TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 23 NOVEMBER
On 23 Nov 1828, Cornelius Hoagland was born, an American physician who founded the Hoagland Laboratory (1887), the first institutional laboratory in America. erected, equipped and endowed by private means for the sole purpose of original medical research. A description of the Hoagland Laboratory appeared in The Doctor (1887) as the facility was being built. The web page with this article continues with the announcement from Brooklyn Medical Journal (1888) of the completion of the building, and some of the equipment and medical work to be done there. Any medical student reading it today will surely raise their eyebrows at the fee for the course - $15.
On 23 Nov 1902, Major Walter Reed died, the U.S. Army pathologist who directed the discovery of the cause of Yellow Fever. Today's book pick is: Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets, by John R. Pierce, James V. Writer. The authors track the history of yellow fever that killed millions since its earliest appearance in the Caribbean 350 years ago and the struggle to understand and eradicate this deadly scourge. Up until about 100 years ago every summer in the South was met with dread as the Yellow Jack would invade cities and the epidemics would last until the first frost. This thrilling adventure tells the timeless tale of the few extraordinarily brave souls with courage, ingenuity, and triumph in the face of adversity—and made one of the twentieth century's greatest medical discoveries.
This history of yellow fever shows why there is so much concern today with imported diseases such as West Nile and Avian Flu.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $6.93. Used from $6.95. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
On 23 Nov 1844, Thomas Henderson died, who was first to measure the parallax of a star. Today's book pick is: , by . Parallax refers to the apparent shift in a nearby star's position when viewed from different points on the earth's orbit. After laying the historical foundation, the author describes the trio of astronomers in the 1830s who independently achieved the minute observations of stellar shifts that provided the stupefying truth that stars were light-years away. A delightful history of a crucial advance in knowledge.
It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon his creation, I should have recommended something simpler. Remarking on the complexity of Ptolemaic model of the universe after it was explained to him. — Alfonso X of Castile, Spanish monarch and astronomer (born 23 Nov 1221).  |
 | I suppose I should be run after for a professorship if I had studied at Giessen, as it seems to be a settled point that no young man can be expected to know anything of chemistry unless he has studied with Liebig; while the truth is, that any one who goes there and does not afterwards correct the bad habits acquired there, in some other laboratory, is almost unfitted for doing things in Chemistry. No doubt Liebig is a remarkable man, who has done much for organic Chemistry, not to speak of his having quarreled with all the Chemists in Europe... — Josiah Dwight Whitney, , American geologist and chemist (born 23 Nov 1819). |
 | In the last four days I have got the spectrum given by Tantalum. Chromium. Manganese. Iron. Nickel. Cobalt. and Copper and part of the Silver spectrum. The chief result is that all the elements give the same kind of spectrum, the result for any metal being quite easy to guess from the results for the others. This shews that the insides of all the atoms are very much alike, and from these results it will be possible to find out something of what the insides are made up of. — Henry Moseley, English physicist (born 23 Nov 1887). |
| 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 | |
| | Henry Moseley, born 23 Nov 1887, was an English physicist who experimentally demonstrated that the major properties of an element are determined by the atomic number, not by the atomic weight, and firmly established the relationship between atomic number and the charge of the atomic nucleus. By what experimental technique did he determine the atomic number (charge of the atomic nucleus)? |
 | A Dutch physicist, born 23 Nov 1837, won the 1910 Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on the gaseous and liquid states of matter. He developed an equation that-unlike the laws of Boyle and Charles-applied to real gases. Since the molecules do have attractive forces and volume (however small), he introduced into the theory two further constants to take these properties into account. Those weak electrostatic attractive forces between molecules and between atoms are now named for him. Can you name this scientist? |
| Deaths | |
 | Johann Elert Bode, (1747-1826) was a German astronomer best known for his popularization of Bode's law. In 1766, his compatriot Johann Titius had discovered a curious mathematical relationship in the distances of the planets from the sun. If 4 is added to each number in the series 0, 3, 6, 12, 24,... and the answers divided by 10, the resulting sequence gives the distances of the planets in astronomical units (earth = 1). Why is Bode's law no longer considered of value? |
 | Walter Reed (1851-1902) was a US Army pathologist and bacteriologist who led the experiments in 1900 that proved that yellow fever is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. In which country did the experiments take place that proved the mosquito as carrier of yellow fever? |
| Events | |
 | On 23 Nov of a certain year, the first U.S. jukebox was installed as a coin-operated phonograph in the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. Known as “Nickel-in-the-Slot,” the machine was an instant success. In which decade was this first jukebox installed? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for November 22: Wiley Post • schizophrenia • the pathway of the oxidation process within the cell • Phobos and Deimos • decade including the year 1927 • After the U.S. Congress ban was lifted on Concorde for sub-sonic landings in America, New York banned the Concorde locally..
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