TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 24 MAY
On 24 May 1883, a new bridge was opened, crossing over the East River, New York City. The celebration was recorded in the New York Times the following day. As you read this article, The Bridge Formally Opened, you will learn of the band music, processions, decorations, addresses, fireworks and illuminations. The weather was perfect: “the sky was cloudless, and the heat from the brightly shining sun was tempered by a cool breeze.” Visitors came by the thousands. Railroads alone brought an estimated 50,000 people, some from as far away as Pennsylvania. More came by the boats and ferries on the river.
On 24 May 1878, Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth was born, an American efficiency expert, who as wife of Frank Bunker Gilbreth, contracting engineer, together developed the method of time-and-motion study. Each step of work activity was to be studied in detail (employing motion pictures for analysis) to determine the optimal way to execute a given task. By choosing a method of least exertion, the employees would be more healthy, more productive, and economically improve the business. Today's book pick is: Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth -- A Life Beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen", by Jane Lancaster, who describes Gilbreth's exhausting life of lecturing, travel and endless writing. The author pays a well-documented tribute to her Gilbreth's work and her family life with a dozen children.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $26.95. Used from $15.84. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | I shall consider this paper an essay in geopoetry. In order not to travel any further into the realm of fantasy than is absolutely necessary I shall hold as closely as possibly to a uniformitarian approach; even so, at least one great catastrophe will be required early in the Earth's history. — Harry Hammond Hess, American geologist (born 24 May 1906).  |
 | In the discovery of hidden things and the investigation of hidden causes, stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures and the opinions of philosophical speculators of the common sort... — William Gilbert, English physician and physician (born 24 May 1544). |
 | As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist. — William Whewell, English scholar and philosopher (born 24 May 1794). |
| 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 24 May 1686, a German physicist and maker of scientific instruments was born. He is known for inventing the alcohol thermometer (1709) and mercury thermometer (1714). He devoted himself to the study of physics and the manufacture of precision meteorological instruments. He discovered, among other things, that water can remain liquid below its freezing point and that the boiling point of liquids varies with atmospheric pressure. Can you name this scientist? |
| Deaths | |
 | A certain Polish astronomer died on 24 May 1543, who had proposed the heliocentric, or “Sun-centred,” system whereby the planets orbit about the Sun fixed at the centre. Can you name this astronomer? |
| Events | |
 | In 1862, a new bridge was opened over the River Thames, London, England. What is this bridge called? |
| | On 24 May 1883, a new bridge was opened, crossing over the East River, New York City, USA. What is this bridge called? |
 | On 24 May of a certain year, the first American surveillance satellite to successfully reach orbit, MIDAS II, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It circled the earth every 94 minutes, but its telemetry system failed two days later, and it never began service as an early missile warning system. In what decade was this satellite launched? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for May 23: transistor • principles for defining genera and species of organisms • neon lights • klystron • bifocal glasses • the decade including the year 1962 • sore throat.
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