January 8

Nicotine

   In 1998, scientists announced the identification for the first time of a key brain chemical related to nicotine addiction, in the journalNature. The researchers worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the research arm of Glaxo-Wellcome in Geneva. The addictive nature of nicotine is related to release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter chemical in the brain. The scientists had found the first of 11 subunits, or molecules, of the nicotine receptor in the brain of mice. Mutant mice lacking the b2 subunit in their brains did not react to nicotine. Humans have the same so-called b2 subunit. This is a step toward to designing a drug to block the receptor, and produce new smoking-cessation drugs.

  Calypso wreck

   In 1996, the Calypso was accidentally rammed by a barge and sank in Singapore Harbour. Jacques Cousteau had used the Calypso as his oceanographic research vessel since 1950. It was a former British minesweeper, HMS J-826, that served as a ferry off Malta after WWII. To finance his voyages throughout the world’s oceans, he enlisted media attention by writing books and film-making, including a television series, “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” Over the years, he made modifications, including an underwater observation bubble and a helicopter landing pad. He was aged 85 when he lost the ship and was attempting to raise funds to replace it, but died 25 Jun 1997. As of 2014, Calypso II was still a wish. The Calypso was raised and taken to France to restore as a museum.

  Complex Number Calculator operational

   In 1940, George Stibitz's Complex Number Calculator was functional. He was a research mathematician at Bell Laboratories, who worked on its construction from Apr 1939, assisted by Samuel Williams. Later known as Bell Labs Model I Relay Computer, it used telephone relays and coded decimal numbers as groups of four binary digits (bits) each. It has been called the first electromechanical computer for routine use. A demonstration of its ability in remote computing was given on 11 Sep 1940, when messages were exchanged by phone lines between teletypewriter operators. Calculations suggested by attendees of the American Mathematical Society's meeting at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire were communicated to an attendant at the keyboard of Stibitz's calculator in New York.

  Superfluidity of liquid helium

   In 1938, the superfluidity of liquid helium at a temperature near absolute zero was reported in the journal Nature. Two articles were published together since the discovery had been made independently by both P.L. Kapitza in Moscow, Russia, and also by Jack Allen with Don Misener in Cambridge, England. Kapitza was eventually awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 for his inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics.

  Spectrophotometer

   In 1935, the first U.S. patent for a spectrophotometer was issued to Professor Arthur Cobb Hardy of Wellesley, Mass. (No. 1,987,441) which he called a “photometric apparatus.” It could detect two million different shades of colour and make a permanent record chart of the results. The patent was assigned to the General Electric Company of Schenectady, N.Y. which sold the first machine on 24 May 1935. It used a photo-electric device to receive light alternately from a sample and from a standard for comparison. It eliminated any need for the two beams (from sample and from standard) to travel different optical paths which in previous designs could introduce inaccuracies if one path varied from the other.

  Black American invention

   In 1894, Black American inventor Fredrick J. Loudin was issued a U.S. patent for a "Key Fastener" (No.512,308). The invention was a device designed to attach to the knob-shaft or door-handle above the key-hole and fasten the door key in place in the lock by engaging with the eyed-end of the key to keep it from being turned in the lock. As the patent described, this would prevent disengaging the key, as might otherwise be done by a burglar from the outside of the door with some suitable implement, inserted through the key-hole. Loudin's first patent was issued 12 Dec 1892 for a window "Fastener for the Meeting Rails of Sashes" that permitted the window to be locked either closed or partially opened (No. 510,432).

  Hollerith tabulating machine

   In 1889, Dr. Herman Hollerith received the first US patents for a tabulating machine (No. 395,781, -2, -3) which he called the "Art of Compiling Statistics". His system was designed to record separate statistical items by means of combinations of holes in a punched card to carry information about an individual. The information contained on numerous cards could then be tallied by passing the cards through electrical counters operated by electromagnets. The patent described its application in compilation of the statistics of the population for the U.S. Census. The first extensive application of this system was for the 1890 census counting data items such as age, sex, occupation, etc., of which tallies could be made in combinations such as how many males of certain ages.

  Leather tanning

   In 1884, the first U.S. patents for tanning hides and skins through the action of a metallic salt were issued to Augustus Schultz of New York City. His invention of a chrome tanning process enabled leather to be tanned thinner and stronger than by vegetable tanning. (Nos. 291,784 and -5)

  Black American invention

   In 1872, a second U.S. patent was issued to Black American inventor Thomas Elkins for a a new article of chamber furniture which he designated a "Chamber Commode" (No. 122,518). It provides a combination of "a bureau, mirror, book-rack, washstand, table, easy-chair, and earth-closet or chamber-stool," which might otherwise be constructed as several separate articles. Previously, a patent had been issued to Elkins on 22 Feb 1870 for a "Dining, Ironing Table and Quilting Frame Combined" (No. 100,020). Another patent was subsequently issued on 11 Apr 1879 for a "Refrigerating Apparatus" for "food or corpses," which provides a convenient container and method of chilling using the evaporation of water. (No. 221,222).

  Telegraph

   In 1838, the first telegraph message in the U.S. in which letters were represented by dots and dashes was transmitted. The message was:A patient waiter is no loser. The communications system was invented by Alfred Vail of Morristown, N.J., in Sep 1837. A public demonstration was given at New York University using a circuit of ten miles on 24 Jan 1838.

  George Washington urges patent law

   In 1790, President George Washington in his State of the Union address urged the second session of the First U.S. Congress meeting in New York to support the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad, and recognize the skill and genius of U.S. inventors. Within days, both the House set up a committee to draft a patent statute, because the congressmen agreed that promotion of science would contribute to the security of a free government. By 17 Feb 1790, the bill was given its first reading in the House, and reconciliation of amendments from the Senate was complete by 5 Apr 1790. George Washington signed the statute into law on 10 Apr 1790. The first patent was granted 31 July 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for a method of making potash and pearl ashes

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January 7

Genes photographed

   In 1949, the first photographs of chromosomes and genes were published in Science journal. The article was written by Dr. Daniel Chapin Pease and Dr. Richard Freligh Baker of the School of Medicine, University of Southern California. It described their preliminary investigations made with an electron microscope. Tissue sections as thin as 0.1-μ from the salivary glands of Drosphila melanogaster(fruit fly) were used because of their highly specialized structure with each primordial chromosome reduplicated many times over yielding a giant multiple chromosome made up of 100s or 1,000s of identical units. At moderate magnification by the electron microscope, chromomere granules arranged in bands were readily visible. Scientists did not yet know the structure of DNA, published later by Crick and Watson (25 Apr 1953

  Francium

   In 1930, the element Fr (francium) was discovered, the last naturally occurring element to be found. It is the heaviest alkali metal atom, with atomic number 87. Marguerite Perey joined (Oct 1929) the Institut du Radium in Paris in Oct 1929 as a technician for Marie Curie. Perey worked for years on actinium, which was anticpated to produce the new element by alpha decay. Finally, she was able to make the first entry about francium in her lab notebook on 7 Jan 1939, recording its half-life as about 20 minutes. A note in the Comptes Rendus was presented at the Académie des Sciences by Jean Perrin (9 Jan 1939). In his periodic table, Mendeleev anticipated its discovery, and provisionally named it eka-cesium. Perey gave it the name “francium.” She first used the symbol Fa, but changed it to Fr.

  Transatlantic telephone

   In 1927, commercial telephone service (using radio) began between New York and London.

  Thermal cracking patent

   In 1913, a U.S. patent for the thermal cracking of crude oil was issued to William Merriam Burton (No.1,049,667). A crude petroleum mixture of various hydrocarbons can be separated into several groups of constituents by physical means, commonly distillation. His thermal cracking process used high heat and high pressure to chemically break longer molecules of less volatile components into smaller molecules, more than doubling the yield of gasoline which was much needed to fuel the motor industry. In its first 15 years of use the process saved more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil. In 1937 the invention of catalytic cracking superceded the Burton process, but it remains in wide use.

  Daguerre photographic system

   In 1839, Louis Daguerre made the first announcement of his photographic system at the Académie des Sciences in Paris, though details were not presented until 19 Aug 1839 when the process was announced publicly. By that time, the French government had bought the rights to the process from him, and then made them freely available to the world. However, this process had also been patented in England and Wales on 14 Aug 1839 - only five days previously.

  Cross-Channel balloon flight

   In 1785, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard and American scientist and physician John Jeffries made the first air crossing of the English Channel from England to France in a hot-air balloon - the first international flight. This was the second of two balloon flights Jeffries financed. To accompany him, Jeffries chose Blanchard for his prior experience in balloon flight. The voyage across the Channel was successful, though not without difficulty, because to maintain height they were forced to jettison everything in the basket, including rope and most of their clothes. Their previous flight took place on 30 Nov 1784, in London, for the purpose of taking scientific and meteorological measurements. 

  First typewriter patent

   In 1714, the world's first patent for a “Machine for Transcribing Letters” was granted in England by Queen Anne to Henry Mill (1683?-1771), a waterworks engineer with the New River Company. The patent (No. 395) described the invention as “an artificial machine or method for impressing or transcribing of letters, one after another, as in writing, whereby all writing whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print; that the said machine... may be of great use in settlements and publick recors, the impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing, and not to be erased or counterfeited without manifest discovery.” There is no remaining record that he actually built the machine.

  Moon craters

   In 1610, Galileo dated his first letter describing telescopic observations in which he saw the moon's cratered surface using his twenty-powered spyglass. He wrote, “... it is seen that the Moon is most evidently not at all of an even, smooth, and regular surface, as a great many people believe of it and of the other heavenly bodies, but on the contrary it is rough and unequal. In short it is shown to be such that sane reasoning cannot conclude otherwise than that it is full of prominences and cavities similar, but much larger, to the mountains and valleys spread over the Earth's surface.” Galileo went on to describe the phenomena in considerable detail, rehearsing, as it were, the observations and conclusions he was to publish more elaborately a few months later in Sidereus Nuncius.

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January 6

DC-9 airplane retirement

                             In 2014, the last flight of a U.S. passenger McDonnell Douglas DC-9 aircraft left Minneapolis/St. Paul, going to Atlanta. The Delta airline was the first to begin service with the original 65-seat version in 1965, as well as the last U.S. major airline to retire it. Delta had originally phased out their DC-9 fleet in 1993. The merger with Northwest in 2008 brought back 94 DC-9s with an average age (as of 31 Dec 2007) of 35.6 years, to be phased out again. Despite being known as a reliable workhorse, the jet’s technology was dated, its engines noisy, but most importantly, it could not match the newer airplanes in fuel economy, while fuel prices were continuing to increase. They have been replaced with newer, quieter, more efficient aircraft, such as the Boeing 717 (which still owes much to the original DC-9 design).

  Pyrenean ibex extinct

                                In 2000, the last Pyrenean ibex was found dead under a fallen tree with a crushed skull, by forest rangers in the Ordesa National Park in northern Spain. The 13-year-old female, named Celia, was the last known survivor of Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica, one of the four subspecies of the Spanish ibex. Of those, another subspecies, the Portuguese ibex had already became extinct in 1892. Known locally as a bucardo, Celia was studied by scientists while she lived in captivity within the park. Shortly before her death, they had taken tissue and blood samples to preserve the DNA for a cloning attempt. On 23 Jan 2009, a baby Pyranean ibex was born from a surrogate gate, becoming the first extinct species to be resurrected. Sadly, the baby died 7 minutes later due to lung defects. The Pyranean ibex was thus also the first species to go extinct twice.

  Synthetic growth hormones

                        In 1971, Berkeley chemists announced the first synthetic production of growth hormones.

  First U.S. adult heart transplant

                          In 1971, the first adult heart transplant in the U.S. was performed at the Stanford Medical Center, Stanford, Calif., by Dr. Norman Shumway. The 54-year-old patient, whose heart had been damaged by virus infection, survived for 15 days after the surgery. Shumway, an American surgeon, continued to pioneer in cardiac transplantation. His surgical team went on to perform many other heart-transplant operations. Later, Shumway also accomplished open-heart surgery for the transplantation of valves.

  TV dinner

                                  In 1954, a New York Times article on food included the news that a frozen turkey dinner from C.A. Swanson & Sons of Omaha was soon to be available in the newspaper’s home area for about $1. This was the first frozen meal of the “TV Dinner” type that was successfully sold across the U.S. An aluminium foil tray with a foil overwrap was filled with white and dark turkey slices, cornbread sage dressing and gravy, plus two separate segments contained green peas and mashed sweet potatoes with butter. Each 12-oz dinner needed only about 25 minutes in a hot oven to be ready to eat from the disposable foil tray (no plate needed). Six months later, having had great response to the turkey meal, Swanson introduced a “TV Fried Chicken Dinner,” reported in the Times on 10 Jun 1954. “TV Dinner” was the Swanson brand.

  Phenytoin anti-epileptic drug

                                In 1953, Phenytoin (diphenylhydantoin), an anti-epileptic drug, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. This drug was first synthesized in 1908 by Heinrich Biltz, a German physician. It is now one of the more popular anti-convulsive medications.

  Milk cartons

                                       In 1929, Sheffield Farms of New York began using Sealcone wax paper cartons instead of glass bottles for milk delivery, using packaging equipment from Sealcone Inc. of New York. These quart, pint and half pint truncated cone containers used a flexible spruce fibre paper rather than a stiff cardboard. The upper end was flattened and hermetically sealed with a metal closure that permitted storage even upside-down. This triangular shape meant two Sealcones used only as much space as one glass milk bottle, with a 94% saving in packaging weight, and at lower cost. Advertisements said they were transparent enough to see the cream line. Borden's plant in New York adopted Sealcones in Feb 1930. Various other designs of single-use wax paper cartons had been devised and used elsewhere before the Sealcone.[Image: from a 1936 advertisement.]

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  Transatlantic telephone

        

                                   In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.

  Cracking process

                                     In 1913, William M. Burton patented a process to "crack" petroleum, converting oil to produce gasoline. Standard Oil used his method.

  Zinc extraction

                                       In 1857, a U.S. patent (#16,362), which was the country's first patent related to zinc ore was issued to Samuel Wetherill, Bethlehem, Pa.

  Foucault's pendulum result

                                         In 1851, the rotation of the Earth was proved experimentally by Leon Foucault. After weeks of work, he recorded in his journal that he made this discovery at 2:00 am working with a pendulum in the cellar of the house he shared with his mother. Using a steel wire 2-m long with a 5-kg brass bob, he had made a pendulum suspended in a way that freely permitted it, he found that its plane of oscillation slowly rotated relative to the ground. This led to using much longer versions of his pendulum. He found that the angular velocity of the rotation equalled wsinqwhere w is the angular velocity of the Earth rotating on its axis, and q is the latitude of the site of the pendulum. He demonstrated his discovery on 31 Mar 1851 for Napoleon.

  Iron extraction

                                             In 1844, U.S. patent No. 3,605 was issued, the country's first patent related to iron ore, to S. Broadmeadow of Woodbridge, N.J. Under the title of “Improvement in the mode of obtaining Wrought-Iron Directly from the Ore,” he gave his preferred form for an iron furnace. He used a different shape for the arch of the roof of the fire-chamber as it approaches the stack, intended to avoid reflecting back the flame and heat; and thus to remove any reverbatory effect which causes more of the ore to be converted to slag instead of reducing it to malleable iron. The ore (oxides of iron) was to be pulverised to a coarse powder, mixed with a suitable proportion of powdered “carburet of iron.” The mass is left at rest during heating using coal as fuel, while the carbon of the latter combines with the oxygen of the ore.

  Telegraph

                                                   In 1838, Samuel Morse, with his partner, Alfred Vail, gave the first public demonstration of their new invention electric telegraphic system at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, N.J.

  Typewriter

                                                In 1714, an idea for a possible typewriter predecessor was patented by Englishman Henry Mill, but he never succeeded in perfecting his invention and it died with him. Nothing more than the patent record remains known about the machine. It was British patent number 385, granted “by the grace of Queen Anne.” The patent's title was: An artificial machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another, as in writing, whereby all writing whatever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print.

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January 5

  International Polio initiative

                                    In 2000, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) announced the final stage of the worldwide initiative to eradicate Polio.

  First colour newsreel

                                      In 1948, Warner Brothers-Pathe showed the very first colour newsreel, as pictures of the Tournament of Roses Parade taken New Years Day and the Rose Bowl football classic were seen by theatre audiences. It was made using the Cinecolor process.

  Golden Gate bridge

                                       In 1933, construction work on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge began on the Marin County side. It was the first in the U.S. to have piers built in open ocean, and also first to span the outer mouth of a major ocean harbour. The chief engineer was Joseph B. Strauss. The length of the main structure of the bridge is 8,940-ft, with towers rising 746-ft above the water and a minimum clearance of 220-ft. Its first public use was on Pedestrian Day on 27 May 1937, and it was ceremoniously opened for vehicles the following day, 28 May 1937.

  X-rays

                                       In 1896, the discovery of X-rays was published in an Austrian newspaper, Wiener Presse. This was the first public account of the observation made on 8 Nov 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, of the new form of radiation that became known as X-rays.

  Aurora photographed

                                            In 1892, the first successful auroral photograph was made by the German physicist Martin Brendel. Although it was limited to a blurred, low-contrast picture, it did convey some sense of the shape of the aurora. The task was not easy because the auroral light itself was generally feeble and flickering while photographic materials of the time required a long exposure, and was little sensitive to the deep reds in the aurora. One of his photographs, taken on 1 Feb 1892 was published in the Century Magazine of Oct 1897. Brendel had travelled to Alten Fiord, Lapland, to spend several months studying auroral displays and magnetic disturbances. The first colour pictures were not taken until about 1950, and Life magazine published colour aurora photographs in 1953.

  Hamburger

                                                   In 1889, the word hamburger first appeared in print in the Walla Walla Union, a Walla Walla, Washington, newspaper - according to the date given in the Oxford English Dictionary. The name comes a German food called hamburg steak, meaning “from Hamburg,” not because it contains ham. In the 19th century, German immigrants migrated to North America bringing along the recipe for the hamburg steak, a form of pounded beef. American people adopted the hamburg steak but used the adjective form “hamburger” without “steak” at the end. The word appeared as an entry in 1902 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In 1902, the first description of a hamburg steak close to the American conception of the hamburger, gave a recipe calling for finely chopped beef mixed with onion and pepper.

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January 4

 Bat white-nose syndrome in National Park hibernaculum

                                            In 2013, a bat with symptoms of deadly white-nose syndrome, found in Long Cave, Kentucky, was euthanized and sent for laboratory testing, which confirmed the disease. Long Cave is a 1.3-mile-long undeveloped cave within the boundaries of Mammoth Cave National Park. Though not inter-connected with Mammoth Cave, the world's longest cave, Long Cave is significant as the park's largest bat hibernaculum for two endangered species, Indiana bats and gray bats. Other non-threatened species are also present. Public tours of the heavily-visited Mammoth Cave were not stopped, but decontamination of visitors' footwear was continued. The concern is the disease is spread by a fungus, causing whole colony deaths. Cavers in non-tourist cave areas in the park are not allowed to wear or carry any gear used in any other cave.

  Martian rover

                                              In 2004, Spirit, a robot rover landed on Mars to analyze the planet's rocks, looking for evidence of water. It has taken the only photo of Earth from another planet. Surviving dust storms, it far outlasted its expected useful life. A twin robot rover, Opportunity, landed three weeks after Spirit on the other side of the planet.

  EV1 electric car

                                                  In 1996, the EV1 electric car, running on nickel-metal-hydride batteries, was announced by General Motors at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show. Its limited introduction began later in the year, available only on lease, and only in California and Arizona. Although its wider adoption would have met requirement to move toward zero-emission cars, when California backed down from its stricter air-pollution standards, the GM scrapped the electric model in 2003, citing excessive production and maintenance expenses. Instead, the company fed consumers' whims for sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and small trucks, rather than downsizing their fleet or developing hybrids in the face of more fuel-efficient imports. The company went bankrupt in 2008, and was bailed out by the U.S. government.

  Campbell deadly water speed record attempt

                                                   In 1967, Donald Campbell died instantly when his jet-powered boat, the Bluebird K7, left the water at a speed over 300 mph, somersaulted, crashed on the water surface, and broke apart. After a famous record-breaking career on land and water, he was trying to break his own previous water speed record of 276 mph. Decades later, on 8 Mar 2001, the wreck was recovered from Coniston Water, Cumbria in the English Lake District. His remains were located, on 28 May 2001, confirmed 10 Aug 2011 by DNA testing, and buried on 12 Sep 2001. He was the son of Sir Malcolm Campbell, who set the land speed record in 1935. In 2000, Don Wales, Sir Malcolm's gransdson, Donald's nephew, in the family tradition, broke the British land speed record for an electrically-powered car.

  Driverless subway train

                              In 1962, the first fully automated subway train began revenue service with passengers in New York City. This began a six-month trial period as a shuttle 2,600-ft between the Times Square and Grand Central stations. A ceremony was followed by a run carrying invited guests and reporters. Next day, it began service for three hours each morning and evening rush hours. With a top speed of 30 m.p.h., a round trip took 4-1/2 mins including waiting time in the station. The three-car train carried a stand-by motorman. A strike threat by the Transport Workers Union had delayed an earlier scheduled trial beginning the previous 15 Dec, and resulted in a contract agreement that a motorman would still be aboard each train during the trial period. It remained in service until 21 Apr 1964, until destroyed by the spread of a nearby major fire in a station.

  Sputnik

                              In 1958, the Russian Sputnik I satellite, the first man-made object to orbit the earth, fell back into the atmosphere and disintegrated, after 92 days in space. The Sputnik (meaning “companion” or “fellow traveller”) was launched from Kazakhstan. The craft circled the earth every 95 minutes at almost 20,000 miles per hour 500 miles above the Earth. The 184-lb satellite had transmitted a radio signal picked up around the world, and instrumentation for temperature measurement.

  FM radio five-station relay test

                                 In 1940, Edwin H. Armstrong demonstrated the first “network” relay of an FM radio broadcast through several stations from Yonkers, N.Y., via Alpine, N.J., Meriden, Conn., and Paxton, Mass. to Mount Washington. Next the signal was relayed by the ordinary method to Winchester, Mass., then by telephone wire to the Yankee network headquarters in Boston, Mass. From Yonkers to Mount Washington, the broadcast needed no wire. The 60-minute program included selections by various musical instruments to test fidelity, free from static, distortion, fading and interference. It was exactly 17 years since the first network broadcast via telephone wires from New York to Boston on 4 Jan 1923. The following day, 5 Jan 1940, a similar demonstration was made for representatives of operators in the FM Broadcasters group.

  Moon

                                In 1912, the closest approach to earth by the moon was 221,441 miles apart center to center.

  Elephant electrocution

                                 In 1904, Thomas Edison's movie crew filmed the electrocution of an elephant. Topsy was being destroyed by its owners after she killed three men in as many years. The third was a man that fed her a lit cigarette. The event was a public spectacle to a paying audience of 1500 people at Coney Island, where the elephant had been kept on show. Edison was the consultant chosen to arrange the electrocution death after cyanide-laced carrots had failed. Thereafter, he showed the film around the country as part of his unsuccessful effort to discredit the “dangerous” alternating current of George Westinghouse, and promote Edison's direct current electricity system. Eventually, A.C. was universally adopted, however, as more practical for long-distance transmission.

  Carnegie Institute of Washington founded

                                   In 1902, the Carnegie Institute of Washington, was founded, incorporated at a meeting at the State Department. Andrew Carnegie pledged $10,000,000 to establish it as a centre for cutting-edge scientific research. On 8 Jun 1902, the New York Times reported Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, lately president of Johns Hopkins University, was to head it, and he planned to go to Europe for advice on its organization from the best French, German and British educators. It was envisaged that the institute would provide scholarships and professorates enabling talented individuals to conduct research fulltime. It is now an endowed, independent, nonprofit institution, with additional support from federal grants and private donations. In his lifetime, Carnegie established other unaffiliated organizations which bear his name, for example, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh (1895), unrelated except for sharing their benefactor's name.

  First U.S. appendectomy

                                    In 1885, Dr. William West Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is believed (sources disagree) to be the first successful appendectomy in the U.S. His patient was 22-year-old Mary Gartside, on whom he performed surgery by opening her abdomen and removing a perforated appendix. She recovered and lived until 1919, when she died from an unrelated illness. The first appendectomy in Britain tookplace in 1848 by Dr Hancock. In Canada, Dr Abraham Groves wrote in his book, All In The Day's Work (1934), that he performed his first appendectomy to successfully remove an inflamed appendix on 10 May 1883 on a boy in the log cabin in which he lived. Although the boy recovered, at the time, medical opinion had a negative reaction.

  Roller skates

                                       In 1863, four-wheeled roller skates were patented by James Plimpton of New York.

  Airy Transit Circle

                                        In 1850, the Airy Transit Circle was first used at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The instrument was designed by George Biddell Airy, the Astronomer Royal. It was set up on the Prime Meridian - the north-south line of longitude 0° - which marks the start of the Universal day for the world. The time at which a star passed over the meridian was measured with a regulator (an extremely accurate clock). The transit was used to measure the angle of a star at that instant. From this data, the co-ordinates of that star could be determined and plotted on a star chart. Navigation at sea depended on the accuracy of these charts, and the Airy Transit Circle was a great improvement on the previous technology.

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January 3

 Mars lander

                              In 1999, the U.S. Mars Polar Lander was launched.

  Oklahoma meteorite

                               In 1970, a fireball was visible over a large area of the U.S. midwest. The meteorite that fell was the first to be detected by the Prairie Network operated by the Smithsonian Institution's Astrophysical Observatory since 1964. Its path was photographed by two of the system's 16 cameras funded by a NASA grant. Using these records, scientists calculated the meteorite's impact point. Gunther Schwartz, field manager of the network found the 21.6-lb meteorite six days later within a half-mile of the predicted site, near the rural hamlet Lost City, about 45 miles east of Tulsa, OK. The fast retrieval enabled examination of radioactivity produced by the meteorite's exposure to cosmic rays, looking for clues to how the universe was created. 

  Electric watch

                                    In 1957, the world's first electric watch was introduced in Lancaster, PA by the Hamilton Watch Company. Research began in 1946, but it was to take more than ten years to develop a viable watch. On this day, Hamilton held a press conference. The idea of a watch which never needed winding was very exciting to 1950's consumers, who were captivated by progress and modernity. The Hamilton Electric was an instant hit. Its popularity was enhanced by a number of very dramatic case styles with non-traditional asymmetrical styling; they were visual reminders of the ultra-modern movements inside the case. By 1969, when production ended, more advanced technology had already rendered the Hamilton Electric obsolete.

  Artificial transmutation of elements

                                        In 1919, Professor Ernest Rutherford succeeded in splitting the atom. By bombarding nitrogen atoms with alpha particles emitted by radioactive materials he transmuted the nitrogen atoms into oxygen

  Wind Cave National Park

                                          In 1901, a bill creating Wind Cave National Park was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. It lies 10 miles (16-km) north of Hot Springs, South Dakota, the eighth U.S. National Park to be created and the first protecting a cave. (Mammoth Cave in Kentucky was authorized as a national park in 1926.) For centuries, Indians knew the entrance to Wind Cave, and its strong air movements in or out. The first person reported to explore the cave was Charlie Crary in fall of 1881. It was first systematically explored by Alvin McDonald from 1890 until his death, at age 20, from typhoid fever in 1893. He had been hired for the job by the South Dakota Mining Company. No minerals were found to mine, but the company may have been interested in developing tours. The cave is noted for its rare cave formations known as boxwork, a honeycomb of thin blades of calcite projecting from veins in the walls and ceilings.

  Wax drinking straw

                                     In 1888, the first wax drinking straw and the spiral winding tube-making process was patented by Marvin C. Stone in Washington, DC. Stone was already a manufacturer of paper cigarette holders. His idea was to make paper drinking straws to replace the use of natural rye grass straws. Stone made his prototype straw by winding strips of paper around a pencil and gluing it together. He then tried paraffin-coated manila paper, so the straws would not become soggy while someone was drinking. The first straws were hand rolled, and by 1890 his factory was producing more straws than cigarette holders.By 1905, he had also invented a machine to roll his straws, necessary to keep up with the growing demand, and new applications of spiral-wound tubing.

  First U.S. professional meteorologist

                                          In 1871, Cleveland Abbe became the chief scientist of the newly formed U.S. weather service. From 1 Sep 1869, he had been preparing weather forecasts from his own private weather reporting service at Cincinnati, Ohio, based on telegraphic reports. The U.S. Congress authorized its new federal weather service, as part of the Signal Corps, on 9 Feb 1870. Cleveland Abbe's experience made him a natural choice to be offered a leading position, which from then became his lifetime career. Abbe not only developed an extensive observing system for which he trained new personnel, but also established a scientific foundation for the meteorological study of forecasting, climatology and physical theory. The service was renamed as the Weather Bureau when moved to the Department of Agriculture (1891).

  Margarine patented

                                      In 1871, oleomargarine was patented by Henry Bradley in Binghamton, NY. A "compound for culinary use" called margarine. U.S. Patent No. 110,626.

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January 2

 Monarch butterflies

                               In 1975, Kenneth C. Brugger discovered the long-unknown winter destination of the monarch butterfly in the mountains of Mexico. From 1937, for 38 years, Canadian zoologist Freud Urquhart patiently investigated to establish the route and destination of the insects. Using tags on the wings of some butterflies, he followed their migration trails to Mexican territory. Brugger, one of Urquhart's helpers, after a long period of traveling in the center of Mexico, found the first butterfly refuge. Within the territory of only 200 square meters, there are around 20 million butterflies. The area was cold and covered with oyamel trees and pine trees, a few kilometers from rural towns.

  Solar system age

                         In 1960, John Reynolds set the age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years.

  Luna 1

                         In 1959, the first lunar space shot to escape the Earth's gravitational pull was launched by the Soviet Union. Originally named “Cosmic Rocket”, the unmanned mission was retroactively named Luna 1. Just over 8 hours later, instead of impacting the Moon as intended, due to a guidance system error, it passed to within about 4,000 miles (6,400 km). Instead, it became the first spacecraft to enter orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft was equipped with instruments to measure cosmic radiation and also the magnetic fields of the Earth and the Moon. It released a cloud of sodium gas, which glowed due to the Sun's radiation like an artificial comet, and made it visible from Earth. Contact lasted 62 hours after the launch until the batteries were drained. Luna 2 was launched 12 Sep 1959.

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  Night vision tube

                            In 1936, the first electron tube to enable night vision was described, in St Louis, Mo.

  Chicago canal

                          In 1900, the Chicago Canal opened.

  U.S. prototype meter and kilogram

                              In 1890, the seals were broken on prototype meter No. 27 and prototype kilogram No. 20 in the Cabinet room of the Executive Mansion by U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, observed by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and invited guests. Following the Metric Convention (20 May 1875), which the U.S. had signed, prototype measures had been prepared of platinum-iridium alloy from the international prototypes in France, and were ready for distribution on 26 Sep 1889. Two of each were furnished to the U.S.: kilograms Nos. 21 and 27, and meters Nos. 4 and 20. Those on which the seals were broken were thereby adopted as the U.S. national prototypes, which would thereafter be used to define all measurements of length and weight in the U.S.

  Brooklyn Bridge

                          In 1870, construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge to cross the East River, New York City, USA, with a single span, a breadth of 1,600 feet navigable water. The 13 year project was started by John Roebling, and after his death, completed by his son Washington Roebling. It was opened on 24 May 1883. What was then regarded as the greatest engineering feat still stands in service today, and remains the world's only stone-towered, steel cabled bridge. Twice the size of the Niagara Suspension Bridge and four times the longest non-extension spans then attempted, the total length of this colossal structure is 6,927 ft. The road bed is 80 feet wide, at an elevation of 186 feet above high water.

  First US wire suspension bridge

                         In 1842, the first U.S. wire suspension vehicle bridge was opened to traffic at Fairmount, Pennsylvania, for Calloway Sreet to cross the Schuylkill river. It was designed and built by the engineer Charles Ellet to replace the 1816 wooden “Colossus” bridge that burned in 1838. Ellet’s bridge spanned 342 feet, and had a clear width of 25 feet. It was replaced in 1875 by a truss bridge. From 1809 to 1816 there had been prior short-lived bridges at the site, each of which collapsed under excessive loads. One used suspension cables of long iron links (1809-1811), replaced by another suspension (fell 17 Jan 1816) and a third (opened Jun 1816, fell Winter 1816) was only 18 inches wide, but was the first to use cables, made with six 3/8" wires by the nearby wire mill of White and Hazard.

  Daguerre photographs the moon

                         In 1839, French pioneering photographer Louis Daguerre took the first photograph of the moon. Unfortunately it was lost when on 8 Mar 1839, a fire burned his laboratory to the ground, together with his records and early experiment materials. The earliest surviving photograph of the moon, a daguerreotype, was taken by John Adams Whipple (1851.

  Luddites trial

                         In 1813, a special Commission opened at York, England to put on trial 66 persons for offenses connected with Luddism. Within days, seventeen of them had been executed on the scaffold. Taking their name from (perhaps mythical) Ned Ludd, Luddites vowed to destroy the factory mechanization they blamed for their unemployment. Riots began in 1812, and spread north from Nottingham where half of the population were receiving parish relief. Falling prices for goods, bad harvest increasing prices for food, wages at starvation level, costs of war and lost foreign markets contributed to the economic distress of the working class. One thousand looms were broken up in Nottingham, and a law was passed making destruction of machinery a capital offence.

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