October
Important
dates in History
October
31:
Sir
Joseph Wilson Swan
(Born
October 31, 1828: Died May 27, 1914)
English scientist, chemist, physicist
and inventor, born in Yorkshire, who produced an early electric incandescent lamp.
He began these experiments in the 1840’s and obtained a UK patent covering a partial
vacuum, carbon filament incandescent lamp in 1860. Swan’s early lamps provided
low light output, were short lived, and were operated from battery cells. Low
voltage operation required relatively high filament current that necessitated
that the power source be co-located near the Swan lamp. He also addressed the
problem of photographic print fading and in the mid 1850s some began to experiment
with carbon, perfecting and patenting the process in 1864. Thus Swan invented
the dry photographic plate, an important improvement in photography.
October
30:
Louis
Winslow Austin
(Born October 30, 1867: Died
June 27, 1932)
American physicist known for research on long-range radio transmissions.
In 1904 he began work on radio transmissions for the U.S. Bureau of Standards.
In 1908 Austin became head of a naval radiotelegraphy laboratory (later to become
the Naval Research Laboratory) and became chief of the bureau's laboratory for
special radio transmission research (1923-32). His work involved long-range transmission
experiments, most notably a study (1910) that tested radio contact between ships
travelling between the US and Liberia. Austin and collaborator Louis Cohen developed
the Austin-Cohen formula for predicting the strength of radio signals at long
distances. Austin's later work centred on the study of radio atmospheric disturbances,
i.e., "static."
October
29:
Bone
repair by electricity
In 1971, the first successful
use of electricity to repair a bone fracture is reported by surgeons at the University
of Pennsylvania. Electrical currents have been used to heal bone since the mid-1800s,
and the effect of electrical stimulation on bone has been long studied and well
documented.When human bone is bent or broken, it generates an electrical charge
("On the Piezoelectric Effect of Bone", Fukada and Yasuda, 1957). This
low level electrical charge stimulates the body's internal repair mechanism.
October
28:
Zygmunt
Florenty von Wroblewski
(Born October 28, 1845: Died
April 19, 1888)
Polish physicist who liquefied the "permanent gases"
such as nitrogen and carbon monoxide in larger quantities than previously accomplished
by Cailletet, whose method he improved. In 1883, he achieved the static liquefaction
of oxygen and air. He was the first to liquify hydrogen. Although he achieved
it only in a transient fine mist, he published (1885) remarkably accurate data:
critical temperature 33 K, critical pressure, 13.3 atm and boiling point, 23 K
(modern values 33.3 K, 12.8 atm, 20.3 K). He may also have had a hint of strange
electrical properties at very low temperatures, but his research was cut short
upon his accidental death. Wroblewski died as a result of burns in a fire started
when he overturned a kerosene lamp in his laboratory.
October
27:
John
H. Van Vleck
(Born March 13, 1899: Died October 27, 1980)
John Hasbrouck Van Vleck was
an American physicist and mathematician who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics
in 1977 with Philip W. Anderson and Sir Nevill F. Mott. The prize honoured Van
Vleck's contributions to the understanding of the behaviour of electrons in magnetic,
noncrystalline solid materials.
October
26:
Charles
P. Steinmetz
(Born April 9, 1865: Died October 26, 1923)
German-born American inventor
and electrical engineer whose theories and mathematical analysis of alternating
current systems helped establish them as the preferred form of electrical energy
in the United States, and throughout the world. In 1893, Steinmetz joined the
newly organized General Electric Company where he was an engineer then consultant
until his death. His early research on hysteresis (loss of power due to magnetic
resistance) led him to study alternating current, which could eliminate hysteresis
loss in motors. He did extensive new work on the theory of a.c. for electrical
engineers to use. His last research was on lightning, and its threat to the new
AC power lines. He was responsible for the expansion of the electric power industry
in the U.S.
October
25:
Accutron
In 1960, the Accutron 214,
the world's first electronic wristwatch by Bulova, was placed on sale in New York
City. The original circuit used a germanium PNP transistor circuit with a 360-Hz
tuning fork, used for timing accuracy. In 1977 it was replaced by quartz watches.
The Accutron has the potential accuracy of better than 2 seconds per day, remarkable
in its day of mechanical watches. In 1953, tuning fork watch development began
in Switzerland and prototype watches were made in 1955. Its Swiss engineer was
Max Hetzel, who moved in 1959 to continue his development of the Bulova Accutron
in New York with William Bennett. The CEO of Bulova at the time was Omar Bradley,
5 Star General, US Army, Retired.
October
24:
Wilhelm
Eduard Weber
(Born
October 24, 1804: Died June 23, 1891)
German 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.
October
23:
William
David Coolidge
(Born October 23, 1873: Died February 3, 1975)
William David Coolidge was
an American engineer and physical chemist whose improvement of tungsten filaments
(1913, patent No.1,082,933) was essential in the development of the modern incandescent
lamp bulb and the X-ray tube. Coolidge's X-ray tube (1916, U.S. patent No. 1,203,495)
completely revolutionized the generation of X-rays and remains to this day the
model upon which all X-ray tubes for medical applications are patterned [above
R]. He worked on many other devices such as high-quality magnetic steel, improved
ventilating fans, and the electric blanket. During World War II he contributed
research to projects involving radar and radar countermeasures. He was awarded
83 patents during his lifetime.
October
22:
Xerography
In 1938, xerography was demonstrated
by Chester F. Carlson. With his assistant, Otto Kornei, Carlson used a sulphur
coating on a zinc plate, vigorously rubbed with a handkerchief to apply an electrostatic
charge. A glass slide was prepared using India ink to write "10-22-38 ASTORIA,"
then laid on the sulphur surface in a darkened room. After illuminating them with
a bright incandescent lamp for a few seconds, the slide was removed. When lycopodium
powder was sprinkled on the sulphur surface and blown off, there remained a near-perfect
image of the writing. Permanent copies were made by transferring the powder images
to wax paper and heating the sheets to melt the wax. Xerox is a term coming from
"xerography" which means dry writing and is a trademark.
October
21:
Photoelectric
cell
In
1925, the first U.S. photocell or tube which was publicly demonstrated was shown
by the Westinghouse Electric and Mfg Co at the Electrical Show at Grand Central
Palace in New York. The sensitivity of the photocell to light was used to count
objects as they passed through and interrupted a beam of light. It was also shown
applied to open doors as a person or car approached.
October
20:
Vacuum
tube
In
1906, Dr. Lee DeForest (August 21, 1873 - June 31, 1961), one of the "fathers
of radio," announced his three-element electrical vacuum tube (now known
as a triode) to a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers He
had discovered that when a mesh, or grid, of wire was placed between the filament
and collector "plate" in a diode tube (first made by J. Ambrose Fleming,
1904), a large voltage-amplifying effect could be produced. DeForest patented
this vacuum tube on January 15, 1907. The ability of this tube to amplifiy weak
signals was an invention as great as radio itself, because it made long-distance
communication possible.
October
19:
First
electrical digital computer
In 1973, a US Federal Judge
signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent
invalid and belatedly credited physicist John Atanasoff with developing the first
electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff- Berry Computer or the ABC. Built in
1937-42 at Iowa State University by Atanasoff and a graduate student, Clifford
Berry, it introduced the ideas of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and
logic circuits. These ideas were communicated from Atanasoff to John Mauchly,
who used them in the design of the better-known ENIAC built and patented several
years later.
October
18:
Household
electricity
In
1878, Edison makes electricity available for household usage.
October
17:
Steel
patent
In
1885, a steel-making process was patented by Sir Harry Bessemer, a British inventor
and metallurgist. His patent was for a method of making steel by blasting compressed
air through molten iron to remove impurities and excess carbon. The "Bessemer
Process," made it possible to mass-produce steel inexpensively. In the course
of his life, Bessemer earned more than 100 patents, knighthood, and great wealth.
October
16:
Inside-frosted
light bulb
In
1928, a U.S. patent (No. 1,687,510) was issued for the first electric light bulb
frosted on the inside with sufficient strength for commercial handling. The inventor,
Marvin Pipkin, worked at the Incandescent Lamp Department of the General Electric
Company, Nela Park, Ohio. The advantages of frosting the inside of a bulb (versus
the outside) are less absorption of light and less collection of dust. The previous
etching processes tended to weaken the glass because the etched pits in the surface
were sharply angled. He was able to produce rounded pits by treating the bulb
with a weaker etching solution, or a strong solution used for a shorter time.
October
15:
Edison
Electric Light Co.
In 1878, Thomas Edison established
the Edison Electric Light Company in N.Y. City with a syndicate of leading financiers,
including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts, who advanced him $30,000 for research
and development. Edison proposed to connect his lights in a parallel circuit by
subdividing the current, so that, unlike arc lights, which were connected in a
series circuit, the failure of one light bulb would not cause a whole circuit
to fail. He patented his electricity distribution system in 1880. The first investor-owned
electric utility, Pearl Street Station, New York City, (1882) provided service
for the 400 lamps of 85 customers. This company and its technological heritage
became a part of General Electric in 1892.
October
14:
Friedrich
Wilhelm Georg Kohlrausch
(Born October 14, 1840: Died
January 17, 1910)
German physicist who investigated the properties of electrolytes
(substances that conduct electricity in solutions by transfer of ions) and contributed
to the understanding of their behaviour. Some of Kohlrausch's pioneering achievements
include conductivity measurements on electrolytes, his work on the determination
of basic magnetic and electrical quantities, and the enhancement of the associated
measuring technologies. It was under his direction that the "Physikalisch-Technische
Reichsanstalt" (the then Imperial Physical Technical Institute in Germany)
created numerous standards and calibration standards which were also used internationally
outside Germany.
October
13:
Walter
H. Brattain
(Born
February 10, 1902: Died October 13, 1987)
Walter Houser Brattain was an American
scientist born in China who, with John Bardeen and William B. Shockley, won the
Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 for investigating semiconductors (materials of
which transistors are made) and for the development of the transistor. At college,
he said, he majored in physics and math because they were the only subjects he
was good at. He became a solid physicist with a good understanding of theory,
but his strength was in physically constructing experiments. Working with the
ideas of Shockley and Bardeen, Brattain's hands built the first transistor. Shortly,
the transistor replaced the bulkier vacuum tube for many uses and was the forerunner
of microminiature electronic parts.
October
12:
Elmer
Sperry
(Born
October 12, 1860: Died June 16, 1930)
American electrical engineer and inventor
of the gyrocompass. In the 1890's he made useful inventions in electric mining
machinery, and patent electric brake and control system for street- or tramcars.
In 1908, he patented the active gyrostabilizer which acted to stop a ship's roll
as soon as it started. He patented the first gyrocompass designed expressly for
the marine environment in 1910. This "spinning wheel" gyro was a significant
improvement over the traditional magnetic compass of the day and changed the course
of naval history. The first Sperry gyrocompass was tested at-sea aboard the USS
Delaware in 1911 and established Sperry as a world leader in the manufacture of
military gyrocompasses for the next 80 years.
October 11:
James
Gayley
(Born October 11, 1855: Died February 25, 1920)
American metallurgist who
invented a device to ensure uniform humidity in the air stream going into blast
furnaces. With prior experience at several iron works, Gayley was hired by the
Edgar Thomson Steel Works as Superintendent of the Blast Furnaces (1885). In this
capacity was an economist, and made a record reduction in the coke consumption.
He invented the bronze cooling plate for blast furnace walls, the auxiliary casting
stand for Bessemer steel plants, and was the first to use the compound condensing
blowing engine with the Blast Furnace. He also invented the dry-air blast, for
which the Franklin Institute awarded him the Elliott Cresson medal. Gayley rose
to first vice-president of the U.S.Steel Corp and acquired a large fortune.
October
10: Lester
Germer
(Born
October 10, 1896: Died 1971)
Lester (Halbert) Germer was an American physicist
who, with his colleague Clinton Joseph Davisson, conducted an experiment (1927)
that first demonstrated the wave properties of the electron. They showed that
a beam of electrons scattered by a crystal produces a diffraction pattern characteristic
of a wave. This experiment confirmed the hypothesis of Louis-Victor de Broglie,
a founder of wave mechanics, that the electron should show the properties of an
electromagnetic wave as well as a particle. He also studied thermionics, erosion
of metals, and contact physics.
October
9: Auguste-Arthur
de La Rive
(Born October 9, 1801: Died 1873)
Swiss physicist who was one of the founders
of the electrochemical theory of batteries. He began experimenting with the voltaic
cell (1836) and supported the idea of Michael Faraday that the electricity was
the result of chemical reactions in the cell. He invented a prize-winning electroplating
method to apply gold onto brass and silver. He determined the specific heat of
various gases, examined the temperature of the Earth's crust, and made ozone from
electrical discharge through oxygen gas. He was a contemporary Faraday, Ampere
and Oersted, with whom he exchanged correspondance on electricity.
October
8: Henry-Louis
Le Chatelier
(Born October 8, 1850: Died
September 17, 1936)
French chemist who is best known for the principle of
Le Chatelier, which makes it possible to predict the effect a change of conditions
(temperature, pressure, and concentration of reaction components) will have on
a chemical reaction. This principle proved invaluable in the chemical industry
for developing the most efficient chemical processes. Fritz Haber successfully
utilized it in his process for the production of ammonia. Le Chatelier's interests
began in metallurgy, cements, ceramics, and glass, and his studies of flames led
him to study heat and its measurement. Of several contributions to thermometry,
his most important was the first successful design of a platinum and rhodium thermocouple
for measuring high temperatures (1887).
October
7: Transistor
calculator
In
1954, in Poughkeepsie, IBM displayed a large all-transistor calculator needing
only 5% of the power of comparable electronic ones. Three years later, in 1957,
IBM introduced the IBM 608, the fist all-transistor commercial calculator.
October
6: George
Westinghouse
(Born
October 6, 1846: Died March 12, 1914)
American inventor and industrialist
who founded his own company to manufacturer his invention, the air brake. The
son of a New York agricultural machinery maker, he began at age 21 to work on
a new tool he invented to guide derailed train cars back onto the track. Before
he died 46 years later, he gave the world safer rail transportation, steam turbines,
gas lighting and heating, and electricity. He founded not only namesakes Westinghouse
Air Brake and Westinghouse Electric, but also Union Switch & Signal and the
forerunners to Duquesne Light, Equitable Gas and Rockwell International. He was
also chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current for electric
power transmission in the United States, and held 400 patents.
October 5: Seymour
Cray
(Born
September 28, 1925: Died October 5, 1996)
Computer engineer who pioneered
the use of transistors in computers and later developed massive supercomputers
to run business and government information networks.
October
4: John
Vincent Atanasoff
(Born
October 4, 1903: Died June 15, 1995)
U.S. physicist who was belatedly credited
(1973) with developing the first electronic digital computer. Built in 1937-42
at Iowa State University by Atanasoff and a graduate student, Clifford Berry,
it introduced the ideas of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and logic circuits.
These ideas were communicated from Atanasoff to John Mauchly, who used them in
the design of the better-known ENIAC built and patented several years later. On
October 19, 1973, a US Federal Judge signed his decision following a lengthy court
trial which declared the ENIAC patent invalid and named Atanasoff the original
inventor of the electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff- Berry Computer or
the ABC.
October
3: Telephone
fax
In
1922, city telephone lines were used for the first time in the U.S. for the transmission
of a facsimile photo in Washington, DC. Charles F. Jenkins sent an image from
1519 Connecticut Ave to the U.S. Navy Radio Staion NOF at Anacostia, D.C. Witnesses
from the U.S.Navy and the Post Office Dept. attended the transmission. A photographic
plate was used to record the signals at 5502 16th St, N.W. Washington, D.C. Earlier
in the year, on 11 Jun 1922, a photograph had been sent by radio across the Atlantic
from Rome to Bar Harbor, Maine. That transmission reproduced a 7 x 9.5 in. halftone
picture, using light falling on a selenium cell to form the dots.
October
2: Svante
Arrhenius
(Born October 2, 1927: Died February
19, 1859)
Svante (August) Arrhenius was a Swedish physical chemist best known
for his theory that electrolytes, certain substances that dissolve in water to
yield a solution that conducts electricity, are separated, or dissociated, into
electrically charged particles, or ions, even when there is no current flowing
through the solution.
October
1: Edison
opens his first lamp factory
In
1880, the first electric incandescent lamp factory in the U.S. was opened in Menlo
Park, N.J. The Edison Lamp Works. More than 130,000 bulbs had been manufactured
by the time the plant was moved to Harrison, N.J. on 1 Apr 1882.
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