Newsletter for Tuesday 13 October.

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TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER • 13 OCTOBER

Feature for Today

On 13 Oct 1853, the Pennsylvania and LeHigh Zinc Company Mill was erected in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It became the first mill to produce commercial zinc in the U.S.

Before producing metallic zinc from the local calamine ores, the company began by manufacturing zinc oxide. You've seen that compound used in the white paste on the noses of swimming pool lifeguards for protection from the summer sun. But the company used the zinc oxide powder to make white zinc oxide paint.

For more on the background of the company, read this excerpt on The Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company, from History of the Lehigh Valley (1860).

Book of the Day

On 13 Oct 1884, Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian. Today's book pick is: Greenwich Time and Longitude, by Derek Howse. This history of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, revised to coincide with the Millenium, tells the story of Greenwich from its foundations in 1676 to its present status as Longitude 0°, the world's Prime Meridian for measuring longitude and time. The illustrated book covers the importance of longitude for navigation and traces the history of Greenwich Time, the basis of universal time-keeping. The book is co-published with the National Maritime Museum, where Derek Howse was the former Head of Navigation and Astronomy.

It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $29.99. Used from $3.92. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)

Quotations for Today

	Bismarck, enraged at Virchow’s constant criticisms, has his seconds call upon the scientist to challenge him to a duel. “As the challenged party, I have the choice of weapons,” said Virchow, “and I chose these.” He held aloft two sausages. “One of these,” he went on, “is infected with deadly germs; the other is perfectly sound. Let his Excellency decide which one he wishes to eat, and I will eat the other.” Almost immediately the message came back that the chancellor had decided to laugh off the duel. — Rudolf Virchow, German pathologist and statesman (born 13 Oct 1821).
	I would like to start by emphasizing the importance of surfaces. It is at a surface where many of our most interesting and useful phenomena occur. We live for example on the surface of a planet. It is at a surface where the catalysis of chemical reactions occur. It is essentially at a surface of a plant that sunlight is converted to a sugar. In electronics, most if not all active circuit elements involve non-equilibrium phenomena occurring at surfaces. Much of biology is concerned with reactions at a surface. — Walter H. Brattain, American physicist (died 13 Oct 1987).
	230(231-1) ... is the greatest perfect number known at present, and probably the greatest that ever will be discovered; for; as they are merely curious without being useful, it is not likely that any person will attempt to find a number beyond it. — Peter Barlow, English mathematician and engineer (born 13 Oct 1776).

Quiz

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
	Rudolf Virchow, born 13 Oct 1821, was a pathologist and statesman who originated the concept that disease arises in the individual cells of a tissue and, with publication of his Cellular Pathology (1858), founded the science of cellular pathology. Virchow also worked on improving sanitary conditions, and believed that environmental factors such as poor living conditions could be as much a cause of disease as germs. What was his nationality?
	On 13 Oct 1776, Peter barlow was born, an English mathematician and engineer who invented two varieties of achromatic telescope lenses. What does achromatic mean in the design of a lens?
Deaths
	Walter H. Brattain (1902-1987) was an American scientist born in China who, with John Bardeen and William B. Shockley, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 for investigating semiconductors. Working with the ideas of Shockley and Bardeen, Brattain built the first of a new electronic component. What was this first-of-its-kind that he built?
	Milton Snavely Hershey (1857-1945) was an American who began apprenticed to a confectioner, then ran his own candy shop (unsuccessfully), but eventually became a major candy manufacturer. Before he diversified into chocolate, he innovated the production of another confection using fresh milk, with great success. Hershey's innovative production was for what successful confection using fresh milk before chocolate?
Events
	On 13 Oct of a certain year, the first U.S. patent for a burglar alarm operated by ultrasonic sound was issued to Samuel Bagno. A sound source produced waves of 19,000 hertz, a frequency too high for normal human hearing. An intruder could be detected by the alarm by a difference in frequency of the reflected waves from the moving body (the Doppler effect). In what decade was this patent issued?
	On 13 Oct 1884, the universal meridian was adopted, fixing it at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. At the behest of the U.S. President, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, DC, for the International Meridian Conference. All longitude would be calculated both east and west from this meridian up to 180°. Most exactly, through where in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, does this International Meridian pass?

Answers

When you have your answers ready to all the questions above, you'll find all the information to check them, and more, on the October 13 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for October 12: the decade containing the year 1911 • the nucleus • DDT • Britannia Bridge • Charles Macintosh • Iron Lung.

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