TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 15 APRIL
On 15 Apr 1741, Charles Willson Peale was born, who in early life was a portrait painter, with many famous people captured in his oil paintings. In later life, he opened an art museum to show his growing collection of artworks. Then, by chance, his attention was turned to natural science. He was offered some mammoth bones to display as an additional curiosity to draw people into his museum. From that small beginning, he started collecting items to exhibit in what became the first U.S. popular Museum of Natural Science and Art.
Later, he went on a full scale fossil hunting expedition to excavate the bones making a full skeleton of a mastodon.
You can read about his life’s change in direction in his own words, from a lecture he gave in 1799, about the development of his Peale Museum.
On 15 Apr 1452, Leonardo da Vinci was born, one of the most versatile minds of his era, and well-known to us now. He was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect. Da Vinci was also a great engineer and inventor who designed buildings, bridges, canals, forts and war machines. He kept huge notebooks sketching his ideas. Among these, he was fascinated by birds and flying and his sketches include such fantastic designs as flying machines. These drawings demonstrate a genius for mechanical invention and insight into scientific inquiry, truly centuries ahead of their time. His greater fame lies in being one of the greatest painters of all times, best known for such paintings as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.
Today's book pick is: The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance, by Fritjof Capra, who provides a well-researched, profound and clear exploration of Leonardo’s scientific thought. In fact, da Vinci was as much a scientist as he was artist. These came together in his meticulous obsession with anatomy. The author holds the reader’s attention as he fills page after page with the fascinating diversity of Leonardo’s projects.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $11.97. Used from $1.99. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | It is only by historical analysis that we can discover what makes up man, since it is only in the course of history that he is formed. — Émile Durkheim, French sociologist (born 15 Apr 1858).  |
 | Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence as I said before with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason. — Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, draftsman and physicist (born 15 Apr 1452). |
| | Nature is silent only to those who know not how to interrogate her—to the man of inquisitive mind she offers ample instruction. — Charles Willson Peale, American artist and naturalist (born 15 Apr 1741). |
| Before you look at today's web page, see if you can answer some of these questions about the events that happened on this day. Some of the names are very familiar. Others will likely stump you. Tickle your curiosity with these questions, then check your answers on today's web page. | |
| Births | |
 | On 15 Apr 1707, Leonhard Euler was born, a mathematician and physicist, who was one of the founders of pure mathematics. He not only made decisive and formative contributions to the subjects of geometry, calculus, mechanics, and number theory but also developed methods for solving problems in observational astronomy. What was the nationality of Leonhard Euler? |
| | On 15 Apr 1452, Leonardo da Vinci was born, the famous Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer. His great paintings include the Last Supper, and perhaps the world’s most well-known artwork, the Mona Lisa. His many ideas also still exist in his huge notebooks, in which he sketched birds and a fantastic design for a flying machine. Where is the Mona Lisa on display to the public? |
| Deaths | |
 | Thomas Drummond, died on 15 Apr 1840 was a Scottish inventor of the heliostatia and the Drummond light. Both were designed to make surveying possible through day or night. His light was first used in autumn 1825 during the survey of Ireland. In 1829, he applied his idea for use in lighthouses. The brilliance of the light surpassed the various lights then known. It also replaced gas theatre stage lighting. What is the more familiar name of the light? |
| Events | |
 | On 15 Apr 1892, the General Electric Company was incorporated in New York state, formed by the merger of Thomson-Houston Electric Company with another electric company. What was the name of the other electric company in the merger? |
 | On 15 Apr 1912, at 2:20 a.m. the R.M.S. Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg four hours earlier. It was on its maiden voyage. It was intended to be unsinkable, built with a series of water-tight compartments, but the iceberg had penetrated the hull with a long slice. Water flooded into so many compartments that had been gashed open, it could not remain afloat. To a round number, how many people perished in the icy water? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for April 14: Dutch • Oxford University • Silent Spring • the decade includingthe year 1956 • telescope.
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