dresden) Dresden, Germany |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 5041) | (University of Saratov) Saratov, Russia (presumably) |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 5044) | (University of Frankfurt) Frankfurt, Germany |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 5045) | (University of Frankfurt) Frankfurt, Germany |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 5084) | |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 5119) Baade is an enemy alien being German in the USA during World War II, but is allowed to do non-war related science such as astronomy. Baade takes advantage of the war-time blackout in Los Angeles to capture photographs using the 100-inch (2.5 m) reflecting telescope on Mount Wilson. Over the course of his life Baade locates over 300 variable stars (cephids) in the Andromeda Galaxy. | (University of Hamburg's Bergedorf Observatory) Hamburg, Germany |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 5180) | (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
80 YBN [1920 AD] | 6063) Al Jolson records the George Gershwin (CE 1898-1937) and Irving Caesar song "Swanee". | New York City, New York, USA (probably) |
79 YBN [01/21/1921 AD] | 4924) | (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instute fur Chemie) Berlin, Germany |
79 YBN [02/26/1921 AD] | 4752) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
79 YBN [02/??/1921 AD] | 4162) This is reported on the front page of the New York Times. Perhaps michelson or others paid for it, or it may show the early popularity and respectability of the Nobel Prize. | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
79 YBN [03/21/1921 AD] | 5238) | (Lowell Observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
79 YBN [03/??/1921 AD] | 5157) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
79 YBN [04/26/1921 AD] | 5239) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
79 YBN [07/??/1921 AD] | 4866) | (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
79 YBN [09/26/1921 AD] | 5051) In 1929 Raman is knighted by the British government. In 1930 Raman wins the Nobel Prize in physics. In 1947 Raman is the Director of Raman Research institute at Bangalore in India. Raman is the first Asian human (human living in India, China, or Russia?) to get a Nobel Prize. Raman trains more than 500 young Indian people in science and education in an effort to build up scientific research and education in India. | (University of Calcutta) Calcutta, India |
79 YBN [09/??/1921 AD] | 4783) In 1936 Loewi with Sir Henry Dale, receive the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries relating to the chemical transmission of nerve impulses. In 1938 Loewi is placed under arrest (for being Jewish) when the Nazi's invade Austria, but he is allowed to leave the country if he gives his Nobel Prize money to the Nazis. Loewi moves to England and then in 1940 to the USA. | (University of Graz) Graz, Austria |
79 YBN [11/14/1921 AD] | 5092) Best, as a graduate student, works a summer with Banting to isolate insulin. Best's aunt had recently died of diabetes and this serves as a motivation. In 1923 Banting is awarded an annuity by the Canadian Parliament and the Banting Research Foundation is established for him. In 1923 Banting and Macleod share the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology, the first Nobel Prize to be awarded to Canadian people. Banting is furious that the prize is shared with Macleod who had merely given then laboratory space, and not with Best who had done his fair share of the labor. Banting has to be persuaded to accept the prize, and gives half his share of the money to Best. | (University of Toronto) Toronto, Canada |
79 YBN [1921 AD] | 4068) Although having only a high school education, Burbank is profoundly influenced by the books of Charles Darwin, especially "The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication". At the age of 21 Burbank purchases a 17-acre (7-hectare) tract near Lunenberg, Mass., and begins a 55-year plant-breeding career. After about a year he had developed the Burbank potato, which was introduced to Ireland to help combat the blight epidemics. By selling the rights to this potato he made $150, which he used to travel to California, where three of his brothers had already settled. In Santa Rosa, Burbank establishes a nursery garden, greenhouse, and experimental farms that will become famous throughout the earth. Burbank believes in inheritance by acquired characteristics and lectures on this at Stanford University in his later years even after the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's principles of heredity in 1901 which Burbank is aware of. Lysenko, also a plant breeder will support this erroneous view 50 years later. Burbank's work with plants convinces him that the key to good breeding is selection and environment, like many others of this time, try to apply his concepts to human society. The product of his thinking on this subject is first published in 1907 as "The Training of the Human Plant". This book reveals Burbank's firm belief in the then-discredited theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, so unlike most eugenists of the period, Burbank stresses education and a good environment generally as the best way to remake human society. (Clearly environment influences reproduction, although there are no acquired characteristics.) In his life Burbank developes more than 800 new strains and varieties of plants, including 113 varieties of plums and prunes, 20 of which are still commercially important, especially in California and South Africa; 10 commercial varieties of berries; and more than 50 varieties of lilies, in addition to publishing a number of books describing his methods. | Santa Rosa, California, USA |
79 YBN [1921 AD] | 4387) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
79 YBN [1921 AD] | 4518) | (The Hague) Netherlands |
79 YBN [1921 AD] | 4854) | (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
79 YBN [1921 AD] | 4955) | (St Mary's Hospital) London, England |
78 YBN [01/26/1922 AD] | 5103) De Broglie's great-great-grandfather died on the guillotine during the French Revolution. (So clearly De Broglie must be somewhat wealthy. Of course, truth exists independently of wealth. I wonder what was the crime. It would be interesting to see the thought-images and nano-flying dust cams - in the French Revolution were the wealthy punished for their involvement in secret violence - like 9/11, the Kennedy killings, etc or were many nonviolent and unfairly murdered?) During WW I De Broglie is stationed in the Eiffel Tower as a radio engineer. In 1929 De Broglie wins the Nobel Prize in physics. | (brother Maurice's lab) Paris, France (verify) |
78 YBN [02/06/1922 AD] | 4323) | Luxor, Egpyt |
78 YBN [03/01/1922 AD] | 5163) In 1966 Mulliken wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry "for his fundamental work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method". | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
78 YBN [03/03/1922 AD] | 4324) | Menton, France |
78 YBN [04/28/1922 AD] | 4325) | Mandeville, Jamaica |
78 YBN [05/19/1922 AD] | 3612) | Washington, D.C., USA. |
78 YBN [05/27/1922 AD] | 5197) | (Geophysical Institute) Bergen, Norway |
78 YBN [05/??/1922 AD] | 4104) | (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
78 YBN [08/01/1922 AD] | 4820) In 1944 Erlanger and Gasser share the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology. (Notice that the Nobel committee is drawing attention to scientific analysis of the nervous system - a massive, but secret enterprise - and then near the end of WW2 when clearly the Nazi's were certain to lose.) (Erlanger's only son dies before he does - how?) | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
78 YBN [11/??/1922 AD] | 3883) | New York City, NY (presumably) |
78 YBN [12/09/1922 AD] | 5111) | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
78 YBN [12/13/1922 AD] | 5108) Compton is the son of Presbyterian minister who was Dean of Wooster College. (State how the Presbyterian followers of Jesus differ from other followers of Jesus.) In 1927 Compton shares a Nobel Prize in physics with Charles Wilson. Compton is one of the top scientists in the Manhattan Project that develops the atomic bomb. Asimov states that Compton remained on the best of terms with the (US) military. Compton directs the research on methods of producing plutonium. Compton approves the use of the atomic bomb over Japan. Like Millikan, Compton is an outspokenly religious scientist. | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 3978) | School of Mines, Saint-Etienne, France (presumably) |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 4362) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 4444) | ( University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 4467) | (Victoria Observatory) Victoria, British Colombia |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 4490) | (Johns Hopkins University), Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 4726) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 4875) | (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co) Dayton, Ohio, USA |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 4940) | Ur (modern Iraq) |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 4951) | |
78 YBN [1922 AD] | 5047) Friedmann dies of typhoid fever while still in his thirties. | (Academy of Sciences) Petrograd, Russia |
77 YBN [01/02/1923 AD] | 5003) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
77 YBN [02/27/1923 AD] | 4996) | (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland |
77 YBN [05/04/1923 AD] | 5004) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
77 YBN [06/14/1923 AD] | 3613) | Washington, D.C., USA. |
77 YBN [09/06/1923 AD] | 4842) | (BASF) Ludwigshafen-on-the-Rhine, Germany |
77 YBN [09/10/1923 AD] | 5104) De Broglie's great-great-grandfather died on the guillotine during the French Revolution. (So clearly De Broglie must be somewhat wealthy. Of course, truth exists independently of wealth. I wonder what was the crime. It would be interesting to see the thought-images and nano-flying dust cams - were the wealthy punished for their involvement in secret violence - like 9/11, the Kennedy killings, etc?) During WW I De Broglie is stationed in the Eiffel Tower as a radio engineer. In 1929 De Broglie wins the Nobel Prize in physics. | (brother Maurice's lab) Paris, France (verify) |
77 YBN [12/29/1923 AD] | 5058) Electronic camera and image display. This electric camera is a "scanning" electric camera. Later the CCD (charge-coupled device) will allow a two-dimensional area (frame) of light to be captured very quickly.[] (and radio frequency light particle (wireless) sending and receiving of images (television)?) Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (ZWoURiKiN) (CE 1889-1982) Russian-US electrical engineer, invents the first publicly known electronic scanning camera, the "iconoscope". Zworykin's device focuses an image on a screen made up of many small tiny potassium hydride droplets which act as photoelectric cells, each insulated, which develops a charge that depends on the intensity of the light on each drop of metal. An electron beam moved with an electromagnetic field is scans in parallel lines over the screen, discharging the photoelectric cells and producing an electrical signal. Then to draw the scanned image to another screen, Zworykin uses the cathode-ray tube invented in 1897 by Karl Ferdinand Braun. The tube (which Zworykin calls a ‘kinescope’) has an electron beam focused by electromagnetic fields to illuminate a small spot on a fluorescent screen. The beam is then deflected by the fields in parallel lines across the screen, and the intensity of the beam varies according to the intensity of the signal. In this way it was possible to reconstruct the electrical signals into an image. In 1923 an early version of this system is made and Zworykin manages to transmit a simple picture (a cross). By 1929 Zworykin is able to demonstrate a better version suitable for practical use. In 1848, Lord Kelvin had published "Theory of Electric Images", although a mathematical paper, this implies that capture and storage of images electronically was clearly in full progress by 1848. In this sense Kelvin should probably be credited. There is no much question in my mind that clearly by 1909 as indicated by Jean Perin, there are already microscopic flying dust-sized neuron readers and writer, camera, microphone, light particle transmitting and receiving devices. This may imply that the first electronic scanning electronic camera was secretly invented in 1823 since the 100 year anniversary may have been the agreement point between two sides, or perhaps even a 200 year point. In his December 29,1923 patent entitled "Television System", Zworykin writes: "... My invention relates, in general, to television systems. One of the objects of my invention is to provide a system for enabling a person to see distant moving objects or views by radio. Another object of my invention is to eliminate synchronizing devices heretofore employed in television systems. Still another object of my invention is to, provide a system for broadcasting, from a central point, moving pictures, scenes from plays, or similar entertainments. The above and other objects of my invention will be explained more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification. Referring now to the drawings, Figure 1 is a diagram of a station for broadcasting motion pictures or other visual indications, and may be considered the television transmitter. Fig. 2 is a diagram of a receiving station for receiving the scenes broadcasted from the transmitting station. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view of an alternative arrangement for the transmitting station. Fig. 4 shows an arrangement whereby the control of the transmitting and the receiving stations may be exercised from a central station; and Fig. 5 shows the circuits of the transmitting station when a central station is used. Both of these stations are shown by means of concentional circuit and apparatus diagrams in sufficient detail to enable the invention to be readily explained and understoof. Any visual indications may be broadcasted by the transmitting set 1 consisting of apparatus and circuits and be received by the receiving set 2 consisting of apparatus and circuits. The apparatus of the transmitting set 1 comprises an antenna system 3 which is so tuned that it may oscillate at two separate and distinct frequencies. The oscillating circuit including the antenna 3 is connected on one side by means of a transformer 4 to the plate circuit of an amplifier triode 5. The grid of the amplifier 5 is connected threough a transformer 6 to the plate circuits of modulator triodes 7 and 9. An oscillator triode 9 is connected through a transformer 10 to the grid circuit of the modulator triodes 8 and 8. The above arrangement comprises what is known as an ordinary "push-and-pull" transmitting arrangement. ... The light from the image placed before the lens 37 is so varied that, upon the focusing of this light upon the photoelectric globules 36 of the composite plate 32, electron emission of varying intensity by these particles takes place in accordance with the light from the object placed before the lens 37. This electron emission may be considered a species of conduction between the photoelectric globules 36 and the grid 39. This phenomena is intensified by the argon vapor that fills the container 33 as a result of the ionization of the vapor. In view of the fact that the aluminum oxide plate 35 is an insulator, there is no connection existing between the grid 39 and the aluminum plate 34, even though the photoelectric globules emit electrons. When the cathode beam strikes a particular point upon the aluminum foil, it is of sufficient intensity to penetrate it, as well as the aluminum oxide. The action of the cathode ray on the aluminum oxide in its path, particularly In the presence of the gas, is to produce a conductive connection between the aluminum plate 34 and the particular globule or globules of potassium hydride in the path of the cathode ray. The electrons emitted by these globules are therefore subjected to the field produced by the battery 42 acting across the conductive part of the aluminum oxide. The amount of the emission will depend upon the degree of illumination of these globules. The current flowing in the circuit is dependent upon the electron emission from the globule or globules covered by the cathode beam. This current is amplified by means of the amplifier triode 12. The current from the grid 39 to the grid of the tube 12 is so small that no grid leak is necessary fur the tube 12 although one may be supplied if desired. The output of 53 the amplifier 12 now pauses the modulator triodes 7 and 8 to transmit, through the transformer 6, the high-frequency oscillations, generated by the oscillator triode 9, modulated in accordance with the current in the amplifier triode 12 which, In turn, is governed by the intensity of the light focused upon the particular spot at which the cathode ray is located. The intensity of this electron stream is of course, governed by the intensity of the light from the object. ... When the cathode beam in the cathode-ray tube of the transmitter is in a certain particular position, the oscillatory current generated by the oscillator 9 is modulated In accordance with the intensity of the light falling upon that particular point. This modulated current is radiated by the antenna 3 and received by the antenna 51 at the receiving station. At this particular point, the cathode beam in the cathode-ray tube 55 will be in the same relative position as the cathode beam at the sending station. By the action of the grid 14, the intensity of the cathode ray reaching the fluorescent screen at this particular point is varied in accordance with the light from the image at the transmitting station. Thus, for every particular point on the image, the carrier current radiated by the antenna 3 is modulated whereby the potential on the grid 54 of the receiving cathode-ray tube 55 is varied, as is, also, the intensity of fluorescence of the particular point upon the fluorescent screen 60. As the whole area of the composite plate 32 at the transmitting station and the fluorescent screen 60 at the receiving station is covered by the cathode beams in & of a second, the image of the object will be displayed on the screen 60 during jfe of a second. However,.as the frequency of the oscillation of the generator 23 is 18 cycles per second, the picture will be transmitted twice and will remain on the screen 60 during A of a 28 second. Thus, due to the persistency of vision phenomena, any movement of the object before the lens 37 will be properly transmitted and recorded upon the fiuorescent screen 60 and will appear thereupon as a moving image. Of course, in place of transmitting the image of actual objects, it is entirely possible to send moving pictures, as all that is necessary is to pass the pictures before the lens §7 at the required rate and a replica of them will appear on the screen 60. In order to place these pictures before a large audience, it is, of course, possible to intensify and focus them upon an ordinary screen by means of any well known optical system. The operation of the system when the apparatus used in Pig. 3 is employed at the transmitting station is very similar to that already described. The cathode beam covers the area of the fluorescent screen 75 under the influence of the magnetic and electrostatic fields. When the beam is at one particular point, the light from that spot will traverse the film 78, lens 77 and photoelectric cell 76. The variation of current of the photoelectric cell 76 causes the carrier frequency to be modu- ®° lated in accordance with the current flow which is directly proportional to the intensity of light from the fiuorescent spot that reaches the photoelectric cell. As this condition occurs for each „ particular point on the picture, the whole picture will be transmitted in the manner described. The method of reproduction is the same as has been explained in conjunction with Figs. 1 and 2. ... It will be seen that this arrangement permits a number of transmitting stations to transmit pictures or visual indications with only one central station for generating the synchronizing frequency. It is, of course, apparent, that any number of receiving stations may receive the image broadcasted in a manner similar to that described. My Invention is not limited to the particular arrangement of apparatus illustrated but may be variously modified without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, as set forth in the appended claims. ...". This is the first wireless television system, or wireless image and sound communication system. Invisible light particles with radio frequency send images and sounds to receivers which redraw the images on a screen and replay the sounds through a speaker. Television will surpass sound-only radio, movies, books, magazines and newspapers, and physical pleasure, as the most popular form of entertainment for the public. But this will be surpassed when neuron reading and writing goes public, and humans send and receive images and sounds directly to and from their brain using similar cameras, transmitters and receivers. There was and is, of course, a very secret history and scientific development of camera, microphones, and neuron reading and writing particle beam transmitting and receiving devices. One focus of this secret development is on miniturization of these devices, and another focus is on the movement of these devices. Clearly the devices are extremely small, and move by flying and hovering in space. Currently neuron reading and writing, that is receiving video square windows directly to brain to appear before the human eyes is very widespread, with clearly millions of people paying to receive videos. In addition, the subject of the videos has changed from scripted theater and stage productions to watching other people, in particular good-looking, and popular people. Currently watching people in their homes, for most people, without their knowledge that they, and the images and sounds in their mind, are being seen and heard by many people, and that even the images in their thoughts can be seen, and not only seen, but written and drawn on too. It seems clear that neuron reading and writing, and the microscopic devices that are used to see, hear, transmit and receive images and sounds will eventually go public, but it is not clear when this will happen.] In 1940 Zworykin will invite James Hillier to join his research group at RCA, and it is at RCA that Hillier will construct the electron microscope. (Is this the first radio transmitting and receiving of an image, and or 30 images a second moving images?) (Interesting the analogy of television to telephone, in particular in light of the concept of sending and receiving images to and from brains using particle beams. The view is that the television camera and screen is similar to a telephone but for pictures in addition to sounds.) (A major question is when is image storage electronic? image storage initially started on glass plates, and then on paper, then on plastic film, then in semiconductor metal.) (Kind of interesting that the the electronic circuit is from the dots, through the gas, to an aluminum plate.) (Davisson at AT&T Bell Labs also patents a similar electron beam device, but apparently AT&T has so far, not gone public with their massive microscopic network.) (It seems that possibly, given AT&T's massive network, that Westinghouse somehow must have been in conflict with, or somehow been challenging AT&T in going public with the electronic scanning camera and wireless image sending and receiving. Clearly Westinghouse won, and the public won whatever conflict must have occured.) (From here, a major question is: how is this device miniturized? For this, electronic integrated circuits will be able to quickly scan each light-sensitive dot, and emit this image serially to a receiver.) | (for Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsberg, PA, USA) Haddenfield, New Jersey, USA |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 4216) | (Eastman Kodak Company) NJ, USA |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 4775) Euler-Chelpin is distantly related to the famous mathematician Euler. In 1929 Euler-Chelpin shares the 1929 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Sir Arthur Harden for work on the role of enzymes in the fermentation of sugar. Although Euler-Chelpin became a Swedish citizen in 1902 he served Germany in both world wars. | (University of Stockholm) Stockholm, Sweden |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 4858) Gilbert Newton Lewis (CE 1875-1946), US chemist with Merle Randall publishes “Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances”, which more than any other book, clarifies and expands Gibbs' chemical thermodynamics for students. In this book Lewis replaces the concept of “concentration” with “activity” which is more useful in working out rates of reactions and questions of equilibria than the older “concentration”. This modifies and makes more accurate Guldberg and Waage's law of mass action. (All of this needs more specific info, I think thermodynamics may be inaccurate and too abstract to be of use, but clearly accurately describing rates of reactions is a real and useful thing.). | (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 4927) Brønsted's firm opposition to Nazism during World War II won him election to the Danish Parliament in 1947, but illness prevents him from taking his seat. | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 4967) | (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 4987) | (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology) Berlin, Germany |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 4989) | (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 5000) Svedberg wins the 1926 Nobel Prize in chemistry. | (University of Uppsala) Upsala, Sweden |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 5042) | (University of Kristiania) Kristiania (now Oslo), Sweden (presumably) |
77 YBN [1923 AD] | 5078) (Sir) Harold Jeffreys (CE 1891-1989), English astronomer establishes that the large gas giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have cold surface temperatures and are not still warm from interior heat, and devises early models of their planetary structure. (Works with Jeans on the tidal hypothesis for the origin of the earth, which increases the age of the earth to billions from the estimate of tens of millions of Helmholtz and Kelvin.) (Determine if Jeffreys means surface of outer atmosphere or liquid or solid surface temperature. A Jupiter probe measured high temperatures descending into the clouds of Jupiter.) (I think there must be something similar to a terrestrial planet inside each of the gas giant planets.) (Q: Look at their density and estimate how much is solid, liquid and gas. Are the insides of these terrestrial planets molten red hot liquid metal? D=m/v If the mass of the Jovian planet is used with the density of earth to determine the volume of this density, and then from that volume to simply determine radius from V=4/3pi r^3, I performed this simple calculation and Jupiter would have a terrestrial 6 times the radius of earth. mass of jupiter 318x that of earth. 1.8986x10^27kg volume=1.43x10^15 km^3 1,321 earths radius of earth 6,371km, vol=1.08321x10^12 km^3 D=m/v V=4/3pir^3 D(earth)=5.5e12 kg/km^3 D=m/v 5.5e12 kg/km^3=1.8986x10^27kg/v v=3.452 x 10^14 km^3 V=4/3pi r^3 3.452 x 10^14 km^3=4.19 r^3 r=43,517 km radius of earth 6,371km Jupiter would be 6.83 times the radius of earth. 7x the radius of earth - and a large terretrial inside is probably true for the other Jovianic-terrestrial planets. Vjupiter= 1.43x10^15 km^3 1.43x10^15 km^3=4.19 r^3 RadiusJupiter=71,492 (69,883) This would put the surface 43,517/69,883 = 38 percent below the clouds, 26,366km below the clouds. ) ( Maybe they are cooled and only emit a small amount of infrared if any. The terrestrial nature of the moons of the gas giant planets I think is evidence that some dense matter (metals) formed local groupings in the outer star system. Either the moons formed around Jupiter or were captured. I think the ring of Jupiter is evidence that matter does compress into moons around planets. The constant gravitational attraction of the large planet might argue for the moons being formed in isolation and then captured. It would be interesting to think we are looking at what used to be planets. Perhaps the density of each moon indicates its origin. Q: Does the density linearly increase as the moon is closer to the planet or are they more or less random? Can it be argued that a denser moon was probably formed closer to the sun than a less dense moon? ) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN [01/29/1924 AD] | 5204) | (Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) Tokyo, Japan |
76 YBN [02/12/1924 AD] | 6036) | (Aeolian Concert Hall) New York City, New York, USA |
76 YBN [06/07/1924 AD] | 5075) | (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany (presumably) |
76 YBN [06/07/1924 AD] | 5076) | (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany (presumably) |
76 YBN [06/13/1924 AD] | 4975) Like Schrödinger, Born leaves German as soon as Hitler comes to power, moving to Cambridge in 1933. In 1954 Born wins the Nobel Prize in physics for work on quantum mechanics with Bothe. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
76 YBN [07/02/1924 AD] | 5139) | (University of Dacca) East Bengal, India |
76 YBN [08/??/1924 AD] | 4753) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN [08/??/1924 AD] | 4896) | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
76 YBN [12/17/1924 AD] | 5199) Asimov states that Blackett's strong support of Watson-Watt helps to develop radar which saves Britain in World War II. (However, it seems clear that light particle technology has been developed to so extreme an advanced state, that the continued secret of, for example, neuron reading and writing, in my view is simply extremely evil, without much question in my mind - to exclude millions of humans from even knowing, seeing what it looks like, etc... just absolutely shocking on the level of auschwitz, that average people can be so inhuman.) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1948 is awarded to Patrick M.S. Blackett "for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation". | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 3614) | Cleveland, OH, (to NYC, NY), USA |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 4525) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 4696) For this work, in 1935 Spemann wins the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology. | (University of Freiburg) Breisgau, Germany |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 4981) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 5010) In 1934 Minot shares the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology with Whipple and Murphy. | (Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital, Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 5027) | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 5118) A student of Dart's, Josephine Salmons, in the summer of 1924, had brought Dart a fossil collected from a limestone mine at Taung, Bechuanaland. Dart names the species the skull belongs to, "Australopithecus africanus", meaning southern African ape, and declares this species to be intermediate between apes and humans. Dart and Broom then begin a systematic search and uncover a number of other fossils to confirm the existence of the Australopithecus. The Leakys, Donald Johannsen and others will show that Australopithicines walked on two legs. Most people accept that a single australopithecus is a direct ancestor of all sapiens. (Verify) | (University of Witwatersrand) Johannesburg, South Africa |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 6039) Giacomo Puccini (CE 1858-1924), Italian composer, composes the opera "Turandot" with the famous "Nessum Dorma". | Viareggio, Italy (presumably) |
76 YBN [1924 AD] | 6064) Al Jolson records the famous song "California, Here I Come", a song written for the 1921 Broadway musical "Bombo", starring Al Jolson. The song is written by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Meyer, with Jolson often listed as a co-author. | (Brunswick) Dubuque, Iowa, USA (possibly) |
75 YBN [01/01/1925 AD] | 5060) Spiral nebulae proven to be other galaxies containing stars and to be very far away. US astronomer, Edwin Hubble (CE 1889-1953) shows that M31 (Andromeda) contains stars, and uses the period of a variable star in M31 to show that it is very far away (930,000 light-years). Hubble using the largest telescope at this time, a 100-inch telescope on Mount Wilson is the first to identify individual stars in the Andromeda “nebula” (later known to be a galaxy), and finding variable stars, using the period-luminosity law of Shapley and Leavitt, Hubble calculates that Andromeda is 800,000 light years away, eight times the distance of the farthest identifiable star in our own galaxy, and so there is no question that the Andromeda nebula is located outside of our own galaxy. Hubble calculates other spiral nebulae to be even farther, billions of light years away, and so in this way Hubble starts to study of the universe beyond our own galaxy. Hubble calls these nebulae outside of our galaxy “extragalactic nebulae”, and Shapley will later suggest that they be called galaxies, recognizing that our own galaxy is only one of many. Apparently Hubble's original 1925 paper has not survived, but a summary appears in the "Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific". This paper was read for Hubble on January 1, 1925 at the Annual Astronomical Society meeting. Hubble writes in "Cepheids in Spiral Nebulae": "Messier 31 and 33, the only spirals that can be seen with the naked eye, have recently been made the subject of detailed investigations with the 100-inch and 60-inch reflectors of the Mount Wilson Observatory. Novae are a common phenomenon in M31 and Duncan has reported three variables within the area covered by M33. With these exceptions there seems to have been no definite evidence of actual stars involved in spirals. Under good observing conditions, however, the outer regions of both spirals are resolved into dense swarms of images in no way differing from those of ordinary stars. A survey of the plates made with the blink-comparator has revealed many variable among the stars, a large proportion of which show the characteristic light-curve of the Cepheids. Up to the present time some 47 variables, including Duncan's three, and one true nova have been found in M33. For M31, the numbers are 36 variables and 46 novae, including the 22 novae previously discovered by Mount Wilson observers. Periods and photographic magnitudes have been determined for 22 Cepheids in M33 and 12 in M31. Others of the variables are probably Cepheids, judging from their sharp rise and slow decline, but some are definitely not of this type. One in particular, Duncan's No. 2 in M33, has been brightening fairly steadily with only minor fluctuations since about 1906. It has now reached the 15th magnitude and has a spectrum of the bright line B type. ... Shapley's period-luminosity curve for Cepheids, as given in his study of globular clusters, is constructed on a basis of visual magnitudes. It can be reduced to photgraphic magnitudes by means of his relation between period and colour-index, given in the same paper, and the result represents his original data. The slope is of the order of that for spirals, but is not precisely the same. In comparing the two, greater weight must be given to the brighter portion of the curve for the spirals, because of the greater reliability of the magnitude determinations. When this is done, the resulting values of M-m are -21.8 and -21.9 for M31 and M33 respectively. These must be corrected by half the average ranges of the Cepheids in the two spirals, and the final values are then on the order of -22.3 for both nebulae. The corresponding distance is about 285,000 parsecs* {ULSF: original footnote: *Equal to 930,000 light-years}. The greatest uncertainty is probably in the zero-point of Shapley's curve. The results rest on three major assumptions: (1) The variables are actually connected with the spirals; (2) There is no serious amount of absorption due to amorphous nebulosity in the spirals; (3) The nature of Cepheid variation is uniform throughout the observable portion of the universe. As for the first, besides the weighty arguments based on analogy and probability, it may be mentioned that no Cepheids have been found on the several plates of the neighboring selected areas Nos. 21 and 45, on a special series of plates centred on BD+35°207, just midway between the two spirals, nor in ten other fields well distributed in galactic latitude, for which six or more long exposures are available. The second assumption is very strongly supported by the small dispersion in the period-luminosity curve for M33. In M31, in spite of the somewhat larger dispersion, there is no evidence of an absorption-effect to be measured in magnitudes. These two spirals are not unique. Variables have also been found in M81, M101, and N.G.C. 2403, although as yet sufficient plates have not been accumulated to determine the nature of their variation.". (Hubble's writing sounds kind of pro-sex with "naked" and "covered" in the first paragraph.) (It must have been confusing until Shapley made the name change from extra-galactic nebulae to galaxy, because there are nebulae like the gas cloud in Orion that are not "extra-galactic nebulae".) (Show the actual calculations of distance if possible. How does the magnification of the telescope, and size of image enter into the equations?) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
75 YBN [01/16/1925 AD] | 5233) The 1945 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Wolfgang Pauli "for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle". | (Institute fur Theoretische Physik) Hamburg, Germany |
75 YBN [02/21/1925 AD] | 5105) | (King's College) London, England |
75 YBN [03/19/1925 AD] | 6065) | New York City, New York, USA (probably) |
75 YBN [04/04/1925 AD] | 4754) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
75 YBN [05/18/1925 AD] | 4882) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
75 YBN [06/06/1925 AD] | 5024) | (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
75 YBN [07/13/1925 AD] | 5059) | (Westinghouse Electric Corporation) |
75 YBN [09/05/1925 AD] | 5112) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
75 YBN [10/22/1925 AD] | 5292) Dr. Julius Edgar Lilienfeld was a German scientist who worked at the University of Leipzig before immigrating to the U.S. in the 1920's (due to the increasing persecution of Jews in Germany). Lilienfeld operated the first large scale hydrogen liquification facility in Germany. It may be that Lilienfeld was aware of neuron reading and writing in Germany, but then when excluded, or persecuted because of being jewish, he went to the USA, and in the USA, perhaps he was also excluded from neuron reading and writing, as a German immigrant, and so felt no fear or reason not to patent and go public with some technology he had learned about as an insider. I can only guess, it would be interesting to see the actual story as told by the flying dust cameras and neuron thought image and sound readers. | Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA |
75 YBN [11/16/1925 AD] | 5282) As a youth after WW I, Heisenberg engaged in street fights with Communists in Munich. (Here, Heisenberg clearly shows no interest in stopping violence, or support for laws against violence.) In 1932, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Werner Heisenberg "for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen". ("inter alia" is Latin for "among other things") The theory of a quantum was originated by Max Planck. Quantum atomic theory which views atomic motions as controlled by integral quanta of energy and momenta was formulated by Niels Bohr in 1913. In his life Heisenberg publishes over 500 independent works, of which some 100 may be considered original scientific contributions. The others concern philosophical, cultural political, and popular subjects. (I think I need to look more closely at exactly what Heisenberg was claiming, but to me I think we can model the universe using integers although it is almost useless for practical purposes. I think even if humans forever have have uncertainty in knowing where and what velocity, matter exists in certain exact locations with exact velocities.) Asimov states that Heisenberg is one of the few top notch scientists who find themselves able to work under the Nazis. Heisenberg accepts high positions under the Nazis, although refusing them might mean being murdered. However, in 1937 Heisenberg receives a call to join the University of Munich. Thereupon the official SS journal publishes an article signed by Stark that calls Heisenberg a "white Jew" and the "Ossietzky of physics". During WW2 Heisenberg is in charge of German research on the atomic bomb. The war ends before they are successful. After WW 2 Heisenberg moves to West Germany. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
75 YBN [11/20/1925 AD] | 5254) | (Instituut voor Theoretische Natuurkunde) Leyden, Netherlands |
75 YBN [11/??/1925 AD] | 4802) | New York City, NY, USA |
75 YBN [11/??/1925 AD] | 4803) | (University of Milan)Milan, Italy |
75 YBN [12/24/1925 AD] | 4512) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California, USA |
75 YBN [1925 AD] | 4299) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
75 YBN [1925 AD] | 4990) | Central Asia |
75 YBN [1925 AD] | 5017) In 1947 Robinson wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry. From 1945-1950 Robinson is the President of the Royal Society. | (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
75 YBN [1925 AD] | 5065) Vannevar Bush (CE 1890-1974), US electrical engineer, and colleagues at MIT build a machine that can solve differential equations. (Kelvin had worked out the theory for such a machine 50 years earlier and Babbage had tried to build a computer 100 years before). According to Asimov, this is the first analog computer. The first electronic computer (Eniac) will be built in 1946 (using vacuum tubes as electric switches). Computers will greatly speed mathematical calculation and universe modeling. For example, the calculations to a work out (an average, or year's worth of) the orbit of planet Mars, which took Kepler 4 years to calculate, can be done in 1964 in 8 seconds, and pi can be calculated to 10,000 places in a few hours. Bush designs a series of mechanical calculators, termed "differential analyzers", that are initially useful for simulating the operations of electric power grids. (Show and explain how these machines work. Do they use any electricity? If not using electricity, I don't think they should be called "analog" computers.) (Clearly electronic computers go back into the 1800s, but how far back, like neuron reading and writing, is unknown. There is something a little absurd in the statement: "Bush designed a series of mechanical calculators, termed differential analyzers, that were initially useful for simulating the operations of electric power grids," - because they have electricity but are publicly using mechanical calculators? In particular given 200 years of neuron reading and writing.) While still at MIT, he cofounded a successful radio tube company: Raytheon. | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
74 YBN [01/26/1926 AD] | 6264) | (Royal Institution) London, England |
74 YBN [02/07/1926 AD] | 5272) In 1922 Fermi gets a doctorate degree a few months before Benito Mussolini seizes power in Italy. In 1938 the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Enrico Fermi "for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons". Fermi is anti-fascist and at the Nobel Prize ceremony does not wear the Fascist uniform or give the Fascist salute, and the controlled Italian press castigates Fermi for these omissions. Fermi's wife is Jewish and as Hitler's influence becomes more pronounced in Italy, anti-Jewish laws are passed. From Stockholm, where Fermi accepts the prize, he and his family sail to the United States. Bohr had hinted to Fermi that he would win the prize and so Fermi prepared for this trip to the USA. Fermi becomes a professor of physics at Columbia University. (In Fermi's Nobel Prize speech he concludes by giving thanks to other people who had not already been mentioned, which may be a play on the German word for people which is "menchun", but maybe I am reading into this too much. Was Fermi's speech in English?) Fermi approves the use of the fission bomb over Japan. Fermi opposes the development of the more deadly H-bomb (fusion bomb). Fermi dies of a stomach cancer never seeing uranium fission used for non-explosive uses in electric reactors by Rickover and Hinton. Element 100 discovered the year after Fermi's death is named in his honor. (Dying so young at age 53, perhaps somebody slipped him some radioactive atoms in his food, or he had some on his body which entered his mouth.) (Ernest Lawrence and Fermi, both born around the same time, had unusually early deaths - which may be an indication of the rise of first strike violent people with particle beam supremecy - clearly the violent had control in the USA through much of the 1950s, certainly in 1963 and as the controlled demolition of 9/11 shows to the present day.) (Fermi represents the first international scientist making internationally recognized scientific contributions from Italy since, perhaps, Volta around 1800. What explains this scientific silence?) | (University of Florence) Florence, Italy |
74 YBN [02/??/1926 AD] | 5875) In 1983, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Barbara McClintock "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements". | (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
74 YBN [03/06/1926 AD] | 5165) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
74 YBN [03/16/1926 AD] | 4968) | (Aunt Effie's Farm) Auburn, Massachusetts, USA |
74 YBN [03/18/1926 AD] | 5063) In 1932 Adrian wins the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine shared with Sherrington. In 1950 Adrian is President of Royal Society. (Clearly this relates to neuron reading and writing. Perhaps this is viewed as helping the public to create neuron reading devices.) | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
74 YBN [06/02/1926 AD] | 5038) In 1946 Sumner wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry shared with Northrup and Stanley. | (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
74 YBN [06/17/1926 AD] | 5187) Iréne Joliot-Curie is the elder daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie. Both Iréne and Frédéric are raised without religion (and therefore probably without seeing and hearing thought). In 1925 Langevin recommends Frédéric to be an assistant to Marie Curie. Iréne marries Frédéric Joliot, and both are atheists. (Interesting that Joliot shares his last name with Curie for himself too.) In 1931 The Joliot-Curies work together on radioactivity. In November 1935, Frédéric Joliot and Irène Curie are awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for “their synthesis of new radioactive elements.". Marie Curie had died the year before. In 1936, the Joliot-Curies take a stand on the side of Republican Spain. To slow neutrons for uranium fission, Frederic Joliot, obtains about six tons of uranium oxide from the Belgian Congo, and orders form Norway the only sizable stock of heavy water then existing. The heavy water arrives safely in Paris even though World War II has begun, but there is too little time before the invasion of France for it to be used there. Joliot decides to remain in France but has Halban and Kowarski carry the precious substance with them to England to continue the group’s investigations. Asimov relates the story of how the Joliot-Curies smuggle a quantity of heavy water (the only sizable quantity on earth) necessary for atomic bomb research out of France and the grasp of the Nazis. The Joliot-Curies also hide their uranium, reclaim it after the war, and it is used to build France's first nuclear reactor in 1948. In May 1944, Irène and their children take refuge in Switzerland, and Frédéric lives in Paris under the name of Jean-Pierre Gaumont. His laboratory at the Collège de France, at which he organizes the production of explosives, serves as an arsenal during the battle for the liberation of Paris. In recognition, Frederic is designated a commander of the Legion of Honour with a military title and is decorated with the Croix de Guerre. In 1942 Frederic joins the then clandestine Communist party. Frédéric Joliot-Curie is an admitted Communist, having joined the party during World War II after the Nazis had executed Langevin's son-in-law, and because of this is removed from his position as head of the French atomic energy commission in 1950. (To me, although I do not support Communism, it's similar to religion, it is simply a belief, a philosophy, it is well within the realm of free thought, non-violent belief and disagreement. In my opinion, nobody should be jailed for their philosophy so long as they are nonviolent.) In April 1950, during the climax of the cold war and anticommunism, Prime Minister Georges Bidault removes Frederic without explanation from his position as high commissioner, and a few months later Irène is also deprived of her position as commissioner in the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique. (It seems like there was somehow a resurgence of Nazism, or that form of radical so-called conservatism, clearly an anti-science group.) In 1951 Frédéric Joliot-Curie is awarded with the Stalin Peace Prize, and remains an outspoken Communist for the rest of his life. (Stalin's vicious rule should have been a clue to the faulty structure of Communism, certainly in Russia; how it collapsed into a vicious long-lasting undemocratic monarchy. The view I have which seems inevitable to me, is the future of full democracy without religion, the representative system moving towards a full democracy and religions falling to the past.) In 1954 Iréne Joliot-Curie's application for membership in the American Chemical Society is rejected because of the society's disapproval of her politics (Asimov explains that Iréne Joliot-Curie was active in movements considered Communist-influenced). Iréne Joliot-Curie dies of leukemia like Marie after years of work with radiation. (Frédéric Joliot-Curie recognizes that in uranium fission neutrons are produced, and begins work on an explosive chain reaction, but the war interrupts his work. Asimov comments that Joliot-Curie may have built the first atomic bomb had France not been invaded in 1940.) (Somewhat unusual to have died so young and within 2 years of each other.) (It seems a distinct possibility that the Curies may simply have been murdered with particle beams, perhaps the thought-screen movies will answer that question.) (The Joliot-Curies are an interesting story of a futuristic couple; life without religion and full of science is certainly the future, although Communism is clearly a failure and full democracy seems the inevitable future. It seems clear that many people viewed Communism as the opposite end of the spectrum to the 2000 year powerful Christianity, so it's clear why people in favor of science and opposed to the supernatural claims of religion would gravitate to the Communist side, but clearly people can have atheism and full democracy too, for example, many founders of the representative democracy in the USA were vocal critics of religions.) (It is very interesting to see that atoms can just be changed by beams of particles. This must lead to systematic conversion, and there must be many thousands of interesting transmutations secretly recorded. Perhaps some of these are public but hidden. Systematically converting aluminum into oxygen and hydrogen would be very useful in living independently on other planets where aluminum is common. The other key idea is building up a proton from photons. It is interesting that many of the products of neutron and alpha particle bombardment remain radioactive. I guess perhaps many isotope atoms are unstable and decay, but why wouldn't stable isotopes be made? Clearly some stable isotopes must be made in these particle collisions. Why isn't the stable isotope the rule instead of the exception? Find all the +n +p +a +b reactions and examine as many as possible. Since radioactivity is mostly helium, electrons and high frequency light particles, it seems clear that all of those particles can be put to use, perhaps in heating water, or other materials. Clearly, there must be some very fascinating science that has been kept secret in the field of nuclear physics and engineering.) | (Radium Institute) Paris, France |
74 YBN [06/26/1926 AD] | 5131) In 1926 Noddack and Tacke marry and continue work on rhenium. | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
74 YBN [08/02/1926 AD] | 5267) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1939 is awarded to Ernest Lawrence "for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements". During WW2 Lawrence is in Oak Ridge in one of the less successful attempts to separate quantities of uranium-235 from ordinary uranium, to be included into the “atomic pile” being built in Chicago by Fermi. Like Compton, Lawrence approves of the use of the atomic bomb against Japanese cities and has no concern about the social aspects of the new weapon. In 1957 Lawrence wins the Fermi award, the highest scientific honor the US can offer. In 1961 after Lawrence's death, element 103 is named Lawrencium in his honor. Lawrence was sent by President Dwight Eisenhower to Geneva in 1958 to participate in nuclear test ban negotiations with the Soviet Union, but Lawrence became sick and had to be rushed back to California, where he died. | (Sloan Laboratory, Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
74 YBN [12/14/1926 AD] | 5146) In 1949 Giauque wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry "for his contributions in the field of chemical thermodynamics, particularly concerning the behaviour of substances at extremely low temperatures". | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
74 YBN [1926 AD] | 4871) | (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
74 YBN [1926 AD] | 4976) Like Schrödinger, Born leaves German as soon as Hitler comes to power, moving to Cambridge in 1933. In 1954 Born wins the Nobel Prize in physics for work on quantum mechanics with Bothe. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
74 YBN [1926 AD] | 5032) In 1928 Hitler comes to power and Schrödinger, although not Jewish, moves to his native Austria. Schrödinger once interferes with storm troopers bent on a pogrom, and is nearly killed. In 1933 Schrödinger shares the Nobel Prize in physics with Dirac. In 1938 Austria is absorbed by Nazi Germany and Schrödinger moves to England. In 1956 Schrödinger returns to Vienna to live out the rest of his life. | (University of Zürich) Zürich, Switzerland |
74 YBN [1926 AD] | 5072) | (University of Texas) Austin, Texas, USA |
74 YBN [1926 AD] | 5156) | (Uppsala University) Uppsala, Sweden |
74 YBN [1926 AD] | 6050) Louis Armstrong (CE 1901-1971), US trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history, records "Heebie Jeebies". This is among the first recordings with scat singing (improvised vocal jazz using non-sensical words). So popular is the recording the group becomes the most famous jazz band in the USA even though they as yet have not performed live to any great degree. Young musicians across the country, black and white, are turned on by Armstrong’s new type of jazz. (verify) | New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
73 YBN [03/03/1927 AD] | 4957) Davisson joined the Bell Telephone Laboratory (then Western Electric) in 1917 and remains there until his retirement in 1946. In 1937, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Clinton Joseph Davisson and George Paget Thomson "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals". (What role did Thomson play in the discovery?) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) New York City, New York, USA |
73 YBN [03/06/1927 AD] | 4767) Bertrand Arthur William Russell (CE 1872-1970), 3d Earl English mathematician and philosopher publishes "Why I am not a Christian", which criticizes the religion formed around Jesus and the belief that any God exists. (Russell does not make the argument, which I think is the best in my mind, as to why to reject the theory of Gods controlling nature, and that is that for centuries there was only polytheism, long before monotheism, so if we reject Poseidon ruling the seas, and Venus all aspects of love, why not reject the theory of the existance of any God existing in the universe or controlling nature?) | (National Secular Society, South London Branch, at Battersea Town Hall) London, England |
73 YBN [03/28/1927 AD] | 5284) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
73 YBN [04/14/1927 AD] | 5236) Oort is Kapteyn's last student. After the Nazis occupy the Netherlands, the Leiden observatory is closed. | (Observatory) Leiden, Netherlands |
73 YBN [04/19/1927 AD] | 4946) | (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
73 YBN [05/05/1927 AD] | 5306) Wigner works with Fermi and Szilard in Chicago to develop a nuclear bomb. Wigner helps to design the nuclear installations at Hanford, Washington. (State what kind of installation.) In 1960 Wigner wins the Atoms for Peace award. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1963 is divided, one half awarded to Eugene Paul Wigner "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles",the other half jointly to Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure". | (Institute fur Theoretische Physik) Berlin, Germany |
73 YBN [05/21/1927 AD] | 5291) In 1925 Lindbergh buys his own plane and becomes an airmail pilot. In the 1930s Lindbergh fights against the US entering WW II. | |
73 YBN [05/24/1927 AD] | 5100) George P. Thomson is the son of J. J. Thomson. In 1927 Thomson shares the Nobel prize in physics with Davisson. | (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
73 YBN [06/16/1927 AD] | 4907) | (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
73 YBN [06/30/1927 AD] | 5232) In 1933 as a Jewish human, London leaves Germany. | (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
73 YBN [08/01/1927 AD] | 5114) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
73 YBN [08/26/1927 AD] | 5756) Griffith is killed working in his laboratory in London during an air-raid in 1941. | (Ministry of Health) London, England (verify this is in London at the time) |
73 YBN [09/03/1927 AD] | 5106) | (King's College) London, England |
73 YBN [11/04/1927 AD] | 5101) | (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
73 YBN [12/12/1927 AD] | 5113) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
73 YBN [12/13/1927 AD] | 4870) The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1950 is awarded jointly to Otto Paul Hermann Diels and Kurt Alder "for their discovery and development of the diene synthesis". | (Christian Albrecht University) Kiel, Germany |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4519) | (Rockefeller Institute, now called Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4520) | (Rockefeller Institute, now called Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4780) | (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4821) | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4847) Moniz is the University of Lisbon’s first professor of neurology (1911–44). | (University of Lisbon) Lisbon, Portugal |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4869) | (Christian Albrecht University) Kiel, Germany |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4886) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4947) In 1949 Hess shares the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Egas Moniz (the first to perform lobotomies on humans). | (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 4998) | (Chou Kou Tien) Peking, China |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 5089) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 5143) In 1922 Lemaître is ordained a priest. (Perhaps a religious person would prefer that the universe have a moment of creation. The idea of an infinitely old and large universe perhaps seems illogical because people feel that all things must have a beginning and end. I can not rule out that the universe does not have a beginning or end, but it seems doubtful to me, and in addition, clearly the universe must be so large that there will forever be a majority of the universe that we will never be able to see one light particle from because of the physical limitation on our size, and the speed in which we can move. Just knowing the reality of how we can't possibly see it all, is a good enough argument to presume that the rest goes on indefinitely. Some might argue that this universe is a tiny particle in some other universe. The size of the universe in terms of scale, or magnification, must also be infinite. The universe is probably the one thing that advanced life will never be able to explain fully because nobody can possibly see it all, and can only see what must be an extremely small part of the universe.) | (University of Louvain) Louvain, Belgium |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 5185) | (Electronic Phenomena Laboratory of the Petrograd Physical-Technical Radiological Institute) (Petrograd now) Leningrad, Russia (presumably) |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 5530) Ley is a consultant for the science fiction movie "Frau im Mond". Ley is strongly anti-Nazi and in 1935 moves to the USA. In 1940 Von Braun joins the Nazi party. In 1942 Von Braun is briefly imprisoned until Hitler is persuaded that the rocket program cannot continue without him. At the close of World War II, von Braun and many colleagues go westward to surrender to the US. Von Braun's arm is broken when his driver falls asleep at the week and smashes the car. In 1947 Von Braun is allowed to return to Germany to marry his eighteen-year-old second cousin. On 01/31/1958 Von Braun is the leader of the group at Huntsville, Alabama that puts the US's first satellite (Explorer I) into orbit. Asimov states that they may have been first, but were hindered by Eisenhower and the Soviet Sputnik is first by 4 months. In 1962 Von Braun's team begins construction on the Saturn 5 rocket that will carry people to the moon. (I think the ex-Nazi's should have been hired only as consultants, not as supervisors. it seems absurd that people in the US could not quickly learn and develop rockets. Depending on their crimes, they probably should have been allowed to return to Germany. It should have been put to popular vote as all things should be. Simply building missiles that are used to murder during war, I don't think is a major crime if a crime at all, it's like those who manufacture knives used by other people to murder. Racism is clearly evil and inaccurate, but is nonviolent and within the realm of freedom of thought.) (It's interesting that this rocket group probably would have developed one of the early moon cities, had violent people not taken over Germany in 1935 and World War 2 occured, and had, instead, the rocket group been free to follow their own interests.) | (Berlin Institute of Technology) Berlin, Germany |
73 YBN [1927 AD] | 5720) | |
72 YBN [01/??/1928 AD] | 5240) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
72 YBN [02/16/1928 AD] | 5052) In 1929 Raman is knighted by the British government. In 1930 Raman wins the Nobel Prize in physics. In 1947 Raman is the Director of Raman Research institute at Bangalore in India. Raman is the first Asian human (human living in India, China, or Russia?) to get a Nobel Prize. Raman trains more than 500 young Indian people in science and education in an effort to build up scientific research and education in India. | (University of Calcutta) Calcutta, India |
72 YBN [02/??/1928 AD] | 4801) | New York City, NY, USA |
72 YBN [03/07/1928 AD] | 5256) In the 1920s by using X-ray "diffraction", Pauling determines the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in several important silicate and sulfide minerals. Pauling will also use electron "diffraction" to determine the structure of some substances. In 1954 Pauling wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances". In 1958 Pauling and his wife present an appeal for a test ban to the United Nations in the form of a document signed by 9,235 scientists from 44 countries. In 1960 Pauling is called upon to defend his actions regarding a test ban before a congressional subcommittee and refuses to reveal the names of those who had helped him collect signatures. In 1962 Pauling wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Pauling is outspoken against nuclear testing and for nuclear disarmament. Pauling is the second person after Marie Curie to win two Nobel Prizes. Pauling publishes reprts stating that when taken in large enough quantities (megadoses), vitamin C helps the body fight off colds and other diseases, and later that vitamin C is useful in treating cancer, however, investigations at the Mayo Clinic involving human cancer patients do not corroborate Pauling’s results. (To me this casts doubts on Pauli's valence theory, and the critical perception of people in the quantum physics field. It seems possible that Pauling had never heard of neuron writing and was possibly a victim of neuron writing by the extreme violent criminals who killed JFK, and own so much of the neuron writing infrastructure, in an effort to discredit liberal anti-war and perhaps pro-democracy views.) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
72 YBN [03/28/1928 AD] | 5293) | Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA |
72 YBN [04/30/1928 AD] | 5164) | (Washington Square College, New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
72 YBN [07/11/1928 AD] | 5789) Alexander Lippisch (CE 1894-1976) builds and tests "Ente" (English: "Duck"), the first aircraft to fly using rocket power. The plane has two black powder rocket engines. (It seems very likely that much of this research has, like remote neuron reading and writing, artificial muscle running and jumping robots, etc - been kept secret for many decades - it seems likely that there may even be very advanced development on the moon, mars and around the other planets - if not, there certainly should be by now - given 200 years of neuron reading and writing.) | Wasserkuppe, Germany (verify) |
72 YBN [07/22/1928 AD] | 5830) In 1933, Ascheim and Zondek have to leave their duties and finally Germany during National Socialism because they are Jewish. | (Aus der Universitats-Frauenklinik der Charite zu Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
72 YBN [08/02/1928 AD] | 5345) Gamow is the grandson of tsarist general, and son of a teacher. In 1934 Gamow moves to the USA. (I seriously doubt much of Gamow's work. Asimov calls him a first-rate scientist, but without trying to sound mean or unpleasant, in my own view, I think much of Gamow's work is simply inaccurate. Perhaps he was paid a first-rate to mislead the neuron excluded. And this work is in the spirit of mathematical abstraction (and some might say deception, since a major embrace of secrecy and corruption happened in 1810 and later that was a terrible turn for life on earth) that is so characteristic of the 1900s. In my view, and I think any unbiased historian must agree, science completely flew off into an erroneous direction with space-dilation, the big-bang theory, background radiation, etc. We may find, as more thought-images reach the public, that much of this pseudo-science corruption originates simply in the minds of the neuron owners.) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
72 YBN [08/??/1928 AD] | 3884) | New York City, NY (presumably) |
72 YBN [12/28/1928 AD] | 5294) | Cesarhurst, New York City, New York, USA |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 4213) | (Eastman Kodak Company) NJ, USA (presumably) |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 4468) | (Victoria Observatory) Victoria, British Colombia |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 4876) | (General Motors Corporation) Dayton, Ohio, USA (verify) |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 4915) In 1929 Jeans publishes “The Universe Around Us” and in 1934 “Through Space and Time” both of which explain astronomy to the public. Jeans puts forward the idea that a star came close to our sun and pulled out matter from the sun that formed into a cigar shape, the larger part forming the Jovian planets, the smaller parts forming the terrestrial and smaller planets beyond the gas giant planets. Jeans doubts the nebular hypothesis of the solar system by Laplace, because the planets contain 98 percent of the angular momentum of the solar system (the sun rotates slowly while the planets orbit quickly). (Actually, as far as I can see this is incorrect and the opposite of the actual physical truth. If the star system was all connected, all the planets would orbit in the same time the sun rotates which is only 20 earth days or something. The Sun rotates faster than any object going around it. So the planets orbit the Sun much slower than the sun rotates around it's own axis, indicating that the planets if anything trail behind the rotation of the sun. The spiral shape of spiral galaxies is also an example of this, the spiral portion on the outside drags behind the faster rotating center. I am surprised that Jeans and Asimov miss this simple point. In addition, it seems very likely that in simple Newtonian gravitation models, randomly distributed masses can fall into rotation. Without question, any mass that falls into and is captured by a larger group of masses takes an elliptical orbit around the larger mass, so this is a simple explanation for why matter tends to orderly orbit a central larger mass.) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 4956) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945 was awarded jointly to Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter Florey "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases". | (St Mary's Hospital) London, England |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 4984) Haworth works on atomic bomb project in WW II. In 1937 Haworth wins a Nobel Prize in chemistry shared with Karrer. | (St. Andrews University) St. Andrews, Scotland |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 5033) With the rise of the Nazi movement, Paneth goes to England and takes a position as guest lecturer at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. | Königsberg, Germany |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 5132) Szent-Györgyi deliberately wounds himself to get out of the Austrian army during WW I. In 1937 Szent-Györgyi wins the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology. During WW II, Szent-Györgyi is active in the anti-Nazi underground. Szent-Györgyi speaks out against war. | (University of Szeged) Szeged, Hungary |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 5222) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1961 is awarded to Georg von Békésy "for his discoveries of the physical mechanism of stimulation within the cochlea". | (Hungarian Telephone System Research Laboratory) Budapest, Hungary |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 5709) | Manhattan, New York, New York City, USA |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 6101) "I Wanna Be Loved By You" is written by Herbert Stothart and Harry Ruby, with lyrics by Bert Kalmar, for the 1928 musical "Good Boy". The song is first performed in late 1928 by Helen Kane, who became known as the 'Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl' because of her baby-talk, scat-singing tag line to that song. This version was recorded right when Kane's popularity starts to reach its peak, and becomes her signature song. Two years later, a cartoon character named Betty Boop is modeled after Kane. (Notice the lyric "I know what's on my mind.".) | New York City, New York, USA (guess) |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 6265) | London, England (verify) |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 6266) | (General Electric, WGY) Schenectady, New York, USA |
72 YBN [1928 AD] | 6267) | London, England (verify) |
71 YBN [01/14/1929 AD] | 5147) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
71 YBN [01/17/1929 AD] | 5061) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
71 YBN [01/31/1929 AD] | 4958) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) New York City, New York, USA |
71 YBN [02/23/1929 AD] | 5383) | (Phys.-Techn. und Polytechn. Institut) Leningrad, (Soviet Union now) Russia |
71 YBN [04/22/1929 AD] | 4781) Berger's first subject in these experiments is his young son. Berger is reportedly disturbed by Nazism and commits suicide by hanging himself on June 1, 1941, however, nobody should trust any report of suicide in the neuron reading and writing secret years, in particular somebody who went public with anything relating to neuron reading and writing. | (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
71 YBN [04/26/1929 AD] | 5476) | (Norwich Research, Inc.) Norwich, Connecticut, USA |
71 YBN [05/10/1929 AD] | 5445) In 1986, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half awarded to Ernst Ruska "for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope",the other half jointly to Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer "for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope". | (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany |
71 YBN [07/28/1929 AD] | 5361) In 1935 Herzberg leaves Germany and moves to Canada after the rise of Hitler. Although not of Jewish background, his surname is commonly misidentified as Jewish and his wife is Jewish. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1971 is awarded to Gerhard Herzberg "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals". Herzberg is noted for his extensive work on the technique and interpretation of the spectra of molecules. Herzberg determines the properties of many molecules, ions, and radicals and also contributes to the use of spectroscopy in astronomy (for example in detecting hydrogen in space). Herzberg uses spectral analysis to show the relationship of the spectra to the molecular structure of gases, in particular simple two-atom molecules of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide. Herzberg detects the presence of atom groupings that are intermediates in chemical reactions. (chronology) (more specific: which molecules? and their significance.) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
71 YBN [07/??/1929 AD] | 4969) Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945), launches the first instrument-carrying rocket near Worcester, Massachusetts. This is a larger rocket than Goddard's first rocket (using a few thousand dollars of funding from the Smithsonian Institute). This rocket carries a barometer, a thermometer, and a small camera to photograph the proceedings This rocket goes faster and higher than the first rocket. Like Langley before him, The New York Times ridicules Goddard's efforts. The noise of this second rocket brings calls to the police, and officials order Goddard to stop launching rockets. Goddard then creates an experimental station for launching rockets near Roswell, New Mexico, using $50,000 from Daniel Guggenhein who is pursuaded by Charles Lindbergh. Here Goddard will built large rockets and develop many of the ideas that are now standard in rocketry. Goddard designs combustion chambers, and developed the first pumps suitable for rocket fuels, self-cooling rocket motors. (TODO: Chronology on fuel pump and self-cooling rocket) (how are the photos captured? How many images?). (TODO: Give specifics about NY Times ridicule) | Worchester, Massachusetts, USA |
71 YBN [07/??/1929 AD] | 4972) | Worchester, Massachusetts, USA |
71 YBN [08/26/1929 AD] | 5211) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California, USA |
71 YBN [08/??/1929 AD] | 5136) In 1943 Doisy wins the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology with Dam for vitamin K composition. | (St. Louis University) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
71 YBN [09/13/1929 AD] | 5358) Forssmann is captured by the USA in World War II and spends time in a prison camp. In 1956, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann and Dickinson W. Richards "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system". | (Chirurgischen Abteilung des Augusta Viktoria-Heims zu Eberswalde) |
71 YBN [11/14/1929 AD] | 5318) 1936 Director of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biochemistry at Berlin. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1939 is divided equally between Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt "for his work on sex hormones" and Leopold Ruzicka "for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes". However, like Domagk and Kuhn, Butenandt is forced by the Nazi government to refuse the award until 1949. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 4695) | (Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 4850) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 4919) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 4935) Schmidt drinks alcohol regularly, and his last year is in a psychiatric hospital. (For what activity?) | (Hamburg Observatory) Bergedorf, Germany |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 4954) In 1930 Fischer wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry "for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin". Fischer kills himself in dispair after air raids on Munich destroyed his laboratory. | |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 5144) In 1945 Virtanen wins the Nobel prize in chemistry "for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method". | (Biochemical Research Institute at Helsinki) Helsinki, Finland |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 5287) | (Oxford Univerity) Oxford, England (presumably) |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 5371) | (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany (presumably) |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 6055) | Los Angeles, California, USA (verify) |
71 YBN [1929 AD] | 6066) "Singin' In The Rain" (lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown) recorded. | Hollywood, California, USA (probably) |
70 YBN [01/??/1930 AD] | 5178) | (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
70 YBN [02/14/1930 AD] | 5353) In 1943 Oppenheimer is placed in charge of the laboratories at Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb is designed and constructed, amd near where it is first exploded. Oppenheimer approves the use of the fission bomb over Japan. Oppenheimer is reluctant to develop the more destructive hydrogen bomb. In 1954 Oppenheimer is labeled "a loyal citizen but not a good security risk" by the Atomic Energy Commission. The testimony of Teller who is in favor of developing the H-bomb helps to convict Oppenheimer of this charge and Oppenheimer is denied access to classified information. Henry Smyth a commissioner strongly dissents. In 1963 Oppenheimer wins the Fermi award which President Kennedy intends to award personally, but Kennedy is murdered and President Johnson gives the award. In the controversy that followed, Congress lowers the award from $50,000 to $25,000. (To die so young and given neuron writing, it seems likely that oppenheimer was probably murdered as many people were in the 1960s. Perhaps even many mindless vicious idiot neuron consumers who observed applauded and must pay to see bizarre and violent and no doubt many sex-related videos beamed to their eyes. It seems possible that given 200 years of a secret neuron network that high paid sex actors are used as a ruse for the violent to murder their enemies under the guise of blaming some other person in the "heat of sexual passion". Or perhaps there is no sexual element, just cold-blooded, everybody clothed, military murdering.) http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v38/i9/p1787_1 range of neutrons and electrons – measure velocity, frequency? | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
70 YBN [02/18/1930 AD] | 4795) | (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
70 YBN [02/18/1930 AD] | 5398) Tombaugh's family is too poor to send him to college. The news of Pluto will be announced on March 13, 1930 the 75 anniversary of Lowell's birth. For finding Pluto, Tombaugh is awarded with a scholarship to the University of Kansas and gets his bachelor's degree and a masters. | (Lowell Observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
70 YBN [02/??/1930 AD] | 5009) | (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
70 YBN [04/04/1930 AD] | 5220) Theiler never has any academic degrees. (including MD?) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1951 is awarded to Max Theiler "for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to combat it". | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
70 YBN [05/06/1930 AD] | 5102) | (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
70 YBN [06/03/1930 AD] | 5369) In 1938 the Mussolini regime falls under Hitler's thumb and Rossi is forced to leave Italy. | (Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt) Charlottenburg, Germany |
70 YBN [06/17/1930 AD] | 5403) When World War II starts in 1939 Godel fleas Europe with his wife, taking the trans-Siberian railway across Asia, sailing across the Pacific Ocean, and then taking another train across the United States to Princeton, N.J., where, with the help of Einstein, Godel is hired at the newly formed Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS). In 1949 Gödel shows that Einstein’s theory of general relativity allows for the possibility of time travel. (To me this shows perhaps creativity, but a willingness to develop fraudulent or highly unlikely theories of physics of the universe.) | (University of Wien) Vienna, (Austria now) Germany |
70 YBN [07/19/1930 AD] | 5020) | (Mount Hamilton) Santa Clara County, California, USA |
70 YBN [08/19/1930 AD] | 5177) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1951 is awarded jointly to Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton "for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles". In 1961 Cockcroft wins the "Atoms for Peace" award. | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
70 YBN [10/10/1930 AD] | 5268) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
70 YBN [10/10/1930 AD] | 5269) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
70 YBN [10/23/1930 AD] | 5077) | (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
70 YBN [11/15/1930 AD] | 5212) | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
70 YBN [12/04/1930 AD] | 5234) | (Physical Institute of the Federal Institute of Technology) Zürich, Switzerland |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 4505) | (Universal Oil Products Company) Chicago, ILlinois, USA |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 4804) | New York City, NY, USA (verify) |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 4999) | (Chou Kou Tien) Peking, China (presumably) |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 5031) Houssay had fallen out with the dictator of Argentina, Juan Domingo Péron. In 1943 Houssay is dismissed from his university post along with 150 other educators for taking too firm a pro-US stand at a time when Péron is flirting with the German Nazis. (Interesting that Argentina is where many Nazi's fled at the end of WW II, Klaus von Barbie being one notable, and also Fritz Thiessan, a funder of Prescott Bush.)(Firing 150 educators shows the anti-science view of Péron, which is typical of the extreme part of the other side (the monarchistic, military dictatorship, violent, evil side). So many things for me can simply be reduced to those that do violence versus those for stopping violence.) In 1947 Houssay shares the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology with Coris. The controlled Argentinian press, instead of celebrating the first Nobel Prize to a South American person, complains that the award is politically motivated as a blow to Péron. Houssay responds that one must not confuse little things (Péron) with big things (the Nobel Prize). In 1955 when Péron is driven into exile, Houssay is reinstated. Houssay publishs over 600 scientific papers and several books. | (University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine) Buenos Aires, Argentina |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 5079) Northrop's father was killed in a laboratory explosion when he was a zoology instructor at Columbia University. In 1946 Northrop wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry, shared with Sumner and Stanley. | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 5160) In 1956 Semenov shares the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Hinshelwood. Semenov is the first Soviet citizen to win a Nobel Prize. | (Electronic Phenomena Laboratory of the Petrograd Physical-Technical Radiological Institute) (Petrograd now) Leningrad, Russia |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 5173) | (Pic du Midi Observatory) Bigorre, France |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 5176) When the Nazis invade, Hassel publishes in Scandinavian journals instead of the more widely-read German journals. From 1943 to 1945 the Nazis keep Hassel in jail with other faculty members of the University of Oslo. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1969 is awarded jointly to Derek H. R. Barton and Odd Hassel "for their contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry". | (University of Oslo) Oslo, Norway |
70 YBN [1930 AD] | 6069) "I Got Rhythm" (music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin) is published. | New York City, New York, USA (probably) |
69 YBN [02/17/1931 AD] | 5257) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
69 YBN [05/29/1931 AD] | 5299) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 is awarded jointly to Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory". In 1932 Dirac is made Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. | |
69 YBN [06/11/1931 AD] | 5260) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
69 YBN [09/10/1931 AD] | 5446) Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (CE 1906-1988), German electrical engineer, and Max Knoll (CE 1897-1969) build the first electron microscope, using magnetic fields to focus electron beams similar to how a lens focuses light beams. Ruska will go on, as others like Hillier do to make the electron microscope practical. De Broglie had theorized that electrons posses a wave aspect and Davisson had demonstrated this. (The view I support is that the wavelength of electron beams relates to the distance between electrons, and that electrons are particles and are probably not wave objects.) The claim is that shorter the wavelength of light, the greater the magnification, and electron waves are much shorter than waves of light. This microscope can only magnify an object 16x. In 1933 Ruska builds an electron microscope that for the first time gives higher magnification than a light microscope. Ruska's microscope is a "transmission electron microscope" (TEM). The transmission electron microscope works on the same principle as an optical microscope but uses electrons in the place of light and electromagnets in the place of glass lenses. Development of the transmission electron microscope will be quickly followed in 1935 by the development of the "scanning electron microscope" (SEM) by Max Knoll. (verify) In a later 1932 paper, (translated from German with Google) "The Electron Microscope", Knoll and Ruska write for an abstract: "The main electron-optical imaging systems and their suitability for the larger electron-rendered object image, are given and discussed. The general conditions for error-free images that define and limit the resolving power are given. A magnetic electron cold cathode for high-speed electrons and the design of magnetic lenses are described and several photomicrographs are reproduced. The methods of electron microscope and imaging systems suitable for an ion microscope are discussed.". In 1858 John Peter Gassiot (CE 1797-1877) had used a magnetic field to change the direction of the beam caused by a high voltage through a vacuum tube. In 1897 Karl Braun had invented the oscilloscope showing that a beam of electrons can be moved by electromagnetic fields to draw an electronic picture. (Translate and read relevent parts of 1931 paper.) (I doubt the claim that wavelength relates to magnification, because I think magnification has more to do with the precision of the size of the focused beam. The more precise the beam can be positioned, the higher the magnification.) (EX: Can a lens focus electron beams?) (Zworykin's em appears perhaps later in 1939) (Might the light particle provide even higher resolution, being smaller than the electron?) (In theory it might be possible to simply send a square of electrons and record the image reflected, however, the electrons would have to be released in the same quantity and interval, and maintain a straight line all the way to the target. If electron beams, the beams would need to all be of equal strength. Possibly a single electron source in the center that emits a sphere of electrons might be able to record a reflected picture.) (It seems likely that the electron microscope was secretly discovered earlier, given the secret of neuron reading and writing. If true then Ruska would be either an excluded who figured it out, or a spokesperson for making the electron microscope public.) (Determine correct paper. The paper of 09/10/1931 appears to be the first to use the world "mikroskop") (The future path for the electron microscope is clear - to make it much smaller and less expensive so all average people can access an electron microscope for examining objects around them.) | (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany |
69 YBN [10/03/1931 AD] | 5161) In 1937 Carothers kills himself with cyanide at the age of 41. (It seems possible that this was a neuron written suicide of an outsider, that is, a person that had never heard of neuron reading and writing.) | ( E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company) Wilmington, Delaware, USA |
69 YBN [10/13/1931 AD] | 5319) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
69 YBN [11/29/1931 AD] | 5213) | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
69 YBN [11/29/1931 AD] | 5214) | (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
69 YBN [12/05/1931 AD] | 5125) In 1934 Urey wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry "for his discovery of heavy hydrogen". During World War II he was in charge of the separation of isotopes in the atomic-bomb project. Urey's research also led to a large-scale method of obtaining deuterium oxide (heavy water) for use as a neutron moderator in reactors. (It seems likely that some of Urey's work must be secret. It seems possible that the Manhattan project followed Urey, or Urey followed the project, from Columbia to Chicago. Of particular value is the idea of separating bulk matter into valuable atoms. This will be a major process of the future - simply taking an asteroid and separating it into useful components.) Urey is against war, against nuclear power, and denounced Senator Joseph McCarthy at a time when it was dangerous to do so. (I see so-called "nuclear" power, as being probably the similar to simply combustion in atoms releasing light particles. Ultimately, matter is going to provide everything life of any star needs, and so the ultimate source of fuel, oxygen, water, etc - is going to be from some method of extracting the light particles from accumulated matter. So, I think the big process is going to be seperating down big chunks of matter into useful atoms, - many being separated into light particles in the process. In the short term, I think alcohol and methane from waste recycling are likely answers to replacing fossil fuel combustion. In addition, radioactive sources, and controlled uranium fission is a fine choice for electricity. Nuclear waste can be atomically converted to source light particles. Ultimately, all atoms can be converted to photons and therefore completely used to move other objects.) | (Bureau of Standards) Washington, D. C. (and Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
69 YBN [12/16/1931 AD] | 5370) | (University of Florence) Florence, Italy |
69 YBN [12/19/1931 AD] | 5288) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
69 YBN [12/28/1931 AD] | 5188) | (Radium Institute) Paris, France (presumably) |
69 YBN [12/??/1931 AD] | 6060) "All of Me" is written and recorded (written by: Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons). | |
69 YBN [1931 AD] | 4964) | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
69 YBN [1931 AD] | 4991) | Augsburg, Germany |
69 YBN [1931 AD] | 5054) In 1937 Karrer wins the Nobel prize in chemistry shared with Haworth. | (Chemical Institute) Zürich, Switzerland |
69 YBN [1931 AD] | 5251) The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1938 is awarded to Richard Kuhn "for his work on carotenoids and vitamins", however, Kuhn has to wait until end of World War II to claim the award because of Hitler's refusal to allow German people to accpet Nobel prizes after Carl von Ossietzky, in a Nazi concentration camp. Ossietzky was a German pacifist and journalist who is imprisoned (in 1932) for articles exposing the secret rearmament in Germany. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Ossietzky is sent to the Sonnenburg concentration camp. Suffering from tuberculosis, he is removed (1936) to a prison hospital shortly before the announcement that he has been awarded the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize. The German government then protests and bars all Germans from future acceptance of a Nobel Prize. Still imprisoned, Ossietzky dies two years later. | (Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut fur Medizinische Forschung, Institut fur Chemie) Heidelberg, Germany |
69 YBN [1931 AD] | 6053) | (Lincoln Tavern) Chicago, Illinois, USA (verify) |
69 YBN [1931 AD] | 6057) | Montclair, New Jersey |
68 YBN [02/17/1932 AD] | 5086) | (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN [02/23/1932 AD] | 5181) | (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN [02/??/1932 AD] | 5062) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
68 YBN [03/01/1932 AD] | 5342) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1967 is awarded jointly to Ragnar Granit, Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald "for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye". | (University of Pennsylvania) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
68 YBN [04/16/1932 AD] | 5182) | (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN [04/23/1932 AD] | 5053) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
68 YBN [04/29/1932 AD] | 5385) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) New York City, New York, USA |
68 YBN [04/30/1932 AD] | 5244) On April 12, 1933 Krebs is among the numerous Jewish people who are dismissed from their academic posts in accordance with the newly decreed law for the reform of the civil service. The Rockefeller Foundation, which had already supported Krebs’s work in Freiburg through a grant to Thannhauser, offers Kreb a one–year fellowship at Cambridge in England. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953 is divided equally between Hans Adolf Krebs "for his discovery of the citric acid cycle" and Fritz Albert Lipmann "for his discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism". | (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
68 YBN [05/08/1932 AD] | 5386) In 1928 Jansky starts working for Bell Telephone Laboratories. | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) New York City, New York, USA |
68 YBN [05/09/1932 AD] | 5167) | (University of Pittsburgh) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
68 YBN [06/07/1932 AD] | 5286) | (University of Leipsig) Leipsig, Germany |
68 YBN [06/15/1932 AD] | 5183) | (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN [06/??/1932 AD] | 4883) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
68 YBN [07/02/1932 AD] | 5158) | (Wadham College) Oxford, England |
68 YBN [08/02/1932 AD] | 5380) In 1936, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided equally between Victor Franz Hess "for his discovery of cosmic radiation" and Carl David Anderson "for his discovery of the positron". | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
68 YBN [08/02/1932 AD] | 5381) In 1936, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided equally between Victor Franz Hess "for his discovery of cosmic radiation" and Carl David Anderson "for his discovery of the positron". | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
68 YBN [08/21/1932 AD] | 5200) | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN [10/23/1932 AD] | 5377) In 1935 Wildt moves from Germany to the USA. | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 4217) | (Eastman Kodak Company) NJ, USA |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 4887) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 4888) | (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 4948) | (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 4971) | (Clark University) Worchester, Massachusetts, USA |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 4988) | (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Cell Physiology) Berlin, Germany |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 5080) | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 5155) In 1939 Domagk wins the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil". Domagk is jailed for a week because Hitler was enraged in 1935 when the Nobel committee award the Nobel Prize for Peace to Karl von Ossietzky, a German in a concentration camp. Hitler refuses to allow German citizens to accept Nobel prizes. Domagk is forced to withdraw his acceptance. In 1947 Domagk will visit Stockholm and accept the prize. | (I. G. Farbenindustrie) Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Germany |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 5324) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1955 is awarded to Hugo Theorell "for his discoveries concerning the nature and mode of action of oxidation enzymes". | (Uppsala University) Uppsala, Sweden |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 5333) At age 6 Neumann can divide two eight digit numbers in his head. In 1928 Von Neumann first writes about game theory and subsequently will develop game theory. Game theory works out the best stratagies to follow in simple games, such as coin matching. However, the principles will apply to more complicates games such as business, war, and even scientific research can be viewed as a game of humans trying to win against the challanges of the universe. Von Neumann helps to construct giant computers which perform high speed calculations that help the production of the H-bomb and in reducing the H-bomb to a size small enough to be fired by missile. (Perhaps Von Neumann was involved with microscopic flying neuron reading and writing camera radio devices?) In 1930 Von Neumann leaves Europe to work in Princeton. (Perhaps an early view of the rise of anti-Jewish views? Von Neumann was the son of a well-to-do Jewish banker according to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography.) In 1954 Von Neumann testifies for Oppenheimer when Oppenheimer, who opposed the development of the H-bomb, was being investigated. Teller testifies against Oppenheimer. In 1956 Von Neumann wins the Fermi award. | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
68 YBN [1932 AD] | 6261) | (BASF) Ludwigshafen, Germany |
67 YBN [01/30/1933 AD] | 5115) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
67 YBN [02/08/1933 AD] | 5247) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1967 is awarded jointly to Ragnar Granit, Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald "for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye". (Perhaps this was a push to go public or generate some public research with neuron reading and writing.) | (Oxford Univerity) Oxford, England |
67 YBN [03/27/1933 AD] | 5201) | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
67 YBN [03/??/1933 AD] | 4164) | Irvine, CA, USA |
67 YBN [04/10/1933 AD] | 5189) | (Radium Institute) Paris, France (presumably) |
67 YBN [04/12/1933 AD] | 5148) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
67 YBN [05/22/1933 AD] | 5190) | (Radium Institute) Paris, France (presumably) |
67 YBN [06/16/1933 AD] | 5278) | (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
67 YBN [07/30/1933 AD] | 5069) | New York City, New York, USA |
67 YBN [08/01/1933 AD] | 4985) | (Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland and (Birmingham University) Birmingham, England |
67 YBN [08/06/1933 AD] | 5435) In the summer of 1933, the Nazis had come to power in Germany and the National Research Council insisted that Wald, who is Jewish, must return to the United States. In 1967, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Ragnar Granit, Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald "for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye". In 1969, Wald’s life changes dramatically after he delivers a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called "A Generation in Search of a Future" (Wald, 1969). This speech, which criticizes the U.S. war in Vietnam and the nation’s buildup of nuclear weapons, is published in periodicals around the planet earth, and it propels Wald into the limelight of social activism. | (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
67 YBN [10/07/1933 AD] | 5474) | (Bartol Research Foundation of the Franklin Institute, University of Delaware) Newark, Delaware, USA |
67 YBN [12/12/1933 AD] | 5447) | (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 3885) | New York City, NY (presumably) |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 4778) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 4812) | (Tesla's private lab) New York City, NY, USA (verify) |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 4822) | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 4859) | (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 4983) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 5273) | (University of Rome) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 5281) | (University of Rome) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
67 YBN [1933 AD] | 6067) "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)" is recorded (lyrics by Al Dubin, music by Harry Warren). | (Warner Brothers Studio) Burbank, California, USA |
66 YBN [01/15/1934 AD] | 5191) | (Radium Institute) Paris, France (presumably) |
66 YBN [01/15/1934 AD] | 5192) | (Radium Institute) Paris, France |
66 YBN [01/22/1934 AD] | 5413) | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
66 YBN [02/10/1934 AD] | 5202) | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England (presumably) |
66 YBN [02/24/1934 AD] | 5184) | (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
66 YBN [03/17/1934 AD] | 4755) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
66 YBN [03/19/1934 AD] | 5210) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
66 YBN [03/25/1934 AD] | 5274) | (University of Rome) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
66 YBN [04/11/1934 AD] | 5320) | (Institute der Technische Hochschule) Danzig-Langfuhr, Germany (Austria) |
66 YBN [04/14/1934 AD] | 5279) | (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England (presumably) |
66 YBN [05/??/1934 AD] | 5275) | (University of Rome) Rome, Italy |
66 YBN [06/07/1934 AD] | 4853) | (National Institute For Medicine) Hampstead, London |
66 YBN [06/28/1934 AD] | 5205) When the Nazis came into power in 1933, Szilard goes to Vienna and, in 1934, to London, where he joins the physics staff of the medical college of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. In 1939 when the uranium fission found by Hahn is announced by Meitner, Szilard understands that this chain-reaction is practical. Szilard convinces physicists in the USA not to publish their work in particle physics to avoid giving the Nazi's any ideas. And also in 1939, Wigner, Teller and Szilard (all Hungarian refugees) persuade Einstein to send his famous letter (written by Szilard) to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and this sets in motion the Manhattan Project that will prepare the first nuclear bomb. (I doubt that any "letter" was necessary, and this story of Szilard and Einstein's letter is probably irrelevent to the development of atomic explosives in the USA. Because clearly FDR and many others must have received direct-to-neuron video messages. Certainly no letter was necessary, FDR clearly received thought-mail, or thought-messages by this time, and it was enough to make a concerted effort to send a video-message to FDR's brain to get a message through, but perhaps a formal letter would increase the importance of the message.) Szilard is one of the large group of scientists that advocate using the bomb over an uninhabited territory as a demonstration. The military, and some scientists such as Compton disagree and Harry Truman decided to explode a nuclear bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (Detonating the bomb over an uninhabited territory is by far the more humane decision. I think for sure, a second bomb is too murderous. It is a tough debate. I think a person needs to calculate how much time is involved in creating another bomb. I think in some way, the nuclear bomb over Japan was felt to be a justified payback for the first strike invasion of Pearl Harbor. In any event, the nuclear bombs did bring the war to a quick end. Everybody should see the neuron images and make their own determination. With war, a minority of wealthy dictators brutally send young poor people to their death without any choice. Probably no large scale violent conflicts would ever have a chance to start if we had a planet of full and constant democracy, and full and total free information.) Szilard labors to ban nuclear warfare and even nuclear testing. (I reject a test ban on nuclear testing, except for exploding nuclear bombs on, in or in the atmosphere of earth. For example, I see nothing wrong with a safe atomic bomb explosion far from the earth in space, perhaps out near the orbit of Jupiter or Neptune. But this will probably wait for many decades until humans are moving between the planets. The debate about using uranium fission in space will be a heated one, but one that eventually will fall to those who want to build faster ships. Maybe some more acceptable form of propulsion will be found such as anti-protons...anyway we look at it, clearly nuclear atom separation uranium fission, or some other fission or fusion is probably going to be the fastest form of propulsion. Possibly gravitational acceleration may result in a similar velocity using the large mass of the sun, and Jupiter. ) In 1946 Szilard is appointed to the chair of biophysics at the University of Chicago, where he remained until his death. (Perhaps for some reason Szilard was forced to leave particle physics?) In 1959 Szilard wins the Atoms for Peace award. (It seems unlikely that a person secretive about fission would not be secretive about hearing thought, but maybe, with the fall of the Nazis, reflecting on their rise and abuses of the innocent excluded unaware of the advance of the technology, Szilard supported going public with neuron reading and writing.) (I think always the case is that, there should be a worry about allowing violent people, in particular first degree murderers have access to ideas of mass destruction, but the case is less strong for seeing and hearing thoughts, the telephone, etc, non-destructive technology. Ultimately, violence should be exposed and stopped, and secrecy, I think, tends to increase the chances of violent people getting away with violence, and the spiraling out of control of unseen, unstopped violence on earth, the controlled demolition of of the World Trade Center buildings on 09/11/2001 and subsequent massive coverup by many thousands of people is a prime example of where secrecy and misinformation can have very violent, risky, destructive consequences which threaten survival of life of earth. But how far should people go to keep information out of the hands of murderers?) In 1964 Szilard hypothesizes about the influence living objects might have on the physics of the universe in his paper "On the decrease of entropy in a thermodynamic system by the intervention of intelligent beings". | (Claremont Haynes & Co) London, England |
66 YBN [07/11/1934 AD] | 4248) | (Hotel New Yorker) New York City, NY, USA |
66 YBN [07/11/1934 AD] | 5367) In 1970, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Sir Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmittors in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation". | (Karolinischen Institues) Stockholm, Sweden |
66 YBN [08/09/1934 AD] | 4867) | (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
66 YBN [08/18/1934 AD] | 5087) Goldhaber moves from German with the advent of Hitler and in 1938 moves to the USA. | (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
66 YBN [09/10/1934 AD] | 5208) | (St. Bartholmew's Hospital) London, England |
66 YBN [09/17/1934 AD] | 5206) | (St. Bartholmew's Hospital) London, England |
66 YBN [09/17/1934 AD] | 5388) | |
66 YBN [11/14/1934 AD] | 5196) | (Radium Institute) Paris, France |
66 YBN [11/17/1934 AD] | 5452) In 1949, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Hideki Yukawa "for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces". Yukawa is the first Japanese person to win a Nobel Prize. (I think this theory is highly speculative and in my view is not proven, and there are many other theories. I think this theory of a nuclear force will ultimately be proven false. These awards are probably a reflection of a majority of people in science, and if the majority buy into some theory and pursue it for decades, it appears to be legitimate, and therefore is awarded.) (Determine if Yukawa has any recorded comments about Pearl Harbor, Hirohito, Hiroshima, Hitler, Nazism.) | (Osaka Imperial University) Osaka, Japan |
66 YBN [11/26/1934 AD] | 5207) | (St. Bartholmew's Hospital) London, England |
66 YBN [12/04/1934 AD] | 5126) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
66 YBN [12/??/1934 AD] | 5531) | (Kummersdorf Army Proving Grounds) Kummersdorf, Germany |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 4904) | |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 5011) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 5035) | (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands (check) |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 5036) | (Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 5048) The phase-contrast microscope, slightly changes the phase of diffracted light compared with direct light so that objects in a cell take on color and objects within the cell become clear without staining, and therefore without killing the cell. While studying the flaws that occur in some diffraction gratings because of the imperfect spacing of engraved lines, Zernicke discovers the phase-contrast principle. This uses the fact that light passing through bodies with a different refractive index from the surrounding medium has a different phase. The microscope contains a plate in the focal plane, which causes interference patterns and thus increases the contrast. For instance, it can make living cells observable without killing them by staining and fixing. The method of phase contrast also allows the detail in transparent objects or on metal surfaces to be observed. (More details about how microscope works) (The phase of light or any beam of particles is a very interesting topic. One question is: how do detectors understand that 2 beams are actually the same frequency when they both have different starting times/points (and are therefore out of phase)? In electronics the resonant frequency of the inductor-capacitor circuit simply accumulates particles - and only works for a specific frequency of light. In addition, what is the effect of two out of phase particle beams? Can this explain the interference patterns of an interferometer? What is happening there at the particle level? For example a single tiny beam of white light is made of single beams of other frequencies but appears white to a detector in a human eye. This detector sees a specific color wavelength, no matter when that beam starts. What does a beam made of individual out of phase same frequency beams appear like to a detector? Like a single wavelength beam? Like a higher wavelength beam? ) (Explain how the light phase is changed in a phase-contrast microscope, show images of phase-contrast microscopes.) (Explain how this is interpreted in the light-as-a-material-particle view.) | (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 5141) In 1922 Oberth has his dissertation on rocket design rejected when trying for a Ph.D. at Heidelberg. In 1940 Oberth becomes a German citizen. (Was Oberth opposed to Hitler's brutal views and many others of the Nazi society?) Oberth works with von Braun at Peenemunde (building rockets such as the V-2). | |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 5154) | (Duke University) Durham, North Carolina, USA(verify) |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 5276) | (University of Rome) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 5356) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1958 is awarded jointly to Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Il´ja Mikhailovich Frank and Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect". | (Lebedev Institute of Physics) Moscow, (Soviet Union now) Russia |
66 YBN [1934 AD] | 6070) "On the Good Ship Lollipop" (music by Richard A. Whiting, lyrics by Sidney Clare, sung by Shirley Temple) is recorded in the 1934 movie "Bright Eyes". | (Sam Fox Publishing Company) New York City, USA (possibly) |
65 YBN [01/01/1935 AD] | 5492) Chandrasekhar is the nephew of Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. Chandrasekhar is asked or feels it necessary to add a note in the beginning of the book and a footnote to Albert Michelson's chapter on relativity in the 1968 (also in the 1962?) reprint of Michelson's "Studies in Optics" (1927) which reads: "In describing these ideas bearing on special relativity, Professor Michelson adopts a cautious attitude, sometimes giving the impression of skepticism. Such an attitude was justifiable at the time in view of the revolutionary character of the theory. However, at the present time the experimental basis for special relativity is so wide and the theoretical ramifications so many that there can no longer be any doubt about its validity. In chapter xiv reference is also made to the 'generalized theory of relativity.' However, this theory represents a development along somewhat different lines and except in a very general way does not bear on the subject matter of these two chapters. The foundations of the general theory (unlike those of the special theory) are still in the process of change and evolution.". This is a perfect example of the bizarre and authoritarian enforcement of the dogma of relativity and time-dilation- most likely due to pressure placed on those in science by owners of direct-to-neuron writing devices in order to maintain an absolutely ignorant uneducated non-scientific barefoot agrarian-society 1400s public. | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN [01/01/1935 AD] | 5501) | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN [01/26/1935 AD] | 5133) | (University of Szeged) Szeged, Hungary |
65 YBN [02/26/1935 AD] | 5098) | Daventry, England |
65 YBN [02/??/1935 AD] | 5162) | (E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company) Wilmington, Delaware, USA |
65 YBN [04/08/1935 AD] | 5145) In 1940 Dam stays in the USA when the Nazis invade Denmark. In 1943 Dam wins the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology with Doisy. | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
65 YBN [05/16/1935 AD] | 5374) | (National Physical Laboratory) Teddington, Middlesex, England |
65 YBN [05/31/1935 AD] | 5532) | (Mescalero Ranch) Roswell, New Mexico, USA |
65 YBN [06/05/1935 AD] | 5436) | (Kaiser Wilkelm-Institut fur medizinische Forschung, Heidelberg, Germany and University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
65 YBN [06/26/1935 AD] | 5215) In 1933, being a German-Jewish scientist, Schoenheimer emigrates to the USA. In 1941 Schoenheimer kills himself. | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
65 YBN [07/11/1935 AD] | 4249) | (Hotel New Yorker) New York City, NY, USA |
65 YBN [07/12/1935 AD] | 5016) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
65 YBN [07/28/1935 AD] | 5357) In 1946, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is divided, one half awarded to James Batcheller Sumner "for his discovery that enzymes can be crystallized", the other half jointly to John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley "for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form". | (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
65 YBN [07/31/1935 AD] | 5252) | (Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut fur Medizinische Forschung, Institut fur Chemie) Heidelberg, Germany |
65 YBN [08/28/1935 AD] | 5507) | (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN [08/28/1935 AD] | 5509) | (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN [10/22/1935 AD] | 5451) (Notice the submission date of 2 days before 10/24- a day that may have neuron reading and writing significance.) | (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
65 YBN [10/28/1935 AD] | 5095) | (Gonville and Caius College University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN [11/19/1935 AD] | 5498) | (University College) London, England |
65 YBN [11/23/1935 AD] | 5456) In 1957, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Daniel Bovet "for his discoveries relating to synthetic compounds that inhibit the action of certain body substances, and especially their action on the vascular system and the skeletal muscles". | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
65 YBN [??/?/1935 AD] | 5508) | (University of Rome) Rome, Italy |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 4786) | (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 5014) | (Mayo Foundation) Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 5037) | (Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 5055) | (Chemical Institute) Zürich, Switzerland |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 5081) | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 5094) | (Institut d’Optique) Paris, France |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 5166) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947 is divided, one half jointly to Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerty Theresa Cori, née Radnitz "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen" and the other half to Bernardo Alberto Houssay "for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar". | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 5325) | (Uppsala University) Uppsala, Sweden |
65 YBN [1935 AD] | 6037) | New York City, New York, USA (verify) |
64 YBN [01/??/1936 AD] | 6319) Humason started as a janitor at the Mount Wilson observatory, and was the assistant of Hubble. | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
64 YBN [02/13/1936 AD] | 5457) | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
64 YBN [03/11/1936 AD] | 5496) In 1934 Katz leaves Germany for Britain. In 1970, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Sir Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmittors in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation". | (University College) London, England |
64 YBN [03/28/1936 AD] | 5346) | (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
64 YBN [05/27/1936 AD] | 5134) Szent-Györgyi isolates flavones that can change the permeability of capillaries, in other words how easily substances can pass through the capillary walls. It is not clear if these are vitamins, but for some time are called “vitamin P”. Szent-Gyorgyi writes: "VARIOUS chemical and clinical observations have led to the assumption that ascorbic acid is accompanied in the cell by a substance of similar importance and related activity. In absence of both substances, the symptoms of lack of ascorbic acid (scurvy) prevail and conceal symptoms of the deficiency of the second substance. In the lack of suitable experimental animals or conditions, progress was dependent on spontaneous pathological conditions, caused or influenced by this second factor. In collaboration with L. Armentano and A. Bensath, we have dounf that in certain pathological conditions, characterised by an increased permeability or fragility of the capillary wall, ascorbic acid is ineffective, while the condition can readilyu be cured by the administration of extracts of hungarian red pepper ('vitapric') or lemon juice. The extracts were effective in cases of decreased resistance of the capillary wall toward whole blood (vascular type of haemorrhagic purpura) as well as in cases in which the capillary wall showed an increased permeability towards plasma protein only (various septic conditions). The extracts were fractinoated. The active substance was found in the end in a fraction consisting of preactivcally pure flavon or flavonol glycoside. 40 mgm. of this fraction given daily intravenously to man restored in a fortnight regularly the normal capillary resistance. Spontaneous bleeding ceased, the capillary walls lost their fragility towards pressure differences and no more plasma protein left the vascular system on increased venous pressure. These results suggest that this great group of vegtable dyes, the flavons or flavonols, also play an important role in animal life, and that the dyes are of vitamin nature. The group is not to be confused with the yellow dye, discovered by one of us and termed 'flaves' (like cytoflave), which dye forms the prosthetic group of Warburg's yellow enzyme and has later been renamed by R. Kuhn 'flavins'. We propose to give the name 'vitamin P' to the substance responsible for the action on vascular permeability. ...". | (University of Szeged) Szeged, Hungary |
64 YBN [05/28/1936 AD] | 5563) In March 1952 Turing is prosecuted for homosexuality, then a crime in Britain, and sentenced to 12 months of hormone "therapy". Turing dies of potassium cyanide, which is ruled a suicide but could have been an accident. (Could have been murder - only the dust-sized camera images would reveal if true.) (Much of the public views on computers and artificial intelligence is of little value - in particular because nobody imagined that flying and walking cameras, seeing thought-images and hearing thought-sounds, and artificial muscle robots would be a common occurance. Knowing and seeing these things vastly changes the view on what thought is, and how truth can be viewed as more of a sensory match phenomenon, and a three space dimension and 1 time dimension problem. But beyond that - my own preference is for the practical application of logic in developing walking robots that can clean, cook, drive, etc - provide productive support for humans.) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
64 YBN [06/22/1936 AD] | 5137) | (St. Louis University) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
64 YBN [07/15/1936 AD] | 5359) In 1970, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided equally between Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén "for fundamental work and discoveries in magnetohydro- dynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics" and Louis Eugène Félix Néel "for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics". | (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, France |
64 YBN [07/23/1936 AD] | 5270) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
64 YBN [08/08/1936 AD] | 5479) | (The Central Pathological Laboratory and the Hospital for Epilepsy and Paralysis) Maida Vale, United Kingdom |
64 YBN [08/10/1936 AD] | 5540) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
64 YBN [08/14/1936 AD] | 5344) | (Jackson Laboratory) Bar Harbor, Maine, USA |
64 YBN [08/17/1936 AD] | 5336) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 3979) | |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 4486) Broom wrongly believes that with the human species evolution has come to an end and the evolution of humans represents the sixth and final day of creation as in Genesis. | Sterkfontein, Transvaal, South Africa |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 4848) | (University of Lisbon) Lisbon, Portugal |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 5012) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 5028) | (University of Illinois) Urbana, Illinois |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 5116) Haldane is an assistant to his father at age 8. Haldane is an outspoken atheist. In the 1930s Haldane supports Communism, helps refugees from Nazi Germany, but then leaves the Communist party, although remains a Marxist, becoming disillusioned at the rise of Lysenko under Stalin. | (University College) London, England |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 5117) | (University College) London, England |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 5140) In 1935 the Soviet government establishes a biochemical institute in Oparin's honor in Moscow. In 1946 Oparin becomes the director of the biochemical institute in Moscow. | Moscow, (Soviet Union) Russia |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 5422) | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 5722) | |
64 YBN [1936 AD] | 6041) | Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) |
63 YBN [01/25/1937 AD] | 5300) In 1947 Tiselius is made Vice-president of Nobel Foundation. (Doesn't this cause a conflict of interest in his award? Perhaps he abstained.) The Nobel Prize in Chemistry of 1948 is awarded to Arne Tiselius "for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning the complex nature of the serum proteins". | (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
63 YBN [02/18/1937 AD] | 5453) | (Osaka Imperial University) Osaka, Japan |
63 YBN [03/01/1937 AD] | 5245) | (University of Sheffield) Sheffield, England |
63 YBN [03/17/1937 AD] | 5471) | (Rothamsted Experimental Station) Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England |
63 YBN [03/18/1937 AD] | 5221) | (Rockefeller Foundation) New York City, New York, USA |
63 YBN [04/??/1937 AD] | 6268) | (British Thomson-Houston works) Rugby, England |
63 YBN [05/14/1937 AD] | 5548) | (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instute fur Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem) Berlin, Germany |
63 YBN [05/22/1937 AD] | 5515) | (Siemens and Halske) Berlin, Germany |
63 YBN [06/30/1937 AD] | 5364) In the summer of 1938, during his second visit to Berkeley, Segré learns that, because of his Jewish origins, his professorship at Palermo has been revoked by Benito Mussolini’s government. At Lawrence’s invitation, Segré becomes a research associate at the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley. In 1938 Segré is removed from his Palermo post by Italy's Fascist government while in the USA, and Segré stays in the USA. In 1959, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Emilio Gino Segrè and Owen Chamberlain "for their discovery of the antiproton". | (Royal University) Polermo, Italy |
63 YBN [07/06/1937 AD] | 6051) | Hollywood, California, USA (verify) |
63 YBN [07/09/1937 AD] | 5046) | (Carnegie institute of Technology) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
63 YBN [09/??/1937 AD] | 5449) | (University of Saskatchewan) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada |
63 YBN [09/??/1937 AD] | 5525) At fifteen Reber is active with ham radio. Reber fails to bounce radio signals off the moon, but the Army Signal Corps will succeed at this after World War II. (Clearly light from the Sun is reflected off the moon all the way to our eye, so any frequency of light can be reflected off the moon, Jupiter, and any other visible object. The key is that a very large initial signal is needed so that enough particles reflect back in the direction of the receiver.) In 1947 Reber gives his radio telescope to the National Bureau of Standards. In his later years Reber speaks out on what he sees as problems with relativity theory and big-bang cosmology. Reber believes that much of the redshift observed in the spectra of distant galaxies is due to the forward scattering of light as it moves through space. | Wheaton, Illinois, USA |
63 YBN [12/03/1937 AD] | 5142) | (Institute for Physical Problems, Academy of Sciences) Moscow, (Soviet Union) Russia |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 3622) | New York City NY, USA |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 4843) | (Carnegie Institution of Washington) Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., USA |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 5029) | (University of Illinois) Urbana, Illinois |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 5030) | (University of Illinois) Urbana, Illinois |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 5151) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1958 is awarded jointly to Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Il´ja Mikhailovich Frank and Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect". | (Moscow University) Moscow, (Soviet Union) Russia |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 5174) | (Observatory) Meudon, France |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 5223) In 1932 Lipmann leaves Germany to Denmark to move away from the growth of the Nazi movement. In 1939 Lipmann moves from Denmark to the USA. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953 is divided equally between Hans Adolf Krebs "for his discovery of the citric acid cycle" and Fritz Albert Lipmann "for his discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism". | (Carlsberg Foundation) Copenhagen, Denmark |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 5229) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 5266) | (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 5348) | (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA (presumably) |
63 YBN [1937 AD] | 6040) | Frankfurt/Main, Germany (first performance) |
62 YBN [01/31/1938 AD] | 5216) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1944 is awarded to Isidor Isaac Rabi "for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei". | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
62 YBN [03/30/1938 AD] | 5253) | (Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut fur Medizinische Forschung, Institut fur Chemie) Heidelberg, Germany |
62 YBN [04/12/1938 AD] | 4794) | (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
62 YBN [04/??/1938 AD] | 6271) | (E. I. duPont de Nemours & Company) WIlmington, Delaware, USA |
62 YBN [06/01/1938 AD] | 5544) Seaborg does work in connection with preparing plutonium for use in the atomic bomb at the University of Chicago. In 1951 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded jointly to Edwin Mattison McMillan and Glenn Theodore Seaborg "for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements". Seaborgium is named in Seaborg's honor, making him the only person for whom a chemical element is named during his lifetime. | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
62 YBN [06/16/1938 AD] | 5382) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
62 YBN [06/22/1938 AD] | 5448) | (Berliner Medizinischen Gesellschaft/Berlin Medical Society) Berlin, Germany |
62 YBN [09/01/1938 AD] | 5354) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
62 YBN [09/01/1938 AD] | 5355) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
62 YBN [09/07/1938 AD] | 5418) In 1933 Bethe leaves Germany for England when Hitler comes to power. In 1935 Bethe accepts a post at Cornell University in the USA. Bethe was engaged in the development of the atomic bomb. In 1967 the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Hans Bethe "for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars". | (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute) Berlin, Germany (and Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
62 YBN [10/07/1938 AD] | 6059) | (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios) Los Angeles, California, USA |
62 YBN [10/25/1938 AD] | 5352) In 1933 Elsasser leaves Germany with the rise of Hitler. In 1936 Elsasser moves to the USA. | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
62 YBN [11/24/1938 AD] | 5464) In 1957 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Todd "for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes". (Determine what molecule Todd actually isolated.) | (Lister Institute) London, England |
62 YBN [12/17/1938 AD] | 5339) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
62 YBN [12/22/1938 AD] | 4926) | (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instute fur Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem) Berlin, Germany |
62 YBN [1938 AD] | 4782) | |
62 YBN [1938 AD] | 4860) | (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
62 YBN [1938 AD] | 5056) | (Chemical Institute) Zürich, Switzerland |
62 YBN [1938 AD] | 5090) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
62 YBN [1938 AD] | 5533) | Peenemünde, Germany |
62 YBN [1938 AD] | 6077) "God Bless America", written by Irving Berlin (CE 1888-1989) in 1918 and revised by him in 1938, sung by Kate Smith is recorded. | New York City, New York, USA (guess) |
62 YBN [1938 AD] | 6102) "Thanks for the Memory" with music composed by Ralph Rainger and lyrics by Leo Robin is released. It is introduced in the 1938 film "The Big Broadcast of 1938" by Shep Fields and His Orchestra with vocals by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross. (There may be many analogies to the secret of remote neuron reading and writing. "It was fun while it lasted", "no harm done", "thoughts") | Los Angeles, California, USA (probably) |
61 YBN [01/06/1939 AD] | 5484) | (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
61 YBN [01/16/1939 AD] | 4925) Frisch is a science writer on atomic physics for the public. In 1933 when Hitler comes to power, Frisch moves to England. | (Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden (Meitner), (University of Copenhagen), Copenhagen, Denmark (Frisch) |
61 YBN [01/19/1939 AD] | 5658) | (University of Toronto) Toronto, Canada |
61 YBN [01/30/1939 AD] | 5193) | (Laboratoire de Chimie Nucleaire, College de France) Paris, France |
61 YBN [02/18/1939 AD] | 5493) | (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Washington, D. C, USA |
61 YBN [03/08/1939 AD] | 5194) | (Laboratoire de Chimie Nucleaire, College de France) Paris, France |
61 YBN [03/20/1939 AD] | 5347) | (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
61 YBN [04/07/1939 AD] | 5195) | (Laboratoire de Chimie Nucleaire, College de France) Paris, France |
61 YBN [04/14/1939 AD] | 5425) | (Merck and Company, Inc) Rahway, New Jersey, USA |
61 YBN [04/17/1939 AD] | 5255) | (Hospital of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
61 YBN [04/30/1939 AD] | 5835) | (Westinghouse Electric Corporation) Mansfield, Ohio, USA |
61 YBN [06/28/1939 AD] | 5006) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
61 YBN [07/15/1939 AD] | 5461) The Atomic Energy Commission pays Dunning $30,000 in lieu of patent royalties. (I wonder if the neuron reading and writing inventor, since not publicly recognized, might have earned much more money from the public if the public was told about their discovery.) In 1936 Dunning builds Columbia University's first cyclotron. | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
61 YBN [07/31/1939 AD] | 5511) Alvarez works on radar and the atomic bomb during WW II. Alvarez flies with the mission that drops the first atomic bomb—which is of the original uranium shotgun design—on Hiroshima, releasing his parachute-borne blast detectors from an accompanying B-29. After the first Soviet atomic bomb is detected in September 1949, Alvarez and Edward Teller, successfully advocate the development of a hydrogen bomb, over the opposition of the General Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Atomic Energy Commission, chaired by Robert Oppenheimer. (It seems possible that the hydrogen bomb, in theory is a fraud, basically being simply a larger fission bomb - but only the neuron transactions at the time, and more honest science will show the truth. It seems unlikely that very much more light particles would be emitted from hydrogen, which is a very low mass atom.) In 1964, Alvarez patents a variable-power spherical lens, which allows for variable-power spectacles that can be focused quickly and easily for near and distant vision. (It seems possible that an artificial muscle lens could be useful for a similar purpose, Possibly an electric motor lens could be helpful too.) In 1968, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Luis Alvarez "for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis". (Alvarez is notorious for doing experiments, I think with a ladder and flour-filled skull, to supposedly prove that JFK was shot from behind and that such a skull will fall forward when shot from behind. Later the camera-thought net will show that Alvarez may have taken a large amount of money or supported the Nazi-like killers of JFK, the Republicans, and so therefore worked to sell the lie of Oswald to the excluded public. This is a definitely black mark on his career, and calls into doubt much of his scientific work.) (I don't think that there has ever been a more obvious example of corrupted and dishonest claims published as "science" than the case of Luis Alvarez. Clearly all of the work of Alvarez is highly suspect, since he openly served as an active accessory to murder in the case of John Kennedy.) (Then the Nobel prize is again clearly political - their statement begins with "For his decisive contributions" which clearly implies "DC", which at the time was under the control of the violent criminals who killed JFK, MLK, and has just murdered Robert Kennedy a few months earlier. This shows again, that the Nobel prize, many times, is the product of political pressure, and great wealth, as opposed to actual science. In particular looking at Alvarez's sparse and very potentially non-existant contributions to actual science.) (Interesting that Alvarez takes out a number of patents, for radio echo detection, a stablized zoom binocular, range finding device for a cart... and given the neuron secret and doubts of being the first to develop technological innovations, in addition to the limited time of the patent - I think it shows an element of monetary greed, intellectual possessiveness - in particular when so much information is written to our neurons from external sources - to claim something as your own is - somewhat arrogant and unlikely to be true. There is also the element of a person playing some gambling game to strike it rich by having that chip on the correct number - given the years of protracted patent trials - the corrupted neuron court system - patenting anything is worthless, I think except perhaps to bring secret technology to the public in the form of a public patent.) (Looking at the thought-transactions of the time involving Alvarez is one way of determining the validity of his scientific claims.) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
61 YBN [08/27/1939 AD] | 6269) | Marienehe, Germany |
61 YBN [10/30/1939 AD] | 5387) In 1933 Bloch leaves Germany when Hitler comes to power. In 1934 Bloch moves to the USA. In 1952 the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell "for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith". From 1954-1955 Bloch serves as the first director-general of CERN, the multinational laboratory for nuclear science at Geneva. | (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
61 YBN [1939 AD] | 5138) | (St. Louis University) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
61 YBN [1939 AD] | 5175) | (Observatory) Meudon, France |
61 YBN [1939 AD] | 5219) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1948 is awarded to Paul Müller "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods". | (Laboratory of the J.R. Geigy Dye-Factory Co.) Basel, Switzerland |
61 YBN [1939 AD] | 5248) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1967 is awarded jointly to Ragnar Granit, Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald "for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye". (Perhaps this was a push to go public or generate some public research with neuron reading and writing.) | (The Caroline Institute) Stockholm, Sweden (presumably) |
61 YBN [1939 AD] | 6056) | New York City, New York, USA (verify) |
60 YBN [01/??/1940 AD] | 5545) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN [02/01/1940 AD] | 5246) | (University of Sheffield) Sheffield, England |
60 YBN [02/29/1940 AD] | 5579) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN [03/03/1940 AD] | 5462) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
60 YBN [05/27/1940 AD] | 5455) In 1951, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded jointly to Edwin Mattison McMillan and Glenn Theodore Seaborg "for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements". | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN [05/28/1940 AD] | 5285) | (Westinghouse Research Laboratories) East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
60 YBN [05/??/1940 AD] | 5590) | England |
60 YBN [06/14/1940 AD] | 5568) | (Physico Technical Institute and Radium Institute) Leningrad, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
60 YBN [06/21/1940 AD] | 5554) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN [07/16/1940 AD] | 5365) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN [07/19/1940 AD] | 5262) The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1955 is awarded to Vincent du Vigneaud "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone". | (Cornell University Medical College) New York City, New York, USA |
60 YBN [08/24/1940 AD] | 5217) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945 is awarded jointly to Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter Florey "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases". In 1960 Florey is president of the Royal Society. | (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
60 YBN [08/29/1940 AD] | 5438) In 1933 Goldmark moves to the USA. After Goldmark becomes a vice president of CBS in 1950, he develops the scanning system that allows the U.S. Lunar Orbiter spacecraft (launched in 1966) to relay photographs 238,000 miles (380,000 kilometres) from the Moon of Earth to the planet Earth. In 1971 Goldmark retired from CBS to form his own company, Goldmark Communications Corporation. | (Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.) New York City, New York, USA |
60 YBN [11/13/1940 AD] | 5524) Kerst worked at Los Alamos, New Mexico (CE 1943-45). | (General Electric Company) Scotia, New York, USA |
60 YBN [12/02/1940 AD] | 5439) | (Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.) New York City, New York, USA |
60 YBN [12/05/1940 AD] | 5416) | (Oxford Univerity) Oxford, England |
60 YBN [1940 AD] | 4953) Karman establishes the theory of aeronautics. Karman is largely responsible for the California Institute of Technology's emergence as a top aeronautical research center. Karman is the son of professor of education who was knighted by Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria-Hungary for his reorganization of Hungarian education. | (Guggenheim Aeronautic Laboratory) Pasadena, California, USA |
60 YBN [1940 AD] | 5423) | ( University of Cincinnati) Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (presumably) |
60 YBN [1940 AD] | 5433) | |
60 YBN [1940 AD] | 5463) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
60 YBN [1940 AD] | 6078) "When You Wish upon a Star", written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for Walt Disney's 1940 adaptation of Pinocchio, is recorded. The original version of the song is sung by Cliff Edwards in the character of Jiminy Cricket and is heard over the opening credits and again in the final scene of the film. The song has since become the theme song to The Walt Disney Company. | Los Angeles, California, USA (presumably) |
59 YBN [01/02/1941 AD] | 6058) | (Decca Studios) Hollywood, California, USA |
59 YBN [01/15/1941 AD] | 5674) In 1936 Woodward gets a Ph.D. at age 20, and in 1938 is a postdoctoral fellow on the faculty of Harvard at 21. In 1950 Woodward becomes a full professor at 33. In 1964 Woodward wins the National Medal of Science Award. In 1965 Robert B. Woodward wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis". | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
59 YBN [01/23/1941 AD] | 5580) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
59 YBN [02/15/1941 AD] | 6052) | New York City, New York, USA (verify) |
59 YBN [02/24/1941 AD] | 5283) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
59 YBN [03/07/1941 AD] | 5547) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
59 YBN [03/22/1941 AD] | 5271) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1966 is divided equally between Peyton Rous "for his discovery of tumour-inducing viruses" and Charles Brenton Huggins "for his discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer". | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
59 YBN [05/07/1941 AD] | 6074) | (RCA Victor's Bluebird) New York City, New York, USA |
59 YBN [05/09/1941 AD] | 6073) The song "God Bless the Child" (written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr. in 1939) is recorded. (Part of me thinks that I should not include religious songs - because they are not lyrically advances, and by promoting religions, in some sense, moving us back to an out-house era- which is what many in the in-house might prefer.) | New York City, New York, USA |
59 YBN [05/28/1941 AD] | 5477) | (Polaroid Corporation) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
59 YBN [10/08/1941 AD] | 5331) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1958 is divided, one half jointly to George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum "for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events" and the other half to Joshua Lederberg "for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria". | (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
59 YBN [1941 AD] | 5049) In 1952 Waksman wins the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology and gives the prize money to a research foundation at Rutgers. | (Rutgers University) New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |
59 YBN [1941 AD] | 5066) | (Royal Observatory in Greenwich) Greenwich, England |
59 YBN [1941 AD] | 5149) In 1935 Minkowski leaves Nazi Germany for the USA with the help of Baade. | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
59 YBN [1941 AD] | 5153) In 1956 Cournand shares the Nobel prize for physiology and medicine with D. W. Richards, and Forssmann "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system". | (Bellevue Hospital) New York City, New York, USA (Cournand) |
59 YBN [1941 AD] | 5224) | (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA (presumably) |
59 YBN [1941 AD] | 5362) | (University of Saskatchewan) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada |
58 YBN [02/16/1942 AD] | 5529) In 1934 Bloch leaves Nazi Germany for Switzerland. In 1936 Bloch moves to the USA. In 1964 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Konrad Bloch and Feodor Lynen "for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism". | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
58 YBN [03/12/1942 AD] | 5428) In 1969, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Max Delbrück, Alfred D. Hershey and Salvador E. Luria "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses". | (RCA Research Laboratories) Camden, New Jersey, USA |
58 YBN [05/08/1942 AD] | 5526) | Wheaton, Illinois, USA |
58 YBN [05/29/1942 AD] | 6071) The song "White Christmas" (written by Irving Berlin, 1940), sung by Bing Crosby is recorded. (It's amazing to me how people can still feel warm and fuzzy about Christmas and Christianity in general, given the history of burning and torturing people. Then interesting that this Christian song is written by a Jewish person who is probably not Christian- but then Jesus, the founder of Christianity was Jewish. We don't for example, see many Christian people showing enough tolerance to write songs celebrating the customs of other religions. Perhaps I should focus away from the songs based on the following of Jesus, but perhaps this reminds people about the reality of the terrible influence on the lives of people on earth, with the views that pleasure is bad, that its ok to lie, and to believe ridiculously false claims of supernatural events.) | (Decca Records) New York City, New York, USA (probably) |
58 YBN [07/??/1942 AD] | 5363) | (University of Saskatchewan) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada |
58 YBN [07/??/1942 AD] | 5378) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
58 YBN [10/20/1942 AD] | 5546) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
58 YBN [10/??/1942 AD] | 5534) | Peenemünde, Germany |
58 YBN [11/04/1942 AD] | 5289) Kaj Aage Gunnar Strand (CE 1907-2000) working under Peter Van de Kamp (CE 1901-1995), Dutch-US astronomer, claim to detect the first planet of a different star (exoplanet). Small changes in the relative movement of the 61 Cygni system show the existence of a nonluminous mass eight times the mass of Jupiter. This planet is detected at Sproul Observatory under the direction of Van de Kamp. Strand writes in the article "61 Cygni as a Triple System", in the "Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific": "Extensive photographic observations of high accuracy taken at the Potsdam, Lick, and Sproul observatories have revealed perturbations in the orbital motion of 61 Cygni which are caused by a third, invisible member revolving around one of the two visual components. The only solution which will satisfy the observed motions gives the remarkably small mass of 1/60 that of the sun or 16 times that of jupiter. With a mass considerably smaller than the smallest known stellar mass (Kruger 60 B = 0.14 0), the dark companion must have an intrinsic luminosity so extremely low that we may consider it a planet rather than a star. Thus planetary motion has been found outside the solar system. An extensive investigation of the motion in the large orbit is being carried out at the Sproul Observatory. Though not yet completed, the following dynamical elements represent closely the observed arc: P = 720 yrs., c = 0.40, a = 24".554, T = 1690. These elements, together with a parallax of 0".294, give a total mass, Ma + Mb + Mc = 1.12 0. The relative motion of the perturbed component with re- spect to the center of mass of itself and the invisible component, C, has the following dynamical elements : P = 4.9 yrs., e = 0.7, a = 0".020 +- 0".003 (m.e.), T = 1942.0. Since only the positions of A and B relative to each other are known, no decision can be made regarding which of the two components C is attached to. This is, however, of minor im- portance for the determination of the mass of C because A and B C are nearly equal in mass. Using the masses derived below we obtain in either case, Mc : 0.016 0, hence C is revolving in an orbit with a semi—major axis of approximately 0".70 or 2.4 astronomical units. On account of the orbit’s large eccentricity, C, at periastron, is only 0.7 A.U. from its visible companion. The two visible components have visual magnitudes of 5.57 and 6.28 and spectra of type K6 and M0. With a parallax of 0".294 and reductions of -0.80 and -1.2 mag. to bolometric magnitudes we obtain the absolute bolometric magnitudes of 7.1 and 7.4. From Eddington’s mass-luminosity curve the masses are Ma = 0.58 0 and Mb = 0.55 0, hence the total mass of the system is 1.15 0, practically identical with the value for the mass derived from the dynamical elements and the same parallax. Since the total range in the radial velocity of the visual components caused by the invisible companion amounts to about 1 km/sec, spectroscopic observations can hardly be ex- pected to reveal to which component C is attached. The interpretation of the observed motion in the small orbit as the motion of the effective center of light of two luminous components with respect to their common center of gravity has to be rejected since the small orbit would require components with nearly equal luminosity (Δm = 0.10 at the most) to give possible masses. This, however, would give a total mass of no less than 1.50 0 from Eddington’s curve or 0.38 0 in excess of the total mass found from the dynamical elements. The photographic observations used in establishing the per- turbation are given below for the equinox of 2000 and with corrections for the perspective effect and proper motion to the mean epoch 1930. If no perturbation is accounted for, the median mean error as computed from the residuals is increased from 0".006 to 0".010. A great part of the preliminary computations for the large orbit was done by Miss Virginia Burger who also made the second complete set of measures of the Sproul plates. I am indebted to Dr. H. M. Jeffers for the use of the photographic plates taken at the Lick Observatory in 1942.". This claim of a planet orbiting 61 Cygni is rejected in 1978. (Make clear that this motion is detected from the measurement of photos of the stars that captured visible light of the entire star, and not from the observed movement of spectral lines from Doppler shift.) | (Sproul Observatory, Swartmore University), Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA |
58 YBN [11/04/1942 AD] | 5290) | (Sproul Observatory, Swartmore University), Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA |
58 YBN [11/20/1942 AD] | 5263) | (Cornell University Medical College) New York City, New York, USA |
58 YBN [12/02/1942 AD] | 5277) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
58 YBN [1942 AD] | 5441) | (K. E. M. Medical College) Lucknow, India |
58 YBN [1942 AD] | 6038) | New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
58 YBN [1942 AD] | 6042) | New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
58 YBN [1942 AD] | 6043) | |
58 YBN [1942 AD] | 6054) Dizzy Gillespie (CE 1917-1993) composes "A Night In Tunesia". (verify) Gillespie also records "Salt Peanuts" this year. | New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
58 YBN [1942 AD] | 6079) "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" (written by by Walter Kent and Nat Burton, sung by Vera Lynn) is recorded. | |
57 YBN [01/11/1943 AD] | 5120) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
57 YBN [05/14/1943 AD] | 5264) | (Merck and Company, Inc.) Rahway, New Jersey, USA |
57 YBN [05/25/1943 AD] | 5578) | (University of Pennsylvania) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
57 YBN [09/??/1943 AD] | 5280) | (University of Birmingham) Birmingham, England |
57 YBN [11/01/1943 AD] | 4916) | (Rockefeller Institute, now called Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
57 YBN [1943 AD] | 4949) | (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland |
57 YBN [1943 AD] | 5050) | (Rutgers University) New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |
57 YBN [1943 AD] | 5399) In 1965, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard P. Feynman "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". (I have a lot of doubts about this "QED" work, in particular am calling for all thought-screen and relevent eye images to be released to the public to determine what the neuron insider story was.) | (Tokyo Bunrika University) Tokyo, Japan |
57 YBN [1943 AD] | 5488) | Paris, France |
56 YBN [04/25/1944 AD] | 5454) | (Lebedev Institute of Physics) Moscow, (Soviet Union now) Russia |
56 YBN [04/27/1944 AD] | 5121) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
56 YBN [05/08/1944 AD] | 5527) | Wheaton, Illinois, USA |
56 YBN [05/13/1944 AD] | 5481) In 1952, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded jointly to Archer John Porter Martin and Richard Laurence Millington Synge "for their invention of partition chromatography". (There is a remote possibility that relating this finding to "wool" is somehow related to early images from the electron microscope Ernst Ruska paper in the early 1930s of burned cotton fiber - a play on the word "woll" which may haev been related to Wollaston and neuron writing - but it's very speculative from an excluded perspective.) | (Wool Industries Research Association) Torridon, Headingley, Leeds, UK |
56 YBN [07/03/1944 AD] | 5414) In 1933 Chain sees the inevitable when Hitler comes to power and leaves Germany to England. | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
56 YBN [07/08/1944 AD] | 5429) In 1969, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Max Delbrück, Alfred D. Hershey and Salvador E. Luria "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses". | (Indiana University) Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
56 YBN [07/17/1944 AD] | 5186) | (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
56 YBN [08/21/1944 AD] | 5389) | (McDonald Observatory, Mount Locke) Fort Davis, Texas, USA |
56 YBN [11/08/1944 AD] | 5675) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
56 YBN [11/11/1944 AD] | 5227) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1974 is awarded jointly to Albert Claude, Christian de Duve and George E. Palade "for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell". | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
56 YBN [12/19/1944 AD] | 5209) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
56 YBN [1944 AD] | 5405) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
56 YBN [1944 AD] | 6075) Bing Crosby records the song "I'll Be Seeing You" (written by Irving Kahal and Sammy Fain in 1938). (Possibly this relates to seeing direct to brain windows and how people always watch their mates for most of their lives.) | New York City, New York, USA (guess) |
56 YBN [1944 AD] | 6076) Woody Guthrie (CE 1912-1967) records his folk song "This Land Is Your Land" (written in 1940). Guthrie tires of the radio overplaying Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", the lyrics, which he thinks are unrealistic and complacent. Partly inspired by his experiences during a cross-country trip and his distaste for "God Bless America", Guthrie pens his most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land", in February 1940, and subtitles it "God Blessed America." The melody is adapted from an old gospel song "Oh My Loving Brother", best known as "When The World's On Fire", sung by the country group The Carter Family. | New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
55 YBN [04/15/1945 AD] | 5303) | (Iowa State College) Iowa, USA |
55 YBN [06/30/1945 AD] | 5334) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
55 YBN [06/??/1945 AD] | 5699) | (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
55 YBN [07/13/1945 AD] | 5426) | (Merck and Company, Inc) Rahway, New Jersey, USA |
55 YBN [07/16/1945 AD] | 5311) | (Alamogordo Test Range) Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) desert, New Mexico, USA |
55 YBN [08/31/1945 AD] | 5692) In 1958, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Frederick Sanger "for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin". Sanger wins part of a second Nobel prize when in 1980, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is divided, one half awarded to Paul Berg "for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA",the other half jointly to Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids". | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
55 YBN [10/08/1945 AD] | 6272) Microwave oven. Dr. Percy Spencer, who had conducted research on radar vacuum tubes for the military during World War II, recognizes the ability of microwave light to cook food while working for Raytheon. Spencer finds that, when confined to a metal enclosure, high-frequency radio light penetrates and excites certain type of molecules, such as those found in food. Microwave light is strong enough to cook food but not strong enough to alter its genetic structure or to make it radioactive. Raytheon patents the technology and soon develops microwave ovens capable of cooking large quantities of food. Because manufacturing costs render them too expensive for most consumers, these early ovens are used primarily by hospitals and hotels that can afford them (initially at $3,000 US). By the late 1970s, however, many companies will develop microwave ovens for home use, and the cost will come down. Today, microwaves are a standard household appliance. The basic design of a microwave oven is simple. The oven electronics are located on the exterior casing, to which the oven cavity is bolted. A front panel allows the user to program the microwave, and the door frame has a small window to enable the food to be seen while it is cooking. Near the top of the steel oven cavity is a magnetron—an electronic tube that produces high-frequency microwave oscillations—which generates the microwave frequency light particles. The microwave light particles are funneled through a metal waveguide and into a stirrer fan, also positioned near the top of the cavity. The fan distributes the microwave light evenly within the oven. Some manufacturers use dual stirrer fans located on opposite walls to direct microwaves to the cavity, while others use entry ports at the bottom of the cavity, allowing microwaves to enter from both the top and bottom. In addition, many ovens rotate food on a turntable. (read relevant parts of patent.) (It seems likely that this discovery, that microwave frequencies of light particles can be used to remotely heat objects, was known many years earlier, and was made public at this time for some reason, perhaps to sell microwave ovens or because many neuron owners and consumers want to be able to use microwave ovens in public. It is obvious how strong microwave beams can be used to remotely and invisibly hurt or even murder a living object.) (It's interesting that some microwave light must exit through the transparent part of the glass, but it must be so small a quantity that it does not have any heating effect on the human face.) (Describe more how microwave frequencies of light are produced from alternating current.) | (Raytheon Manufacturing Company) Newton, Massachusetts, USA |
55 YBN [11/20/1945 AD] | 5368) | (Karolinischen Institues) Stockholm, Sweden |
55 YBN [11/30/1945 AD] | 5549) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
55 YBN [12/24/1945 AD] | 5565) In 1952, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell "for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith". | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
55 YBN [1945 AD] | 5312) | (Argonne Laboratory) Argonne, Illinois |
55 YBN [1945 AD] | 5410) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
54 YBN [01/10/1946 AD] | 5528) | Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, USA |
54 YBN [02/??/1946 AD] | 5459) | (University of Pennsylvania) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
54 YBN [05/27/1946 AD] | 5411) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
54 YBN [06/01/1946 AD] | 5472) During the late 1950s, Libby and physicist Edward Teller, are both prominent advocates of nuclear weapons testing, oppose Linus Pauling’s petition for a ban on nuclear weapons. Libby builds a fallout shelter at his house, an event that is widely publicized. In 1960, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Willard F. Libby "for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science". | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
54 YBN [06/14/1946 AD] | 6072) "The Christmas Song" (commonly subtitled "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire") or, as it was originally subtitled, "Merry Christmas to You" (written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells in 1944) is recorded by Nat King Cole. | (WMCA Radio Studios) New York City, New York, USA |
54 YBN [06/24/1946 AD] | 5430) Delbrück leaves Germany after Hitler comes to power. In 1937 Delbrück moves to the USA. In 1969, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Max Delbrück, Alfred D. Hershey and Salvador E. Luria "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses". | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
54 YBN [07/15/1946 AD] | 5373) | (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
54 YBN [08/22/1946 AD] | 5697) In 1974, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Sir Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish "for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars". | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
54 YBN [08/??/1946 AD] | 5314) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
54 YBN [09/13/1946 AD] | 5349) | (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
54 YBN [09/17/1946 AD] | 5742) In 1958, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is divided, one half jointly to George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum "for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events" and the other half to Joshua Lederberg "for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria". | (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
54 YBN [10/10/1946 AD] | 3848) | (White Sands proving area) New Mexico, USA |
54 YBN [11/13/1946 AD] | 5419) | (General Electric Research Laboratory) Schenectady, New York, USA |
54 YBN [12/21/1946 AD] | 5537) | (University of Rome) Rome, Italy |
54 YBN [12/25/1946 AD] | 5307) | (Now: Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy) Moscow, Russia (Soviet Union) |
54 YBN [1946 AD] | 5018) | (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
54 YBN [1946 AD] | 5483) | |
53 YBN [01/08/1947 AD] | 5340) | (Imperial College of Science and Technology) London, England |
53 YBN [01/09/1947 AD] | 5443) In 1930 Zinn moves to the USA. In 1939 Zinn is one of the US physicists that confirm Meitner's theory of uranium fission. Zinn is recruited by Enrico Fermi for the Manhattan Project, and at the University of Chicago, Zinn is the person that withdraws a control rod from the atomic pile, releasing the earth’s first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. Zinn later supervises the dismantling of the pile and its removal to the Argonne National Laboratory (near Chicago), of which Zinn is the director of (1946–56). In 1942 Zinn is the person that withdraws the control rod (a single rod?) in the first nuclear reactor and makes it self sustaining.) Zinn works on the development of the nuclear bomb. Zinn becomes director of the Argonne National Laboratories in Chicago. | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
53 YBN [01/10/1947 AD] | 5404) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
53 YBN [01/10/1947 AD] | 5581) In 1951 Lovell supervises the construction of a 250-foot steerable radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Experimental Station. This construction takes 6 years. The turret rack of a battleship is used to turn the dish. This telescope is used to track Sputnik I using radio reflection (radar). Cambridge radio astronomers under Antony Hewish discover pulsars, but are limited to observing them only for the few minutes each day that the pulsars are on the Cambridge meridian. The steerable Jodrell Bank telescope can observe objects for as long as they are above the horizon. Of the 50 pulsars discovered in the northern hemisphere before 1972, 27 are detected at Jodrell Bank. Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/bernard-lovell#ixzz1Ht46Okvj | (University of Manchester: Jodrell Bank) Cheshire, England |
53 YBN [01/27/1947 AD] | 5335) | (Argonne Laboratory) Argonne, Illinois, USA |
53 YBN [02/07/1947 AD] | 5337) | (Argonne Laboratory) Argonne, Illinois |
53 YBN [02/08/1947 AD] | 5338) The 1950 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Cecil Powell "for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method". Powell is the founder of the Pugwash Movement, which supports peace and scientific cooperation among all nations. (To me, it seems like there can be many particles of different mass with more or less photons in them, from the size of a photon on up (although clearly at some point, a single collection of photons is probably not possible and divides into two orbiting masses.) The finding of particles with charge is also a specific thing. Are there particles of identical mass but one has a charge and the other does not? Perhaps charge is the result of a range of mass for a particle. These charged particles must not be part of atoms so how are they produced? Can they be routinely produced in particle accelerators? If so, state how. If they are produced by atoms in collisions might they be part of atoms? or perhaps they are arranged at the time of the collision. If produced from particles, might they be part of those particles? or again, made at the time of the collision? Are there positive and negative muons and pions? What are the other characteristics of these particles, and how are they deduced? If charged, can they be substituted for electrons or protons in atoms?) (what shape might a photon be? a sphere, or a cube? some other shape? If a sphere, that has implications: it means that there will always be empty space between photons, where a cube allows the possibility of photons packed together with no empty space between.) | (University of Bristol) Bristol, England |
53 YBN [02/17/1947 AD] | 5478) | (Polaroid Corporation) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
53 YBN [03/17/1947 AD] | 5588) | (General Electric Research Laboratory) Schenectady, New York, USA |
53 YBN [06/18/1947 AD] | 5402) In 1955, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided equally between Willis Eugene Lamb "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum" and Polykarp Kusch "for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron". | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
53 YBN [06/26/1947 AD] | 5550) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
53 YBN [08/31/1947 AD] | 5582) | (University of Manchester: Jodrell Bank) Cheshire, England |
53 YBN [08/31/1947 AD] | 5583) | (University of Manchester: Jodrell Bank) Cheshire, England |
53 YBN [10/14/1947 AD] | 5603) | (over Rogers Dry Lake) Edwards, California, USA |
53 YBN [10/16/1947 AD] | 5589) | (Johns Hopkins University) Silver Spring, Maryland, USA |
53 YBN [12/20/1947 AD] | 5543) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
53 YBN [1947 AD] | 5225) Lipmann had discovered the new coenzyme in 1945. While working on the role of phosphate in cell metabolism, Lipmann discovers that a heat-stable factor is acting as a carrier of acetyl (CH3CO–) groups. It can not be replaced by any other known cofactor. Lipmann eventually isolates and identifies what he terms ‘cofactor A’, or CoA (the A stands for acetylation), showing it to contain pantothenic acid (vitamin B2). Lipmann also realizes that the two-carbon compound in the Krebs cycle that joins with oxaloacetic acid to form citric acid is in fact acetyl CoA. The coenzyme will soon be shown to have wider application than the Krebs cycle, when in 1950 Feodor Lynen finds that it plays a key role in the metabolism of fats. Lipmann shows that coenzyme A contains vitamin B (panthothenic acid) and is the reason vitamin B is required by a body to survive because it is needed for digestion of molecules in food. | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
53 YBN [1947 AD] | 5241) Gabor leaves Germany for England with the coming to power of Hitler. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1971 is awarded to Dennis Gabor "for his invention and development of the holographic method". | (Research Laboratory, British Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd.) Rugby, England |
53 YBN [1947 AD] | 5360) | (University of Grenoble) Grenoble, France |
53 YBN [1947 AD] | 5390) | (McDonald Observatory, Mount Locke) Fort Davis, Texas, USA |
53 YBN [1947 AD] | 5465) | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
53 YBN [1947 AD] | 5721) | |
52 YBN [01/15/1948 AD] | 5500) | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
52 YBN [02/16/1948 AD] | 5391) | (McDonald Observatory, Mount Locke) Fort Davis, Texas, USA |
52 YBN [02/18/1948 AD] | 5350) | (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
52 YBN [03/10/1948 AD] | 3337) | (Associated Electrical Industries) Aldermaston, Berkshire, England |
52 YBN [03/12/1948 AD] | 5538) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
52 YBN [04/16/1948 AD] | 5417) In 1930 Goeppert-Mayer moves to the USA. In 1963, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half awarded to Eugene Paul Wigner "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles",the other half jointly to Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure". | (Argonne Laboratory) Argonne, Illinois |
52 YBN [04/16/1948 AD] | 5427) | (Merck and Company, Inc) Rahway, New Jersey, USA |
52 YBN [06/17/1948 AD] | 5295) Brattain works on the magnetic detection of submarines. (more detail. How can submarines be detected magnetically? Would that not require a massive magnet?) Brattain, Bardeen and Shockley are all employees of Bell Laboratories (and so must be fully aware of and receivers of neuron reading and writing direct-to-brain windows.). The Nobel Prize in Physics 1956 was awarded jointly to William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect". Bardeen will win a portion of a second Nobel prize in 1972 with Leon Cooper and J. Robert Schrieffer for developing the theory of superconductivity (1957). In the 1970s Shockley implies that genetic factors in intelligence are the reason for the innate mental inferiority of black people, which is greeted by a storm of disapproval by many people. Shockley writes in an article "Race and Heredity": "...If my recommended research on such students confirms my estimate of one I.Q. point increase for each 1 percent increase of Caucasian ancestry, we must dismally predict that elimination of prejudice will not remedy the tragic disadvantages of our black minority and must search for other solutions. ...". Shockley writes in "Race and Heredity": "...Within the last month or so, the Idaho Legislature passed a sterilization law for mental defectives who, after being sterilized, would then be permitted to leave institutions and return to public life. Obviously, the representatives of the American public are prepared to take action. I doubt if the public feels that any individual has a right to produce children if the probability is high that a child will never be self-supporting. Although passed by 40 votes to 2 in the Idaho House, this law passed by only 18 to 16 in the Senate and was vetoed by the Governor. I conjecture that lack of knowledge of probably well-established facts on inheritance of mental retardation has lead to an unwise outcome. ...". (This is exactly what the Nazis believed and carried through. Think of how easy it is to label a human a "mental defective" - in particular with all the psychological labels in use today and the ease of locking lawful people into psychiatric hospitals for 72 hour observation and unconsensual treatments of druggings and restraints. Notice "outcome" in near-perfect elitist neuron-speak. Note the emphasis that the post-steralized people get to go free - apparently this time, at least initially, they won't be euthanized. Perhaps AT&T and Stanford were not aware of these thoughts and views of Shockley when they hired and maintained him for years, but then as outsiders, unlike insiders, we have no idea who shares similar views around us.) In 1980 Shockley contributes some of his 72 year old sperm cells for the purpose of freezing them for eventual use in the insemination of women of high intelligence. (The transistor must have been invented in the 1800s if not 1700s, for neuron reading and writing to be invented in 1810. The transistor clearly helped in the telephone company's efforts to put at least one microphone and camera (and of course, telephone line) in every house. The transistor may have lowered the size of perhaps the microphone, the photon capturing devices, the light particle transmitters and receivers. Clearly some even smaller technology was invented that has not been made public. The main aspect of the camera-thought net is storage in my opinion. Because this is tremendous amounts of data. And for that magnetic tape was the major product for decades. What replaced magnetic tape was probably CDs and DVDs, but even now magnetic plastic tape is still used. Perhaps something like flash drives with no mechanical moving parts are ultimately the smallest and fastest storage. The mystery of where the cameras, microphones, infrared thought seeing and sending devices are is a great mystery, and their size too. It seems likely that these devices are dust-sized or smaller, many probably hover and fly, and are completely wireless, but many are probably stationary too. Perhaps ultimately they write there data to the phone wires to send images and audio data back to the phone company buildings, but probably many millions of invisible light particle streams are the main method of information movement. Outside of this, very very little is known by those of us in the excluded. These devices are clearly powered by photons and need no wires. But it seems likely that the telephone wire is used or was used in the past. It may be that tiny devices are necessary to enter into the human body to precisely pinpoint neurons, but clearly simply flying micrometer sized cameras and microphones can provide a lot of valuable information and could fly or even drift into and out of buildings without being detected. Probably much of this technology of sending and receiving devices and information into and from people's houses with cameras, microphone, thought seeing and sending was developed at Bell Labs. These devices can be used to trigger sadness, happiness, crying, laughing, beam images, sounds, smells, feelings (touch sensation and heat and pain sensations), muscle movement, directly and have evolved to an amazing complexity and all secretly without the public ever knowing. ) (As an relevent aside, the touch, heat and pain neurons and associated sensations all evolved and contributed to an organism's chance of survival.) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
52 YBN [06/18/1948 AD] | 5440) | (Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.) New York City, New York, USA |
52 YBN [07/13/1948 AD] | 5704) Born in Vienna, Gold became a refugee from the Austrian Anschluss (the political union of Nazi Germany and Austria in 1938). | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
52 YBN [07/29/1948 AD] | 5400) In 1965, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard P. Feynman "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". (I have a lot of doubts about this "QED" work, in particular am calling for all thought-screen and relevent eye images to be released to the public to determine what the neuron insider story was.) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
52 YBN [08/03/1948 AD] | 5647) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
52 YBN [09/27/1948 AD] | 5644) In 1961, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided equally between Robert Hofstadter "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons" and Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer "for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name". | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
52 YBN [09/27/1948 AD] | 5645) | (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
52 YBN [10/02/1948 AD] | 5326) Leakey is the son of a Christian missionary person, born and raised in Kenya, then one of Britain's colonies. "Consul" is the name of a popular chimp in the London zoo at this time. (From the work of the Leakeys is much of the evidence that humans originated in East Africa.) | Rusinga Island, Lake Victoria, Kenya, Africa |
52 YBN [1948 AD] | 4526) The 200-inch reflecting telescope on Palomar Mountain is completed. In 1929 George Ellery Hale (CE 1868-1938), US astronomer had received a grant from the Rockefeller foundation to build the Palomar telescope, a 200-inch reflector, named "the Hale telescope". The Mount Palomar observatory also has a 48-inch camera of the kind invented by Schmidt. Hale does not live to see the telescope completed in 1948 after 15 years of work, which WW 2 adds delays to. The Soviet Union will build a 600 centimeter (236 inch) reflecting telescope which is larger. (Really amazing that so many major telescopes were all built by the influence of Hale with the wealthy business people funding.) | (Palomar Observatory) Palomar Mountain, California, USA |
52 YBN [1948 AD] | 4774) Duggar enters the University of Alabama at age 14. Duggar discovers aureomycin at age 76. | (American Cyanamid Company) Ontario, Canada (presumably) |
52 YBN [1948 AD] | 5015) | (Mayo Foundation) Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
52 YBN [1948 AD] | 5159) The 1950 Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology is awarded jointly to Edward Calvin Kendall, Tadeus Reichstein and Philip Showalter Hench "for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects". | |
52 YBN [1948 AD] | 5168) | (Boston Children's Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
52 YBN [1948 AD] | 6273) | Nyon, Switzerland |
51 YBN [01/28/1949 AD] | 5169) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1954 is awarded jointly to John Franklin Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller and Frederick Chapman Robbins "for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue". (verify original paper, read relevent parts) | (Boston Children's Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
51 YBN [02/02/1949 AD] | 5494) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
51 YBN [03/??/1949 AD] | 5375) | (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
51 YBN [04/??/1949 AD] | 5135) | (Muscle Research at the Marine Biological Station) Woods Hole, Massachusetts. USA |
51 YBN [05/01/1949 AD] | 5392) | (McDonald Observatory, Mount Locke) Fort Davis, Texas, USA |
51 YBN [05/09/1949 AD] | 5401) In 1965, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard P. Feynman "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". (When we see all the thought-screen images and floating micro-meter camera videos of history - probably our views of science will be changed in very large ways - mostly we will see massive and widespread corruption and dishonesty.) | (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
51 YBN [06/26/1949 AD] | 5122) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
51 YBN [07/27/1949 AD] | 6270) | Hatfield, England |
51 YBN [08/01/1949 AD] | 5406) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
51 YBN [08/06/1949 AD] | 5198) The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1967 is divided, one half awarded to Manfred Eigen "for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equlibrium by means of very short pulses of energy",the other half jointly to Ronald George Wreyford Norrish and George Porter "for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equlibrium by means of very short pulses of energy". | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
51 YBN [08/29/1949 AD] | 5308) | Semipalatinsk, Russia (Soviet Union) |
51 YBN [10/10/1949 AD] | 5539) | (University of Rochester) Rochester, New York, USA |
51 YBN [11/17/1949 AD] | 5495) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
51 YBN [11/23/1949 AD] | 5434) In 1957 Whipple heads the optical tracking system of the USA, where observers trace comets and asteroids. | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
51 YBN [11/24/1949 AD] | 5228) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1960 is awarded jointly to Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet and Peter Brian Medawar "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance". | (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) Melbourne, Australia |
51 YBN [11/25/1949 AD] | 5258) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
51 YBN [12/23/1949 AD] | 5475) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
51 YBN [1949 AD] | 5343) | (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
51 YBN [1949 AD] | 5458) | (Istituto Superiore di Sanita/Superior Institute of Health) Rome, Italy |
51 YBN [1949 AD] | 5466) | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
51 YBN [1949 AD] | 5467) In 1964 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances". | (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
50 YBN [01/13/1950 AD] | 5237) | (Observatory at Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
50 YBN [01/23/1950 AD] | 5551) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN [03/07/1950 AD] | 5127) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
50 YBN [03/15/1950 AD] | 5552) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN [03/15/1950 AD] | 5553) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN [03/22/1950 AD] | 5393) | (Palomar Observatory) Mount Palomar, California, USA |
50 YBN [04/17/1950 AD] | 5687) Aage Bohr is the son of Niels Bohr. In 1975, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Aage Niels Bohr, Ben Roy Mottelson and Leo James Rainwater "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection". | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
50 YBN [04/21/1950 AD] | 5592) | (Johns Hopkins University) Silver Spring, Maryland, USA |
50 YBN [04/26/1950 AD] | 5542) | (University of Bristol) Bristol, England |
50 YBN [05/??/1950 AD] | 5480) | (Burden Neurological Institute) Bristol, England |
50 YBN [08/02/1950 AD] | 5773) | (University of Birmingham) Birmingham, England |
50 YBN [08/??/1950 AD] | 5696) In 1969, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded jointly to Derek H. R. Barton and Odd Hassel "for their contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry". | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
50 YBN [09/11/1950 AD] | 5555) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN [10/12/1950 AD] | 5395) | (Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
50 YBN [10/16/1950 AD] | 5259) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
50 YBN [10/??/1950 AD] | 5564) | (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
50 YBN [11/08/1950 AD] | 5556) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN [1950 AD] | 5297) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1966 is awarded to Alfred Kastler "for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms". According to Asimov, Townes had won in 1964 for his work on the maser, and there was some dissatisfaction in France over the ignoring of Kastler. | (Ecole Normale Superieure) Paris, France |
50 YBN [1950 AD] | 5298) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1965ias awarded jointly to François Jacob, André Lwoff and Jacques Monod "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis". | (Institut Pasteur) Paris, France |
50 YBN [1950 AD] | 5379) In 1933 Chargaff moves to Paris on the coming of Hitler. In 1935 Chargaff moves to the USA. | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
50 YBN [1950 AD] | 5394) | (Yerkes Observatory) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
49 YBN [03/??/1951 AD] | 5460) | (Remington Rand) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
49 YBN [05/05/1951 AD] | 5664) | (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
49 YBN [05/08/1951 AD] | 5097) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
49 YBN [06/05/1951 AD] | 5482) | (National Institute for Medical Research) Mill Hill, London, UK |
49 YBN [06/14/1951 AD] | 5566) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
49 YBN [07/26/1951 AD] | 5504) In 1964, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Konrad Bloch and Feodor Lynen "for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism". | (University of Munich {Munchen}) Munich, Germany |
49 YBN [08/27/1951 AD] | 5516) | (Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry) Berlin-Dahlem, Germany |
49 YBN [09/14/1951 AD] | 5150) | (Palomar Observatory) Mount Palomar, California, USA |
49 YBN [10/??/1951 AD] | 5505) | (University of Munich {Munchen}) Munich, Germany (presumably) |
49 YBN [11/11/1951 AD] | 6274) | Los Angeles, California, USA[ |
49 YBN [11/29/1951 AD] | 5610) | (US Department of Energy Nevada Proving Grounds) Nye County, Nevada, USA |
49 YBN [12/13/1951 AD] | 5313) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1963 is awarded jointly to Sir John Carew Eccles, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane". | (Universities of Otago, Dunedin, and Australian National University, Canberra) Canberra, Australia |
49 YBN [12/20/1951 AD] | 5444) | Arco, Idaho (verify) |
49 YBN [1951 AD] | 3338) | |
49 YBN [1951 AD] | 3339) | (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
49 YBN [1951 AD] | 5091) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
49 YBN [1951 AD] | 5129) After a few months of returning from Berkeley to Germany Hitler assumes power and Simon resigns in June 1933 and accepts the invitation of F. A. Lindemann (later Lord Cherwell) to work at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, where a small helium liquefaction plant has been set up by one of Simon’s former co-workers. K. Mendelssohn. | (Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University) Oxford, England |
49 YBN [1951 AD] | 5152) | Volga region, (Soviet Union) Russia |
49 YBN [1951 AD] | 5226) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
49 YBN [1951 AD] | 5302) | |
49 YBN [1951 AD] | 5876) | (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA |
48 YBN [03/10/1952 AD] | 5584) Andrew Huxley is the grandson of T. H. Huxley. In 1963, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Sir John Carew Eccles, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane". | (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
48 YBN [03/15/1952 AD] | 5562) In 1979 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded jointly to Herbert C. Brown and Georg Wittig "for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis". | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
48 YBN [03/21/1952 AD] | 5655) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA (presumably in New Jersey) |
48 YBN [03/22/1952 AD] | 5570) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
48 YBN [03/24/1952 AD] | 5698) In 1973, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded jointly to Ernst Otto Fischer and Geoffrey Wilkinson "for their pioneering work, performed independently, on the chemistry of the organometallic, so called sandwich compounds". | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (Technischen Hochschde) Munich, Germany |
48 YBN [04/02/1952 AD] | 5743) | (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA and (Istituto Sicroterapico Milanese) Milan, Italy |
48 YBN [04/04/1952 AD] | 5677) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
48 YBN [04/09/1952 AD] | 5431) | (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, USA |
48 YBN [04/14/1952 AD] | 5541) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
48 YBN [05/19/1952 AD] | 5218) The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1963 is awarded jointly to Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta "for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers". | (Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research), Mulheim-Ruhr, Germany |
48 YBN [06/12/1952 AD] | 5757) In 1960, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Donald A. Glaser "for the invention of the bubble chamber". | (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
48 YBN [07/16/1952 AD] | 5693) In 1958, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Frederick Sanger "for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin". Sanger wins part of a second Nobel prize when in 1980, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is divided, one half awarded to Paul Berg "for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA",the other half jointly to Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids". | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
48 YBN [07/19/1952 AD] | 5442) In 1942, B. B. Bhatia had reported that the roots, leaves and juice of the Rauwolfia serpentina plant lowers blood pressure. Robert Wallace Wilkins (CE 1906-2003), US physician, and others will confirm that this drug does lower blood pressure in the 1950s. Reserpine is the first of the tranquilizers. The tranquilizers have an advantage over earlier sedatives, like barbiturates in producing a calming effect without lowering alertness or causing sleep. (This drug will also be used to cure "neurosis", which is a very abstract label often applied to perfectly healthful normal humans. In addition the non-consensual drugging of people labeled with neurological disorders is wrong in my view.) | (Ciba Aktiengesellschaft) Basel, Switzerland |
48 YBN [08/13/1952 AD] | 6061) The song "Hound Dog" recorded. "Hound Dog" is written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and originally recorded by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton. | Los Angeles, California, USA |
48 YBN [08/??/1952 AD] | 5591) | (Coast Guard Cutter ship |
48 YBN [11/01/1952 AD] | 5470) As a student Teller loses his right foot in a streetcar accident. (Perhaps neuron writing is responsible for this.) Teller leaves Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933. Teller works on the uranium fission bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. When others, such as Oppenheimer are not supportive of the development of the hydrogen-fusion bomb (the H-bomb), Teller is one that strenuously is in favor of such development. At the U.S. government hearings held in 1954 to determine whether Oppenheimer is a security risk, Teller testifies about his former chief: "...his actions frankly appeared to me confused and complicated…I would personally feel more secure if public matters could rest in other hands.". After the hearings, Oppenheimer’s security clearance is revoked. Although Teller's testimony is not the decisive factor in the decision to remove Oppenheimer's security clearance, many prominent US nuclear physicists never forgive Teller for what they view as his betrayal of Oppenheimer. (It seems somewhat trivial to me - people should feel free to give their honest opinions - people can see and hear thought now - it seems dishonest say something other than what you think and believe.) Teller opposes the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which bans nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere. (While testing in the earth atmosphere is clearly a bad idea, testing of uranium fission chain reactions far away from earth to propel ships I see as inevitable.) | (Elugelab Island in the Enewatak Atoll of the) Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean |
48 YBN [12/01/1952 AD] | 5782) | (University of Warsaw) Warsaw, Poland |
48 YBN [1952 AD] | 5123) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
48 YBN [1952 AD] | 5128) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
48 YBN [1952 AD] | 5407) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
48 YBN [1952 AD] | 5670) In 1980 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Baruj Benacerraf, Jean Dausset and George D. Snell "for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions". | (Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine) Paris, France. (presumably) |
47 YBN [02/13/1953 AD] | 5786) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
47 YBN [02/26/1953 AD] | 5396) | (Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
47 YBN [02/26/1953 AD] | 5397) | (Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
47 YBN [03/28/1953 AD] | 5643) | (University of Pittsburgh) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
47 YBN [04/02/1953 AD] | 5660) Watson entered the University of Chicago at age 15. Wilkins had worked at the University of California on the atomic bomb during World War II. (State what war reseach the universities were involved in during World War 2.) In 1968 Watson publishes "The Double Helix", an account of his DNA research. Rosalind Franklin dies of cancer age 37 four years before Watson, Crick and Wilkins are awarded the Nobel Prize. (It seems extremely unusual for a woman of 37 years old to die - perhaps she was murdered by remote galvanization.) Asimov states that "Her own contribution to the double-helix structure of nucleic acids has been consistently underestimated and some blame it on the anti-woman prejudices of the English scientific establishment.". (Excluding and oppressing women is not smart, in particular since that is rejecting half of potential scientific contributors and allies.) In 1980 Crick advances the idea of the seeding of life on planets, including possibly earth from DNA of other star systems similar to the earlier theory of Arrhenius. In early 2007 Watson’s own genome is sequenced and made publicly available on the Internet. Watson is the second person in history to have a personal genome sequenced in its entirety. In October of the same year, Watson sparks controversy by making a public statement referring to the idea that the intelligence of Africans might not be the same as that of other peoples and that intellectual differences between geographically separated peoples might arise over time as a result of genetic divergence. Watson’s remarks are immediately denounced as racist. Though he denies this charge, Watson resigns from his position at Cold Spring Harbor and announces his retirement less than two weeks later. On October 27, 2007 in a statement given to The Associated Press, Dr. Watson states, “I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said. There is no scientific basis for such a belief.” (Perhaps it was external neuron writing - many may wonder when there is not external neuron writing involved in our thought processes.) | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
47 YBN [05/29/1953 AD] | 5700) | Mount Everest, border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. |
47 YBN [06/19/1953 AD] | 5124) | (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
47 YBN [07/09/1953 AD] | 5690) In 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded "for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics" jointly with one half to Martin L. Perl "for the discovery of the tau lepton" and with one half to Frederick Reines "for the detection of the neutrino". A lepton is any particles that participate in the supposed "weak nuclear interaction", including the electron, the muon, and their associated neutrinos. From 1944 to 1959 Reines is a group leader at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, concerned with the physics and effects of nuclear explosions. Cowan is on the faculty of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC from 1958 until his death in 1974. | (Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, University of California) Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA |
47 YBN [07/12/1953 AD] | 5781) | Bagneres de Bigorre, France |
47 YBN [08/12/1953 AD] | 5309) | Semipalatinsk, Russia (Soviet Union) |
47 YBN [08/21/1953 AD] | 5758) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
47 YBN [09/28/1953 AD] | 5783) | (Institute for Advanced Study) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
47 YBN [09/30/1953 AD] | 5671) | (Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine) Paris, France. |
47 YBN [10/03/1953 AD] | 5646) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1960 was awarded jointly to Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet and Peter Brian Medawar "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance". | (University College, University of London) London, England |
47 YBN [10/22/1953 AD] | 5351) | (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
47 YBN [11/16/1953 AD] | 5701) In 1976, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to William Lipscomb "for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding". | (University of Minnesota) Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
47 YBN [1953 AD] | 5172) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
47 YBN [1953 AD] | 5669) Shklovskii is interested in the search for advanced life of other stars, as are Sagan and Drake. (Apparently Shklovsky suggested that a moon of Mars may be hollow - determine what is the origin of this.) | (Moscow University) Moscow, U. S. S. R. (now Russia) (presumably) |
46 YBN [01/21/1954 AD] | 5230) | Thames River, Connecticut, USA |
46 YBN [02/15/1954 AD] | 6080) "Shake, Rattle and Roll" (by Charles E. Calhoun aka Jesse Stone in 1954) is recorded by Big Joe Turner. ("Rattle" in this song may relate to telling about direct-to-brain windows. That a woman should be in the kitchen is, kind of a backward - woman as a servant- view. Then to know that Bill Haley and none other than Elvis more famously cover this song.) | New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN [02/23/1954 AD] | 5766) In the last days of WW2 the Nazis draft children and Eigen is briefly in an antiaircraft gun crew. In 1967 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is divided, one half awarded to Manfred Eigen "for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equlibrium by means of very short pulses of energy",the other half jointly to Ronald George Wreyford Norrish and George Porter "for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equlibrium by means of very short pulses of energy". Eigen is not to be confused with and not the originator of an Eigenfunction, Eigenstate, or Eigenvalue of mathematics and Schroedinger's wave functions. "Eigen" in German means "own" and "eigenwert" means "intrinsically worth". (more details) | (Max-Planck-Institut fur physikalische Chemie) Gottingen, Germany |
46 YBN [03/05/1954 AD] | 5586) In 1936 Perutz leaves Austria for England. Perutz is interned as an enemy alien during World War II. In 1962 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded jointly to Max Ferdinand Perutz and John Cowdery Kendrew "for their studies of the structures of globular proteins". | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
46 YBN [03/30/1954 AD] | 5503) | (University College) London, England |
46 YBN [04/12/1954 AD] | 6062) | (Pythian Temple studios) New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN [04/28/1954 AD] | 5265) | (Cornell University Medical College) New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN [04/28/1954 AD] | 5577) | (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Washington, D. C, USA |
46 YBN [05/05/1954 AD] | 5649) In 1948 Townes moves from Bell labs and joins the faculty at Columbia University. In 1964, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half awarded to Charles Hard Townes "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle",the other half jointly to Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov and Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle". (Possibly the maser is not an invention, as much as it is an optimization of the phenomenon of luminescence, or the regular frequencies that various atoms and molecules emit absorbed light particles at.) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN [06/10/1954 AD] | 5691) Matthias moves from Germany to Switzerland when Hitler gains control of Germany. Matthias works at Bell Labs. In 1961 Matthias works at the University of California. | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
46 YBN [06/27/1954 AD] | 5310) | Obninsk, Russia (Soviet Union)(verify) |
46 YBN [07/05/1954 AD] | 6081) Elvis Presley records his first single "That's All Right" (written and originally performed by blues singer Arthur Crudup). | (Sun Records) Memphis, Tennessee, USA |
46 YBN [07/06/1954 AD] | 5520) In 1972, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is divided, one half awarded to Christian B. Anfinsen "for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation",the other half jointly to Stanford Moore and William H. Stein "for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule". | (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN [08/09/1954 AD] | 5571) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
46 YBN [08/17/1954 AD] | 5594) | (University of Iowa) Iowa City, Iowa, USA |
46 YBN [08/23/1954 AD] | 5678) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
46 YBN [08/23/1954 AD] | 5679) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
46 YBN [10/21/1954 AD] | 5250) | (Kyoto University) Kyoto, Japan |
46 YBN [12/10/1954 AD] | 5315) The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1963 was awarded jointly to Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta "for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers". Natta is the first Italian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry. | (Polytechnic of Milan) Milan, Italy |
46 YBN [1954 AD] | 4414) | (Moscow University) Moscow, Russia |
46 YBN [1954 AD] | 5170) | (Boston Children's Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
46 YBN [1954 AD] | 5322) | (Max Planck Institute) Munich, Germany |
46 YBN [1954 AD] | 5323) | (Worchester Foundation for Experimental Biology) Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, USA |
45 YBN [02/18/1955 AD] | 5686) In 1974, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Electron-microscopists Albert Claude, Christian de Duve and George E. Palade "for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell". | (University of Louvain) Louvain, Belgium |
45 YBN [02/26/1955 AD] | 5661) | (Birkbeck College) London, England |
45 YBN [04/07/1955 AD] | 5384) In 1959 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid". It seems clear that Marianne Grunberg-Manago should have had an equal share of the prize with Ochoa. | (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
45 YBN [04/15/1955 AD] | 5727) | (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Washington, D. C., USA |
45 YBN [04/18/1955 AD] | 5558) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
45 YBN [06/17/1955 AD] | 5491) Fraenkel-Conrat leaves Germany with the rise of Hitler. | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
45 YBN [06/20/1955 AD] | 5557) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
45 YBN [06/24/1955 AD] | 5304) | (Iowa State College) Iowa, USA |
45 YBN [08/20/1955 AD] | 5468) | (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
45 YBN [08/22/1955 AD] | 5710) In 1977, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is divided, one half jointly to Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally "for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain" and the other half to Rosalyn Yalow "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones". | (Veterans Administration Hospital) Bronx, New York, USA |
45 YBN [09/14/1955 AD] | 6082) Little Richard records "Tutti-Frutti", (written by Little Richard and Dorothy LaBostrie). | (Cosimo Matassa's studio) New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
45 YBN [10/24/1955 AD] | 5366) Chamberlain worked on the Manhattan Project, a U.S. research project that produced the first atom bombs. | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
45 YBN [11/03/1955 AD] | 6096) "The Great Pretender" released (written by Buck Ram, performed by "The Platters"). (Notice that this song has a verse and a bridge but no chorus. Notice too how "pretending" is characteristic of those who must pretend that the do not see or hear thought.) | Los Angeles, California, USA (guess) |
45 YBN [11/15/1955 AD] | 5567) With Soviet forces occupying Romania after World War 2, Palade leaves. In 1974 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Albert Claude, Christian de Duve and George E. Palade "for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell". | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
44 YBN [01/04/1956 AD] | 5305) | (Iowa State College) Iowa, USA |
44 YBN [01/16/1956 AD] | 5316) | (Polytechnic of Milan) Milan, Italy |
44 YBN [01/23/1956 AD] | 5762) | (University of Illinois) Champaign, Illinois, USA |
44 YBN [02/18/1956 AD] | 5760) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
44 YBN [03/??/1956 AD] | 5688) In 1959, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid". | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
44 YBN [04/10/1956 AD] | 5680) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
44 YBN [04/16/1956 AD] | 6083) | (Chess Records) Chicago, Illinois, USA (presumably) |
44 YBN [04/23/1956 AD] | 5761) In the late 1960s O’Neill turned his attention to the feasibility of space colonization. He designs a kilometre-long sealed cylinder, to be built primarily of processed lunar materials and powered by solar energy, capable of sustaining a human colony indefinitely at a point in space between the Earth and the Moon. In his book The High Frontier (1978) O'Neill suggests that space colonies might be the ultimate solution to such terrestrial problems as pollution, overpopulation, and the energy shortage. | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
44 YBN [04/??/1956 AD] | 5082) | (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
44 YBN [04/??/1956 AD] | 5777) In 1944 Gell-Mann enters Yale on his 15th birthday. Gell-Mann works under Fermi at the University of Chicago. In 1956 at 26 Gell-Mann is a full professor at the California Institute of Technology. In 1969, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Murray Gell-Mann "for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions". (This is a very theoretical contribution to be awarded an entire Nobel prize for.) (Note that Gell-Mann's Nobel lecture "Symmetry and Currents in Particle Physics" is apparently not published anywhere.) | (Institute for Advanced Study) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
44 YBN [04/??/1956 AD] | 6275) | San Carlos, California, USA (presumably) |
44 YBN [06/22/1956 AD] | 5723) Yang actively seeks out Fermi for his graduate work. In 1957, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao (T.D.) Lee "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles". This is the first people of Chinese birth to win a Nobel prize. (Without any intent to be rude or racist but simply honest, I have to put this Nobel prize choice up towards the top of the most abstract, useless, highly theoretical, corrupt, and most likely false so-called science contribution the Nobel Prize committee has ever recognized. But clearly behind Egas Moniz's award - there are many others to chose from. There are many useful physics applications that help life on earth constantly being uncovered - in particular in product innovations and secret neuron, transmutation and robot research - to name a few. But I do support the effort of the Nobel committee to explore and award the science contributions of people of non-European race, in the interest of racial variety, harmony and equality.) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA and (Brookhaven National Laboratory) Upton, New York, USA |
44 YBN [07/02/1956 AD] | 6105) "Don't Be Cruel" is recorded by Elvis Presley and written by Otis Blackwell in 1956. | New York City, New York, USA |
44 YBN [07/06/1956 AD] | 5702) In 1943 Bloembergen gets his master's degree at the University of Utrecht, but in the same year the Nazis occupy the Netherlands and shut down the Dutch universities. In 1981, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half jointly to Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur Leonard Schawlow "for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy" and the other half to Kai M. Siegbahn "for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy". | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
44 YBN [07/24/1956 AD] | 5572) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
44 YBN [10/25/1956 AD] | 5424) | ( University of Cincinnati) Cincinnati, Ohio, USA |
44 YBN [11/16/1956 AD] | 5573) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
44 YBN [12/03/1956 AD] | 5703) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
44 YBN [1956 AD] | 5130) | (Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University) Oxford, England |
44 YBN [1956 AD] | 5261) Calder Hall is build under the guidance of (Baron) Christopher Hinton (CE 1901-1983). The first uranium fission electricity generating plant is started in 1954 in Obninsk in the Soviet Union. (This structure uses the heat from uranium fission to heat water and uses the steam to drive a generator which creates electric current. How is this current stored? Describe how electrical power stations actually work, perhaps they just create a continuous voltage difference with end users houses. How are changing demands met? Are there temporary holding batteries, or are more electricity producing devices turned on when more electricity is in use?)) In 1954 the first nuclear power plant was built in the Soviet Union. (Show internal diagram of nuclear plant. Why is the traditional concrete cylinder shape used? Does it serve a purpose? Is it necessary? It seems an unnecessary waste.) (Are there other designs beside uranium fission that can produce more heat/free particle motion than is put in? Clearly burning trash and containing all waste products in a closed vessel is one simple method of producing heat and therefore electricity.) | (Calder Hall) Sellafield, England |
44 YBN [1956 AD] | 5317) | (University of Boston) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
44 YBN [1956 AD] | 5408) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
44 YBN [1956 AD] | 6248) | (The Boots Company) England |
43 YBN [01/13/1957 AD] | 6084) Elvis Presley records "All Shook Up" (written by Otis Blackwell). (Possibly some lyrics have to do with remote neuron writing for example - "please don't ask me what's on my mind".) (Notice that this song contains a "bridge" {'Please don't ask what's on my mind...'} although no chorus. Describe the history of the "bridge", which is usually a "third" part besides the verse and chorus. I think the bridge goes back at least to the 1920s and 1930s pop/show songs- for example "Swanny" has possibly a bridge. In the 1950s popular music in the USA was mostly a verse, a solo and maybe a chorus - with no bridge. But the bridge becomes a standard part of most of the progressive - in terms of structure- pop music by the end of the 1950s I think- verify.) | (Radio Recorders) Hollywood, California, USA |
43 YBN [01/15/1957 AD] | 5724) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA and (National Bureau of Standards) Washington, D. C., USA |
43 YBN [01/16/1957 AD] | 5711) Surprising that there is no Nobel Prize for this. | (Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
43 YBN [04/05/1957 AD] | 5517) | (Pennsylvania State University) University park, Pennsylvania, USA |
43 YBN [04/24/1957 AD] | 5668) Chubb, Friedman, Kreplin, and Kupperian report as an abstract: "A rocket instrumented to measure Lyman alpha and X-rays wasf ired while a smallf lare was in progresso n June2 0, 1956.T he rocket reached peak altitude about ten minutes after the flare was first seen visually. An unusually high X-ray flux was observed extending to a short wavelength limit of 3A. Although the flare was still visible in Ha, Lyman alpha was not appreciably different from normal.". (Solar flares appear to me to be openings in the crust of the star where high densities of light particles escape. In this view, solar flares are like volcanos, but perhaps molten liquid volcanos. Pehaps it is similar to a hot chili or spaghetti sauce where air bubbles escape.) | (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
43 YBN [04/??/1957 AD] | 6110) The Kingsmen release their version of Richard Berry's song "Louie Louie". | (Northwestern, Inc., Motion Pictures and Recording) Portland, Oregon, USA |
43 YBN [05/03/1957 AD] | 6085) "Jailhouse Rock" (written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, sung by Elvis Presley) is recorded. (Note that this song has eletric guitar. Note also that there are also lyrics that relate to same-gender romantic relationships, "Number 47 said to number 3, you're the cutest jail-bird I ever did see", which indicates a progressive view in the US. Note "Nix" may relate to "Nixon". Note that the media format is a 45 rpm plastic record.) | (Radio Recorders) Hollywood, California, USA (presumably) |
43 YBN [05/27/1957 AD] | 6107) "That'll Be The Day" is released (written by Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Norman Petty). (This could relate to the neuron secret - "lie" is a keyword, - and after hundreds of years of the lie, most people may believe that seeing and hearing thought may never go public. Even that might have been enough to galvanize Holly's plane.) | Clovis, New Mexico, USA (recorded) |
43 YBN [07/08/1957 AD] | 5296) The Nobel Prize in Physics 1972 was awarded jointly to John Bardeen, Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer "for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory". This is the second Nobel Prize Bardeen has won a part of, the first time for developing the first semiconductor transistor - while Lilienfeld, the inventor of the first solid-state transistor receives no share of a single prize. (The Nobel prize committee, I think has somewhat short vision in awarding the same person a second time, in particular for something so apparently insignificant, nonpractical and speculatively theoretical.) | (University of Illinois) Urbana, Illinois, USA |
43 YBN [09/19/1957 AD] | 5611) | (US Department of Energy Nevada Proving Grounds) Nye County, Nevada, USA |
43 YBN [10/04/1957 AD] | 5486) | (Baikonur Cosmodrome at Tyuratam, 370 km southwest of the small town of Baikonur) Kazakhstan (, Soviet Union) |
43 YBN [10/10/1957 AD] | 5689) | (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
43 YBN [10/11/1957 AD] | 5740) In 1973, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half jointly to Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively" and the other half to Brian David Josephson "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects". | (Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, Limited) Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan |
43 YBN [10/23/1957 AD] | 5432) In 1944, Leloir, in conflict with the president, Juan Peron, goes into exile in the United States. In 1970, Luis Leloir is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates", and is the first Argentinian person to be awarded the Nobel Prize. | (INSTITUTIO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOQUIMICAS) Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America |
43 YBN [10/23/1957 AD] | 5659) | (Western Reserve University) Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
43 YBN [11/03/1957 AD] | 5487) | (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (, Soviet Union) |
43 YBN [12/??/1957 AD] | 4895) | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
43 YBN [1957 AD] | 5409) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
43 YBN [1957 AD] | 5506) Calvin spent two years two years on the Manhattan Project (the atomic bomb). In 1961, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1961 is awarded to Melvin Calvin "for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants". | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
43 YBN [1957 AD] | 6086) Danny & the Juniors record the song "At the Hop" (written by Arthur Singer, John Medora and David White). (Three and four-part vocal harmony, popular in the 1940s and 50s mostly passes out of popularity by 1960. The Beatles use two-part vocal harmony in many songs written during the 1960s.) | |
43 YBN [1957 AD] | 6106) "Wake Up Little Susie" written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, and performed by "The Everly Brothers" is published. | New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
42 YBN [01/06/1958 AD] | 6087) Chuck Berry writes and records "Johnny B. Goode". | (Chess Studios) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
42 YBN [01/09/1958 AD] | 5772) In 1961, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided equally between Robert Hofstadter "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons" and Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer "for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name". | (Institut fur Physik im Max-Planck-Institut fur medizinische Forschung {Institute of Physics at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research}) Heidelberg, Germany |
42 YBN [01/31/1958 AD] | 5593) | (Johns Hopkins University) Silver Spring, Maryland, USA |
42 YBN [03/06/1958 AD] | 6088) The Everly Brothers record "All I Have to Do Is Dream" (written by husband and wife Felice and Boudleaux Bryant). | (RCA Studio) Nashville, Tennessee, USA |
42 YBN [04/28/1958 AD] | 5607) | (85 nm NE of) Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean |
42 YBN [05/01/1958 AD] | 5608) | (National Academy of Science and American Physical Society joint meeting) Washington, D. C., USA |
42 YBN [05/??/1958 AD] | 5321) | (Max Planck Institute) Munich, Germany |
42 YBN [06/06/1958 AD] | 5559) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
42 YBN [06/06/1958 AD] | 5561) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
42 YBN [07/??/1958 AD] | 5521) | (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
42 YBN [08/01/1958 AD] | 5450) | (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany |
42 YBN [08/01/1958 AD] | 5606) | (Johnson Island) Pacific Ocean |
42 YBN [08/03/1958 AD] | 5231) | North Pole |
42 YBN [08/26/1958 AD] | 5650) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
42 YBN [09/29/1958 AD] | 5651) | (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
42 YBN [10/08/1958 AD] | 195) Swedish Doctor Dr. Rune Elmqvist develops the first fully internal (fully implantable) pacemaker. | (Elema-Schnander) Sweden |
42 YBN [11/14/1958 AD] | 5535) | (Florida State University) Tallahassee, Florida, USA |
42 YBN [1958 AD] | 6044) | Hollywood, California, USA (verify) |
42 YBN [1958 AD] | 6068) "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", a spiritual song that is written by Obie Phillis, a Cherokee Native American person, written while serving in WWII. The song makes the popular song charts in a 1958 version by English singer Laurie London with the Geoff Love Orchestra. | (Capitol Records) Hollywood, California ,USA (possibly, or possibly in England) |
41 YBN [01/03/1959 AD] | 5596) | (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
41 YBN [01/27/1959 AD] | 5672) | |
41 YBN [02/14/1959 AD] | 5595) | (State University of Iowa) Iowa City, Iowa, USA |
41 YBN [02/18/1959 AD] | 6089) Ray Charles writes and records "What'd I Say". (Is the first popular recording with amplified (electric) piano?) | New York City, New York, USA (guess) |
41 YBN [03/03/1959 AD] | 5732) From 1949 to 1984 Anderson worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. (So clearly Anderson must have seen thought-screens and regularly received direct-to-brain windows.) In 1977, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott and John Hasbrouck van Vleck "for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems". (to me this seems, overvaluing a theory that may not be entirely accurate, and is of limited practical importance currently.) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
41 YBN [04/??/1959 AD] | 5787) | (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) Green Bank, West Virginia, USA |
41 YBN [05/01/1959 AD] | 5536) | (Florida State University) Tallahassee, Florida, USA |
41 YBN [07/17/1959 AD] | 5327) | Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika Territory, Africa |
41 YBN [07/22/1959 AD] | 5489) | Paris, France |
41 YBN [09/14/1959 AD] | 5597) | (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
41 YBN [10/18/1959 AD] | 5598) | (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
41 YBN [11/05/1959 AD] | 191) A device inside the body controlled remotely. An artificial heart pacemaker is remotely controlled with radio. | (Yale University School of Medicine) New Haven, New Jersey, USA |
41 YBN [11/??/1959 AD] | 5767) | (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
41 YBN [12/07/1959 AD] | 5372) Bruno Benedetto Rossi (CE 1905-1994) Italian-US physicist, and Riccardo Giacconi publishes the first report of an x-ray telescope, 60 years after x-rays were first made public by Rontgen in 1895. In 1896 Seneca Egbert had detected x-rays in sunlight. So the Sun, moon, and bright stars and planets could have been examined for x-ray light without any magnification. But it seems unlikely that reflecting and or refracting x-ray light is so difficult. Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn (SEGBoN) (CE 1886-1978), Swedish physicist, reflected and refracted x-rays with glass in 1925. In October 1962 Rossi et. al, will report observing x-ray sources from outside the solar system. Giacconi and Rossi report in an article "A 'Telescope' for Soft X-Ray Astronomy" in the "Journal of Geophysical Research": "With the development of artificial satellites it has become possible to observe soft X rays from extraterrestrial sources. The purpose of this note is to describe the design of an X-ray 'telescope' and to analyze some of its characteristics. The instrument consists of one or several paraboIic mirrorso n whicht he X rays impinging at nearly grazing angles undergo total reflection. The possibility of using optics of this type has been discussed in the past in connection with X-ray microscopy (Kirkpatrick and Pattee,1 957; Trurnit, 1946). These discussionhsa ve remained of purely theoreticailn terest,o wingt o the difficulty of constructinsgu fficientlya ccuratem irrors of the extremely small physical dimensions required. These difficulties, however, are greatly reduced in the construction of large mirrors. Let us consider first a narrow section of a parabolic mirror whose plane is at the distance from the focus of the paraboloid, F (Fig. 1). Rays parallel to the axis are concentratedb y the mirror into a point at F. It can be shown that, on a first approximation, a parallel beam of rays, forming a small angle, a, with the axis, are concentratedo n a circle in the focal plane whose center is at F and whose radius is R = Thus, a detector of radius R in the focal plane will record all rays striking the mirror and forming with the axis angles less than R/1. In the actual design of the instrument it is necessary to consider two limitations: (1) for each wavelength, and for each material, the angle of the incident rays with the reflecting surface must be smaller than a certain value, 0, so that the reflection coefficient will be of the order of unity; (2) in general, the design of the satellite will impose an upper limit to the distance, l, between the detector and the outer edge of the mirror. The problem is to obtain the maximum area of collection consistent with these limitations. Figure 2 illustrates two possible solutions ... Table 1 gives numerical values of these quantities for silver mirrors and for X rays of about 10 A wavelength. The maximum angle of incidence, •, has been set equal to 2 ø, correspondingt o a minimum coefficiento f reflection of 50 per cent. In Figure 3, the efficiencyo f light collection for different wavelengths is plotted. Utilizing Table 1, we may estimate the minimum detectable intensity of X rays. The main source of background is cosmic radiation, whose omnidirectional intensity in outer space is of the ordero f 2 particles/cm2 s ec.W e believe,h owever, that it is possible to design a detector whose efficiency is 10 • times higher for X rays than for cosmic-ray particles. Then we see that the minimum detectable intensity is of the order of 10 -• quantum/cm • sec for an angular resolution of 10 -• radian. The prime advantages of the instrument are the large area of collection, the high resolution, and the large signal-to-noiser atio. Among the obvious applications are a detailed analysis of the distribution of X-ray sources on the solar disk and the solar corona, and a search for weak X-ray sourcesf,o r examplei n the Crab Nebula. We are at present consideringt he possibility, originally suggested y Wolter (1952) for microscopes, of using multiple total reflections to construct image-forming X-ray telescopes.". (Kind of shocking that x-rays were identified in 1895 but are supposedly not used in astronomy until 1960 65 years later. And what technical difficulty is involved? Simply putting a metal plate over the photographic plate in the telescope.) (From the figures and text, it's not clear what the difference between this telescope design and a simple reflecting telescope design is.) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
40 YBN [01/23/1960 AD] | 4992) | Marianas Trench of the Pacific Ocean |
40 YBN [02/13/1960 AD] | 5587) | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
40 YBN [03/09/1960 AD] | 5774) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
40 YBN [04/14/1960 AD] | 6142) Sam Cooke releases "Wonderful_World". (This song contains a good and smart pro-science, pro-education message.) | |
40 YBN [04/19/1960 AD] | 5665) | (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
40 YBN [04/22/1960 AD] | 5768) Theodore Harold Maiman (CE 1927-2007), US physicist invents the first laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). Townes the inventor of the maser had predicted that the maser principle could be applied to wavelengths of light even as short as those of visible light. Maiman makes use of the three-level principle worked out by Bloembergen and designs a ruby cylinder with its ends carefully polished flat and parallel and covered with silver coatings. Light is fed into the ruby cylinder from a flash lamp and the ruby emits monochromatic (of a single wavelength) and coherent (all the beams in a single direction) light. These coherent beams of light can travel thousands of miles without spreading very far apart, and can be focused into so small a space as to deliver energy (or light particle density) with the temperature equivalent of the surface of the sun. The laser has found numerous practical uses, ranging from delicate surgery to measuring the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The first large-scale application for lasers is the laser scanner for automated checkout in supermarkets, which develops in the mid-1970s and becomes common a few years later. Compact disc audio players and laser printers for personal computers soon follow. The first claim of a successful x-ray laser is by Ilyukhin et al in 1977. Maimon publishes this first in "Physical Review Letters" as "Optical and Microwave-Optical Experiments in Ruby". He writes: " Several recent papers have reported optical and microwave-optical measurements in ruby (Cr+++ in Al2O3). We wish to report here some new experiments concerning the fluorescent relaxation processes in this crystal. Reported here also are the first observations of ground-state population changes in ruby due to optical excitation and the detection of optical absorption between two excited states in this crystal. The predominant processes which ensue in a fluorescent material when it is irradiated at an appropriate wavelength are shown in Fig. 1. W13 is the induced transition probability per unit time due to an exciting radiation and the Smn are decay rates which incclude both radiative and nonradiative processes. In this crystal S21 is easily obtained from the decay rate of the fluorescent level (2E) after an exciting source is turned off. The lifetime for this process is about 5 msec. Varsanyu, Wood, and Schawlow have further demonstrated that this lifetime is almost entirely due to spontaneous emission, i.e., S21 is approximately the Einstein A coefficient A21. An approximate value for the rate S32 was obtained in the following way. A crystal of ruby was irradiated with 5600A radiation causing absorption into the lower band (4A2-4F2). The sample used was a one-centimeter cube cut from a boule of standard pink ruby supplied by the Linde Company, with a concentration of approximately 0.05 weight percent of Cr2O3 to Al2O3. Two components of radiation re-emitted from the crystal were observed in a direction perpendicular to the exciting beam: that due to re-emission of the incoming radiation (spontaneous decay from 4F2) and fluorescence (spontaeous decay from 2E). The intensity of the first component is proportional to hv31N3A31, where A31 is the A coefficient for 4F2-4A2 and is calculated from measurements of absorption coefficient and line width for this transition (A31 ~3x105/sec). Similarly the fluorescent intensity is proportional to hv21N2A21. Bby a measurement of the ratio of these two components and the use of an auxiliary condition applicable to steady=state condirions N2S21=N3S32 and also the use of the approximation S21=A21, we find S32 ~2x107/sec. A measurement of fluorescent quantum efficiency, i.e., the number of fluorescent quanta emitted compared to the number absorbed by the crystal frmo the exciting beam, yielded a value near unity. This result reconfirms the evidence that the life of level 2 is near radiative and also implies that S32>>S31. The experiment was not accurate enough to yield a precise value byt does indicate that the nonradiative process (S31-A31) < 4x106/sec. Calculations utilizing the previous results indicated that population changes in the ground state of ruby due to optical excitation would be easily observed. This conclusion was verified in the following experiments. A ruby crystal was mounted between parallel silvered plates to form a microwave cavity resonant at the ground-state zero-field splitting (11.3 kMc/sec). About half the cavity losses were due to magnetic absorption as evidenced by an increase in vacity Q when a small magnet was brough near the ruby. The reflection coefficient of the cavity was monitored on an oscilloscope while a short pulse (200 usec) of light from a flash tube irradiated the crystal. The magnitude of the microwave magnetic absorption was observed to decrease abruptly and then return to equilibrium with a time constant of about 5 msec (see Fig. 2). We attribute this effect to temporary depletion of this ground state population with subsequent decay back from the fluorescent level. The experiment was performed at room temperature where the thermal relaxation times in the ground state of ruby are the order of a microsecond; in the time scale of the experiment, therefore, boltzmann equilibrium in these levels is maintained. A repetition of the above experiment at liquid helium temperatures is being planned. At this temperature we would expect to be able to observe directly any preferential depopulation of the ground sublevels due to polarized light and also any preferential repopulation of these levels since the thermal relatzations times would then be 30-100 msec. To verify further the depletion of ground-state population observed in the previous experiment an independent measurement was made. A beam of monochromatic light of wavelength 4100 A was transmitted through a ruby crystal and partially absorbed due to the transition 4A2-4F1. When the intense pulse of radiation at 5600 A was turned on, the 4100A radiation passing through the crystal absruptly increased and subsequently decayed in about 5 msec just as the microwave signal in the previous experiment. This result was expected since the temporary reduction in ground-state population caused the crystal to become more transparent to the 4100A radiation until the fluorescent level decayed to normal. In both experiments a population change of about 3% was estimated. An unexpected result was observed when the probe wavelength was changed from 4100 A to 3600 A. In this case a decrease in light intensity emerging from the crystal was observed. This implies that the crystal became more absorbing even thought the ground-state population was decreased. We can explain this last effect when it is realized that 3600A radiation can cause transitions from the fluorescent level (2E) to a high lying charge transfer band (not shown in the figure). Consequently, we conclude that we were observing transitions between two excited optical states. The fact that the abruptly increased 3600A absorption also decayed with a 5-msec time constant is consistent with and strengthens the above conclusion. .. .". In his April 1961 patent application "Ruby Laser Systems". Maimon writes: "This invention relates to the generation, amplification, and utilization of electromagnetic waves in the infrared, visible and. ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, and more specifically to lasers and laser systems. A laser, the term being an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, is a device capable of generating or amplifying coherent light. The principle of operation is similar to that of a maser and is therefore also referred to as an optical maser. Much effort has been expended in the fields of electronics and physics in attempts to generate or amplify coherent light. Such an achievement, it was known, would make available a vast new region of the electromagnetic spectrum for a multitude of purposes including communications and metrology (measurements) applications. Such coherent light would have the properties of being monochromatic and of having its component waves propa gating in phase with each other. Thus, as at radio or microwave frequencies, a great deal of energy could be concentrated at or extremely near to a single frequency and be utilized in methods analogous to those at radio frequencies. Ordinary techniques of generating or amplifying electromagnetic waves, including microwave maser techniques, cannot be extended usefully into the optical frequencies because such techniques require components, such as maser cavities, for supporting wave oscillations which must have physical dimensions of the order of a wavelength. Obviously, such components can neither be manufactured nor meaningfully utilized at optical frequencies where the wavelengths are of the order of atomic dimensions. When it is attempted to use cavities which have dimensions corresponding to a large number of wavelengths, many modes arc supported, coherence is degraded, and impracticably large sources of pumping power arc required. A laser has been proposed by Schawlow and Townes, sec United States Patent No. 2,929,922, issued March 22, 1960, which suggests using as the negative temperature medium certain gaseous state materials such as alkali metal vapors. Such materials may be shown to have energy levels in their atomic systems corresponding to appropriate optical frequencies for absorbing optical pump energy to invert the population from the stable equilibrium state and thus provide the material with what is known as a negative temperature or excited, nonequilibrium state. Then by stimulation or spontaneous relaxation the atomic system falls back to Its normal equilibrium state by one or more steps emitting energy of certain optical frequencies. Such proposed gaseous state devices are of great interest as theoretical models and represent significant academic advances, however, they have not been shown to provide a net generation or amplification of light. In addition, the structure of gaseous state systems is complex and requires the maintenance of critical vapor pressures and temperatures. Impurities in the gas is another very serious problem. The inter-atomic spacing of the gas severely limits the efficiency of coupling between the stimulated emission and a coherent wave propagating through the medium. In addition, the frequency of operation of any given gas laser may be effectively tuned only by Stark or Zeeman effects which can provide a tuning range of only g approximately 5X1010 cycles per second. Further, the construction of a gas cell is extremely critical in that the end plates must be highly reflective and perfectly parallel so that the many reflections required because of the low density gaseous material will be accomplished. j0 It is therefore an object, of the present invention to provide an operable, low noise. ;fficient laser. It is another object to provide a laser which is mechanically stable and of noncritical construction. It is another object to provide a laser which operates 15 at room temperature or cryogenic temperatures for additional simplicity and even greater flexibility in design parameters. It is another object to provide a laser which does not require critical vacuum or vapor pressure techniques and 20 which operates in a medium of high dielectric constant. It is another object to provide a laser capable of much higher power handling. It Is another object to provide a laser which is tunable over aproximately a 5x 1011 cycles per second range. 25 It is another object to provide an optical radar system utilizing the advantages of a laser. Briefly, these and other objects are achieved in accordance with the present invention in a system including a solid state negative temperature medium. 80 In one example a segment of solid state active laser material such as a cylindrical ruby (Ala03 doped with Cra03) rod with reflecting coating at each end is coaxially placed in a helical flash lamp. White light or, predominantly, the green and blue components thereof, is absorbed 36 by the ruby, and red light is emitted therefrom and coupled out of the system through a hole in the reflective coating at one end of the rod. The reflecting coatings provide a regeneration related to the coupling between the reflecting wave, traveling back and forth many times, and 40 the emitting atoms. In other words, a resonating, standing wave is provided which derives energy from the negative temperature dielectric. Thus the rod may be considered as a resonator having different Q's for different modes of oscillation. The mode having the highest Q 46 corresponds to waves traveling nearly parallel to the rod axis since it supplies the highest degree of regeneration. This effect causes the output to be an extremely parallel beam so that it propagates immense distances without spreading. Inherent in the regeneration process is the 60 coherent amplification of an extremely narrow band of frequencies, thus providing a monochromatic output. Additional discussion of principles of operation, of further objects and advantages, including uses, and of other examples will be presented below in connection with a 68 description of the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is an energy level diagram for the atoms of a substance exhibiting laser properties; FIQ.2 is a schematic diagram illustrating optical pumping of negative temperature laser material; fl0 FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of means for optically pumping the laser material with sunlight energy; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the present invention which utilizes a helical gas-filled flash tube for optical pumping of the laser material; FIG. 5 is a diagram of an alternative embodiment utilizing a hollow gas-filled cylinder for optical pumping of th; laser material; FIG. 6 is another embodiment of the present invention 70 which utilizes a hollow cylindrical gas-filled optical pumping means which is radially separated from the active laser material by a fluorescent material; FIG. 7 is an energy level diagram illustrating the method of operation of the embodiment of FIG. 6; FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the invention in which the active laser material is a hollow cylinder surrounding a cylindrical gas-filled flash tube, the entire assembly being surrounded by a second hollow cylinder of coolant of a high index of refraction; FIG. 9 is a cut-away view of an embodiment of the present invention in which the laser material is refrigerated; FIG. 10 is a diagram of a segment of laser material; FIG. 11 is a diagram of a coated segment of laser material; FIG. 12 is a diagram of a segment of laser material which is surrounded by a coolant having a high index of refraction; FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a portion of a laser system illustrating the use of an interferometer; FIGS. 14 and 15 are schematic diagrams illustrating additional types of interferometers; FIGS. 16 and 17 are diagrams of a laser system in which the optical pump utilizes an exploding wire; and FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a practical colidar system utilizing a laser. The laser to be herein below described utilizes the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with a material having an appropriate set of discrete energy levels. Consider, for example, a pair of such levels with energies Ei and E3 where E3 is greater than Ej. An electromagnetic wave of frequency = —— where h is Planck's constant, coupled to the system stimulates both absorption and emission. In other words, atoms in (he lower level make transitions to the upper level, each absorbing energy E=»>ji and similarly upper level atoms arc stimulated downwardly, each of these giving up energy to the wave by radiating a like quantum of energy. The net absorption of the radiating wave interacting with the system is proportional to Ni-Nj where Ni and N3 arc respectively the number of atoms in these two levels. Since in thermal equilibrium Ni is greater than N3 the indicated difference is positive and a wave propagating the length of the material is attenuated. In a substance with a third energy level Ej higher than either of the other two levels, energy can be supplied to the system by a radiating wave of frequency If other parameters, and, in particular, relaxation times, in the material arc suitably related, an inverted population will be produced such that N3 is greater than Ht; then the net interaction with a radiating wave of frequency 1-3, is emission and the wave is amplified. Also, by providing a feedback mechanism oscillation can be produced. Visible light covers the electromagnetic spectrum approximately 4x10'* cycles per second, that is, red light to approximately 7.5xlOu cycles per second which is violet light. In substance as described above with energy levels such that *n lies in this frequency range can therefore amplify or generate visible light. Referring specifically to FIG. 1 an energy level diagram is illustrated for the atoms of a material such as AljOj which may exhibit laser action in accordance with the present invention. Level 1 may be considered the ground slate corresponding to Ei and region 3 in the relatively high energy state corresponding to E3 which is actually a broadband of energy levels rather than a discrete energy level. The atoms, or ions, as the case may be, are excited or pumped from the level 1 to the region 3 by means of an optical pumping source having the energies or frequencies i-ji corresponding to the diffcrenco between the energy of level 1 and those of the levels throughout region 53,115 4 3. Because of the broadness of region 3, doping atoms, which for exampie may be the chromium atoms, may accept pumping energy over a correspondingly broad band. The atoms thus excited may then decay from the 5 region 3 back to the ground state or, alternatively, they may decay to level 2 corresponding to E3 and thence to level 1. The latter course is definitely the favored one and the atoms in decaying to level 2 do not emit energy. In other words, it is a radiationless thermal type of transitu tion which funnels the energy distributed in the board region 3 into the very narrow region 2. The energy level 2 is in fact a single energy level, or may in the presence of a magnetic field be a doublet, and the atoms of this state of excitation will emit the correspondingly discrete frc 15 quency »31 corresponding to the difference between level 2 and level 1 that is Er-^-i when they are appropriately stimulated or triggered to do so. Further, when an appropriate stimulation does occur, the atoms in the particular segment of laser material will fall together or emit 20 their radiated energy coherently with each other and with the stimulating wave. Thus it may be seen that the mechanism is a funneling of energy from a broadband incoherent source into a discrete frequency that is monochromatic coherent radiation. 25 Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a schematic representation of the mechanism of optically pumping the atoms such as those of chromium in a ruby rod 10. A light pump 12 emits a high intensity "white" light or, in this example, it may be broadly green, toward the ruby rod 30 10. The broadband light thus radiated includes at least some light in the frequency range *31. This light is absorbed by the ruby rod and causes the doping atoms to be excited in the energy state represented by region 3 of the diagram of FIG. 1. This excitation is equivalent 35 to an inversion of the population of the chromium atoms as discussed above. The excited atoms then relax by thermal processes down to the level 2 and may remain there until stimulated to fall to the level 1 thereby emitting the desired monochromatic light of frequency v2]. This stimu 40 lation may be by an external source of radiation at frequency yllt or it may be triggered spontaneously as by optical noise. When the energy at frequency »3t is emitted from the atoms in the ruby rod 10 it causes a wave to propagate through the rod and if the wave is parallel 45 to the axis it may reflect repeatedly from the ends of the rod. If the rod is of an appropriate length a standing wave 14 may be set up. In either event the repeated reflections through the material stimulate the emission of substantially all the atoms from level 2 to their ground 50 state level 1. The emission of the enrcgy at frequency v2i combines in phase with the stimulating wave 14 thus adding coherently with it. This energy may then be coupled out of the rod as a beam 16 which is monochromatic at frequenvy v3I and which is traveling or prop 55 agating in a direction parallel to the axis of the ruby rod 10. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the invention in which the light pump 12 of FIG. 2 is the sun or some other source of parallel "white" light. The lens 18 focuses the 60 light so that it is of relatively high intensity in a region 20 where an element of active laser material 22 is disposed. An auxiliary mirror 24 may further intensify the light in the region of the laser material. The mirror 24 may be a spherical reflector which merely sends the un 65 absorbed, pumping light back through the focal point of the lens 18 and thence through the laser material 22 a second time. Referring to FIG. 4, an embodiment of the invention is shown in which an active laser rod 26 is disposed 70 coaxially within a helical gas-filled flash tube 28. The ends of the rod 26 may be suitably plated as by a partial coating of silver in order to provide the rcptitive reflections of the monochromatic emitted light. The system of stimulation is so efficient that a plating 26 which will provide 75 approximately 10 percent reflection is adequate. One end of the rod 30 has a nonreflective opening 32 in the end plating to provide unobstructed passage of the coherent monochromatic beam 34 as shown. A power supply 36 provides the flashing energy for the tube 28. An outer enclosing cylinder 38 is provided which has a very highly 6 reflecting inner surface for reflecting the pumping energy repeatedly through the rod 26 for improved efficiency of the system as compared with operation when the light energy of the tube 28 is permitted to radiate indefinitely in all directions causing only a fraction of its energy to 1Q pass through the rod 26. Referring to FIG. 5, a rod of active laser material 40 is shown which again has reflectively coated ends 42, 44 wilh an opening 46 in the plating 44 to permit passage of the laser output beam 48. The light pump in this example 15 is a hollow cylinder 50 which is coaxially disposed about the rod 42 with the radial space therebetween being filled with a flashing gas 52. Appropriate electrodes 54 and 56 at opposite ends of the cylinder 50 are energized by a power supply 58 to cause the gas 52 to emit high intensity 20 "while" light when desired. Again, the inner surface of the cylinder 50 is highly reflective for added efficiency of the light pump mechanism. FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the invention in which a rod 60 of active laser material similar to rods 26 25 and 42 is disposed coaxially within a hollow flash tube 62. The radial space between the rod 60 and the flash tube 62 is filled with a fluorescent material 64, such as fluorescein. The fluorescent material efficiently absorbs the "white" light emitted by the flash tube 62 and re-emits predomi- 30 nantly green light which is more efficiently absorbed by the laser rod 60. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the broadband "while" light 66 is directed into the fluorescein which re-emits incoherent green light predominantly in the region 3 of ihe material discussed in cpnneclion with 3a tlie description of FIG. 1. Thus the fluorescein effectively funnels ihe "white" light into green light which energy is further funneled and subsequently emitted as a single frequency or monochromatic light by the laser material, as indicated by the heavy vector 68 between lever 2 and 40 level 1 of FIG. 7. Again in FIG. 6 the inner surface of the cylinder surrounding the tube 62 may be highly polished for even greater efficiency of pumping. Referring to FIG. 8 there is illustrated an example of the invention in which the active laser material is in the 45 form of a hollow cylinder 70 within which is coaxially disposed a cylindrical flash tube 72, Thus when the flash tube is energized, substantially all of its pumping radiation is emitted in a radial direction and must therefore pass through the laser material. The laser material 70 is 50 in turn coaxially surrounded by a cylinder 74 filled with a coolant 76. The coolant 76 may be chosen to have a high index of refraction for the advantages and purposes discussed below. Cylinder 74 may have a highly polished internal surface for reflecting energy of the flash tube 72 55 back through the laser material 70. Referring to FIG. 9, an embodiment of the invention is shown in which the laser material is refrigerated to liquid nitrogen temperatures for the purpose of making its output beam even more purely monochromatic be- 60 cause the line width of the laser transition (frequency v3l) is much sharper in most solids at low temperature. A rod 78 of active laser material has plated ends 80 and 82 with a coupling hole 84 in the upper end for emitting the laser beam 86. The opposite end of the rod Is mounted on a 65 thermally conductive rod 88 which may be of copper or sapphire. The major portion of the rod 88 is immersed in liquid nitrogen 90 within a Dewar flask 92. A hollow cylindrical flash tube 94 is disposed coaxially about the »0 laser rod 78 and is energized from a power supply 96 through a set of annular electrodes 98 disposed at opposite ends of the gas tube 94. A further hollow cylinder is disposed coaxially about the flash tube 94 and is filled with a coolant 102 to cool the flash tube 94. 75 FIG. 10 illustrates schematically a segment of laser material 104 for purposes of illustrating internal reflections of the stimulating wave when the segment is not coated but is merely surrounded by material of a low index of refraction, such as air. A ray of energy 106 is shown as propagating parallel with the axis of the rod and therefore never reflects against the side of the segment 104. A ray 108, however, has a radial component of direction and reflects, as shown, off the side boundaiy of the segment 104. Such reflections cause two deleterious effects. One is that the effective length of the resonating segment is greater than that for an axially traveling ray such as 106. Thus the ray 108 may represent a component of energy at a frequency slightly different from the desired or designed frequency of operation. Secondly, the ray 108, if it finds its way out of the coupling hole HO of the segment 104, will cause a spreading of the beam thereby detracting from the otherwise extremely narrow beam of the laser and contributing to its noncoherence. A ray 112 propagating in a direction even further removed from that of the axis of the segment may obviously reverberate substantially endlessly through the segment causing by its interference with the desired energy a decrease in the coherence and narrowness of bandwidth of the laser output. .... FIG. 13 illustrates a system in accordance with the present invention which utilizes an interferometer for providing even greater coherence and narrow bandwidth. In this embodiment a rod 136 of active laser material does not have coated ends but rather has prisms 138 and 140 coupled to each end of the rod 136. An additional pair of mirrors or prisms 142 and 144 are disposed so that a ray of light 146 which is axially directed through the rod 136 may propagate along the closed path determined by the reflecting surfaces of the 4 mirrors. Disposed between the mirrors 142 and 144 is an interferometer 148 which may be a Fabry-Perot interferometer. The interferometer comprises a pair of parallel plates 150 and 152, the distance between which may be adjusted to "tunc" the regenerative circuit for the ray 146. Thus a ray of the proper wavelength will resonate between the parallel plates 150, 152 while waves of other frequencies will be dissipated and lost in the interferometer. ... FIG. 14 illustrates another type of interferometer in which the active laser segment 160 does not have reflective ends. Instead, mutually parallel plates 162 and 164 arc disposed perpendicularly to the axis of the segment 160 which is the desired direction of propagation. The plates may be disposed at some distance from the laser material; the greater the distance and the smaller their size the more the system discriminates against nonparallel light rays 166 and 168. Again the desired energy may be coupled out of the system through a small opening in the reflective plate 164 to provide a laser output beam 170. FIG. 15 illustrates the use of an interferometer similar in some respects to the device of FIG. 14. In this example one of the reflective plates 172 may be placed directly on the active laser segment 174 while the other reflective plate 176 may be axially disposed at some distance from the segment 174. As shown, the nonparallel ray 178 will not be re-reflected between the two reflective plates 172 and 176 thereby minimizing its deleterious effects on the monochromatic output beam 180. FIGS. 16 and 17 illustrate methods of optically pumping the active laser segment 182 by a source 184 of broadband light which is disposed some distance from the laser segment. In each case the output beam 186 of the laser is directed out of the rod-shaped laser segment in a direction parallel to the axis of the rod. In FIG. 16 two parabolic reflectors 189 and 190 are directed toward each other so that the light source 184 at the focal point of reflector 189 emits a substantially parallel beam of pumping light 188 which is collected by the parabolic reflec 5 tor 190 and focused to pass through the laser segment 182. The parabolic surfaces 189 and 190 may be parabolic cylindrical surfaces as shown or they may be paraboloidal surfaces of revolution symmetrically disposed about the line joining their respective foci. 10 FIG. 17 illustrates an elliptical system for reflecting the energy from the light source 184 to the laser segment 182 wherein the source 184 is disposed at one focus of an ellipse while the laser segment 182 is disposed at the opposite focus; hence, the elliptical surface 192 reflects 15 substantially all of the energy radiating from the source 184 and refocuses it through the laser segment 182. The elliptical surface 192 may be an elliptical cylindrical surface or it may be an ellipsoid. The light source 184 in either of the above examples 20 may make use of exploding wire phenomenon in which an extremely high current at low voltage is sent through a wire thereby exploding and vaporizing it. The light energy emitted by this phenomena may be extremely intense "white" light. Alternatively, the source 184 may 25 be other conventional light sources such as gas-filled flash tubes, or carbon arc lamps. An advantage of the systems depicted in FIGS. 16 and 17 is that the light source and the active laser material may be independently handled and cooled due to their spacing from each other. 30 Referring to FIG. 18, there is illustrated a practical application of a laser in a colidar optica! radar system. "Colidar" is an acronym for coherent light ranging. A laser unit 200 is the colidar transmitter and includes an active laser segment 202. Surrounding the segment 202 35 is a gas-filled flash tube 204 which is pulsed from a pump power supply 206. A synchronizer 208 triggers the pump power supply which in turn fires the flash tube 204 and the laser 200 transmits a beam 210 of monochromatic coherent light toward a target 212, the range to which 40 is to be determined. The synchronizer trigger also triggers the horizontal sweeps of a pair of oscillographs 214 and 216. A sample of the laser output is determined by a photoelectric cell 218 which is coupled to the oscillograph 214 and presented on the face thereof as a "transmitter" 45 pulse 220 to indicate the time at which the laser output pulse was transmitted. The laser beam 210 is reflected off a target 212 and a minute portion thereof is received as a parallel beam 210' by the colidar receiver 222. The received beam 210 impinges upon a parabolic reflector 50 224 and is focused into a photoelectric cell 226. The electrical cell of the protoelectric cell 226 is coupled to the receiver oscillograph 216 where it is presented on the face thereof as a "receiver" pulse 228. The time difference between the pulses 220 and 228 on the two oscillographs 85 is, of course, a direct indication of the range from the colidar system to the target 212. The two oscillographs 214 and 216 may alternatively be a dual trace, single oscillograph tube or, as in conventional radar "B-scope" presentation, be displayed with a single horizontal trace. 00 The advantages of such a ranging system which may obviously be extended to other forms of radar, such as plan position indicator types, include the fact that the transmitted beam Is extremely narrow and may be sent over great distances with very little beam spreading. Also 65 the wavelength is so small that extremely high resolution is obtained. It may also be seen that it is substantially impossible to jam a laser radar system because the jamming equipment would have to be placed precisely in ^Q line with the transmitter and the target would have to be directed at the receiver and would have to be at precisely the proper optical frequency in order to interfere with the laser receiver. For further improvements in this regard optical filters 230 may be placed in the receiver 222 to 75 discriminate not only against deliberate jamming but also against the minute amount of optical noise at the operating frequency. There has thus been disclosed a laser system in which the active laser substance is solid state and which provides coherent monochromatic amplification and generation of electromagnetic wave energy in the optical or visible spectrum. The invention is effectively an efficient device which is mechanically stable and which may be operated at room temperature without complex vacuum or vapor pressure techniques. The invention as disclosed also is capable of tuning over a 5X1011 cycles per second range and may handle high powers for practical optical radar and communications utilization. In addition, because it provides light which can be focused extremely precisely, the laser opens new possibilities in the investigation of basic properties of mater, as well as in medicine where objects or very minute portions thereof can bo selectively sterilized or vaporized. What is claimed is: 1. A three energy level laser comprising: a ruby having atoms exhibiting a first energy level corresponding to a ground atomic state, a substantially discrete second energy level above said ground stale and third energy- levels defining a relatively broadband absorption third region extending above said second level; a pumping source of broadband light energy optically coupled to said ruby for illuminating it and exciting atoms thereof to exhibit excitation at said third energy levels from whence they decay without substantial radiation loss to said discrete second energy level so as to establish a population inversion between said discrete second energy level and said ground state; interferometer means optically coupled to said ruby and tuned to the frequency corresponding to that of the energy difference between said second energy level and said first energy level for reflecting light energy of said frequency repeatedly through portions of said ruby to generate a coherent light beam; and coupling means for extracting the monochromatic coherent light beam from said ruby. 2. A three energy level ruby laser system, comprising: a ruby having atoms exhibiting a first energy level cor- responding to a ground atomic state, a substantially discrete second energy level above said ground state and third energy levels defining a relatively broad- band absorption third region extending above said second level; broadband optical pumping means directly coupled to said ruby for exciting atoms of said ruby from said first energy level to said third energy levels from which radiationless energy transition of said atoms takes place to said second energy level to establish a population inversion between said second energy level and said ground state; and light -resonating means coupled to and forming a re- generative optical path through said ruby to stimulate radiant energy transitions of said atoms from said second energy level toward said ground state to pro- duce a coherent monochromatic light beam having a freq uency substantially corresponding to the energy difference between said ground state and said second energy level.". (read entire patent?) (more detail: is one side half-silvered? what is entered into the ruby? what is a flash lamp and how does it work? What are the wavelengths of the flash lamp? Are there other materials that emit single wavelengths of photons? Who invents the CO2 maser/laser? what other lasers exist? What can lasers/masers cut through? How small can these dangerous lasers be? Ultimately the photons in electricity are converted/distributed into densely packed beams so an initial number of photons needs to be high. Explain more detail about how lasers work. Show schematics. The maser was clearly a major invention, and the adaption of laser also important, as this is a new kind of device with many valuable uses. In addition, this creates the fastest and most deadly hand-held weapon ever built of earth (surpassing the metal-bullet gun as a light particle is faster than a lead projectile).) (Might the regularly of the frequency and direction have anything to do with the regular atomic structure of crystals? Bragg's law shows that light particles clearly reflect off of atomic crystal planes.) (Describe how the laser principle is different from fluorescence, and from an LED.) (Describe how lasers and masers are made dense enough to cut through materials - is frequency of laser/maser important or is density/intensity more important? Is size of device important? Can there be hand-held, and dust-sized lasers and masers?) (Note that the Encyclopedia Britannica mention of lasers for "delicate surgery" conjures also the "gross and undelicate murder".) (Many scientists that publish fall into two groups - those with numerous publications and those with sparse publications. Maimon is one with sparse publicatinos. Many times, but not always, those with numerous publications are mathematical theoreticians who publish a lot of abstract theories - many if not all of which are false and inaccurate. These many-hundreds-of-published-papers people many times are the "darlings" of wealthy propagandists who pay them to mislead the public - Gamow being one that comes to mind. Alternatively, for example there are those in chemistry and biology who publish many new small findings, which are valid and honest science. Because of the neuron secret, most astronomy and physics in particular is mostly fraud or describes inventions actually realized many decades before.) (It seems unlikely, as is the case for Townes and the maser, that Maimon is not the actual first inventor of the laser. Was this published with AT&T's approval or against AT&T's wishes?) (Notice "ensue" - like perhaps there was some law suit involved or threatened lawsuit?) (Perhaps there is some relationship between the rate light particles can be absorbed by atoms in the crystal and the rate they can be emitted, or perhaps this is a rate of reflection phenomenon where many light particles arrive at different frequencies but are converted to regular frequencies by reflection.) (Notice "decayed" - perhaps echoing a word in the thought-audio of JFK or a hope for a science-dominated decade - that was sadly cut short only 3 years later - and eventually the traditional antiscience secrecy, superstition and violence returned.) (Determine if these rubys are grown and how they are manufactured.) (Note that one design uses a fluorescent gas light to stimulate the ruby light.) (Describe the different known lasers and their inventors and uses.) (Is the CO2 laser the most destructive laser known? Is it a maser since it is mostly infrared light?) (So can it be said that the laser frequency is one of a fluorescent emission frequency of light?) (State how the ruby's red appearance in white light is a result of this absorption of various frequencies and reflection and/or emission of red frequency light.) | (Hughes Research Laboratories) Malibu, California |
40 YBN [04/??/1960 AD] | 5073) | (University of London) London, England |
40 YBN [06/29/1960 AD] | 5681) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
40 YBN [07/05/1960 AD] | 5775) In 1973, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half jointly to Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively" and the other half to Brian David Josephson "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects". | (General Electric Research Laboratory) Schenectady, New York, USA |
40 YBN [08/12/1960 AD] | 5485) At Bell Telephone Laboratories, Pierce develops a klystron-oscillator, which is used in US radar receivers. The klystron-oscillator was first publicly described by Russell and Sigurd Varian in 1939. Pierce writes science fiction under the pseudonym J. J. Coupling. In 1948 Arthur C. Clarke is the first to propose the concept of satellites orbiting the earth and acting as reflectors for radio waves. Such satellites make world-wide communications as simple as a telephone call. In 1948 Pierce coins the term "transistor" to describe the new solid-state device invented at Bell Laboratories. (Clearly, being at AT&T Bell Labs, Pierce must have been involved in the development of flying dust-sized neuron reader and writer devices. In one paper Pierce states in the introduction that he can't talk about most technology because it is classified as government secret information.) | (Launchpad 17) Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA |
40 YBN [09/01/1960 AD] | 5512) (It seems possible that around the 1950s, there arose a clearly new direction in science which I would describe as a kind of "lose the public" philosophy, and "who can create the most complex and abstract paper?" - like a transistion from the more conservative philosophy where all doubts must be thoroughly explored, and all possible explanations examined - as was the tradition for Rutherford, and other scientists, for the most part - this new view is more of - like an "artistic" science, where scientists are like Picasso - creating abstract art which is labeled priceless purely by the association of the creator to the art, with no regard for accuracy, or honesty. This is characteristic of the radical and unlikely claims of relativity which rose in the 1920s but Einstein's large-scale US popularity occured in the 1950s. I think you can see a clear transition from careful and conservative statements which must pass the scrutiny of all other scientists, to a kind of massive-funded steam-engine thundering off into some useless direction full of petrified passangers too scared to tell the truth to the conductor or owners, and this smoke-screen serves as some kind of aether-cloud to fool the public and remove any element of logic from the people of earth. Alvarez, et al papers, I think, mark a clear begining of this ultra-abstract, very hard to follow paper. Clearly, there is an unending string of inaccurate abstract mathematical theoretical papers - those of Clausius, Gibbs, Maxwell, etc., but always the experimentalists tend to stay on the conservative line, staying close to the observed physical phenomena. It may be that the neuron network took on a different form after WW2 - one of a more "rendered fake news stories" fascism - like Stalin's erasing the photos of Trotsky, and Life publishing the altered Oswald photo. It's like humans have reached this stage where - even the journal publishers themselves are corrupting science and delaying truth from reaching the public - and simply producing loads of - what is mostly garbage - all because of direct-to-brain windows and the loss of traditional controls on information - except for the slave-like excluded who fund their lives and journals - the journals would otherwise be viewed as videos direct-to-brain and would not be so full of lies.) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
40 YBN [09/09/1960 AD] | 5747) Glashow and Weinberg are classmates at the Bronx high School of Science and as undergraduates at Cornell university. In 1979, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current". | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
40 YBN [09/09/1960 AD] | 5748) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
40 YBN [09/15/1960 AD] | 5798) | (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
40 YBN [09/16/1960 AD] | 5652) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
40 YBN [09/??/1960 AD] | 5707) In 1978, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Peter Mitchell "for his contribution to the understanding of biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory". | (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. |
40 YBN [10/15/1960 AD] | 6090) The Miracles song "Shop Around" (written by Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy) is released. | (Hitsville USA) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
40 YBN [10/24/1960 AD] | 5415) | (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
40 YBN [12/28/1960 AD] | 5705) Jacob is badly wounded serving with the Free French forces in WW II, and receives a 90% disability pension. In 1965, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to François Jacob, André Lwoff and Jacques Monod "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis". In 1970 Monod publishes "Chance and Necessity" in which he insists that chance is the architext of all things. (Monod is probably atheist then.) | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
40 YBN [12/30/1960 AD] | 5654) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
40 YBN [12/30/1960 AD] | 5769) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
40 YBN [12/??/1960 AD] | 5412) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
40 YBN [1960 AD] | 5685) In 1975, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is divided equally between John Warcup Cornforth "for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions" and Vladimir Prelog "for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions". | (National Institute for Medical Research) Mill Hill, London, UK |
39 YBN [02/13/1961 AD] | 5741) | (Imperial College) London, England and (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California, USA |
39 YBN [04/12/1961 AD] | 5601) | Saratovskaya oblast, Russia (was U.S.S.R.) |
39 YBN [04/13/1961 AD] | 5560) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
39 YBN [05/19/1961 AD] | 5612) | Planet Venus |
39 YBN [05/20/1961 AD] | 5673) In 1958 Kendrew founds the "Journal of Molecular Biology". In 1962, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded jointly to Max Ferdinand Perutz and John Cowdery Kendrew "for their studies of the structures of globular proteins". | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England (and the Royal Instutition, London) |
39 YBN [07/??/1961 AD] | 6092) The song "Tossin' and Turnin"' (written by Ritchie Adams and Malou Rene, sung by Bobby Lewis) is released. | |
39 YBN [08/03/1961 AD] | 5765) In 1968 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall W. Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis". | (National Institutes of Health) Bethesda, Maryland, USA |
39 YBN [09/??/1961 AD] | 6091) "Hit the Road Jack" (written by Percy Mayfield) sung by Ray Charles. | New York City, New York, USA (guess) |
39 YBN [10/16/1961 AD] | 5242) | (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
39 YBN [10/16/1961 AD] | 5718) In 1968, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall W. Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis". | (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
39 YBN [12/30/1961 AD] | 5663) | (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
39 YBN [1961 AD] | 3340) | (University of California, Berkeley) Berkeley, CA, USA |
39 YBN [1961 AD] | 5706) | (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
39 YBN [1961 AD] | 5788) | (SETI conference) Green Bank, West Virginia, USA |
38 YBN [01/05/1962 AD] | 5792) | (Chester Beatty Research Institute, Institute of Cancer Research: Royal Cancer Hospital) London, England |
38 YBN [01/??/1962 AD] | 5657) | (RCA Laboratories) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
38 YBN [03/27/1962 AD] | 6094) "Return to sender" (written by Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell, and sung by Elvis Presley) is recorded. (The phrase "return to sender" also may very smartly be resonate with the meaning of "fire back the neuron writing to the sender".) | (Radio Recorders) Hollywood, California, USA |
38 YBN [05/04/1962 AD] | 5796) | (University of British Columbia) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
38 YBN [06/08/1962 AD] | 5802) In 1973, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half jointly to Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively" and the other half to Brian David Josephson "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects". (I have a lot of doubts, but perhaps this superposition of oscillating currents is a real phenomenon. If based on the Cooper electron-pairs theory, I have doubts. The work seems highly mathematical and theoretical - which is usually too generalized and therefore different from the many more particle actual phenomena.) | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
38 YBN [06/16/1962 AD] | 5662) | (King's College) London, England |
38 YBN [06/30/1962 AD] | 5682) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (and CHAS. PFIZER AND CO., INC, Groton, Connecticut, USA) |
38 YBN [09/24/1962 AD] | 5656) | (General Electric Research Laboratory) Schenectady, New York, USA |
38 YBN [09/??/1962 AD] | 6093) "Green Onions" is written and recorded by Booker T. & the M.G.s. (Since this song is simply 1-4-5 blues, the thrill is probably the new sounding hammond electric organ and the new sounding electric guitar - in particular with a more distorted/rougher sounded.) | Memphis, Tennessee, USA |
38 YBN [10/12/1962 AD] | 5376) Bruno Benedetto Rossi (CE 1905-1994) Italian-US physicist, at MIT and Riccardo Giacconi, Herbert Gursky and Frank Paolini from the American Science and Engineering in Cambridge, Massachusetts publish the first report of x-ray sources from outside the solar system, 67 years after x-rays were first made public by Rontgen in 1895. Less than 3 years earlier, Rossi and Giacconi had published a report about the first publicly known x-ray telescope, but this x-ray astronomy is done using a rocket and Geiger detectors. In a letter "Evidence for X Rays from Sources Outside the Solar System", in the journal "Physical Review", Rossi et al write: " Data from an Aerobee rocket carrying a payload consisting of three large area Geiger counters have revealed a considerable flux of radiation in the night sky that has been identified as consisting of soft c rays. The entrance aperture of each Geiger counter consisted of seven individual mica windows comprising 20 cm2 of area placed into one face of the counter. Two of the counters had windows of about 0.2-mil mica, and one counter had windows of 1.0-mil mica. The sensitivity of these detectors for x rays was etween 2 and 8 A, falling sharply at the extremes due to the transmission of the filling gas and the opacity of the windows, respectively. The mica was coated with lamp-black to prevent ultraviolet light transmission. The three detectors were disposed symmetrically around the longitudinal axis of the rocket, the normal to each detector making an angle of 55° to that axis. Thus, during flight, the normal to the detectors swept through the sky, at a rate determined by the rotation of the rocket, forming a cone of 55° with respect to the longitudinal axis. no mechanical collimation was used to limit the field of view of the detectors. Also included in the payload was an optical aspect system similar to the one developed by Kupperian and Kreplin. The axes of the optical sensors were normal to the longitudinal axis of the rocket. Each Geiger counter was placed in a well formed by an anticoincidence scintillation counter designed to reduce the cosmic-ray background. The experiment was intended to study fluorescence x rays produced on the lunar surface by x rays from the sun and to explore the night sky for other possible sources. On the basis of the known flux of solar x rays, we had estimated a flux from the moon of about 0.1 to 1 photon cm-2sec-1 in the region of sensitivity of the counter. The rocket launching took place at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, at 2359 MST on June 18, 1962. The moon was one day past full and was in the sky about 20° east of south and 35° above the horizon. The rocket reached a maximum altitude of 225 km and was above 80 km for a total of 350 seconds. The vehicle traveled almost due north for a distance of 120 km. Two of the Geiger counters functioned properly during the flight; the third counter apparently arced sporadically and was disregarded in the analysis. The optical aspect system functioned correctly. The rocket was spinning at 2.0 rps around the longitudinal axis. From the optical sensor data it is known that the spin axis of the rocket did not deviate from the vertical by more than 3°; for purposes of analysis, the spin axis is taken as pointing to zenith. The angle of rotation of the rocket corresponds with the azimuth ... ... From Fig. 2 we see that the main apparent source is in the vicinity of the galactic center at the G. T. azimuthal angle of about 195°. We also see that the trace of the G.T. axis lies close to the galactic equator for a value of the azimuthal angle neat 40°, which is the region where the background radiation is recorded with greater intensity. This apparent maximum of the background radiation is the general region of the sky where two peculiar objects-Cassiopeia A and Cygnus A- are located. It is perhaps significant that both the center of the galaxy where the main apparent source of x rays lies, and the region of Cassiopeia A and Cygnus A where there appears to be a secondary x-ray source, are also regions of strong radio emission. ... With this one experiment it is impossible to complete define the nature and origin of the radiation we have observed. Even though the statistical precision of the measurement is high, the numerical values for the derived quantities and angle are subject to large variation depending on the choice of assumptions., However, we believe that the data can best be explained by indentifying the bulk of the radiation as soft x rays from sources outside the solar system. Syncrotron radiation by cosmic electrons is a possible mechanism for the production of these x-rays. Ordinary stellar sources could also contribute a considerable fraction of the observed radiation. ...". (Determine if the moon reflects x-ray light from the Sun. Perhaps some is absorbed by atoms on the moon, but it seems likely that, like visible light, much is reflected.) (Note that the paper is received in October.) (Note that a rocket is used to detect x-rays but not the x-ray telescope proposed by Rossi 2 years earlier.) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
38 YBN [10/26/1962 AD] | 6201) Laser writing and reading of data. Data is written and read from plastic film. Reading data with light particles is better than reading data mechanically, like using the arm of a phonograph player, because only light particles touch the recorded surface. | (Winston Research Corporation) Los Angeles, California, USA |
38 YBN [10/26/1962 AD] | 6212) Elvis Presley records "Riding the Rainbow". | |
38 YBN [11/??/1962 AD] | 5666) | (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
38 YBN [1962 AD] | 3981) | RCA Labs, Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
38 YBN [1962 AD] | 5171) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
38 YBN [1962 AD] | 5328) | Fort Ternan, Kenya, Africa |
38 YBN [1962 AD] | 5490) | (off coast of) Marseilles, France |
38 YBN [1962 AD] | 5794) | (Biochemical Research Laboratory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Sofia, Bulgaria (verify) |
37 YBN [02/25/1963 AD] | 5249) | (The Caroline Institute) Stockholm, Sweden |
37 YBN [03/04/1963 AD] | 5750) | (Wilson and Palomar Observatories, Carnegie institute of Washington and California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California, USA |
37 YBN [03/16/1963 AD] | 5785) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
37 YBN [04/26/1963 AD] | 5736) In 1979, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Allan M. Cormack and Godfrey N. Hounsfield "for the development of computer assisted tomography". | (Tufts University) Medford, Massachusetts, USA |
37 YBN [06/16/1963 AD] | 5602) | (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
37 YBN [07/01/1963 AD] | 6109) The Beatles record "She Loves You". | (EMI Studios) London, England |
37 YBN [07/20/1963 AD] | 5730) | (NASA Ames Research Center) Moffett Field, California, USA and (Stanford University) Palo Alto, California, USA |
37 YBN [08/05/1963 AD] | 5609) | Moscow, (Soviet Union) Russia |
37 YBN [10/17/1963 AD] | 6108) The Beatles record "I Want to Hold Your Hand". | (EMI Studios) London, England |
37 YBN [12/??/1963 AD] | 5694) | (Deutsches Wollforschungsinstitut - German Wool Research Institute) Aachen, Germany and (University of Pittsburgh) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
36 YBN [01/04/1964 AD] | 5780) | (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
36 YBN [02/11/1964 AD] | 5784) | (Brookhaven National Laboratory) Upton, New York, USA |
36 YBN [02/26/1964 AD] | 5437) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
36 YBN [04/04/1964 AD] | 5330) | Olduvai Gorge, Africa |
36 YBN [05/11/1964 AD] | 6113) The Beach Boys release "I Get Around". | (Western Studios) Hollywood, California, USA |
36 YBN [06/19/1964 AD] | 5749) | (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
36 YBN [07/10/1964 AD] | 5726) In the mid-1940s while Fitch is a member of the U.S. Army, he is sent to Los Alamos, N.M., to work on the Manhattan Project. (To me this clearly implies very likely governmental dishonesty and corruption of science. Probably Fitch was called upon by people in government and neuron owners to feed false information to the public in the constant effort to remove the public's belief that they can understand science and that the universe is logical and consistent.) In 1980, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to James Watson Cronin and Val Logsdon Fitch "for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons". (This award choice to me seems highly fraudulent. In addition, this is just after the election of the Republicans in the USA and the murder of John Lennon - clearly a rise and peak of evil on earth.) (This is a theory, and I think more caution should be shown for theories, and more reward for experimental finds or useful instrument creations. Very few people criticize complex math, most are intimidated by it, and cannot spend the time necessary to try and understand it. But I think the burden of explaining clearly is on the theorist, and should be presumed as theory until you are convinced of it's accuracy. In addition, all major skepticism and rejections of a theory should be heard.) | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
36 YBN [07/15/1964 AD] | 5770) Patel publishes this in "Physical Review" as "Continuous-Wave Laser Action on Vibrational-Rotational Transitions of CO2". For an abstract Patel writes: "We have obtained cw laser action on a number of rotational transitions of the Σu+-Σg+ vibrational band of CO2 around 10.4 and 9.4μ. The laser wavelengths are identified as the P-branch rotational transitions from P(12) to P(38) for the 00°1-10°0 band and from P(22) to P(34) for the 00°1-02°0 band. Strongest laser transition occurs at 10.6324μ (vacuum). A cw power output of about 1 mW has been measured. All these laser transitions can also be made to oscillate under pulsed discharge conditions with a small increase in the peak laser power output. No R-branch transitions have been seen to oscillate either under cw or pulsed discharge conditions. The wavelength measurements are in reasonable agreement with earlier measurement of the bands in absorption, but there are slight differences. These are ascribed to possible pressure-dependent frequency shift effects. A study has been made of the time dependence of the laser output under pulsed excitation, and some conclusions about possible excitation processes are given. Theoretical interpretation given earlier for laser action on vibrational-rotational transitions is discussed in a generalized form. The theory is applicable to both the linear polyatomic molecules and the diatomic molecules.". Patel describes the apparatus by writing: " The experimental setup used in the CO2 laser experiments consisted of a far-infrared optical maser similar to the one described in Ref. 6. The quartz discharge tube (see Fig. 1 of Ref. 6) was 25.4 mm i.d. and 5 m long. The optical resonator cavity was formed with a pair of near-confocal silicon mirrors, which were coated with vacuum-deposited aluminum for high reflectivity in the infrared. Coupling of energy out from the cavity was obtained by either (a) making the aluminum coating on one of the mirrors partially transparent or (b) leaving a small (1.0 mm diam) area uncoated at the center of the output mirror. (The relative advantages of the two techniques have been discussed in Ref. 7). It was found that the second method was generally more satisfactory, and the results reported in this paper were obtained with that method. As such there was no additional wavelength-discriminating device (such as dielectric mirror coatings capable of giving high reflectivity in a narrow region of wavelengths) intentionally introduced in the optical cavity. ...Discharge in CO2 was produced by using dc excitation. (In a limited number of cases, high current pulses of 1-usec duration were also used for investigation of the CO2 optical maser.). ...". The carbon dioxide (CO2) molecular laser has become the laser of choice for many industrial applications, such as cutting and welding. The carbon-dioxide laser, which can generate kilowatts of continuous power, is the most powerful commercial gas laser. (Determine if the CO2 laser is the most potentially destructive laser ever made public.) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
36 YBN [07/24/1964 AD] | 6112) British pop band The Zombies release "She's Not There". One of the song's most distinctive features is Argent's electric piano sound; the instrument used was a Hohner Pianet. (This could be interpreted as being about remote neuron writing done to excluded by an AT&T computer that mimics a female voice, and perhaps sends images of females to excluded and how excluded chase after the pretend woman- who they can't possibly ever meet. In addition, it could be an actual female that is coerced or for some sex-based reason sends audio and images from herself via AT&T's wireless neuron writing network to excluded - as a "tease", in particular to arouse the insider neuron consumer and owner males.) | England |
36 YBN [08/??/1964 AD] | 6111) Roy Orbison releases the song "Oh, Pretty Woman". | (Monument Records) Nashville, Tennessee, USA |
36 YBN [09/24/1964 AD] | 5746) In 1979, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current". Salam is the first Pakistani and the first Muslim scientist to win a Nobel Prize. (This seems highly theoretical, in particular given the view that all matter is simply made of light particles. In particular imagining what corruption may exist given many decades of secret remote neuron reading and writing. The experimental side of physics appears to take second place to the theoretical side with the Nobel prize.) | (Imperial College) London, England |
36 YBN [10/08/1964 AD] | 5569) Flerov announces the formation of an isotope of element 104, the most massive element formed to this date, and suggests the name "kurchatovium" in honor of Kurchatov, but in 1969, Albert Ghiorso and a group at Berkeley will report not being able to confirm the Dubna experiments and claim a positive identification of element 104 using a separate method and suggest the name "rutherfordium". | (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions) Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
36 YBN [12/17/1964 AD] | 5585) In 1975, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to David Baltimore, Renato Dulbecco and Howard Martin Temin "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell". | (The Salk Institute For Biological Studies) San Diego, California, USA |
36 YBN [12/??/1964 AD] | 5497) | (La Salpetriere), Paris, France |
36 YBN [1964 AD] | 3980) Liquid Crystal Display. A Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) uses much less electricity, weighs much less, and can be much thinner than a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display. George Heilmeier (CE 1936-) in RCA Labs, uses a DC voltage of several volts to change the color of a liquid crystal cell. This is the first publicly known liquid crystal display device. This device is based on the "William domain" effect published by Richard William of RCA in 1962, in which an electric field applied to a liquid crystal cell causes regular patterns of lines which he calls "domains". | RCA Labs, Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
36 YBN [1964 AD] | 5803) | (Boston University) Bostom, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
35 YBN [01/08/1965 AD] | 5719) | (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
35 YBN [02/15/1965 AD] | 5744) In 1976, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek "for their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases". | (Institute for Cancer Research) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and (U.S. National Institutes for Health) Maryland, USA |
35 YBN [03/29/1965 AD] | 5731) | (NASA Ames Research Center) Moffett Field, California, USA |
35 YBN [05/13/1965 AD] | 5797) Penzias' family, being Jewish, leaves Germany 10 weeks after Hitler takes control. In 1978, the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half awarded to Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa "for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics",the other half jointly to Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation". In 2006, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to John C. Mather and George F. Smoot "for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation" using the COBE satellite. | (Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.) Crawford Hill, Holmdel, New Jersey, USA |
35 YBN [06/05/1965 AD] | 5714) | (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA and (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
35 YBN [07/14/1965 AD] | 5615) The first ship from Earth to reach planet Mars, and to return images of the surface, Mariner 4. These represent the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space. | Planet Mars |
35 YBN [08/12/1965 AD] | 5420) In 1941 Prelog escapes from Yugoslavia to Switzerland when the Nazi army invades Yugoslavia. In 1975, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is divided equally between John Warcup Cornforth "for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions" and Vladimir Prelog "for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions". | (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, Switzerland |
35 YBN [09/02/1965 AD] | 5713) | (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
35 YBN [09/25/1965 AD] | 6115) The Rolling Stones release "Get Off of My Cloud". The song has a similar structure as "Louie Louie": 1-4-5-4, in this case E A B A. (Possibly there is a play on the remote neuron writing - for example - 'stop writing to our heads.') | (RCA Studios) Hollywood, California, USA |
35 YBN [10/20/1965 AD] | 6117) The Beatles record the song "We Can Work Out". (There may be a play on the idea of a direct-to-brain windows female dating or having a relationship with an excluded male which must be very rare. It's rare also to see a statement against fighting or indirectly violence.) | (EMI Studios) London, England |
35 YBN [10/??/1965 AD] | 6114) James Brown releases "I Got You (I Feel Good)". | (Criteria Recording Studios) Miami, Florida, USA |
35 YBN [1965 AD] | 5712) In 1968, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall W. Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis". | (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA (verify) |
35 YBN [1965 AD] | 6276) | |
34 YBN [01/27/1966 AD] | 5648) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
34 YBN [02/03/1966 AD] | 5616) | Moon of Earth |
34 YBN [02/19/1966 AD] | 5728) In 1976, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek "for their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases". Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. In 1997 Gajdusek pleaded guilty to child abuse involving the sexual molestation of a teenaged boy and served one year in prison. | (National Institute of Health) Bethesda, Maryland, USA |
34 YBN [03/01/1966 AD] | 5613) The first ship from Earth to impact a different planet, "Venera 3" impacts the surface of Venus. | Planet Venus |
34 YBN [04/04/1966 AD] | 5599) | (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
34 YBN [10/10/1966 AD] | 6116) The Beach Boys release "Good Vibrations". (It's somewhat rare to hear a cello in a pop song. Violins were in many pop songs of the late 1950s and since, but cello is not introduced as a major component until the Beatles "Strawberry Fields" and "I am the Walrus". State where violins enter into mainstream pop of the USA. This song also features the "electro-theremin" instrument.) | Los Angeles, California, USA (presumably) |
34 YBN [10/24/1966 AD] | 5793) In 1980, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is divided, one half awarded to Paul Berg "for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA",the other half jointly to Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids". | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
34 YBN [11/03/1966 AD] | 6121) Jefferson Airplane records "Somebody to Love". (One thing that is clear is that wealthy violent and dishonest people use their wealth and neuron writing to influence popular music. For an excluded, it's hard to know where this happened. One typical example may be John Lennon's "Out the Blue" which contains a possible homicidal suggestion "...you came to me...and blew away life's misery..."- probably neuron written onto Lennon's brain by wealthy conservatives. The popularity of "Hey Joe" and "I Shot the Sheriff"- probably conservatives who prefer and insist on associating black people with violence against women and police. "Down By The River (I shot my lady)" onto the brain of the anti-Nixon Neil Young. Mostly the writing is meant to mislead the public who repeatedly hear popular songs many times in their life. Many of us know the feeling of humming a song, having no idea how the song got into our head, that we suddenly realize has lyrics that are clearly not to our advantage. Very fast computers analyze and can easily spin human thought into their desired directions - mostly which is to protect their direct-to-neuron secret empire, to protect the murderers (Frank Fiorini, Thane Cesar, the 9/11 killers being easily recognized examples) of many thousands of non-violent lawful people. For people who understand about neuron writing, which are few among excluded, you can protect yourself to a certain extent by realizing that the sounds or feeling in your mind is sent there by violent criminals trying to mislead the many fine people who may watch your eyes and hear your thought-audio, and so to counter it with a positive and more helpful message. The neuron writing is many times very subtle and difficult to detect, othertimes it seems somewhat obvious. Because so many people listen to mass-marketed pop music, wealthy people buy ads in the music - and many times the ads are bought from AT&T neuron services to be neuron written onto an artist- not bought from or paid to the actual artist - who may be excluded and completely unaware of direct-to-brain windows. Think of more likely examples of direct to brain writing. For myself there are some clear examples - two being "Is It Dead?", "How Will They Take Me?"- clearly the desired impression is anything relating to suicide and homicide - but after becoming aware of this - I changed the theme of many of my songs to "stop violence, teach science", "lock up the violent, free the nonviolent", "brain imaging machine", etc. So the majority of my early works, in particular, those after I attained some popularity, are heavily neuron writing influenced in mostly a negative way. It may even be that many of the songs that we think are original are neuron written there. many of us constantly feel our muscles moved remotely and so you have to add up the possibilities of what the view of those on the other side is. I could place this comment on any song - I don't know if the lyrics of this song were influenced by neuron writing - but it wouldn't surprise me - for some violent JFK killers to see some young talented kids in the Bay area - become worried about the love, science/education and truth movement- and try to influence it in a variety of ways - by making them appear to be drug addicts, perverted/sex crazed, for hippies to be associated with violence, with depression, sadness, despair - not confidence, not sobriety, not anti-violence, etc. So - many times the original message is a positive and good message - the violent neuron writers taking only half of a song or a word here or there. The first lyric in this song is nice "When the truth is found to be lies" - which applies to all the thousands of lies - the red shift, expanding universe, 19 hijackers, the JFK, RFK murders, that people are far from figuring out seeing and hearing thought, etc....just thousands of lies passed off as the truth to the majority of the planet...or religious claims...because eventually people have to find out the truth.) | San Francisco, California, USA (presumably) |
34 YBN [12/19/1966 AD] | 5799) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (University of Maryland) College Park, Maryland, USA and (National Biomedical Research Foundation) Silver Springs, Maryland, USA |
34 YBN [12/19/1966 AD] | 5800) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
33 YBN [01/01/1967 AD] | 6120) The Doors release "Break on Through (to the Other Side)". The song also appears as track one on the band's debut album. Elektra Records' censors objected to the drug use implied by the line "she gets high", which is repeated in the middle section of the song (after the line "everybody loves my baby"). The original album version and all reissues until the 1990s have the word "high" deleted, with Morrison singing "she gets" four times before a final wail. Live versions and more recent, remastered releases have the full line portion restored. (I wonder if the idea of breaking through to the other side relates to those who do receive direct-to-brain windows and those who do not. For example did Morrison and the other Doors get direct-to-brain windows? If yes, then what they saw and wrote about must be influenced by what they saw in their eyes. The keyboard sounds is very nice and fuzzy - or perhaps that is a guitar - determine what kind of keyboard.) | Sunset Sound Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA |
33 YBN [01/13/1967 AD] | 6125) The Rolling Stones release "Let's Spend the Night Together". (There may be a hint about remote neuron writing with "don't worry what's on your mind.") | |
33 YBN [02/03/1967 AD] | 6119) Jimi Hendrix records "Purple Haze". (This may mark the beginning of distorted guitar and the dominate role of the distorted guitar in pop and rock music. This may be viewed as the beginning of rock or hard rock music. Jimi Hendrix was one of the many people, like Elvis, John Lennon, JFK, MLK, RFK, indirectly or directly murdered at a young age by remote neuron writer owners and consumers. The intro is somewhat unusual and creative. Hendrix's voice sounds a lot like a saxophone. 1967 was a very prolific year for music.) | (De Lane Lea and Olympic Studios) London, England |
33 YBN [02/13/1967 AD] | 6123) The Beatles release "Strawberry Fields Forever". (This song, All you need is love, I am the walrus, all represent a change from strictly traditional pop music with few instruments to a more orchestral type composition. This year 1967 may represent some kind of planetary high point - which apparently somewhat collapsed - perhaps with the murder of MLK and RFK in 1968. Because science has been a minority next to religions, it seems like evil {violence and dishonesty} will have the upper hand for many centuries more probably.) | (EMI Studios) London, England |
33 YBN [02/24/1967 AD] | 5715) | (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
33 YBN [04/03/1967 AD] | 6202) | (Gauss Electrophysics, Inc), Santa Monica, California, USA |
33 YBN [06/01/1967 AD] | 6150) The Beatles release "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". | (EMI Studios) London, England |
33 YBN [06/25/1967 AD] | 6122) The Beatles record "All You Need Is Love". (This period of song writing and recording by the Beatles introduces are larger focus on the traditional orchestral string instruments which adds a much fuller, richer and more professional, sophisticated sound. This is like a mixing of old-world classical with new age guitar-based vocal pop.) | (Olympic and EMI studios) London, England |
33 YBN [07/03/1967 AD] | 5683) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) |
33 YBN [11/24/1967 AD] | 6124) The Beatles release "I am the Walrus". (Probably there is neuron writing in this song - for example trying to associate police with pigs, and what might be misinterpreted as an anti-police message - the goal being to try and turn the large unified police group away from enjoying or having a positive view of the Beatles. From the violent people perspective - they probably felt and feel that they need to somehow lower the popularity of the Beatles and they did this by trying to make them say things that play on popular mistaken beliefs about them or their views. The snare drum sounds nice - perhaps recorded twice or some kind of electronic effect? Determine what effect was used.) | (EMI Studios) London, England |
33 YBN [12/03/1967 AD] | 5725) | (University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital) Cape Town, South Africa |
33 YBN [1967 AD] | 3982) | RCA Labs, Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
33 YBN [1967 AD] | 4558) | unknown |
33 YBN [1967 AD] | 5341) In 1980 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1980 is awarded jointly to Baruj Benacerraf, Jean Dausset and George D. Snell "for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions". | (Oak Ridge national Laboratory) Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA |
33 YBN [1967 AD] | 5845) | (Texas Instruments) Dallas, Texas, USA |
33 YBN [1967 AD] | 6118) Aretha Franklin records a version of Otis Redding's song "Respect". | |
33 YBN [1967 AD] | 6344) | |
32 YBN [01/25/1968 AD] | 5755) In 1978, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith "for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics". | (University of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland |
32 YBN [02/09/1968 AD] | 5739) In 1974, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Sir Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish "for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars". | (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
32 YBN [02/27/1968 AD] | 5759) Charpak’s family moves from Poland to Paris when he is seven years old. During World War II Charpak serves in the resistance and is imprisoned by Vichy authorities in 1943. In 1944 he is deported to the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, where he remains until the camp is liberated in 1945. In 1992, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Georges Charpak "for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber". | (CERN) Geneva, Switzerland |
32 YBN [03/11/1968 AD] | 5754) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
32 YBN [04/16/1968 AD] | 5745) | (The Institute for Cancer Research) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
32 YBN [11/16/1968 AD] | 5808) | (G. D. Searle and Co.) Skokie, Illinois, USA |
32 YBN [11/21/1968 AD] | 6126) Jimi Hendrix releases "Crosstown Traffic". | (Record Plant Studios) New York City, New York, USA |
32 YBN [12/24/1968 AD] | 5604) | Moon of Earth |
32 YBN [1968 AD] | 5243) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
31 YBN [03/07/1969 AD] | 6129) The Who record "I'm Free". | |
31 YBN [03/21/1969 AD] | 5776) In 1972, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Gerald M. Edelman and Rodney R. Porter "for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies". Edelman writes "Neural Darwinism" (1987), which may have information about the neuron owner unnatural selection of who gets direct-to-brain windows and who doesn't, which results in an unnecessary genocide of those who the owners of AT&T view as troublesome - which usually implies that they are very ethical and honest, non-racist, fair-minded, etc. | (The Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
31 YBN [04/??/1969 AD] | 5576) | (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) Bronx, New York, USA |
31 YBN [07/11/1969 AD] | 6161) David Bowie releases "Space Oddity". | (Trident Studios) London, England |
31 YBN [07/21/1969 AD] | 655) | Moon of Earth |
31 YBN [07/28/1969 AD] | 5795) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
31 YBN [09/15/1969 AD] | 5753) In 1978, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith "for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics". | (Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
31 YBN [09/26/1969 AD] | 6128) The Beatles release "Here Comes The Sun". | (EMI, Olympic and/or Trident Studios) London, England |
31 YBN [10/10/1969 AD] | 5469) | (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
31 YBN [10/29/1969 AD] | 5733) In 1939 Guillemin with his family fleas Poland with the Nazi invasion. In 1977, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is divided, one half jointly to Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally "for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain" and the other half to Rosalyn Yalow "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones". | (Baylor University) Houston, Texas, USA |
31 YBN [11/07/1969 AD] | 6127) Led Zeppelin releases "Whole Lotta Love". | (Olympic Studios) London, England |
31 YBN [1969 AD] | 5840) | (Waseda Univerity) Tokyo, Japan |
31 YBN [1969 AD] | 5841) | |
31 YBN [1969 AD] | 5851) The ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency NETwork), the research network funded by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is started in 1969. The software is developed by Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), and Honeywell 516 minicomputers are the first hardware devices used as packet switches. ARPAnet starts with four sites including two University of California campuses (Santa Barbara and Los Angeles), the Stanford Research Institute and the University of Utah. In late 1972, the ARPAnet is demonstrated at the International Conference on Computers in Washington, DC. This is the first public demonstration of packet switching. Over the next decade, ARPAnet grows, and in 1983 with more than 300 computers connected, the cmomunication protocol is changed to TCP/IP. In that same year, the unclassified military Milnet network is split off from ARPAnet. As TCP/IP and gateway technologies mature, the ARPAnet becomes known as "the Internet" and "the Net." Starting in 1987, the National Science Foundation begins developing a high-speed backbone between its supercomputer centers. Intermediate networks of regional ARPAnet sites are formed to connect to the backbone, and commercial as well as non-profit network service providers are formed to handle the operations. In 1995, commercial Internet service providers take control of the major backbones, and the Internet grows exponentially. (Clearly the direct-to-brain windows network has been operating for at least 200 years - how much of this network makes use of the phone company wires, if at all, is unknown to we who are excluded, and no doubt to many direct-to-brain consumers.) | (University of California at Los Angeles) Los Angeles, California, USA and (Stanford Research Institute) Stanford, California, USA and (University of California Santa Barbara) Santa Barbara, California, USA, and (University of Utah) Salt Lake City, Utah, USA |
30 YBN [01/29/1970 AD] | 5836) A CCD is an electronic memory that can be charged by light. CCDs can hold a charge corresponding to variable shades of light, which makes them useful as imaging devices for cameras, scanners, and fax machines. Willard S. Boyle (CE 1924-2011) and George E Smith (CE 1930- ), at Bell labs, invent the first Charge Coupled Device (CCD). They report this in the journal "Bell System Technical Journal" as "Charge Coupled Semiconductor Devices". As an abstract they write: " In this paper we describe a new semiconductor device concept. Basically, it consists of storing charge in potential wells created at the surface of a semiconductor and moving the charge (representing information) over the surface by moving the potential minima. We discuss schemes for creating, transferring, and detecting the presence or absence of the charge. In particular, we consider minority carrier charge storage at the Si-SiO2 interface of a MOS capacitor. This charge may be transferred to a closely adjacent capacitor on the same substrate by appropriate manipulation of electrode potentials. Examples of possible applications are as a shift register, as an imaging device, as a display device, and in performing logic.". A second paper is published by Amelio, Tompsett, and Smith immediately following the first paper, and is titled "Experimental Verification of the Charge Coupled Device Concept". As an abstract they write: " Structures have been fabricated consisting of closely spaced MOS capacitors on an n-type silicon substrate. By forming a depletion region under one of the electrodes, minority carriers (holes) may be stored in the resulting potential well. This charge may then be transferred to an adjacent electrode by proper manipulation of electrode potentials. The assumptikno that this transfer will take place in reasonable times with a small fractional loss of charge is the basis of the charge coupled devices described in the preceding paper. To test this assumption, devices were fabricated and measurements made. Charge transfer efficiencies greater than 98 percent for transfer times less than 100 nsec were observed.". Before the CCD, AT&T released the "Picturephone" which was a videophone system, built in 1956. The Picturephone could transmit an image once every two seconds. By 1964 AT&T released the "Mod 1", a videophone which was shown at the New York World's fair, and the public was invited to place video calls between special exhibits at Disneyland and the New York World's Fair. Smith describes the process that lead to the CCD in his 2009 Nobel Prize lecture. He states: "...First, the semiconductor analogy of the magnetic bubble is needed. The electric dual is a packet of charge. The next problem is how to store this charge in a confined region. The structure which came to mind, of course, was the simple MOS capacitor shown in Figure 3. Charge can be introduced into this depletion region with the amount of charge stored being the magnitude of the signal. To understand this better, a plot of electron energy vs. distance into the structure is shown in Figure 4. As charge is introduced into the depletion region, the potential at the surface rises until the maximum allowable charge is reached. Any further charge added will flow into the substrate. The last problem was to shift the charge from one site to another, thereby allowing manipulation of the information. This is solved by simply placing the MOS capacitors very close together as shown in Figure 5, one with charge and the second empty. In order to pass the charge from one to the next, one simply applies a more attractive voltage to the second, causing its depletion region to overlap the first and the charge to flow along the surface to the silicon-silicon dioxide interface of the second capacitor. The original structure using this mechanism to make a shift register is shown in Figure 6. Many MOS capacitors are placed closely together in a row and connect ed to a three phase voltage source. The top figure shows the storage phase with Va applied to one set of electrodes and a smaller rest voltage Vb applied to the other two. One site has charge and the other has none. The second figure shows the transfer phase where a larger voltage, Vp, is applied to the adjacent plates to transfer charge from one to the next. The last two show resetting the voltages to the initial state with the charge information shifted by one site. This is continued to an output device at the end of the row in order to read the stored information. Many other storage and transfer schemes are possible. The charge can be injected into the device electrically at the beginning of the row making a shift register or supplied by light incident on a structure with empty cells. Then the amount of charge which accumulates by the absorption of photons is determined by the intensity of the light, and the resulting charge pattern can then be read out in shift register fashion after a suitable integration time. This completed the basic invention. It should be stressed that the basic unit of information in the device was a discrete packet of charge and not the voltages and currents of circuit based devices. The CCD is indeed a functional device and not a collection of individual devices connected by wires. Finally, it was decided to go ahead and fabricate a device to show experimental feasibility. In less than a week, masks were made and devices were fabricated and tested. This first simple structure is shown in Figure 7. Charge was introduced in the first MOS capacitor by thermal generation and then transferred to the output by applying voltages to the plates where it was detected by pushing the charge into the substrate and measuring the substrate current. The first device was very crude but charge transfer was successfully demonstrated and this was followed by the first integrated structure, which is shown in Figure 8. This device had a three-phase metallization and diffused input and output successfully demonstrating that it could be operated as a serial memory, the first driving force of the invention. It is no surprise that we tried to use the eight bit CCD as a linear scanning imaging device and the first rather crude image is shown in Figure 9. Following the initial experiments, it was evident that the main problem with the device was charge transfer inefficiency, the inability to transfer all of the charge from one element to the next. The main reason for this was the trapping of charge in traps at the silicon-silicon dioxide interface, see Figure 10. The trapped electrons would emit at a later time causing smearing of the image. So Bill and I got together again and invented the buried channel CCD, which placed the stored charge in the interior of the semiconductor where there was relatively little trapping. The structure is shown in Figure 11 where a lightly doped n layer has been added to the original structure. Once the layer has been depleted by transferring the electrons to the output diode, the resulting potential is shown. Electrons in the channel region will now accumulate in the valley created in the interior of the silicon and kept away from the surface traps. A period of rapid development followed both at Bell Labs and other companies. One major activity was to make an area imaging device for video applications. Many different schemes were devised. The one we chose for the Picturephone application is shown schematically in Figure 12. Linear CCDs are formed side by side and split into an imaging and storage area. During a frame time, the image is taken in the upper region and then transferred rapidly to the lower where it is read out a line at a time by the serial readout while the next frame is being taken. The chip that we made for the Picturephone is shown in Figure 13 along with a self-contained experimental camera. Successful testing of the device is shown in Figure 14. ...". (Part of the importance of the CCD is not that it is a variably charged capacitor, but that there are many capacitors in a small area, which allows many dots - that is many light beams - of an image to be captured and permanently recorded.) (It seems interesting that nobody ever talks about, simply measuring the differences in resistance caused by varying amounts of light - basically the photoelectric effect - where there is light the resistance is less. Probaly this is to mislead the public from the simplicity of these devices.) (The CCD and electronic images will allow cameras to become very small - in particular if no image is needed to be stored but instead if the image can simply be transmitted wirelessly to a stationary receiver that stores all the transmitted images.) (It is interesting that the video phone as a device which connects to a phone port may never actually be realized - because programs like Skype have made video phone calling over the wired computer and wireless cell phone the apparent path to video communications until direct-to-brain windows is made public and available to all people.) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
30 YBN [02/02/1970 AD] | 5518) | (Pennsylvania State University) University Park, Pennsylvania, USA |
30 YBN [05/??/1970 AD] | 6131) Three Dog Night release their version of Randy Newman's "Mama Told Me Not To Come". The keyboard used in this song is a Wurlitzer electric piano. | |
30 YBN [06/02/1970 AD] | 5801) In 1975, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to David Baltimore, Renato Dulbecco and Howard Martin Temin "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell". | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
30 YBN [06/10/1970 AD] | 6151) Edwin Starr releases the song "War". | (Hitsville USA - Studio A) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
30 YBN [06/16/1970 AD] | 5716) Har Gobind Khorana (CE 1922-), Indian-US chemist, and team synthesize the first artificial gene, a yeast gene. Khorana and team publish this in "Nature" as "Total Synthesis of the Gene for an Alanine Transfer Ribonucleic Acid from Yeast". They write as an abstract: "by exploiting the natural ability of polynucleotides to align by base pairing and using polynucleotide kinase and ligase, chemically synthesized segments have been combined into a double stranded DNA corresponding to the gene for the earliest characterized tRNA.". They conclude by writing: " The priciples used in present work are such that they allow "welding" of bihelical DNAs to one another. We hope that these principles will permit studies of the punctuation marks on DNA by addition of appropriate deoxypolynucleotide sequences at either end of the synthetic gene. The same principle could be used eventually to add the synthetic gene to other genomes such as those of the transducing phages. While all these possibilities belong to the future, the present results nevertheless seem to give an encouraging start. ...". Later on August 31, 1970 Khorana, et al will publish details on how a polynucleotide ligase to join two DNA molecules together. Khorana et al publish this in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "Studies on Polynucleotides, C. A Novel Joining Reaction Catalyzed by the T4-Polynucleotide Ligase". For an abstract they write: "Abstract. The polynucleotide ligase isolated from T4-infected Escherichia coli was previously shown to bring about repair of breaks in the single strands of bihelical DNA. The present work shows that the enzyme can also catalyze the joining of DNA duplexes at their base-paired ends. This novel reaction occurs -hen the deoxynucleoside at a 5'-end carries a phosphate group and the complementary deoxynucleoside opposite to it carries a 3'-hydroxyl group. The consequence is the lengthening of the original duplex to form dimers or oligomers depending upon whether one or both ends are base-paired.". | (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
30 YBN [09/08/1970 AD] | 5574) | (University of California) San Francisco, California, USA |
30 YBN [09/13/1970 AD] | 6345) The Santa Ana, California, "Register" prints a photo of a thought screen. | Santa Ana, California, USA |
30 YBN [09/24/1970 AD] | 5600) | (80 km SE of the city of) Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (was U.S.S.R.) |
30 YBN [12/15/1970 AD] | 5617) | Planet Venus |
30 YBN [12/??/1970 AD] | 6134) Gordon Lightfoot releases "If You Could Read My Mind" which strongly hints about remote neuron reading. (Perhaps there is a play on -if you could read my mind 'what a tail' - for example you would see many buttocks' on people's thought-screens. Did Lightfoot receive direct-to-brain windows? If no, then he perhaps accidentally hinted about a massive secret industry, but if yes, then he may have been labeled a "rat" for his care and concern for the human species. "Wishing well" may relate to "William Wollaston" - but neuron reading may go back much longer - perhaps even to the 1300s.) | |
30 YBN [1970 AD] | 5842) | |
30 YBN [1970 AD] | 6130) Crosby, stills, Nash and Young release their version of Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock". | |
30 YBN [1970 AD] | 6149) Black Sabbath release "Paranoid". (This song represents the beginning of heavy metal music.) | |
29 YBN [01/01/1971 AD] | 5519) | (Pennsylvania State University) University Park, Pennsylvania, USA |
29 YBN [01/15/1971 AD] | 1133) Lithium iodine battery. Inventor Wilson Greatbatch will adapt this battery by 1972 for use in pacemakers. The lithium iodine batter has a long lifetime of 10 years and is used in pacemakers. | (Catalyst Research Corporation) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
29 YBN [01/??/1971 AD] | 5523) Wheeler, is the son of librarians, and first becomes interested in science as a boy reading scientific articles. Wheeler helps develop the hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos, New mexico (CE 1949–51). | (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
29 YBN [04/19/1971 AD] | 5667) | (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) (verify) |
29 YBN [05/06/1971 AD] | 5734) | (V.A. Hospital and Tulane University School of Medicine) New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
29 YBN [05/06/1971 AD] | 5735) | (V.A. Hospital and Tulane University School of Medicine) New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
29 YBN [05/28/1971 AD] | 6132) John Lennon records the song "Imagine" which is released October 11, 1971. In June Elvis will record "There is no God But God". (This song helps for people to learn the truth about the mistaken beliefs of the religions. 1971 must have been a year in which goodness made a comeback from 1967-68 when MLK and RFK were successfully murdered. But in 1977 Elvis dies most likely as a result of particle murder, and John Lennon will be murdered by an excluded {presumably} who is remotely neuron written on in 1980. These deaths may have been some kind of retaliation by wealthy people invested in organized religions, or perhaps just some anti-popular, anti-democracy, anti-truth violent wealthy people.) | |
29 YBN [06/09/1971 AD] | 6133) Elvis records "There is no God but God". Months earlier John Lennon had recorded the song "Imagine". (Notice the play on the phrase "there is no god" and then as if this was spoken by a "butt(ocks) god". It is really an interesting phenomenon. Because Elvis must have been somewhat worldly, wealthy, well-informed - probably received direct-to-brain windows. But realized that most people are excluded, and very strong believers in Christianity. So, as has the case for many of the earth's best song writers, there was a double-meaning which pleases conservatives and also has an underlying joke that pleases educated liberal minded people. William Byrd even clearly does this as early as the 1500s.) | (RCA Studio B) Nashville, Tennessee, USA |
29 YBN [07/15/1971 AD] | 5421) | (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, Switzerland |
29 YBN [11/09/1971 AD] | 5838) | (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Holmdel, New Jersey, USA |
29 YBN [11/14/1971 AD] | 5618) U.S. "Mariner 9" is the first ship from earth to orbit another planet (Mars). The Mariner 9 mission results in a global mapping of the surface of Mars, including the first detailed views of the martian volcanoes, Valles Marineris, the polar caps, and the satellites Phobos and Deimos. It also provides information on global dust storms, the triaxial figure of Mars, and the variable gravity field. | Planet Mars |
29 YBN [11/27/1971 AD] | 5619) Ship impacts Mars (Soviet "Mars 2"). The Soviet Mars 2 and 3 orbiters send back a large volume of data covering the period from December 1971 to March 1972, although transmissions continue through August. It is announced that Mars 2 and 3 have completed their missions by 22 August 1972, after 362 orbits completed by Mars 2 and 20 orbits by Mars 3. The probes send back a total of 60 pictures. The images and data reveal mountains as high as 22 km, atomic hydrogen and oxygen in the upper atmosphere, surface temperatures ranging from -110 C to +13 C, surface pressures of 5.5 to 6 mb, water vapor concentrations 5000 times less than in Earth's atmosphere, the base of the ionosphere starting at 80 to 110 km altitude, and grains from dust storms as high as 7 km in the atmosphere. The data enables creation of surface relief maps, and gives information on the martian gravity and magnetic fields. The descent module is separated from the orbiter on November 27, 1971 about 4.5 hours before reaching Mars. After entering the atmosphere at approximately 6 km/sec, the descent system on the module malfunctions, possibly because the angle of entry is too steep. The descent sequence does not operate as planned and the parachute does not deploy. The lander impacts Mars at high velocity. Mars 2 is the first human-made object to reach the surface of Mars. | Planet Mars |
29 YBN [11/??/1971 AD] | 5844) | (Intel Corporation) Santa Clara, California, USA |
29 YBN [12/02/1971 AD] | 5620) | Planet Mars |
29 YBN [1971 AD] | 5843) | |
29 YBN [1971 AD] | 5852) | |
28 YBN [01/21/1972 AD] | 5708) Benacerraf, is born in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, is brought up in France and moves to the USA in 1940. In 1980 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Baruj Benacerraf, Jean Dausset and George D. Snell "for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions". | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
28 YBN [04/17/1972 AD] | 6160) Elton John releases "Rocket Man". | |
28 YBN [04/??/1972 AD] | 6136) Billy Preston relases the song "Outa-Space". (1972 introduces the funky sound of the Hohner clavinet electric piano to the majority of the public.) | |
28 YBN [07/15/1972 AD] | 5621) | Planet Mars |
28 YBN [07/31/1972 AD] | 5751) Proteins are synthesized by adding DNA to bacteria. US biochemist, Paul Berg (CE 1926- ), creates a technique to recombine DNA fragments. In 1970, Har Gobind Khorana (CE 1922- ) and team had used a polynucleotide ligase to join two DNA molecules. Berg uses the techniques of Nathans and Hamilton Smith to cut nucleic acid molecules at specific places and then developed methods for attaching segments of the molecule to the DNA of a virus or plasmid, which can then enter bacterial or animal cells. The foreign DNA is incorporated into the host and causes the synthesis of proteins that are not ordinarily found there. One of the earliest practical results of recombinant technology is the development of a strain of bacteria containing the gene for producing the mammalian hormone insulin. This allows the creation of a bacteria that can produce useful molecules such as insulin by simply sewing in the DNA code that produces the insulin protein into a bacteria, allowing the bacteria to multiply exponentially and then isolate all the insulin produced. This technology may lead to microorganisms that can clean oil spills, or concentrate certain minerals from the sea. Ultimately this technology of genetic modification may lead to species, including humans that do not age and can grow replacement body parts. One dangerous aspect is that new viruses, bacteria and protists might be created for which the human immune system has no natural defense for and so some of this research is regulated and certain aspects of genetic modification, for example in food sources, is opposed by many humans. Since this time, the dangers have been found to be exaggerated and some relaxation of controls has taken place. Paul Berg, David A. Jackson, and Robert H. Symons publish this in "Proccedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "Biochemical Method for Inserting New Genetic Information into DNA of Simian Virus 40: Circular SV40 DNA Molecules Containing Lambda Phage Genes and the Galactose Operon of Escherichia coli". For an abstract they write: "We have developed methods for covalently joining duplex DNA molecules to one another and have used these techniques to construct circular dimers of SV40 DNA and to insert a DNA segment containing lambda phage genes and the galactose operon of E. coli into SV40 DNA. The method involves: (a) converting circular SV40 DNA to a linear form, (b) adding single-stranded homodeoxypolymeric extensions of defined composition and length to the 3' ends of one of the DNA strands with the enzyme terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (c) adding complementary homodeoxypolymeric extensions to the other DNA strand, (d) annealing the two DNA molecules to form a circular duplex structure, and (e) filling the gaps and sealing nicks in this structure with E. coli DNA polymerase and DNA ligase to form a covalently closed-circular DNA molecule.". In their paper they write: "Our goal is to develop a method by which new, functionally defined segments of genetic information can be introduced into mammalian cells. It is known that the DNA of the transforming virus SV40 can enter into a stable, heritable, and presumably covalent association with the genomes of various mammalian cells (1, 2). Since purified SV40 DNA can also transform cells (although with reduced efficiency), it seemed possible that SV40 DNA molecules, into which a segment of functionally defined, nonviral DNA had been covalently integrated, could serve as vectors to transport and stabilize these nonviral DNA sequences in the cell genome. Accordingly, we have developed biochemical techniques that are generally applicable for joining covalently any two DNA molecules. Using these techniques, we have constructed circular dimers of SV40 DNA; moreover, a DNA segment containing X phage genes and the galactose operon of Escherichia coli has been covalently integrated into the circular SV40 DNA molecule. Such hybrid DNA molecules and others like them can be tested for their capacity to transduce foreign DNA sequences into mammalian cells, and can be used to determ ine whether these new nonviral genes can be expressed in a novel environment. ... DISCUSSION The methods described in this report for the covalent joining of two SV40 molecules and for the insertion of a segment of DNA containing the galactose operon of E. coli into SV40 are general and offer an approach for covalently joining any two DNA molecules together. With the exception of the fortuitous property of the RI endonuclease, which creates convenient linear DNA precursors, none of the techniques used depends upon any unique property of SV40 and/or the Xdvgal DNA. By the use of known enzymes and only minor modifications of the methods described here, it should be possible to join DNA molecules even if they have the wrong combination of hydroxyl and phosphoryl groups at their termini. By judicious use of generally available enzymes, even DNA duplexes with protruding 5'- or 3'-ends can be modified to become suitable substrates for the joining reaction. One important feature of this method, which is different from some other techniques that can be used to join unrelated DNA molecules to one another (16, 19), is that here the joining is directed by the homopolymeric tails on the DNA. In our protocol, molecule A and molecule B can only be joined to each other; all AA and BB intermolecular joinings and all A and B intramolecular joinings (circularizations) are prevented. The yield of the desired product is thus increased, and subsequent purification problems are greatly reduced. For some purposes, however, it may be desirable to insert Xdvgal or other DNA molecules at other specific, or even random, locations in the SV40 genome. Other specific placements could be accomplished if other endonucleases could be found that cleave the SV40 circular DNA specifically. Since pancreatic DNase in the presence of Mn2+ produces randomly located, double-strand scissions (17) of SV40 circular DNA (Jackson and Berg, in preparation), it should be possible to insert a DNA segment at a large number of positions in the SV40 genome. ...". A year later, in July 1973, Stanley N. Cohen, Annie C. Y. Chang, Herbert W. Boyer, and Robert B. Helling publish a method of constructing biologically functional bacterial plasmids in vitro which are inserted into E. coli by transformation (conjugation). In Science (July 26, 1974) Paul Berg and others publish a letter describing the dangers of the uncontrolled practice of recombinant DNA experiments. Berg consequently proposea an absolute voluntary moratorium on certain types of experiment and strict control on a large number of others. An international conference is held in Asilomar, California, followed by the publication of strict guidelines by the National Institutes of Health in 1976. Berg writes: "Recent advances in techniques for the isolation and rejoining of segments of DNA now permit construction of biologically active recombinant DNA molecules in vitro. For example, DNA restriction endonucleases, which generate DNA fragments containing cohesive ends especially suitable for rejoining, have been used to create new types of biologically functional bacterial plasmids carrying antibiotic resistance markers (1) and to link Xenopus laevis ribosomal DNA to DNA from a bacterial plasmid. This latter recombinant plasmid has been shown to replicate stably in Escherichia coli where it synthesizes RNA that is complementary to X. laevis ribsomal DNA (2). Similarly, segments of Drosophila chromosomal DNA have been incorporated into both plasmid and bacteriophage DNA's to yield hybrid molecules that can infect and replicate in E. coli (3). Several groups of scientists are now planning to use this technology to create recombinant DNA's from a variety of other viral, animal, and bacterial sources. Although such experiments are likely to facilitate the solution of important theoretical and practical biological problems, they would also result in the creation of novel types of infectious DNA elements whose biological properties cannot be completely predicted in advance. There is serious concern that some of these artificial recombinant DNA molecules could prove biologically hazardous. One potential hazard in current experiments derives from the need to use a bacterium like E. coli to clone the recombinant DNA molecules and to amplify their number. Strains of E. coli commonly reside in the human intestinal tract, and they are capable of exchanging genetic information with other types of bacteria, some of which are pathogenic to man. Thus, new DNA elements introduced into E. coli might possibly become widely disseminated among human, bacterial, plant, or animal populations with unpredictable effects. Concern for these emerging capabilities was raised by scientists attending the 1973 Gordon Research Conference on Nucleic Acids (4), who requested that the National Academy of Sciences give consideration to these matters. The undersigned members of a committee, acting on behalf of and with the endorsement of the Assembly of Life Sciences of the National Research Council on this matter, propose the following recommendations. First, and most important, that until the potential hazards of such recombinant DNA molecules have been better evaluated or until adequate methods are developed for preventing their spread, scientists throughout the world join with the members of this committee in voluntarily deferring the following types of experiments. - Type 1: Construction of new, autonomously replicating bacterial plasmids that might result in the introduction of genetic determinants for antibiotic resistance or bacterial toxin formation into bacterial strains that do not at present carry such determinants; or construction of new bacterial plasmids containing combinations of resistance to clinically useful antibiotics unless plasmids containing such combinations of antibiotic resistance determinants already exist in nature. i Type 2: Linkage of all or segments of the DNA's from oncogenic or other animal viruses to autonomously replicating DNA elements such as bacterial plasmids or other viral DNA's. Such recombinant DNA molecules might be more easily disseminated to bacterial populations in humans and other species, and thus possibly increase the incidence of cancer or other diseases. Second, plans to link fragments of animal DNA's to bacterial plasmid DNA or bacteriophage DNA should be carefully weighed in light of the fact that many types of animal cell DNA's contain sequences common to RNA tumor viruses. Since joining of any foreign DNA to a DNA replication system creates new recombinant DNA molecules whose biological properties cannot be predicted with certainty, such experiments should not be undertaken lightly. Third, the director of the National Institutes of Health is requested to give immediate consideration to establishing an advisory committee charged with (i) overseeing an experimental program to evaluate the potential biological and ecological hazards of the above types of recombinant DNA molecules; (ii) developing procedures which will minimize the spread of such molecules within human and other populations; and (iii) devising guidelines to be followed by investigators working with potentially hazardous recombinant DNA molecules. Fourth, an international meeting of involved scientis,ts from all over the world should be convened early in the coming year to review scientific progress in this area and to further discuss appropriate ways to deal with the potential biohazards of recombinant DNA molecules. ...". (In the view that some unknown virus may be created - it seems clear that micro and nanotechnology has reached a startling state of development, although secretly, and that the possibility may exist if not already that humans may destroy viruses using microscopic or nano-meter sized remotely or self moved devices.) (My own feeling is generally of less fear of genetic modification, but I think the main concern should be securing life on the moon and mars, and after that probably we will see much more open and experimental genetic experimentation. The nature of the current modification is similar to natural selection, and in particular a bacteria simply producing a new known harmless protein seems to me of little if any risk. For example, I view GMO rice as not risky, but I think there is a very tiny risk involved in eating all GMO organisms, just like there is for GMO from natural selection.) (Could people not simply produce proteins directly from DNA with the correct M-RNA, T-RNA, ribosomes, amino acids, etc. without the need for bacteria cells?) | (Stanford University Medical Center) Stanford, California, USA |
28 YBN [10/02/1972 AD] | 5522) | (Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
28 YBN [11/??/1972 AD] | 6135) Stevie Wonder releases the song "Superstition". (This introduces the public to the famous sound of the "clavinet" electric piano made by Hohner. Billy Preston will use the clavinet on many of his songs, and the clavinet is typically used on many funk recordings.) | New York City, New York, USA |
28 YBN [12/??/1972 AD] | 6138) The O'Jays release "Love Train". | |
28 YBN [1972 AD] | 5074) | (University of London) London, England (presumably) |
28 YBN [1972 AD] | 5790) In 1976, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Burton Richter and Samuel Chao Chung Ting "for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind". (It seems like there is an misplaced focus on particle collision experiments - that really probably should be on other more useful and practical science contributions - like neuron reading and writing, artificial muscle robots, moving life to other planets, teaching the public the history of science, useful bulk transmutations which will help humans adapt to life on other planets and moons, etc.) | (Stanford University Stanford Linear Accelerator Center {SLAC}) Stanford, California, USA |
27 YBN [03/28/1973 AD] | 6153) Led Zeppelin releases "The Ocean". | |
27 YBN [03/??/1973 AD] | 6137) Stevie Wonder releases "You Are the Sunshine of My Life". | |
27 YBN [04/??/1973 AD] | 6170) The Wailers record the Bob Marley and Peter Tosh song "Get Up, Stand Up". | (Harry J. Studios) Kingston, Jamaica |
27 YBN [07/18/1973 AD] | 5752) | (Stanford University School of Medicine) Stanford, California, USA and (University of California) San Francisco, California, USA |
27 YBN [10/??/1973 AD] | 6157) The O'Jays release "For the Love of Money". (Give the history of the phaser and wah pedal, both included in this song.) | (Sigma Sound Studios) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
27 YBN [12/03/1973 AD] | 5622) | Planet Jupiter |
27 YBN [1973 AD] | 5684) Vitamin B-12 is synthesized by a sequence of more than 100 reactions. (Determine chronology better.) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (and Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland) |
26 YBN [03/29/1974 AD] | 5614) | Planet Mercury |
26 YBN [07/??/1974 AD] | 6139) The Average White Band releases "Pick Up the Pieces". | |
26 YBN [11/12/1974 AD] | 5791) In 1976, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Burton Richter and Samuel Chao Chung Ting "for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind". (It seems like there is an misplaced focus on particle collision experiments - that really probably should be on other more useful and practical science contributions - like neuron reading and writing, artificial muscle robots, moving life to other planets, teaching the public the history of science, useful bulk transmutations which will help humans adapt to life on other planets and moons, etc.) | (Stanford University Stanford Linear Accelerator Center {SLAC}) Stanford, California, USA and (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (Brookhaven National Laboratory) Upton, New York, USA |
26 YBN [12/??/1974 AD] | 6140) Labelle releases "Lady Marmalade". (This song makes use of a cowbell.) | |
26 YBN [1974 AD] | 5846) Personal computer. The Altair 8800, is a microcomputer kit introduced in late 1974 from Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). It sold for $400 and used an 8080 microprocessor. In 1975, it was packaged with the Microsoft MBASIC interpreter written by Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Although computer kits were advertised earlier by others, an estimated 10,000 Altairs were sold, making it the first commercially successful microcomputer. The Altair 8800 has 256 bytes of memory. (ROM or RAM?) (Clearly soon, we should see low cost walking robots - the rest of the computer body.) Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/altair#ixzz1NoJknHXS | (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA (verify) |
26 YBN [1974 AD] | 5896) | (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center) Palo Alto, California, USA |
25 YBN [02/11/1975 AD] | 6143) KC and the Sunshine Band release "Get Down Tonight". | |
25 YBN [03/19/1975 AD] | 5717) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, MAssachusetts, USA and (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
25 YBN [04/??/1975 AD] | 6141) Chicago releases "Old Days". (By the 1970s, much of professional popular music contains added layers of strings - in particular violins, which give songs a more professional sophisticated sound and more subtle depth. This song makes nice use of violin accents. The more variety a song has, the longer a person can listen to it before being bored with it- because they start to recognize more subtle parts of the recording the more times they listen to it. For a song with only 4 instruments, it does not take a lot of time until everything has been heard and recognized.) | |
25 YBN [10/20/1975 AD] | 5623) The first ship to orbit and land on Venus, and transmit the first image from the surface of another planet (Soviet "Venera 9"). The orbiter fulfills its communications mission while photographing the planet's atmosphere in UV light and conducting other investigations. The lander transmits data from Venus' surface for 53 minutes, including taking a 180° panorama of the rocky Venusian surface. Illumination at the surface was said to be as bright as Moscow on a cloudy day in June. Gamma ray measurements indicate that the probe landed on a basaltic surface. Temperature at the surface is found to be 460°C (860°F); atmospheric pressure was 90 times that of Earth. | Planet Venus |
25 YBN [1975 AD] | 6371) External object moved by thought. | |
24 YBN [01/26/1976 AD] | 5513) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
24 YBN [03/10/1976 AD] | 1122) Lithium ion battery. M. S. Whittingham publishes this in the journal "Science" as "Electrical Energy Storage and Intercalation Chemistry". As an abstract he writes: "The electrochemical reaction of layered titanium disulfide with lithium giving the intercalation compound lithium titanium disulfide is the basis of a new battery system. This reaction occurs very rapidly and in a highly reversible manner at ambi ent temperatures as a result of structural retention. Titanium disulfide is one of a new generation of solid cathode materials.". Intercalation of molecules is the insertion of additional material between the parts of an existing series. | (Exxon Research and Engineering Company) Linden, New Jersey, USA |
24 YBN [03/19/1976 AD] | 6144) The Doobie Brothers release "Takin' To The Streets". | (Warner Brothers Studios) North Hollywood, California, USA |
24 YBN [03/??/1976 AD] | 5763) Rubbia, McIntyre and Cline describe this in "Proceedings of International Neutrino Conference" as "Producing Massive Neutral Intermediate Vector Bosons with Existing Accelerators". They write as an abstract: "We outline a scheme of searching for the massive weak boson (M = 50 - 200 Gev/c2 ). An antiproton source is added either to the Fermilab or the CERN SPS machines to transform a conventional 400 GeV accelerator into a pp colliding beam facility with 800 GeV in the center of mass (Eeq = 320,000 GeV). Reliable estimates of production cross sections along with a high luminosity make the scheme feasible.". In their paper they write: "The past ten years have seen remarkable progress in the understanding of weak interactions. First there is the experimental discovery of 6S = 0 weak neutral currents,l which when contrasted with the previous limits on ~S = 1 neutral current decay processes2 leads to the suggestion of additional hadronic quantum numbers in nature. 3 Strong evidence now exists for new hadronic quantum numbers that are manifested either directly4,5 or indirectly.6 The experimental discoveries are complemented by the theoretical progress of unified gauge theories. 7 ,8 These developments lead to the expectation that very massive intermediate vector bosons (50 - 100 Gev/c2 ) may exist in nature. 7 ,8 The search for these massive bosons require three separate elements to be successful: a reliable physical mechanism for production, very high center of mass energies, and an unambiguous experimental signature to observe them. In this note we outline a scheme which satisfies these requirements and that could be carried out with a relatively moqest program at existing proton accelerators. We first turn to the production process. We concentrate on neutral bosons because of the extremely simple experimental signature and because production is largely dominated by a single production resonant pole in the particle-antiparticle cross section. The best production reaction would of course be: ... where a sharp resonance peak is expected for 2Ee + = 2Ee - = M. In the Breit-Wigner approximation near its maximum we get: (2 ) where f + - i , f are the partial width to the initial e e state and the total width, respectively. The decay widths into e+e- (and ~+~-) pairs can be calculated in the first order of the semi-weak coupling constant: f e+e ± =ru+~- = 1.5 x 10-7 ~ (GeV). For M = 100 GeV, r e+e - ~ 150 MeV, which is surprisingly large. The total width is related to the above quantity by the branching ratio Be+e - = fe+e-/f which is unknown. Crude guesses based on quark models suggest Be+e - ~ 1/10, giving r = 1.5 GeV or f/2E = 1.5% for M = 100 Gev/c2 • At the peak of the resonance, a(e+e - + W0 , 2E = M) = 3n*2 B. ~ ~ 2.10- 31 cm2 • Neutrino experiments9 have found that ~ > 20 Gev/c2 • Therefore, if ~ - ~, the neutral intermediate boson is out of reach of existing e+e - storage r~. ngs. A more realistic production process is the one initiated by proton-antiproton collisions: p + p + we + (hadrons) which, according to the quark (parton) picture, proceeds by a reaction analog to (1), except that now incoming e+ and e- are replaced with q and q. Strong support to the idea that Wls are directly coupled to spin 1/2 point-like constituents comes from neutrino experimentslO and from semi-leptonic hadron decays.ll Furthermore neutrino experiments provide the necessary structure functions and have set limits9 (~ 20 GeV) on any nonlocality in the parton form factor. The main difference with respect to e+e - ~.s that now the kinematics is largely smeared out by the internal motion of q's and q's. ... We note that calculations of W- production in proton-proton collisions are very uncertain in contrast to the present one due to the apparent small antiparton {ULSF: typo?} content in the nucleon and the unknown distributions of this component. ... We now briefly outline the scheme of transforming an existing proton accelerator into high luminosity pp colliding beamsl7 using standard vacuum (p ~ 10-7 Torr) and the separate function magnet system. The main elements are (1) an extracted proton beam to produce an intense source of antiprotons at 3.5 GeV/c, and (2) a small ring of magnets and quadrupoles that guides and accumulates the p beam, (3) a suitable mechanism for damping the transverse and longitudinal phase spaces of the p beam (either electron cooling18 or stochastic cooling19 ), (4) an R.F. system that bunches the protons in the main ring and in the cooling ring, (5) transport of the "cooled" R.F. bunched p beam back to the main ring for injection and acceleration. A long straight section of the main ring is used as pp interaction region. A schematic drawing of these elements for the FNAL accelerator is presented in Fig. 1. The main parameters of the scheme are summarized in Table I. The luminosity for two bunches colliding head-on is estimated using the relation L = NpNp- $/a where Np and Np are the number of protons and antiprotons circulating in the machine, respectively, ~ is the revolution frequency and ~ 15 the effective area of interaction of the two beams. Np is taken as 1012 protons in one R.F. bunch. The value of N is limited by the p maximum allowed beam-beam tune shift (Np = 1012 for ~v = 0.01). We have verified the longitudinal stability of the bunch, the phase area growth due to R.F. noise, the transverse wall instability, the headtail effect and non-linear resonances, including those arising from beam-beam interactions. None of these effects appears to be important. ... The production of antiprotons at 3.5 GeV is done with protons from the same accelerator and with an overall efficiency -pip ~ 4 x 10-6 . In order to reach Np = 3 x 1010 we need 750 pulses with 10 l3ppp. About 10 seconds must elapse between puls~s in order to clear away the freshly injected antiprotons. 2l Therefore the formation of piS would take of the order of few hours. ..." At CERN, protons are accelerated in a linear accelerator, booster, and proton synchroton (PS) up to 27 GeV. These protons hit a heavy target (Be). At the target many particle-antiparticle pairs are released. Some of the antiprotons are caught in the antiproton cooler (AC) and stored in the antiproton accumulator (AA). From there they are transferred to the low energy antiproton ring (LEAR) where experiments take place. (Describe also how antiprotons are produced. Determine what the proton target that creates antiprotons is - is it beryllium? Determine how thick the Be is. State if reflected or transmitted particles are captured.) Rubbia's father was an electrical engineer at the local telephone company in Gorizia, Italy, so most likely Rubbia receives direct-to-brain windows. In 1984, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer "for their decisive contributions to the large project, which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction". (The existence of a W and Z particle, as being a unifying particle of fundamental forces seems doubtful to me - I can accept that particles of such masses exist, but doubt that they have anything to do with particle decay. Knowing that all matter is probably made of light particles, and that neuron reading and writing has been kept secret for more than 200 years adds a lot of doubt to most modern physics claims.) | (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
24 YBN [05/??/1976 AD] | 6147) Steve Miller releases the song "Fly Like An Eagle". | |
24 YBN [07/20/1976 AD] | 5624) | Planet Mars |
24 YBN [11/30/1976 AD] | 5695) | (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
24 YBN [12/??/1976 AD] | 6145) Heatwave release the song "Boogie Nights". (Describe the effects used in this recording.) | |
24 YBN [1976 AD] | 5329) | Laetoli, Tanzania, Africa |
23 YBN [01/??/1977 AD] | 5847) | (Commodore International) West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA (verify) |
23 YBN [01/??/1977 AD] | 6152) Heart releases the song "Barracuda". The song is an aggressive hard rock number notable for a galloping guitar riff which has often been compared to that of Led Zeppelin's "Achilles Last Stand" and is noted for its use of natural harmonics, particularly in the intro where the harmonics are bent using the tremolo arm of the guitar. | |
23 YBN [05/03/1977 AD] | 6148) The Eagles release "Life In the Fast Lane". (Determine if this is the first use of phaser. It's interesting that this guitar riff is similar to the famous riff of "Walk This Way", but distinctly different, and both are released in the same year.) | |
23 YBN [05/19/1977 AD] | 5771) | (P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences) Moscow, USSR (now Russia) |
23 YBN [12/13/1977 AD] | 6146) The Bee-Gees release "Stayin' Alive". (Disco, to some extent marks the beginning of the use of synthesized drums as opposed to the standard drum set. In addition, violin accenting, which become popular starting in the 1970s is a nice edition to this song.) | (Château d'Hérouville,)Hérouville, France |
23 YBN [1977 AD] | 5738) | |
23 YBN [1977 AD] | 6045) | Los Angeles, California, USA (verify) |
23 YBN [1977 AD] | 6277) | (University of Illinois at Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
23 YBN [1977 AD] | 6312) Self-driving car. The first common road driving autonomous car is the Intelligent Vehicle of the Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Laboratory which tests a car in 1977 that can follow roads for up to 50 meters at speeds up to 30 km/h. | (Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Lab) Japan |
22 YBN [05/15/1978 AD] | 5831) | (The Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
22 YBN [07/25/1978 AD] | 5810) | (General Hostpial) Oldham, UK |
22 YBN [10/27/1978 AD] | 6154) Gloria Gaynor releases "I Will Survive". | |
21 YBN [01/15/1979 AD] | 6203) (This method of laser burning makes lasers that can burn widely available, although using them as a weapon is beyond the skills of the average person. The publication of the maser also opened the possibility of people in the public developing maser weapons, but probably the nanotechnology is so advanced that the biggest danger is still, as has been for many centuries, violent people who already have access to the nanotechnology, who apparently cannot be even shown to the public and certainly not stopped, 9/11, the Kennedy murders, and so many other millions of murders being obvious examples.) | Eindhoven, Netherlands |
21 YBN [03/05/1979 AD] | 5630) | Planet Jupiter |
21 YBN [07/09/1979 AD] | 5633) | Jupiter |
21 YBN [08/??/1979 AD] | 6155) "The Sugarhill Gang" release "Rapper's Delight" which uses the bass and guitar melody from Chic's "Good Times". (This song marks the beginning of modern rap music. Describe rap more - basically the vocal is mostly monotone and not singing.) | (Sugar Hill Studios) Englewood, New Jersey, USA |
21 YBN [09/01/1979 AD] | 388) Ship from Earth, the U.S. "Pioneer 11", passes and sends close images of planet Saturn. Pioneer 11 flies to within 13,000 miles of Saturn and takes the first close-up pictures of the Saturn. Instruments locate two previously undiscovered small moons and an additional ring, chart Saturn's magnetosphere and magnetic field and determine that its planet-size moon, Titan, is too cold for life. Flying underneath the ring plane, Pioneer 11 sends back images of Saturn's rings. The rings, which normally appear bright when observed from Earth, appeared dark in the Pioneer pictures, and the dark gaps in the rings seen from Earth appear as bright rings. | Planet Saturn |
21 YBN [09/01/1979 AD] | 5625) | Planet Saturn |
21 YBN [09/07/1979 AD] | 6158) Buggles releases "Video Killed The Radio Star". | |
21 YBN [1979 AD] | 6156) Chic releases "Good Times". | |
21 YBN [1979 AD] | 6159) The Talking Heads release "Life During Wartime". Written about life in New York City during the late nineteen seventies, this song describes life in an impoverished metropolis. Byrne describes life in New York as a metaphor for WWII-era civilians and argues against the concept that life there is bohemian by saying, 'This ain't no party. This ain't no disco. This ain't no foolin' around.' The wartime imagery is taken further by images of having to stand away from windows for fear of being shot and people living on the street long beyond the thought of having food to eat. (The line "this ain't no disco" has a comedic sense of truth when applied to this dim era of the direct-to-brain secret, expanding universe, mass secret neuron murders, although perhaps that was not the original intent.) | |
20 YBN [06/06/1980 AD] | 5514) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
20 YBN [09/12/1980 AD] | 6189) | (IBM Zurich Research Laboratory) Ruschlikon, Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
20 YBN [11/12/1980 AD] | 5631) | Planet Saturn |
19 YBN [05/11/1981 AD] | 6162) George Harrison releases "All Those Years Ago". | |
19 YBN [08/05/1981 AD] | 5634) | Saturn |
19 YBN [08/12/1981 AD] | 5848) | (International Business Machines) Boca Raton, Florida, USA |
19 YBN [11/12/1981 AD] | 5805) | (Launch Pad 39A) Merritt Island, Florida, USA |
18 YBN [03/01/1982 AD] | 5626) | Planet Venus |
18 YBN [04/09/1982 AD] | 5729) In 1997, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Stanley B. Prusiner "for his discovery of Prions - a new biological principle of infection". | (University of California) San Francisco, California, USA |
18 YBN [04/30/1982 AD] | 6188) In 1986 , the Nobel Prize in Physics is divided, one half awarded to Ernst Ruska "for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope",the other half jointly to Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer "for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope". | (IBM Zurich Research Laboratory) Ruschlikon, Zurich, Switzerland |
18 YBN [10/01/1982 AD] | 5806) | (Sony Corporation) Japan (presumably) |
18 YBN [10/08/1982 AD] | 5807) | (Institut fur Kernphysik, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt) Darmstadt, Federal Republic of Germany (now Germany) |
18 YBN [1982 AD] | 5853) | |
18 YBN [1982 AD] | 6164) Thomas Dolby releases "She Blinded Me with Science". | |
18 YBN [1982 AD] | 6166) Alan Parsons Project releases "Eye in the Sky" which hints about the secret of remote neuron reading. | |
17 YBN [02/14/1983 AD] | 6163) Michael Jackson releases "Beat It". | |
17 YBN [06/13/1983 AD] | 5627) | Planet Neptune |
17 YBN [10/25/1983 AD] | 5811) | (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
17 YBN [1983 AD] | 5764) | (CERN) Geneva, Switzerland |
16 YBN [01/12/1984 AD] | 5809) | (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland and (Indiana University) Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
16 YBN [03/10/1984 AD] | 5814) In 1996 Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and team at Scotland's Roslin Institute will clone a sheep (Dolly) from a nucleus of an adult somatic cell. Steen Malte Willadsen and Robert A. Godke publish this in the journal "Veterinary Record" as "A simple procedure for the production of identical sheep twins". For an abstract they write: "Eggs were collected surgically on day 6, 7 or 8 from 18 Jacob ewes mated to a Welsh mountain ram. Thirty one (86 per cent) of the 36 eggs ovulated were recovered and of these 27 (87 per cent) had developed normally. All ovulated eggs were collected from 14 of the ewes. One (or more) normally developing morula or blastocyst was collected from 16 of the ewes. While the ewes remained under general anaesthesia each embryo was divided into two 'half' embryos with a thin glass needle. One monozygotic pair of 'half' embryos was retransferred to the embryo donor. The two ewes from which no normal embryos had been recovered were used as recipients for surplus bisected embryos from two other donors. Two of the 18 ewes returned to oestrus. The remaining 16 went to term producing, in all, eight pairs of identical twins, one pair of non-identical twins and seven single lambs.". | (AFRC Institute of Animal Physiology) Cambridge, UK |
16 YBN [06/25/1984 AD] | 5815) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
16 YBN [08/31/1984 AD] | 6190) | (IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland, presented in) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
16 YBN [10/04/1984 AD] | 5812) | (University of Arizona) Tuscon, Arizona, USA and (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Pasadena, California, USA |
16 YBN [11/16/1984 AD] | 5813) | (University of Leicester) Leicester, UK |
16 YBN [1984 AD] | 5854) | |
15 YBN [01/28/1985 AD] | 5825) | (Service d'Endocrinologie et des Maladies de la Reproductio) Bicetre,France and (INSERM U 3 Hôpital de Bicêtre) Bicêtre, France and (CNRS 105), Paris , France |
15 YBN [02/18/1985 AD] | 5821) | (Technische Universitat Munchen) Garching, Germany and (Institut Laue-Langevin) Grenoble, France |
15 YBN [09/20/1985 AD] | 5804) The first stage of the process is to heat DNA containing the required genetic segment in order to unravel the helix. Primers can then be added to mark out the target sequence. If, then, the enzyme DNA polymerase together with a number of free bases are added, two copies of the target sequence will be produced. These two copies can then be heated, separated, and once more produce two further copies each. The cycle, lasting no more than a few minutes, can be repeated as long as supplies last, doubling the target sequence each time. With geometric growth of this kind, more than 100 billion copies can be made in a few hours. Mullis patents this process as "Process for amplifying nucleic acid sequences." in 1985. Mullis and Faloona describe this process in a 1987 paper in the journal "Methods in Enzymology" as "Specific synthesis of DNA in vitro via a polymerase-catalyzed chain reaction". They write: "We have devised a method whereby a nucleic acid sequence can be exponentially amplified in vitro. The same method can be used to alter the amplified sequence or to append new sequence information to it. It is necessary that the ends of the sequence be known in sufficient detail that oligonucleotides can be synthesized which will hybridize to them, and that a small amount of the sequence be available to initiate the reaction. It is not necessary that the sequence to be synthesized enzymatically be present initially in a pure form; it can be a minor fraction of a complex mixture, such as a segment of a single-copy gene in whole human DNA. The sequence to be synthesized can be present initially as a discrete molecule or it can be part of a larger molecule. In either case, the product of the reaction will be a discrete dsDNA molecule with termini corresponding to the 5' ends of the oligomers employed. Synthesis of a 110-bp fragment from a larger molecule via this procedure, which we have termed polymerase chain reaction, is depicted in Fig. 1. A source of DNA including the desired sequence is denatured in the presence of a large molar excess of two oligonucleotides and the four deoxyribonucleo side triphosphates. The oligonucleotides are complementary to different strands of the desired sequence and at relative positions along the sequence such that the DNA polymerase extension product of the one, when denatured, can serve as a template for the other, and vice versa. DNA polymerase is added and a reaction allowed to occur. The reaction products are denatured and the process is repeated until the desired amount of the l l0-bp sequence bounded by the two oligonucleotides is obtained. During the first and each subsequent reaction cycle extension of each oligonucleotide on the original template will produce one new ssDNA molecule of indefinite length. These "long products" will accumulate in a linear fashion, i.e., the amount present after any number of cycles will be linearly proportional to the number of cycles. The long products thus produced will act as templates for one or the other of the oligonucleotides during subsequent cycles and extension of these oligonucleotides by polymerase will produce molecules of a specific length, in this case, 110 bases long. These will also function as templates for one or the other of the oligonucleotides producing more 110-base molecules. Thus a chain reac- tion can be sustained which will result in the accumulation of a specific 110-bp dsDNA at an exponential rate relative to the number of cycles. Figure 2 demonstrates the exponential growth of the 110-bp fragment beginning with 0.1 pmol of a plasmid template. After 10 cycles of polymerase chain reaction, the target sequence was amplified 100 times. The data have been fit to a simple exponential curve (Fig. 2B), which assumes that the fraction of template molecules successfully copied in each cycle remains constant over the 10 cycles. ... Amplification of this same 110-bp fragment starting with I /zg total human DNA (contains approximately 5 × 10 -19 mol of the target sequence from a single-copy gene) produced a 200,000- fold increase of this fragment after 20 cycles. This corresponds to a calculated yield of 85% per cycle.~ This yield is higher than that in the first example in which the target sequence is present at a higher concentration. It is likely that when the target DNA is present in high concentrations, rehybridization of the amplified fragments occurs more readily than their hybridizatio n to primer molecules. ... The polymerase chain reaction has thus found immediate use in developmental DNA diagnostic procedures L3 and in molecular cloning from genomic DNA2; it should be useful wherever increased amounts and relative purification of a particular nucleic acid sequence would be advantageous, or when alterations or additions to the ends of a sequence are required. We are exploring the possibility of utilizing a heat-stable DNA polymerase so as to avoid the need for addition of new enzyme after each cycle of thermal denaturation; in addition, it is anticipated that increasing the temperature at which the priming and polymerization reactions take place will have a beneficial effect on the specificity of the amplification." In 1993, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded "for contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry" jointly with one half to Kary B. Mullis "for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method" and with one half to Michael Smith "for his fundamental contributions to the establishment of oligonucleotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and its development for protein studies". | (Cetus Corporation) Emeryville, California, USA |
15 YBN [12/06/1985 AD] | 5816) | (Lanxide Technology Corporation) Newark, Delaware, USA |
14 YBN [01/24/1986 AD] | 5628) | Planet Uranus |
14 YBN [04/17/1986 AD] | 5824) In 1987, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alexander Müller "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials". | (IBM Zurich Research Laboratory) Ruschlikon, Switzerland |
14 YBN [1986 AD] | 567) Cyndi Lauper releases "True Colors". | |
14 YBN [1986 AD] | 5818) | (Peking University) Perking, China (presumably) |
14 YBN [1986 AD] | 5855) | |
13 YBN [02/06/1987 AD] | 5819) Chu was employed by AT&T early in his career. (Perhaps this gave Chu an advantage in receiving direct-to-brain windows.) | (University of Alabama) Huntsville, Alabama, USA and (University of Houston) Houston, Texas, USA |
13 YBN [07/14/1987 AD] | 5820) | (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
13 YBN [12/14/1987 AD] | 5817) | (University of Victoria) Victoria, Canada and (University of British Columbia) British Columbia, Canada |
12 YBN [12/14/1988 AD] | 6194) | (University of California at Berkeley), Berkeley, California, USA |
12 YBN [1988 AD] | 4621) Information Society releases "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)". | |
12 YBN [1988 AD] | 5856) | |
11 YBN [01/18/1989 AD] | 6205) | (University of Minnesota) Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
11 YBN [08/25/1989 AD] | 5629) A ship from Earth, the U.S. "Voyager 2", reaches planet Neptune and transmits the first close images of Neptune, its moons and rings. In the summer of 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 becomes the first spacecraft to observe the planet Neptune, its final planetary target. Passing about 4,950 kilometers (3,000 miles) above Neptune's north pole, Voyager 2 makes its closest approach to any planet since leaving Earth 12 years earlier. Five hours later, Voyager 2 passes about 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) from Neptune's largest moon, Triton, the last solid body the spacecraft will have an opportunity to examine. | Planet Neptune |
11 YBN [1989 AD] | 6216) Neil Young releases "Keep On Rockin' In The Free World". | |
10 YBN [01/17/1990 AD] | 6191) | (IBM Research Division, Almaden Research Center) San Jose, California, USA |
10 YBN [01/29/1990 AD] | 6278) | (AT&T Bell Labs) Holmdel, New Jersey, United States |
10 YBN [02/14/1990 AD] | 5632) | Outside star system |
10 YBN [04/25/1990 AD] | 5828) | Earth Orbit (Launched from Launch Pad 39B) Merritt Island, Florida, USA |
10 YBN [06/11/1990 AD] | 5826) SRY is an abbreviation for "sex-determining region of Y chromosome", it also has the other name: "testis-determining gene". SRY is a gene on the Y chromosome in humans that encodes a DNA-binding protein (240 amino acids) that induces differentiation of Sertoli cells in the developing gonad so that they produce and secrete anti-Müllerian hormone, which causes regression of female internal genitalia. It also induces Leydig cells to secrete the androgen necessary for development of male genitalia. The DNA-binding domain (≈80 amino acids) is homologous with that of HMG proteins. Many mutations in the gene cause familial XY gonadal dysgenesis (i.e. a female phenotype in the presence of X and Y chromosomes). Peter N. Goodfellow and team publish this in "Nature" as "A gene from the human sex-determining region encodes a protein with homology to a conserved DNA-binding motif". As an abstract they write: "A search of a 35-kilobase region of the human Y chromosome necessary for male sex determination has resulted in the identification of a new gene. This gene is conserved and Y-specific among a wide range of mammals, and encodes a testis-specific transcript. It shares homology with the mating-type protein, Mc, from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and a conserved DNA-binding motif present in the nuclear high-mobility-group proteins HMG1 and HMG2. This gene has been termed SRY (for sex-determining region Y) and proposed to be a candidate for the elusive testis-determining gene, TDF.". (Read more relevent parts.) | (Human Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Imperial Cancer Research Fund) London, UK (and two other locations) |
10 YBN [12/20/1990 AD] | 6346) | ( Abteilung Biophysik der Universitat Ulm) Ulm, Germany |
10 YBN [1990 AD] | 5849) | (Dycam Inc) Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hillsa, California, USA (verify) |
10 YBN [1990 AD] | 6217) C + C Music Factory release "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now". | |
9 YBN [10/29/1991 AD] | 5635) | Asteroid Gaspra |
9 YBN [10/29/1991 AD] | 5636) | Asteroid Gaspra (Ida encounter must occur later) |
9 YBN [1991 AD] | 5857) | |
8 YBN [1992 AD] | 5859) | |
7 YBN [1993 AD] | 5858) | |
5 YBN [02/24/1995 AD] | 5822) | (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory) Batavia, Illinois, USA |
5 YBN [12/07/1995 AD] | 396) | Jupiter |
5 YBN [12/07/1995 AD] | 5637) | Planet Jupiter |
5 YBN [1995 AD] | 5850) | (Ricoh) Tokyo, japan (verify) |
5 YBN [1995 AD] | 6325) Natalie Merchant releases the song "Carnival". The lyric "Have I been blind?" may relate to how many people who are excluded from seeing thought are in some sense "blind" compared to those who do receive see the thought-screen with remote neuron reading and writing (direct-to-brain windows). | |
4 YBN [05/15/1996 AD] | 5827) | (Pfizer Central Research) Sandwich, Kent, UK (verify earliest date) |
4 YBN [08/??/1996 AD] | 6165) R. Kelly releases "I Can Believe I Can Fly". | |
4 YBN [11/25/1996 AD] | 186) | |
4 YBN [11/25/1996 AD] | 5829) | (University of Edinburgh, Roslin Institute), Roslin Midlothian, UK |
1 YBN [09/15/1999 AD] | 3887) | (University of California, Berkeley) Berkeley, CA, USA |
1 YBN [09/20/1999 AD] | 5833) | (Washington University School of Medicine) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 55) | |
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0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 427) | |
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0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 536) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 569) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 595) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 596) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 623) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 674) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 690) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 707) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 740) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 799) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 1069) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 1297) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 1585) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 1772) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 5034) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 5473) | |
0 YAN [01/01/0 AD] | 6311) | |
0 YAN [02/14/2000 AD] | 5638) | Asteroid Eros |
0 YAN [12/05/2000 AD] | 5823) | (Celera Genomics) Rockville, Maryland, USA (and 13 other locations) |
0 YAN [0 AD] | 3706) | Manchester, England |
0 YAN [0 AD] | 3789) | |
0 YAN [0 AD] | 4367) Eduard Buchner's brother Hans Buchner also has achievements in science. Eduard Buchner is killed by a grenade wound on the Romanian front fighting for the Central Powers, which is a terrible waste of an person with science skills and achievements, just as Moseley died in WW I on the Allied side. | (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
0 YAN [0 AD] | 5919) Girolamo Frescobaldi (CE 1583-1643), Italian composer and organist composes in this time. Johann Sebastian Bach will own a copy of Frescobaldi's "Fiori musicali" (1635) and learn from it. | (Saint Peter's cathedral) Rome, Italy |
1 YAN [02/12/2001 AD] | 5639) | Asteroid Eros |
1 YAN [06/28/2001 AD] | 6192) | (Hitachi) Japan |
1 YAN [07/27/2001 AD] | 6200) Millimeter scale rotational wing flying device. Miki and Shimoyama publish this in the "Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems" as "Dynamics of a microflight mechanism with magnetic rotational wings in an alternating magnetic field". As an abstract they write: "Dynamics of a three-dimensionally movable microflight mechanism were analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. The microflight mechanism is composed of magnetic rotational wings that rotate and generate thrust in an alternating magnetic field and a body with magnetic anisotropy that contributes to attitude control. The device consisted of 2.5-mm-long wings weighing 3.5 mg which were fabricated with MEMS technology. A wing rotational frequency of 500 Hz provided enough thrust for liftoff. Experimental data obtained through high-speed camera images show good agreement with theory and also quantify the magnetic anisotropy of the microflight mechanism, which cannot be estimated theoretically. Simultaneous actuation and attitude control by an external magnetic field presented herein, which culminated in simplification and small weight of the device and thus the successful flight, is applicable to other MEMS devices.". | (University of Tokyo) Tokyo, Japan |
1 YAN [12/??/2001 AD] | 6218) Ted Huntington records the "Stop Violence, Teach Science" group of songs. | Irvine, California, USA |
2 YAN [02/16/2002 AD] | 6332) Much of this work is done by teams of people in Massachussets, from Harvard, MIT, and the company MicroCHIPS Inc. Robert Farra and team publish this in the journal "Science Translational Medicine" as "First-in-Human Testing of a Wirelessly Controlled Drug Delivery Microchip". As an abstract they write: "The first clinical trial of an implantable microchip-based drug delivery device is discussed. Human parathyroid hormone fragment {hPTH(1-34)} was delivered from the device in vivo. hPTH(1-34) is the only approved anabolic osteoporosis treatment, but requires daily injections, making patient compliance an obstacle to effective treatment. Furthermore, a net increase in bone mineral density requires intermittent or pulsatile hPTH(1-34) delivery, a challenge for implantable drug delivery products. The microchip-based devices, containing discrete doses of lyophilized hPTH(1-34), were implanted in 8 osteoporotic postmenopausal women for 4 months and wirelessly programmed to release doses from the device once daily for up to 20 days. A computer-based programmer, operating in the Medical Implant Communications Service band, established a bidirectional wireless communication link with the implant to program the dosing schedule and receive implant status confirming proper operation. Each woman subsequently received hPTH(1-34) injections in escalating doses. The pharmacokinetics, safety, tolerability, and bioequivalence of hPTH(1-34) were assessed. Device dosing produced similar pharmacokinetics to multiple injections, and had lower coefficients of variation. Bone marker evaluation indicated that daily release from the device increased bone formation. There were no toxic or adverse events due to the device or drug, and patients stated that the implant did not impact quality of life.". (Determine if earlier devices could be controlled somehow through the skin- "first intrabody remote control device".) (I wonder how practical this is because I can't imagine that many doses would fit in a microchip. Determine how many doses can fit in the device. Doses are very small= 40 μg. These devices deliver 20 doses. At least one fails to deliver the drugs.) (The real importance may be the public report of a remote controlled particle communication device positioned inside a human body.) | (CCBR-SYNARC) Denmark |
3 YAN [04/04/2003 AD] | 6195) | (University of California at Berkeley), Berkeley, California, USA |
3 YAN [08/??/2003 AD] | 6326) Ted Huntington records the "Complete Freedom of All Information" group of songs. | Irvine, California, USA |
4 YAN [01/15/2004 AD] | 5640) | Planet Mars |
4 YAN [06/17/2004 AD] | 6204) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
4 YAN [07/01/2004 AD] | 5641) The U.S. "Cassini" is the first ship to orbit the planet Saturn. | Planet Saturn |
4 YAN [11/29/2004 AD] | 5832) | (Chosun University) Kwangju, South Korea |
4 YAN [2004 AD] | 6327) U2 releases the song "Vertigo". | |
5 YAN [01/14/2005 AD] | 5642) The European Space Agency (E.S.A.) "Huygens" Titan probe is the first ship to soft-land on a moon of a planet besides earth, landing on Titan, a moon of Saturn. | Planet Saturn, moon Titan |
7 YAN [08/??/2007 AD] | 1652) | Kenya, Africa |
7 YAN [10/31/2007 AD] | 6187) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
8 YAN [05/24/2008 AD] | 6168) Ted Huntington releases a version of "Journey To Centauri". | Irvine, California, USA |
8 YAN [12/10/2008 AD] | 3886) | (Collaboration between researchers at two Japanese Universities, two research Institutes, and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories) Kyoto, Japan |
9 YAN [10/12/2009 AD] | 6207) Laser is microscopic in two dimensions. This laser is 30 micrometers long and 8 micrometers high (state width). | (Institute for Quantum Electronics) Zurich, Switzerland |
10 YAN [10/15/2010 AD] | 6169) Ted Huntington releases a group of songs titled "Freedom of Speech" which includes the song "Neuron Writing". | Irvine, California, USA |
10 YAN [2010 AD] | 6167) Many "9/11 truth" songs are produced around this time. | |
11 YAN [05/02/2011 AD] | 6196) Camera is microscopic in two-dimensions. The camera’s diameter is 990 um, the first video camera on Earth with a diameter smaller than 1 mm. The camera image sensor ship measures 660x660um with resolution 45K pixels. A few days later on May 13, 2001, Gill and team publish details about a microscopic camera sensor chip without the need for a lens. (Note that this camera is microscopic in only 2 dimensions. A microscopic camera in 3 dimensions probably must use remote particle communication. Perhaps if the micrometer camera had a wireless device next to it- it could technically be called the first microscopic camera.) | (Medigus Ltd. and Tower Semiconductor Ltd) Omer, Israel |
11 YAN [05/08/2011 AD] | 6286) | (Mayo Clinic College of Medicine) Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
11 YAN [07/08/2011 AD] | 255) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
11 YAN [09/22/2011 AD] | 6211) | (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
11 YAN [10/10/2011 AD] | 6214) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
11 YAN [11/18/2011 AD] | 6336) | (IBM Research–Zurich) Rüschlikon, Switzerland |
15 YAN [2015 AD] | 276) | |
15 YAN [2015 AD] | 332) | |
15 YAN [2015 AD] | 6193) Microscopic wireless camera and microphone. This camera uses particle communication to reduce its size. | |
18 YAN [2018 AD] | 6208) | |
20 YAN [2020 AD] | 337) Remote neuron writing using microscopic devices in neurons is shown publicly. Microscopic devices enter the human body by the lung, enter the blood circulation which connects directly to all cells, and position themselves as human-made cell organelles. External devices communicate with the intracellular devices to make the neuron cell fire. Using this method, muscles can be remotely contracted, and images and sounds can be sent directly to brain (direct-to-brain windows/direct-to-brain videos). This technology allows humans to communicate by sending and receiving thought-images and thought-sounds with each other without the need to move muscles to talk. Direct neuron writing was accomplished in 1678, and presuming remote neuron reading and writing was actually discovered in 1310, this means that 710 years passes before remote neuron writing is demonstrated to the public. | |
20 YAN [2020 AD] | 4559) | unknown |
20 YAN [2020 AD] | 6197) Remote controlled microscopic flying device. Perhaps this may be published by Berkeley, since they have a history of the first micromotors and nanomotors or perhaps Japan. It seems likely that this has already been achieved, given that micromotors, in particular, appear to function just like any regular motor. | |
25 YAN [2025 AD] | 365) | |
25 YAN [2025 AD] | 680) | |
25 YAN [2025 AD] | 6198) Remote controlled microscopic flying camera. Perhaps this may be published by the University of California at Berkeley, since they have a history of the first micromotors and nanomotors. It seems likely that this has already been achieved, given that micromotors, in particular, appear to function just like any regular motor. | |
25 YAN [2025 AD] | 6375) Microscopic wireless laser. | |
30 YAN [2030 AD] | 791) Bipedal robots start replacing humans in most low-skill jobs (fast-food, fruit and vegetable picking, etc). Many humans will be unemployed, replaced by more efficient, more predictable, less expensive humanoid robots. However, the majority of humans will probably vote for a basic standard of living (eradicating starvation, etc) for all humans at least in developed nations. The development of low-cost humanoid robots, will change the paradigm of life for humans, no longer will they need to work or get a job to survive. | |
40 YAN [2040 AD] | 366) Artificial muscle bipedal robot, lighter and more electrically efficient, than motor robots. Artificial muscles work like human muscles and are much lighter than electromagnetic motors. These robots are much lighter and more electrically efficient. Two leg walking robots that use artificial muscles are mass produced and available for public to buy. These robots are much lighter weight than the electromagnetic motor robots, because the artificial muscle fibers move just as much weight but are much lighter. These robots do simple work like cleaning, cooking, driving, shopping- routine tasks that humans do not want to do. | unknown |
40 YAN [2040 AD] | 4561) | unknown |
40 YAN [2040 AD] | 4562) | unknown |
40 YAN [2040 AD] | 4563) | unknown |
40 YAN [2040 AD] | 6206) | |
50 YAN [2050 AD] | 790) Humans walk around with robot servants. These robots record the owner's daily activities, and perform simple tasks like cleaning floors, dusting, vacuuming, washing dishes and clothes, security camera, etc. | |
50 YAN [2050 AD] | 4564) | unknown |
50 YAN [2050 AD] | 4565) | unknown |
50 YAN [2050 AD] | 4566) | unknown |
50 YAN [2050 AD] | 6300) Bacteria identified and destroyed by micro or nanometer scale particle device inside an animal body. By 2100 all bacteria and even viral diseases can be stopped by nanometer scale devices. | unknown |
55 YAN [2055 AD] | 6302) Cancer cell growth stopped by microscopic devices. Microscopic particle communication devices identify and destroy cancer cells inside an animal body. | unknown |
58 YAN [2058 AD] | 6303) Cancer caused by microscopic particle device inside an animal body. | unknown |
60 YAN [2060 AD] | 4567) | unknown |
60 YAN [2060 AD] | 6301) Virus identified and destroyed by microscopic devices inside an animal body. | unknown |
80 YAN [2080 AD] | 4568) | unknown |
100 YAN [2100 AD] | 367) | |
100 YAN [2100 AD] | 793) Helicopter-cars form a second line of traffic above the streets. Flying cars travel over the already exiting roads because of sound level. Flying cars are the popular alternative to ground cars because of 1) improvements to safety {emergency landing chutes, airbags, and thrusters), 2) need to speed, street-level roads are slow and overcrowded 3) lower cost. These cars are basically low flying, low-noise helicopters with ground driving abilities built in. The cars are completely autopilot using cameras and particle distance sensors. | |
100 YAN [2100 AD] | 794) | |
100 YAN [2100 AD] | 4569) | unknown |
100 YAN [2100 AD] | 4570) | unknown |
100 YAN [2100 AD] | 4575) | unknown |
100 YAN [2100 AD] | 4613) All bacteria and viruses conquered. Microscopic devices can identify and destroy all known bacteria and viruses anywhere inside or outside of the body. End of disease caused by bacteria and viruses when caught early enough. | unknown |
120 YAN [2120 AD] | 4571) | unknown |
120 YAN [2120 AD] | 4584) | unknown |
130 YAN [2130 AD] | 4572) Ship lands on an asteroid. | unknown |
140 YAN [2140 AD] | 687) | |
140 YAN [2140 AD] | 4573) | unknown |
150 YAN [2150 AD] | 659) | |
150 YAN [2150 AD] | 4574) | unknown |
150 YAN [2150 AD] | 4576) | unknown |
150 YAN [2150 AD] | 4592) Humans land on Mars. | unknown |
150 YAN [2150 AD] | 6304) Nucleic Acid changed by remote control microscopic devices. This leads to repair, regrowth and reshaping of damaged cells with microscopic devices. | unknown |
170 YAN [2170 AD] | 4577) | unknown |
180 YAN [2180 AD] | 4594) Humans live on Mars. | unknown |
190 YAN [2190 AD] | 4578) | unknown |
200 YAN [2200 AD] | 792) Robots and other machines have replaced humans in most manual labor tasks (driving, cleaning, food planting, harvesting, preparing and serving). In addition, robots dominate the most dangerous parts of law enforcement and personal security. Physical pleasure for money, previously outlawed for nearly a century, becomes the main human-dominated occupation, while robots are very natural and skilled, the human touch may be preferred for many physical pleasure services. | |
200 YAN [2200 AD] | 795) | |
200 YAN [2200 AD] | 4581) | unknown |
200 YAN [2200 AD] | 6305) | |
210 YAN [2210 AD] | 4582) | unknown |
220 YAN [2220 AD] | 4583) | unknown |
240 YAN [2240 AD] | 4585) | unknown |
250 YAN [2250 AD] | 4586) | unknown |
250 YAN [2250 AD] | 4587) | unknown |
250 YAN [2250 AD] | 4588) | unknown |
250 YAN [2250 AD] | 4589) | unknown |
250 YAN [2250 AD] | 4590) | unknown |
250 YAN [2250 AD] | 4591) | unknown |
260 YAN [2260 AD] | 4593) | unknown |
275 YAN [2275 AD] | 661) | |
280 YAN [2280 AD] | 4595) | unknown |
280 YAN [2280 AD] | 4596) | unknown |
280 YAN [2280 AD] | 4597) | unknown |
280 YAN [2280 AD] | 4598) | unknown |
290 YAN [2290 AD] | 4599) | unknown |
300 YAN [2300 AD] | 4600) | unknown |
300 YAN [2300 AD] | 4601) | unknown |
300 YAN [2300 AD] | 4602) | unknown |
300 YAN [2300 AD] | 4603) | unknown |
310 YAN [2310 AD] | 4604) | unknown |
320 YAN [2320 AD] | 4605) | unknown |
325 YAN [2325 AD] | 781) The majority of humans in developed nations do not believe that any Heaven or Hell exists. | |
340 YAN [2340 AD] | 4606) | unknown |
350 YAN [2350 AD] | 4607) | unknown |
350 YAN [2350 AD] | 4608) | unknown |
350 YAN [2350 AD] | 4609) | unknown |
350 YAN [2350 AD] | 4610) | unknown |
400 YAN [2400 AD] | 4611) | unknown |
400 YAN [2400 AD] | 4612) | unknown |
420 YAN [2420 AD] | 779) | |
500 YAN [2500 AD] | 683) The removal and conversion of the Venus atmosphere project is started. This is the first major "removal of gas atmosphere" engineering work of humans. Eventually the gas surrounding all planets will be removed and consumed. After most of the gas is removed, and the surface of the planet cools down, Oxygen and nitrogen gas will be released to create a new atmosphere. This project removes the Carbon from the atmosphere and converts it to H2, O2. This process may be done by thousands of surface (and/or low orbit) machines working in parallel. There is so much gas on Venus, that this process may take 1000 years or more. Based on a conversion rate of 1km3/day conversion by 1000 machines. Probably much of the carbon will be used as hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, air, water and food for humans around Venus, some might eventually be converted into oxygen and nitrogen and put back into the atmosphere, but some may be sent back to Earth or stored as big blocks of carbon. Perhaps the stage of filling the atmosphere of Venus with Nitrogen and Oxygen gas will start only after the entire atmosphere of Venus is removed. Presuming a total mass of Venus atmosphere around 4.8 x 1020 kg, if 1 machine can convert 100,000 kg of atmosphere a day, and 100,000 machines are operating every day, it would take 131 million years to convert all the atmosphere of Venus. But perhaps enough can be converted within 1000 years or less to allow humans to live on the surface. Another possibility is that the atmosphere could be "darkened" by adding some matter to prevent light particles reaching the surface, however this might also stop light particles from the surface exiting. (Determine quantity of atoms in and mass of Venus atmosphere, and more accurate estimate of complete conversion. Use Charles' and Avogadro's laws (using Number of atoms, Pressure, Temperature, Volume).) | |
500 YAN [2500 AD] | 686) End of death by aging. Using genetic editing, humans grow and develop to age 20, and then hold that body shape indefinitely, dying only from physical destruction. Humans now live for thousands of years. This causes the human population to grow at an extremely rapid pace. An alternative view has microscopic genetic editing allowing humans to age extremely slowly and live for millions of years with very little change. Each new human created by reproduction may be an "improved model", with new advanced features, and biological problems and useless DNA removed. This may also just be a reflection of creativity and experimentation, as humans experiment with an endless combination of possibilities. This shifts the focus to the problem of how to feed and house the rapidly increasing quantity of humans. This will make the exploration of other planets and in particular other stars to be an absolute requirement, in particular for humans who want to reproduce but are not allowed to because of the extremely limited resources on Earth and the human home star. Humans will probably reach a steady state equilibrium, living for thousands of years. A very few will die in accidents, and their matter will be recycled, and a new human can then take their place using the resources they would have used. If humans are not wise, there may be terrible struggles because the need for food greatly outweighs the tiny supply of food. Ultimately, however, there is more than enough matter and space in the universe, for all of life, the problem is simply reaching it. This end of the physical effects of aging, may create a new existence of finite resources and careful monitoring of human reproduction, in particular if humans fail to quickly collect other stars. There is only new matter being emitted from the star, more dense matter will need to come from mining the matter orbiting other stars. At this point, the matter orbiting the Sun will continue to increase as a result of more living objects capturing and using sun light to reproduce. More light particles emitted from the sun will be captured and staying in orbit around the Sun (in the form of new living objects), that otherwise would have escaped to other parts of the universe. So in an interesting occurrence, matter from the Sun, is for the first time, being captured and held in orbit around the Sun - as a massive matter transfer from the Sun to the receivers that form a growing sphere around it. Perhaps most matter will be imported from other stars. For many centuries, humans will be able to continue living forever, and even be able to reproduce growing off the mass emitted from the Sun. But clearly, a time will come when perhaps all the light emitted from the Sun will be captured, perhaps by the distance of Jupiter or even closer, and so again, the requirement for living objects, in particular those in outer locations, to move to other stars will be obvious. As in all historical examples of explorers moving to an undeveloped "new world", the journey to the other stars will be a harsh and long journey, but as always historically, there will be much more freedom and space for those who successfully arrive at the other stars alive. Eventually, there will be no more uninhabited stars, and the galaxy will reach the stage of being a globular galaxy. At the stage of a galaxy where all stars are inhabited, and none are left to claim, there must be basically equilibrium systems where all matter (minus the light that escape into the space beyond) is recycled, and very few new living objects can be made...it may be the same old crew of living objects for millions and millions of years unless they happen to die. I can see a gruesome view of possibly purposely ending the lives of some everliving living objects to feed others in a globular galaxy or cluster that is losing more matter than taking in. Perhaps making new humans will be outlawed (although sex may still be acceptable), and only those ever living humans will exist around the star for century after century. Long lived organisms ads a different aspect to evolution, for example now, the current cycle of aging to death has some advantages, because if there is a bad tradition, those who started it may die and the bad tradition may stop, but in the same way, a good tradition may be lost and forgotten. With the same organisms ever-living, living all the time without aging, the movie freezes, and the star system is stuck with the values of those people, never to change, or only to change very slowly. Still, I doubt things would be dull, because of the distance and time involved in moving between stars. There have to be major differences that evolve between people separated by the great distance between stars. This greatly increases the population of humans and the rate at which the population increases. Before this the population was doubling every 40 years, now the population doubles every 5 years. This makes all later estimates unclear because this so greatly changes the number of humans and greatly increases the rate (by necessity) of expansion of humans to the other stars. The descendants of humans will be competing against living objects that have probably adapted through natural selection to be far better at survival than our descendants, in particular because they have. been competing on a larger scale against more other living objects. | |
500 YAN [2500 AD] | 774) | |
500 YAN [2500 AD] | 776) All people in developed nations no longer attend religious services at least once a month. | |
550 YAN [2550 AD] | 4615) | unknown |
570 YAN [2570 AD] | 4616) | unknown |
600 YAN [2600 AD] | 4617) | unknown |
650 YAN [2650 AD] | 4618) | unknown |
650 YAN [2650 AD] | 4619) Humans create atoms from light particles. Photon fusion. The reverse of separating atoms into light particles. This process may involve focusing light particles to form larger particles, like electrons, and protons, which can then be collided together to form larger atoms. Although it seems logical that somewhere in the universe light particle must fuse to form larger compound particles, it may be that a more efficient method may exist such as adding light particles to an atom to cause the atom to create a new electron, or proton. Perhaps adding light particles to an electron may cause the electron to divide into two electrons, or perhaps electrons can be fused together to form protons. Building atoms may require extreme precision and timing of how to make pieces of matter group together without dividing the accumulated cluster of matter into smaller pieces. At first this will probably be more of a theoretical and scientific achievement and not practical, the more practical process being separating larger atoms into smaller more useful atoms - like converting Iron and Silicon into Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. Possibly this may only occur in volumes of large density, and the realization will simply be that, yes this occurred, but it is of little or no practical value since getting desired atoms from existing atoms is faster and easier. For example, there might be some molten object which is bombarded by light particles, cooled and then the number of atoms determined to be larger than started with. | unknown |
700 YAN [2700 AD] | 4620) Humans orbit Saturn. | unknown |
701 YAN [2701 AD] | 4560) Humans land on a moon of Saturn. | unknown |
750 YAN [2750 AD] | 4622) Ship reaches other star (Alpha Centauri). First close up pictures of planets of a different star. Smaller ships land on all the planets and moons of Centauri. Robots start mining and building to prepare for the many millions of humans that will eventually arrive. Some ships will return matter from Centauri back to Earth. Bipedal robots land ships and walk around on the surface of the planets and moons of the three stars of Centauri. This is perhaps 400 years after setting out from the star of Earth. The ship must travel with a velocity greater than 1% the speed of light to reach Centauri within 400 years. The robots mine the matter of the planets, build new ships, perform biological and chemical analysis, sending all information back to the humans of Earth. Probably the robots will find lots of bacteria which will provide proof that nucleic acids molecules like DNA and RNA, and even more evolved cells like bacteria and viruses are common throughout the universe, found on most planets of every star. Seeing close-up images of planets of a different star will create a large amount of excitement in the humans on Earth and perhaps boost their confidence and interest in exploration. | unknown |
765 YAN [2765 AD] | 6209) | Alpha Centauri |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 24) | |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 780) | |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 782) | |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 4623) | unknown |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 4624) | unknown |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 4625) | unknown |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 4626) | unknown |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 4627) | unknown |
800 YAN [2800 AD] | 4628) | unknown |
850 YAN [2850 AD] | 4580) | unknown |
900 YAN [2900 AD] | 29) Ship impacts the surface of Jupiter. First image of the surface of Jupiter. Surface found to be molten liquid, and six times the diameter of Earth, making Jupiter the second largest solid body of this star system after the Sun. Perhaps the surface of Jupiter will be found to be molten liquid metal, mostly iron, silicon and the other most abundant atoms. Because of the high temperature, perhaps the first image of the surface of Jupiter without any filter will have to wait until all the gases are removed from the atmosphere of the planet, and the planet cool enough for the surface to solidify. | unknown |
900 YAN [2900 AD] | 775) | unknown |
900 YAN [2900 AD] | 4629) | unknown |
900 YAN [2900 AD] | 4630) | unknown |
900 YAN [2900 AD] | 4632) | unknown |
950 YAN [2950 AD] | 4633) Humans penetrate the surface of Saturn. As expected, the diameter of Saturn is 4 times that of Earth (verify) and is molten metal like Jupiter. | unknown |
1,000 YAN [3000 AD] | 4631) | unknown |
1,000 YAN [3000 AD] | 4634) | unknown |
1,000 YAN [3000 AD] | 4635) Ship impacts the surface of Uranus. The diameter is found to be around 3 times that of earth (verify) and is molten metal. | unknown |
1,000 YAN [3000 AD] | 4636) Ship impacts surface of Neptune. Like Uranus, the diameter is found to be around 3 times that of earth (verify) and is molten metal. | unknown |
1,150 YAN [3150 AD] | 4638) | unknown |
1,200 YAN [3200 AD] | 4614) | Neptune |
1,200 YAN [3200 AD] | 4637) | unknown |
1,200 YAN [3200 AD] | 4639) | unknown |
1,300 YAN [3300 AD] | 777) The majority of humans in traditionally undeveloped nations are not religious. | |
1,350 YAN [3350 AD] | 4640) | unknown |
1,400 YAN [3400 AD] | 4643) Motion of planet Mars and moons of Mars controlled by orbiting ships. | unknown |
1,500 YAN [3500 AD] | 684) | |
1,500 YAN [3500 AD] | 4642) | unknown |
1,600 YAN [3600 AD] | 4641) Motion of Venus controlled by orbiting ships. | unknown |
1,800 YAN [3800 AD] | 681) Earth Moon population reaches maximum possible (250 trillion). | |
1,800 YAN [3800 AD] | 4645) Motion of Jupiter controlled by orbiting ships. | unknown |
1,800 YAN [3800 AD] | 4655) | Jupiter |
1,900 YAN [3900 AD] | 682) | |
1,900 YAN [3900 AD] | 4647) | unknown |
2,000 YAN [4000 AD] | 4644) | Jupiter |
2,000 YAN [4000 AD] | 4646) | unknown |
2,000 YAN [4000 AD] | 4648) | unknown |
2,100 YAN [4100 AD] | 4649) | unknown |
2,100 YAN [4100 AD] | 4650) | unknown |
2,200 YAN [4200 AD] | 4651) | unknown |
2,200 YAN [4200 AD] | 4652) | unknown |
2,200 YAN [4200 AD] | 4653) | unknown |
2,300 YAN [4300 AD] | 778) All humans in traditionally undeveloped nations are not religious. | |
2,300 YAN [4300 AD] | 4657) | unknown |
2,500 YAN [4500 AD] | 4579) This is based on a conversion rate of 1km3/day conversion by 1000 machines. | |
2,500 YAN [4500 AD] | 4654) | unknown |
2,500 YAN [4500 AD] | 4659) Humans land on surface of Saturn. | unknown |
2,500 YAN [4500 AD] | 4660) Humans land on surface of Uranus. | unknown |
2,500 YAN [4500 AD] | 4661) | unknown |
2,500 YAN [4500 AD] | 4662) | unknown |
2,500 YAN [4500 AD] | 6171) | |
2,600 YAN [4600 AD] | 4663) Atmosphere of Saturn consumed. The gases in the atmosphere of Saturn are completely consumed. This begins the emitting of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide and other gases to create a warm temperature on the surface of Saturn. Robots mine the surface of Saturn exporting the precious matter to the inner star system. | unknown |
2,600 YAN [4600 AD] | 4665) Humans land on and live on the surface of Neptune. | unknown |
2,600 YAN [4600 AD] | 5605) The air of Uranus is completely consumed. This begins the converting of surface solid atoms into nitrogen, oxygen, and other gases which are released around Uranus to make an Earth-like atmosphere. This is temporary until most of the matter of Uranus has been mined and completely separated into its source photons by consumption as water, food, fuel, building materials, etc. Robots extract solid matter, mostly metal, from the surface of Uranus which is shipped back to Earth, Mars and Jupiter for consumption. Much of these ships and robots are probably owned by humans that live closer to the star. | unknown |
2,700 YAN [4700 AD] | 4666) | unknown |
2,700 YAN [4700 AD] | 4667) The atmosphere (all the free gases) of Neptune consumed. The native gases will be replaced with oxygen, nitrogen, CO2, and other molecules. The temperature will be maintained to be similar to Earth temperatures. | Neptune |
2,800 YAN [4800 AD] | 685) | |
2,800 YAN [4800 AD] | 4669) | unknown |
3,000 YAN [5000 AD] | 679) | |
3,000 YAN [5000 AD] | 4656) | Jupiter |
3,000 YAN [5000 AD] | 4668) | unknown |
3,000 YAN [5000 AD] | 4670) | unknown |
3,000 YAN [5000 AD] | 6177) | unknown |
3,100 YAN [5100 AD] | 4664) | Uranus |
3,100 YAN [5100 AD] | 4671) | unknown |
3,200 YAN [5200 AD] | 4673) | unknown |
3,200 YAN [5200 AD] | 6173) | Neptune |
3,500 YAN [5500 AD] | 6176) | Mars |
4,000 YAN [6000 AD] | 4674) | Centauri |
4,000 YAN [6000 AD] | 4675) | unknown |
4,500 YAN [6500 AD] | 4676) | unknown |
9,000 YAN [11000 AD] | 4680) | unknown |
10,000 YAN [12000 AD] | 4681) | unknown |
11,000 YAN [13000 AD] | 4682) | unknown |
12,000 YAN [14000 AD] | 4683) | unknown |
15,000 YAN [17000 AD] | 678) | |
25,000 YAN [27000 AD] | 4677) | unknown |
45,000 YAN [47000 AD] | 4679) | unknown |
50,000 YAN [52000 AD] | 4658) All asteroids in between Mars and Jupiter have been converted into more humans, fuel and food. | |
55,000 YAN [57000 AD] | 4672) Planet Mercury completely filled with living objects. The matter of planet Mercury is completely used as fuel and food by life of the earth star. Mercury now functions as a massive ship. In the absence of an external supply, it may be that Mercury becomes hollow and ultimately divides into many smaller ships. | unknown |
60,000 YAN [62000 AD] | 6175) Mars is filled with living objects. There is no more molten material inside the planet Mars. | Mars |
65,000 YAN [67000 AD] | 6174) Earth is completely filled with living objects. There is no more molten material inside the Earth. All the molten compressed matter was extracted, cooled and consumed as building materials, fuel, food, etc. Earth is completely filled with tunnels, rooms, and living objects. The inside is connected to the surface by many passages. The sphere of Earth is held together by metal support structures, and functions as a giant ship. Earth and the other planets will perhaps function as giant metal ships for a long time. Possibly the inside of the Earth will be devoid of life, life preferring to live in orbiting ships. In that case, probably the humans on the surface would be relocated, and the molten surface of Earth slowly consumed from the top down. With only light particles from the Sun, matter imported from outer planets, and other stars, as a source of new matter, the Earth and other completely developed smaller inner planets have to consume more internal matter, perhaps hollowing or dividing planets into smaller pieces. | Earth |
70,000 YAN [72000 AD] | 4684) | unknown |
90,000 YAN [92000 AD] | 6210) | unknown |
100,000 YAN | 4678) | unknown |
130,000 YAN | 100) | |
185,000 YAN | 6178) All planets of Sirius consumed. | Sirius |
205,000 YAN | 6317) | Sirius |
630,000 YAN | 106) | |
100,000,000 YAN | 4685) All stars in the Milky Way Galaxy belong to a globular cluster. It seems safe to presume that by 100 million years from now, all stars in the Milky Way Galaxy will belong to a globular cluster. | unknown |
20,000,000,000 YAN | 4686) | unknown |
30,000,000,000 YAN | 4687) | unknown |
40,000,000,000 YAN | 4688) | unknown |