On 29 Jul 1796 Walter Hunt was born, who designed the first repeating rifle. Hunt began inventing in his late teens with a machine to spin flax, which he patented in 1826. He also invented a fire engine gong (1827), a forest saw, paper collars, and a stove that burned hard coals. In 1834, he invented a sewing machine with a lock stitch, which he failed to patent until it was too late. Although his inventions were worthwhile, he failed to market them effectively.
One frequently reads nowadays about patent disputes as inventors jealously protect what they believe to be their original ideas (as for example Apple against Samsung). In reading about historic inventions, for the time and expense invested in patent litigation, one finds famous names have been established, and others have died in poverty.
In the article, Who Invented Sewing-Machines from The Galaxy Magazine (1867) you can read how in times past, debates over an inventor’s priority claim and patent disputes were public knowledge, then as now. In fact, the hapless inventor, Walter Hunt, contrary to this article author’s enthusiasm, is only a footnote in the history of the invention of the practical sewing machine. Hunt failed to refine his idea into a fully reliable, widely marketed form.
We don't even remember him for his “dress pin” invention that is so widely used today. He sold the patent rights for $400. That's all he profited from this long-lasting innovation. This article provides an interesting background about Walter Hunt.
On 29 Jul 1994, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin died, an English biochemist and X-ray crystallographer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 for her discoveries. Using X-ray techniques, she discovered the structure of biologically important molecules, including penicillin (1946), vitamin B-12 (1956), and later, the protein hormone insulin (1969). Her achievements included not only these structure determinations and the scientific insight they provided but also the development of methods that made such structure determinations possible.
Today's book pick is: Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life (P), by Georgina Ferry, who paints a portrait of an accomplished woman who combined an ambitious career with family responsibilities, often at great cost. While the context of this book is the development of crystallography, during the initial three decades of its application to organic structures, the focus of the book is simply Dorothy herself the person how she started life, how she worked her way into a scientific career, battled against the odds that were stacked against women in those days, quietly established herself among the top echelon of structural crystallographers and eventually developed an international reputation and influence. Her crystallography was outstanding (it was Dorothy's first and most passionate love) and this book records a fitting tribute to an outstanding and memorable person.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $40.00. Used from $6.50. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
I was captured for life by chemistry and by crystals. | |
My ideal man is Benjamin Franklin—the figure in American history most worthy of emulation ... Franklin is my ideal of a whole man. ... Where are the life-size—or even pint-size—Benjamin Franklins of today? | |
Earth has few secrets from the birds. |
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 | |
| Baron Marcel Bich, born 29 Jul 1914, was a French inventor who built his business empire by creating throwaway items. What was his first invention? |
| Walter Hunt, born 29 July 1796, began inventing with a machine to spin flax, and then a fire engine gong, a forest saw, a stove that burned hard coal. His inventions worked, but he just did not have the knack for making money from them. In 1849, Hunt made a familiar item out of a piece of brass wire about eight inches long, coiled at the center and shielded at one end. He patented his invention as a “dress pin,” and sold the rights to it for four hundred dollars. What is his dress pin now known as? |
Deaths | |
| Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 for her discoveries of the structure of biologically important molecules, including penicillin, vitamin B-12, and insulin. What method did she use to determine these structures? |
| John Alexander Newlands (1837-1898) was a British chemist who first established an order of elements by the atomic weights, and observed a periodicity in the properties. Every eighth element has similar properties. It took another quarter century, and the work of others, such as Mendeleev, for the significance of Newland's “law” to be recognized. What name is used for Newland's law? |
Events | |
| On 29 Jul 1927, the first electric respirator was installed at Bellevue hospital in New York for the post war polio epidemic. Phillip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw developed it at Harvard University, at first using two vacuum cleaners. The negative pressure machine surrounds the patient’s body except for the head. It alternates a negative atmospheric pressure with the ambient one, resulting in rhythmic expansion of the chest cage for inhalation. This type of machine is rarely used today. What was the new respirator called? |
| On 29 Jul of a certain year, the first transcontinental airmail flight relay from New York to San Francisco occurred. This was a dangerous occupation: 31 of the first 40 pilots hired to fly mail were killed in crashes. In which decade did this first transcontinental airmail flight relay take place? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for July 28: 35,800 ft • plastic, airtight food storage containers • birds • nuclear fission • hydrochloric acid • 800 miles.
Your click on a Facebook, StumbleUpon, or other social button on the site webpages is also a welcome sign of appreciation. Thank you for using them.
© This newsletter is copyright 2020 by todayinsci.com. Please respect the Webmaster's wishes and do not put copies online of the Newsletter — or any Today in Science History webpage. (If you already have done so, please remove them. Thank you.) Offline use in education is encouraged such as a printout on a bulletin board, or projected for classroom viewing. Online, descriptive links to our pages are welcomed, as these will provide a reader with the most recent revisions, additions and/or corrections of a webpage. For any other copyright questions, please contact the Webmaster by using your mail reader Reply button.
--
If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, Unsubscribe
To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit this link
Executive Real Estate Business Class
-
Carolyn Bryant, who is now in her 80s, has never faced any consequences for her actions. ...
-
Meet The Man Behind Japan's Most Gruesome Human Experiments During W...
-
55 Creepy Photos From The Darkest Recesses Of Human History From the Fre...
About the publisher
Search This Blog
Blog Archive
-
▼
2020
(1542)
-
▼
July
(200)
- PHOTOGRAPHY: The danger of documenting sharks
- Meet The Serial Killer Who Ate His Victims Because...
- The Roundup Top Ten from History News Network
- On This Day for July 31 - Lunar Roving Vehicle fir...
- Newsletter for Friday 31 July.
- Lockdowns killing more children than COVID + Docto...
- YOUR WEEKLY ESCAPE: Revisiting an iconic Nat Geo c...
- July 31: The Pilgrim Fathers Depart and the Battle...
- ANIMALS: The dog that got COVID-19
- On This Day for July 30 - Death of Otto von Bismar...
- Newsletter for Thursday 30 July.
- Frontline Docs 2nd Video Press Conf at SCOTUS We h...
- BREAKING NEWS: First U.S. dog to test positive for...
- July 30: First Defenestration of Prague, the 1st O...
- Demystified: Why Do Wolves Howl?
- The Champs Are Back on Forged in Fire Tonight
- SCIENCE: A rush to Mars during a rough patch at home
- Breaking News from History News Network
- On This Day for July 29 - National Aeronautics and...
- Newsletter for Wednesday 29 July.
- All Social Media Censor Frontline Docs COVID Video...
- July 29: Spanish Armada Scattered and Taft's Secre...
- TRAVEL: How to stay safe if you need to travel
- On This Day for July 28 - Beginning of World War I...
- Newsletter for Tuesday 28 July.
- Video Presentation from Washington Summit: America...
- July 28: Robespierre Guillotined, Austria-Hungary ...
- HISTORY: How the vice presidency became critical
- Enjoy Summer with Nat Geo Kids Magazine
- New This Week on History News Network
- On This Day for July 27 - Terrorist attack at Atla...
- Newsletter for Monday 27 July.
- COVID Propaganda & Tyrannical Edicts Affecting Men...
- July 27: Walter Raleigh Brings Tobacco, the Atlant...
- FAMILY: Can you transfer your ‘retro fun’ to your...
- The 10 greatest discoveries made by the British pu...
- On This Day for July 26 - Suez Canal seized, John ...
- Newsletter for Sunday 26 July.
- CDC says actual # of cases is up to 13X higher tha...
- July 26: 1st Muslim Civil War, Pizarro's Royal Cha...
- The Compass: Greece
- On This Day for July 25 - American advance into Ca...
- Newsletter for Saturday 25 July.
- VIRUS UPDATE: What does COVID-19 do to a child's b...
- July 25: The 1st Steam Locomotive, Mussolini Dismi...
- PHOTOGRAPHY: The photo that shocked a nation
- This Hardened Blob Of Nuclear Waste Could Kill You...
- On This Day for July 24 - Beginning of Mata Hari's...
- The Roundup Top Ten From History News Network
- Newsletter for Friday 24 July.
- Medical Journal: make the vaccine Mandatory! + Fre...
- YOUR WEEKLY ESCAPE: The man who claims to be Jesus...
- July 24: Cartier Lands in Canada, Mary Queen of Sc...
- ANIMALS: Let’s not forget this other catastrophe
- Demystified: Are Dogs Really Color-Blind?
- On This Day for July 23 - Egyptian monarchy topple...
- Newsletter for Thursday 23 July.
- listen to Dixie Brogdon Hopson tells how the hospi...
- July 23: Upper and Lower Canada United and the Bre...
- SCIENCE: The joy of vintage comforts
- A Puzzling Challenge on Forged in Fire Tonight
- Explore King Tut's tomb with National Geographic H...
- Breaking News from History News Network
- On This Day for July 22 - Deng Xiaoping reinstated...
- CDC Knows Masks and other methods don't work to st...
- Newsletter for Wednesday 22 July.
- July 22: First Congress of Vienna and Spoonerism
- TRAVEL: When tourism returns will it be better?
- Enjoy Summer with Nat Geo Kids Magazine
- On This Day for July 21 - Egyptians defeated in th...
- Newsletter for Tuesday 21 July.
- July 21: 1st Battle of Bull Run, the Trans-Siberia...
- HISTORY: John Lewis always stood for the same thing
- New This Week on History News Network
- On This Day for July 20 - First Moon landing, Sir ...
- Newsletter for Monday 20 July.
- What Scientific Study Shows 6 feet distance or "ma...
- July 20: On This Day in History
- FAMILY: Searching for patience
- Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's most successful queen?
- On This Day for July 19 - U.S. women's suffrage mo...
- Newsletter for Sunday 19 July.
- Mask Truth Part 2, Data by Nations shows Hydroxych...
- July 19: 1st US Women's Rights Convention and V fo...
- The Compass: Colombia
- On This Day for July 18 - Publication of Mein Kamp...
- Newsletter for Saturday 18 July.
- Enough! Mask Truth, re-Creating you! the intended...
- CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL EDITION: What type of person d...
- July 18: Spanish Civil War Begins and 7 Years of K...
- PHOTOGRAPHY: Showing a nation losing its drinking ...
- How Julia Child Went From World War 2 Spy To Belov...
- Introducing Expedition: Learn! A New Way to Help K...
- The Roundup Top Ten for July 17, 2020
- On This Day for July 17 - Beginning of the Spanish...
- Newsletter for Friday 17 July.
- July 17: Execution of the Romanovs and a Stormy Bi...
- YOUR WEEKLY ESCAPE: An intimate look inside a mode...
- ANIMALS: The trouble with 'retired' chimps
- Man vs. 800-Pound Beast! Watch New Episode of Alon...
-
▼
July
(200)
-
Blogroll
-
About
HistoryFact
0 comments:
Post a Comment