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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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