TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 9 OCTOBER
On 9 Oct 1780, the first expedition of its kind in the U.S. departed to observe a total solar eclipse in Penobscot, Maine, led by Samuel Williams of Harvard University. However, when they arrived, Penobscot Bay was at the time held by the British enemy!
To learn about what happened to the scientists during this time of war, read an account given in History of Islesborough, Maine (1893).
On 9 Oct 1906, Joseph Glidden died, inventor of the first US commercial barbed wire that transformed large-scale animal farming in the West, displacing cowboys and the round-up. Today's book pick is: The Devil's Rope: A Cultural History of Barbed Wire, by Alan Krell, who investigates the place barbed wire holds in the social imagination. Barbed wire cuts across more than just property, war and politics. This most vicious tool of control has played a critical role in the modern experience, be it territorial expansion or the settlement of local and international conflicts. However, it has other histories: those constructed through image and text in the arts, media and popular culture. These representations – in painting, photography, poetry, personal memoirs, cartoons, novels, advertisements and film – are also critically examined in this book.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $53.93. Used from $8.79. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | You are urgently warned against allowing yourself to be influenced in any way by theories or by other preconceived notions in the observation of phenomena, the performance of analyses and other determinations. — Emil Fischer, German chemist (born 9 Oct 1852).  |
 | A common fallacy in much of the adverse criticism to which science is subjected today is that it claims certainty, infallibility and complete emotional objectivity. It would be more nearly true to say that it is based upon wonder, adventure and hope. — Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English physical chemist (died 9 Oct 1967). |
 | The scientist, by the very nature of his commitment, creates more and more questions, never fewer. Indeed the measure of our intellectual maturity, one philosopher suggests, is our capacity to feel less and less satisfied with our answers to better problems. — Gordon Allport, American humanistic psychologist and educator (died 9 Oct 1967). |
 | The secret of science is to ask the right question, and it is the choice of problem more than anything else that marks the man of genius in the scientific world. — Sir Henry Tizard, English chemist, inventor and administrator (died 9 Oct 1959). |
| 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 | |
 | A German physicist, born 9 Oct 1879, was a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays in crystals. This enabled scientists to study the structure of crystals and hence marked the origin of solid-state physics, an important field in the development of modern electronics. Can you name this scientist? |
| Deaths | |
 | Felix Wankel (1902-1988) was a German engineer who invented the first rotary internal combustion engine. Many people had proposed rotary engine designs, but none had pursued it for as long or as relentlessly as Felix Wankel. In which decade did Wankel have his first truly functional rotary engine ready? |
| Events | |
 | On 9 Oct 1936, the first generator at Boulder Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles. From 1939 to 1949, its powerplant was the world's largest hydroelectric installation. By what name is Boulder Dam now known? |
| | On 9 Oct 1780, the first U.S. astronomy expedition to record an eclipse of the sun left from Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., for Penobscot Bay, led by Samuel Williams. The country was at war with Britain, and when they arrived, a British officer was in charge of Penobscot Bay. What happened to the expedition? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for October 8: Russell • Henry-Louis Le Chatelier • germanium • decade containing the year 1906.
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