TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 6 OCTOBER
On 6 Oct 1846, George Westinghouse was born, the American engineer, inventor and industrialist who founded his own company to manufacturer his own invention (in the quiz below). Before he died, he had produced safer rail transportation, steam turbines, gas lighting and heating, and electricity. He was also chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current for electric power transmission in the United States.
In a paper presented in 1912 by William Stanley, there are some personal recollections of Alternating Current Development in America. He was involved in the Westinghouse Electric Company work which resulted in the building of the first alternating-current plant at Great Barrington in 1885. To his audience he said, it was difficult for engineers of 1912 to appreciate the conditions at the outset in 1885. Back then, there were but few books on electrical engineering, no formulae, except those hidden away in scientific papers, no nomenclature, and there was hardly any information about alternating-current phenomena available.
Stanley provides an interesting insight into the genesis of the alternating current power we now take so much for granted.
On 6 Oct 1846, George Westinghouse was born, an American inventor who introduced devices for safer rail transportation, steam turbines, gas lighting, and is especially remembered for being chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current for electric power transmission in the U.S. (prevailing over Edison's D.C. system). Today's book pick is: George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius, by Quentin R. Skrabec Jr., who provides a fine biography of this significant industrialist that is rich in drama and in breadth, a story of power, city building, and applying the Golden Rule in business. Westinghouse was a capitalist with a heart, for he also innovated in providing pension plans and planned communities for his workers. He was not only an inventor in his own right, but the orchestra leader of a symphony of ideas. Westinghouse developed the corporate model of invention and research. In 1955, over 55,000 employees voluntarily collected money for a memorial to Westinghouse.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $18.94. Used from $14.61. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | A rill in a barnyard and the Grand Canyon represent, in the main, stages of valley erosion that began some millions of years apart. — George Gaylord Simpson, American paleontologist (died 6 Oct 1984).  |
 | Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity. — Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer (born 6 Oct 1914). |
| | If someday they say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow man, I shall be satisfied. — George Westinghouse, American engineer, inventor and industrialist (born 6 Oct 1846). |
 | An inventor is one who can see the applicability of means to supply demand five years before it is obvious to those skilled in the art. — Reginald Fessenden, Canadian-American physicist, engineer and inventor (born 6 Oct 1866). |
| 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 | |
| | Thor Heyerdahl, born 6 Oct 1914, was a Norweigan ethnologist and adventurer who organized and led the famous transoceanic scientific expeditions intended to prove the possibility of ancient transoceanic contacts between distant civilizations and cultures. His first was a 101-day, 4,300-mile drifting voyage (1947) from Peru to Polynesia on a 40-sq.ft. raft, a replica of a pre-Inca vessel. What was this raft named? |
| | George Westinghouse, born 6 Oct 1846, was an American inventor and industrialist who was chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current for electric power transmission in the U.S.). Yet, he was also an innovator in other fields. His invention with which he first started his manufacturing enterprise was significant, though not electrical. What invention was manufactured by this scientist's first company? |
| Deaths | |
 | Otto Fritz Meyerhof (1884-1951) was a German biochemist and corecipient, with Archibald V. Hill, of the 1922 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research. What did his research demonstrate? |
 | Bernard-Germain-Étienne Lacépède (1756-1825) was a French naturalist who was interested in herpetology and ichthyology. He added several volumes in animal classification to the series Histoire Naturelle started by Buffon. What forms of life are studied in herpetology and ichthyology? |
| Events | |
 | On 6 Oct 1997, American biology professor Stanley B. Prusiner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine to recognize his discovery of what was described as “an entirely new genre of disease-causing agents.” What had he discovered? |
 | On 6 Oct 1956, Dr. Albert Sabin reported that the polio vaccine he had developed was ready for mass testing in the U.S. and four other countries. How was this polio vaccine administered? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for October 5: amino acids from the cytoplasm of a cell to a ribosome • The old Roman name for Copenhagen was Hafnia • massive supercomputers • Steve Jobs • Mach 8 • Edwin Hubble.
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