TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 20 NOVEMBER
In 1866, the first U.S. patent for a yoyo was issued to James L. Haven and Charles Hittrick of Cincinnati, Ohio. Although termed a “Whirligig” or a “Bandalore” in the patent title, it had the familiar construction of a yoyo with two disks “coupled together at their centers by means of a clutch.” It was also the first time rim-weighting to maintain momentum was mentioned in a patent. “It will be observed that the marginal swell ... exercises the function of a flywheel.” This patent is important since it shows the first use of patents to protect design improvements in the manufacture of a yoyo. Messrs. Haven and Hettrick were in the business of mass-producing yoyos over a half century before the better known Flores brand.
What do a yo-yo, a silk panel hanging from a trumpet, and a quiz have in common? You may be surprized how the yo-yo toy you played with when young has a long and fascinating historical background. Read the Today in Science History article on the Etymology and History of the Yo-Yo.
Trofim Lysenko died 20 Nov 1976, having been perhaps the most evil, destructive power against true scientific biological knowledge in modern history. He retarded an entire generation of Soviet biology, by destroying careers, and (through the dictator's support) causing the imprisonment or death of many eminent Russian biologists. Today's book pick is: , by . This book is a translation of the Russian written by Zhores Medvedev and smuggled out of Russia on microfilm. It reveals the first detailed, inside account of Soviet genetics in the period 1937-1964, which was perhaps the most bizarre chapter in the history of modern science. In a society devoted to the betterment of the lot of peasants and workers, an illiterate and fanatical charlatan, T. D. Lysenko, was allowed absolute control over both research in biology and practical agriculture. Lysenko's belief that environment was everything and heredity was next to nothing not only stifled the development of science, but also had a far-reaching and destructive influence on the national economy of the Soviet Union.
It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons. — Edwin Powell Hubble, American astronomer (born 20 Nov 1889).  |
 | Increasing knowledge lessens the sphere of the supernatural. — Edward Westermarck, Finnish sociologist, philosopher and anthropologist (born 20 Nov 1862). |
 | [S]uppose you make a hole in an ordinary evacuated electric light bulb and allow the air molecules to pass in at the rate of 1,000,000 a second, the bulb will become full of air in approximately 100,000,000 years. — Francis William Aston, English chemist, physicist and chemist (died 20 Nov 1945). |
| 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 | |
| | Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer, born 20 Nov 1889, is considered the founder of extragalactic astronomy and provided the first evidence of the expansion of the universe. He measured distances to galaxies and their redshifts, and in 1929 he published the velocity-distance relation which is the basis of modern cosmology. The now-standard classification of galaxies by shape came from him. What are the three main standard shapes he used to classify galaxies? |
 | Otto von Guericke, born 20 Nov 1602, was a German physicist, engineer, and natural philosopher who studied the role of air in combustion and respiration, but is better-known for his other investigations using an invention that was the first of its kind. What was this invention and what did he study with it? |
| Deaths | |
| | Francis William Aston (1877-1945) was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1922 for his development of the mass spectrograph What does the mass spectrograph measure? |
| | Trofim Lysenko (1898-1976) was a Soviet biologist and agronomist who not only believed the Mendelian theory of heredity to be wrong, but with the Soviet dictator's support for two decades actively obstructed the course of Soviet biology. He caused the imprisonment and death of many of the country's eminent biologists. Who was the dictator who supported Lysenko? |
 | Casimir Funk (1884-1967) was a Polish-American biochemist who pusued the idea that diseases such as beriberi, scurvy, rickets and pellagra were caused by lack of vital substances in the diet. What name did he give these substances? |
| Events | |
 | On 20 Nov of a certain year, Willard LeGrand Bundy was issued the first U.S. patent for a time recording clock. A workman inserted a key which actuated his number which was printed with the time on a paper tape. In what decade was this first time recording clock patented? |
 | On 20 Nov 1923, African-American Garrett Morgan (1877-1963) patented an invention he developed after he had seen an automobile crash into a horse-drawn carriage. What was his invention? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for November 19: periodic polar reversals of the Earth's magnetic field • Peru, Incas • Suez Canal across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt • measuring tornadoes on the basis of their damage • decade containing the year 1861.
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