June
Important dates in History
June
30:
Transistor
In 1948, the transistor
was demonstrated by its inventors, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, scientists
at the Bell Telephone Laboratory in Murray Hill, NJ. It was a simple, tiny device
utilizing the electronic semiconducting properties of a germanium wafer. The transistor
represented a significant advance in technology. As it was developed over the
next few years, it was incorporated into electronic equipment as a functional
replacment for the vacuum tube. Such use of transistors provided great savings
in space and electrical power consumption. This made possible the small portable,
battery-powered transistor radios which were sold to the public by late 1954.
June
29:
Alexander Parkes
(Born December
29, 1813: Died June 29, 1890)
British industrial chemist who invented many
processes. Parkes was an expert in electroplating, able to silver-plate such diverse
objects as a spider web and flowers. He patented a method of rubber coating fabrics
to waterproof them (1841), an electroplating process (1843), and a method of extracting
silver from lead ore by adding zinc (1850). He produced the first plastic (1855),
which he called Parkesine, by dissolving cellulose nitrate in alcohol and camphor
containing ether. The hard solid result could be molded when heated, but he could
find no market for the material. (This was rediscovered in the 1860s by John Wesley
Hyatt, an American chemist, who named it celluloid and successfully marketed it
as a replacement for ivory.
June
28:
Klaus von Klitzing
(Born June
28, 1943)
German physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1985
for his discovery, made in 1980, of the quantized Hall effect. Under appropriate
conditions the resistance offered by an electrical conductor is quantized; that
is, it varies by discrete steps rather than smoothly and continuously. His experiments
enabled other scientists to study the conducting properties of electronic components
with extraordinary precision. His work also aided in determining the precise value
of the fine-structure constant and in establishing convenient standards for the
measurement of electrical resistance.
June
27:
Merle Antony Tuve
(Born June
27, 1901: Died May 20, 1982)
American research physicist and geophysicist who
(with Gregory Breit) made the first use pulsed radio waves to explore the ionosphere.
He devised the necessary detecting equipment to measure the time between receiving
a direct radio pulse and a second pulse reflected from the ionosphere. The observations
he made provided the theoretical foundation for the development of radar. Tuve,
with Lawrence R. Hafstad and Norman P. Heydenburg, made the first and definitive
measurements of the nuclear force between proton-proton force at nuclear distances.
During WW II he developed the proximity fuse. Following the war, he made important
contributions to experimental seismology, radio astronomy, and optical astronomy.
June
26:
Fluorine
In 1886, Henri Moissan
isolated the element fluorine for the first time, after many unsuccessful attempts.
His work had been interrupted four times by serious poisoning. His apparatus consisted
of two platinum-iridium electrodes sealed into a platinum U-tube containing an
electrolyte solution of dry potassium acid fluoride in anhydrous hydrofluoric
acid chilled with methylene chloride to a temperature of -23º. The ends were
closed with fluorspar screw caps covered with a layer of gum lac. Electrolysis
produced a gas at the anode. When Moissan tested it with silicon, it immediately
burst into flame, which he regarded as a test for fluorine gas. Two days later,
his discovery was announced at the Academy of Science, Paris.
June
25:
Walther Hermann Nernst
(Born
June 25, 1864: Died November 18, 1941)
German scientist who was one of the
founders of modern physical chemistry. In 1889, he devised his theory of electric
potential and conduction of electrolytic solutions (the Nernst Equation) and introduced
the solubility product to explain precipitation reactions. In 1906, Nernst showed
that it is possible to determine the equilibrium constant for a chemical reaction
from thermal data, and in so doing he formulated what he himself called the third
law of thermodynamics. This states that the entropy, (a thermodynamic measure
of disorder in a system), approaches zero as the temperature goes towards absolute
zero. For this, he was awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1918, he
explained the H2-Cl2 explosion on exposure to light as an atom chain reaction.
June
24:
Martin Lewis Perl
(Born June
24, 1927)
American physicist who received the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physics
for discovering a subatomic particle that he named the tau, a massive lepton with
a negative charge. The tau, which he found in the mid-1970s, was the first evidence
of a third "generation" of fundamental particles. It is a superheavy
cousin of the electron, identical in all respects except that the tau is more
than 3,500 times heavier than the electron and survives less than a trillionth
of a second, whereas the electron is stable.
June
23:
Wilhelm Eduard Weber
(Born:
October 24, 1804, Died: June 23, 1891)
erman physicist who investigated terrestrial
magnetism. For six years, from 1831, Weber worked in close collaboration with
Gauss. Weber developed sensitive magnetometers, an electromagnetic telegraph (1833)
and other magnetic instruments during this time. His later work (1855) on the
ratio between the electrodynamic and electrostatic units of charge proved extremely
important and was crucial to Maxwell in his electromagnetic theory of light. (Weber
found the ratio was 3.1074 x 108 m/sec but failed to take any notice of the fact
that this was close to the speed of light.) Weber's later years were devoted to
work in electrodynamics and the electrical structure of matter. The magnetic unit,
termed a weber, formerly the coulomb, is named after him.
June
22:
Karl Taylor Compton
(Born September
14, 1887: Died June 22, 1954)
American educator and physicist who directed
development of radar during WW II. His research included the passage of photoelectrons
through metals, ionization and the motion of electrons in gases, fluorescence,
the theory of the electric arc, and collisions of electrons and atoms. In 1933,
President Roosevelt asked him to chair the new Scientific Advisory Board. When
the National Defense Research Committee was formed in 1940, he was chief of Division
D (detection: radar, fire control, etc.) In 1941, he was in charge of those divisions
concerned with radar within the new Office of Scientific Research and Development
(OSRD). Afterwards he was cited for personally shortening the duration of the
war. (Brother of Arthur H. Compton.)
June
21:
Computer
In 1948, the first
stored-program computer, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine, SSEM, ran its first
program. Written by Professor Tom Kilburn, it took 52 minutes to run. The tiny
experimental computer had no keyboard or printer, but it successfully tested a
memory system developed at Manchester University in England. The system, based
on a cathode-ray tube, could store programs. Previous electronic computers had
to be rewired to execute each new problem. The Manchester computer proved theories
set forth by John von Neumann in a report that proposed modifications to ENIAC,
the electronic computer built at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1940s.
The report also proposed the use of binary instead of digital numbers.
June
20:
Zeppelin flight
In 1908, Count
Zeppelin made his first flight in his fourth new airship at Friedrichshafen, Germany.
The Luftschiff LZ4 had its first flight June 20, 1908. Its first extended flight
(12 hours) was taken to Switzerland July 1, 1908. At the beginning of August,
it embarked on an extended flight which had taken it among other places to Basel,
Straussberg, and many of the major cities of southern Germany. While moored at
Echterdingen on August 5, 1908, it was torn from the mast by high winds and destroyed.
As interest in the Zeppelins ran high in German, the incident was felt as a national
disaster. Spontaneous donations resulted in approximately 5.5 million Marks and
made it possible for Zeppelin to continue his work.
June
19:
Edison patent
In 1888, Thomas
A. Edision, with co-inventor Ezra T. Gilliland were granted a patent for "Railway
Signaling" (U.S. No. 384,830). The invention related to signalling systems
for communicating between stations and moving trains by induction from the telegraph
wires to the roofs of the cars. In such a system, transmitters were vibrators
operated by keys to send signals upon the line, and receivers were telephone receivers
connected to the ground. The patent was for an innovation to increase the quickness,
rapidity and clearness of the vibrations. By making the transmitted vibrations
as short and distinct as possible, they may be more clearly reproduced at the
receiver.
June
18:
Arthur Edwin Kennelly
(Born
December 17, 1861: Died June 18, 1939)
Irish-American electrical engineer who
was a prominent contributor to the science of electrical engineering. For six
years he worked for Thomas Edison at West Orange Laboratory, then branched out
as a consultant. Upon his co-discovery of the radio reflecting properties of the
ionosphere in the upper atmosphere, the stratum was called the Kennelly-Heaviside
layer.
June
17:
Goodyear
In
1837, Charles Goodyear obtained his first rubber-processing patent (U.S. No. 240).
At this time, the original india-rubber would become sticky melt in the summer
heat. Goodyear resolved to solve this problem. After various unsuccessful methods,
he devised a process to treat the India rubber with metallic solutions such as
copper nitrate and strong acid for a few minutes, followed by washing with water.
Such process treated both rubber on the surface and below the surface to a useful
condition. His patent explained this method, and also the use of a water paste
of quicklime to bleach the rubber for which he listed various new purposes. He
obtained additional patents as he continued to revised his process by using sulphur
and oil of turpentine.
June
16:
IBM
In
1911, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was incorporated, a predecessor
of IBM (1924). Earlier, in 1890, Dr. Herman Hollerith had constructed an electromechanical
machine using perforated cards for use in the U.S. census, and in 1896 he founded
the Tabulating Machine Co. to construct sorting machines. In 1911, CTR was the
result of the merger of the Tabulating Company (founded by Hollerith), the Computing
Scale Company, and the International Time Recording Company)
June
15:
Lightning experiment
In
1752, Ben Franklin's kite-flying experiment proved lightning and electricity were
related while flying a kite with a key attatched. In September 1752, he equipped
his house with a lightning rod, connecting it to bells that ring when rod is electrified.
He explained how to perform a kite experiment in the October 19, 1752 issue of
the Pennsylvania Gazette. He had earlier proposed use of lightning rods to protect
houses in a March 2, 1750 letter to Collinson and in the same year, on July 29,
1750, he devised an experiment involving a sentry-box with a pointed rod on its
roof, to be erected on hilltop or in church steeple, with rod attached to a Leyden
jar which would collect the electrical charge, and thus prove lightning to be
a form of electricity.
June
14:
Univac1
In
1951, the Univac1 was unveiled in Washington, DC. and dedicated as the world's
first commercial computer. The Univac was manufactured for the U.S. Census Bureau
by Remington Rand Corp. The massive computer was 8 feet high, 7-1/2 feet wide
and 14-1/2 feet long. It could retain a maximum of 1000 numbers and was able to
add, subtract, multiply, divide, sort, collate and take square and cube roots.
Its transfer rate to and from magnetic tape was 10,000 characters per second.
This was five years after the ENIAC, the first electronic computer in the U.S.,
was completed.
June
13:
Willard Harrison Bennett
(Born
June 13, 1903: Died September 28, 1987)
American physicist who discovered (1934)
the pinch effect, an electromagnetic process that may offer a way to magnetically
confine a plasma at temperatures high enough for controlled nuclear fusion reactions
to occur. He proposed (1936) the tandem Van de Graaff accelerator, which later
became widely used in nuclear research. He invented a radio-frequency mass spectrometer,
developed in 1950. Since it required no heavy magnet, it was the first launched
into space to measure the masses of atoms. Sputnik III carried the first R-F mass
spectrometer into space. It was the only space instrument used by the Russians
and credited to an American inventor in their own Russian-language publications.
June
12:
Bert Sakmann
(Born
June 12, 1942)
German medical doctor and research scientist who in 1991, (with
German physicist Erwin Neher), won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
for research into basic cell function and for development of the patch-clamp technique
(a laboratory method widely used in cell biology and neuroscience to detect electrical
currents as small as a trillionth of an ampere through cell membranes.)
June
11:
Edison patent
In
1889, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for an "Electrical Distribution
System" (U.S. No. 404,902).
June
10:
Mylar
In
1952, Mylar® was registered as a DuPont trademark for an extraordinarily strong
polyester film that grew out of the development of Dacron® in the early 1950s.
During the 1960s its superior strength steadily replaced cellophane because of
its its superior strength, heat resistance, and excellent insulating properties.
The unique qualities of the film made new consumer markets in magnetic audio and
video tape, capacitor dielectrics, packaging and batteries possible. By the 1970s,
it become DuPont’s best-selling film, despite mounting competition. It is also
used as food wrap, for balloons, and by instrument manufacturers to produce high-quality
drumheads.
June
9:
Einstein
published
In
1905, Albert Einstein published his analysis of Planck's quantum theory and its
application to light. His article appeared in Annalen der Physik. Though no experimental
work was involved, it was for these insights that Einstein earned his Nobel Prize.
June
8:
Arsène d' Arsonval
.(Born
June 8, 1851: Died December 31, 1940)
Jacques-Arsène d' Arsonval was
a French physician and physicist known for his researches in electrotherapy. He
introduced the first reflecting moving-coil galvanometers used to measure weak
electric currents (1882), invented mechanisms to obtain high-frequency currents
used to treat diseases of the skin and mucous membranes ("d'Arsonvalization";
1890), and demonstrated how a human being could conduct an alternating current
strong enough to light an electric lamp (1892).
June
7:
Alan M. Turing
(Born
June 23, 1912: Died June 7, 1954)
Alan Mathison Turing was an English mathematician
and logician who pioneered in the field of computer theory and who contributed
important logical analyses of computer processes. He made major contributions
to mathematics, cryptanalysis, logic, philosophy, and biology and to the new areas
later named computer science, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and
artificial life.
June
6:
Prototype metre bar and kilogram mass
In
1799, the first definitive prototype metre bars and kilograms constructed in platinum.
This followed the legal definition of the metric system by the French National
Assembly on April 7, 1795.
June
5:
Apple II
In
1977, first personal computer, the Apple II, went on sale. They were the invention
of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. They have the 6502 microprocessor, ability to
do Hi-res and Lo-res color graphics, sound, joystick input, and casette tape I/O.
They have a total of eight expansion Slots for adding peripherials. Clock speed
is 1MHz and, with Apple's Language Card installed, standard memory size is 64kB.
(The Apple I designation referred to an earlier computer that was not much more
than a board. You had to supply your own keyboard, monitor and case.) The Apple
II was one of three prominent personal computers that came out in 1977. Despite
its higher price, it quickly pulled ahead of the TRS-80 and the Commodore Pet.
June
4:
Edison patent
In
1907, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for a "Diaphragm for Talking-Machines"
(U.S. No. 855,562) that "will be readily responsive to vibrations of comparatively
great amplitude." The invention comprised a duplex diaphragm made of at least
two disks, each of which is radially sloted so that each disk constitutes a series
of reeds. By staggering the slots of the disks, a continuous surface is presented
for actuating the sound waves. The disks, made of mica about one-thousandth of
an inch thick, are cemented together with an elastic cement, such as a solution
of gum rubber.
June
3:
J. Presper Eckert, Jr.
(Born
April 9, 1919: Died June 3, 1995)
John Presper Eckert, Jr. was an American
engineer and coinventor of the first general-purpose electronic computer, a digital
machine that was the prototype for most computers in use today. In 1946, Eckert
with John W. Mauchly fulfilled a government contract to build a digital computer
to be used by the U.S. Army for military calculations. They named it ENIAC for
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. By 1949, they had started a manufacturing
company for their BINAC computer. This was followed by a business oriented computer,
UNIVAC (1951), which was put to many uses and spurred the growth of the computer
industry. By 1966 Eckert held 85 patents, mostly for electronic inventions.
June
2:
Hydroelectricity
In
1889, a hydroelectric power plant generated alternating current electricity which
was for the first time made available to consumers at a significant distance from
its origin. A 13 mile power line linked the Willamette Falls Electric Co. power
plant to Portland, Ore. Two 300 h.p. Stilwell & Bierce waterwheels together
drove a single phase, 720 kilowatt generator. It was not the first hydroelectric
power plant, for one had been demonstrated in Appleton, Wisc., 30 Sep 1882 with
a small dynamo. Rather, it is the use of alternating current that is significant,
for this makes possible long-distance transmission that overcomes the problems
of direct current. AC generators driven by steam power had been in use elsewhere
since 1886.
June
1:
E-lamp
In 1992, the E-Lamp, an electronic electrodeless 20-year
lightbulb, was announced by Pierre Villere. The E-Lamp is illuminated when radio
waves excite a phosphor coating, an efficient process that can save as much as
75% of lighting costs. The E-lamp technology was licensed from Diablo Research
Corporation that developed it in the late 1980s. However, they were not approved
for residential use in the U.S. In Apr 1994, General Electric (G.E.) Lighting
announced that "the world's first practical compact high-tech induction reflector
lamp" would be on the market in Europe within weeks using the tradename Genura.
It is smaller than the incandescent reflector lamp it replaces.
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