TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 21 JULY
On 21 Jul 1873, Howard Barnes was born, a American-Canadian physicist whose research included aspects of ice formation, and solving problems caused by ice jams and icebergs. These can cause trouble at hydroelectric plant intakes and interfere with navigation in cold climates. You can read about understanding of the ice masses and his ideas for dealing with them in his interesting U.S. Patent, 'Method of Loosening Ice Accumulations', filed on 15 March 1925.
On 21 Jul 1926, Washington Augustus Roebling died, the American civil engineer under whose direction the famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City was completed. He took over the project upon the death of his father, John Augustus Roebling in 1869, who had commenced its design and construction. Washington himself became disabled by decompression sickness after entering a caisson in 1872. He was brought out nearly insensible and his life was saved with difficulty. He supervised the operations from his home overlooking the site.
Today's book pick is: , by , who is a master historians writer who brings the past alive for his readers. In this case, his monumental book lays out the dramatic and enthralling story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time. This tale includes greed, corruption, and obstruction — but also optimism, heroism, and determination.
David McCullough provides an enthralling story of what at the time was a challenge that required a vision and determination as great as was faced by past builders of the great cathedrals. Throughout the fourteen years of its construction, the odds against the successful completion of the bridge seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time and of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or exploiting the surpassing enterprise.
It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | We must look to the heavens... for the measure of the earth. — Jean Picard, French astronomer, cartographer and hydraulic engineer (born 21 Jul 1620).  |
 | My interest in the sciences started with mathematics in the very beginning, and later with chemistry in early high school and the proverbial home chemistry set. — Rudolph A. Marcus, Canadian-American chemist (born 21 Jul 1923). |
 | We find it a law of our state of being that where only observation can be made the growth of knowledge creeps; where experiment can be made knowledge leaps forward. — Walter Fletcher, English physiologist and administrator (born 21 Jul 1873). |
| 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 | |
| | Rudolph A. Marcus, born 21 Jul 1923, is a Canadian-born American chemist, who won the 1992 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his theory concerning chemical reactions. The Marcus theory describes, and makes predictions concerning, such widely differing phenomena as the fixation of light energy by green plants (photosynthesis), cell metabolism, photochemical production of fuel, chemiluminescence (“cold light”), the conductivity of electrically conducting polymers, corrosion, the methodology of electrochemical synthesis and analysis, and more. What does his theory describe to explain such reactions? |
 | Swedish chemist, Georg Brandt was born on 21 Jul 1694. He was the first person to discover a metal unknown in ancient times which he isolated as a new element in 1730. This element is used to make glass blue, is added to steel to make it harder and have a higher melting point, and traces of it are found in meat and dairy products as vitamin B-12. What is the element he discovered? |
| Deaths | |
 | A certain astronaut passed into history upon his death on 21 Jul 1998. was America's first man in space and one of only 12 humans who walked on the Moon. He became the first American into space on 5 May 1961, riding a Redstone rocket on a 15-minute suborbital flight that took him and his Freedom 7 Mercury capsule 115 miles in altitude and 302 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Can you name this astronaut? |
| Events | |
 | On 21 Jul 1904, after 13 years of work, the longest railway in the world was completed, with a length of 4,607-miles. Which railway is this? |
 | On 21 Jul 2000, the first direct evidence for the third kind of neutrino known to particle physicists was announced. First generation electron neutrinos were created in 1956, and second generation muon neutrinos in 1962. What is the name of the third kind of neutrino? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for July 20: first optical fiber with optical losses low enough for wide use in telecommunications • dinosaur • Guglielmo Marconi • Viking 1 Lander • 1969, at the Sea of Tranquility.
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