TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 1 NOVEMBER
On 1 Nov 1868, Robert Kennedy Duncan was born, a Canadian industrial chemist, teacher and populariser of science who was a preeminent writer interpreting science and advocated partnering scientific research and industry to create new and better consumer products. As director of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research he brought the learning of the university to the service of industry. In fact, he originated the modern idea of industrial research in the university, to bring manufacturing industries and pure science into closer accord. In the article 'Harnessing Science to the Factory' from Popular Mechanics Magazine (1914), examples are given of this synergy between research to solve a problem and the result that improves an industrial product. Well worth your attention, it makes an intriguing and very informative read.
On 1 Nov 1880, Alfred Wegener was born, who gave the first extensive evidence in a well-developed hypothesis of continental drift. Today's book pick is: The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Dover Earth Science), by Alfred Wegener. This is truly a first-person classic, one of the most influential, most controversial books in science. Like other truly revolutionary scientific theories, Wegener's idea took years to win general acceptance among scientists. But his classic statement for continental drift survived the initial ridicule. Then as steadily accumulating evidence finally prompted its acceptance (after his death) it initiated the modern theory of plate tectonics - now one of the most important and far-ranging geological theories of all time, with consequences throughout geology, geophysics, oceanography, and paleontology
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $12.61. Used from $7.99. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | Sometimes I am a little unkind to all my many friends in education … by saying that from the time it learns to talk every child makes a dreadful nuisance of itself by asking “Why?.” To stop this nuisance society has invented a marvellous system called education which, for the majority of people, brings to an end their desire to ask that question. The few failures of this system are known as scientists. — Sir Hermann Bondi, Austrian-British mathematician and cosmologist (born 1 Nov 1919).  |
 | The text-book is rare that stimulates its reader to ask, Why is this so? Or, How does this connect with what has been read elsewhere? — J. Norman Collie, British chemist (died 1 Nov 1942). |
 | Scientists still do not appear to understand sufficiently that all earth sciences must contribute evidence toward unveiling the state of our planet in earlier times, and that the truth of the matter can only be reached by combing all this evidence. ... It is only by combing the information furnished by all the earth sciences that we can hope to determine 'truth' here, that is to say, to find the picture that sets out all the known facts in the best arrangement and that therefore has the highest degree of probability. Further, we have to be prepared always for the possibility that each new discovery, no matter what science furnishes it, may modify the conclusions we draw. — Alfred L. Wegener, German geophysicist and meteorologist (born 1 Nov 1880). |
| 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 | |
| | Sir Hermann Bondi, born 1 Nov 1919, was an Austrian-born British mathematician and cosmologist who, with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold, formulated a theory of the universe (1948) to address a crucial problem: “How do the stars continually recede without disappearing altogether?” What is the name of their theory of the universe? |
| | Alfred L. Wegener, born 1 Nov 1880, was a German scientist, meteorologist, geophysicist; formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis. He presented evidence that about 250 million years ago all the present-day continents had formed a single supercontinent which had subsequently broken away and drifted apart. He was also interested in paleoclimatology, and took part in several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation since 1906. He died during his fou What was this supercontinent called? |
| Deaths | |
 | Victor Mills (1897-1997) was an American chemical engineer who joined Proctor& Gamble company in 1926, and soon after developed a continuous process to superheat the liquid soap and spray it in concentrated form through an extruder producing bars of Ivory soap. That cut the production time from seven days to just a couple of hours. Another of his famous inventions was a product created to utilize the clean, absorbent paper available from a pulp mill acquired by the company. What was the product? |
 | Jacques Piccard (1922-2008) was a Swiss oceanic engineer who assisted his father, Auguste Piccard, design bathyscaphes for deep-sea exploration. In 1960, with Don Walsh, Jacques set the world depth record at 35,810-ft (10,916-m) in the bathyscaphe Trieste. Where was the ocean depth record set? |
| Events | |
 | On 1 Nov of a certain year, the first United States test of a thermonuclear device, a hydrogen bomb dubbed "Mike," was exploded at Eniwetok Atholl in the Pacific, 3,000 miles west of Hawaii. It exploded with a blinding white fireball more than three miles across, completely obliterating Elugelab, leaving an underwater crater a 6240-ft wide and 164-ft deep in the atoll where an island had once been. In what decade was this test made? |
 | On 1 Nov 1923, an American company bought the rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles. Can you name this company? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for October 31: partial vacuum, carbon filament incandescent lamp • water turbine • spiral shaped objects, previously seen as only clouds, which were much later identified as galaxies • electron spin (either “up” or “down”) • decade containing the year 1992 • the flame of the safety lamp is surrounded by a cylinder of fine metal gauze which absorbs and conducts away the heat of the flame inside so it does not explode gas outside the lamp.
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