TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 3 DECEMBER
On 3 Dec 1753, Samuel Crompton was born, a British inventor of the “spinning mule” to produce continuous, strong, fine yarn. A short article on Samuel Crompton will remind you of his important advance in technology, which came many troubles, and he died in poverty, even though he helped launch the Industrial Revolution
Today, two more short articles are of interest. One from archaeological history is on George Smith's Account of the Deluge from Assyrian Tablets. On 3 Dec 1872, at the the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London, he read his translation from the cuniform tablets. Its resemblance to the biblical account of the Flood in Genesis, though older than the Bible, caused a sensation. He had pieced together fragments of tablets at the British Museum brought from Ninevah (Kuyunjik) while pursuing an interest in cuneiform inscriptions. This is now known as the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh epic.
And on 3 Dec 1732, James Blair was rescued from a fire in a coal mine. William Tossach, a Scottish surgeon, resusitated him with mouth to mouth breathing, bringing the casualty back to life after being “in all appearance dead.” You can read Tossach's description of the Rescue Breathing. He checked the circulation of blood by opening a vein in the miner's arm.
On 3 Dec 1993, Lewis Thomas died, an American physician, researcher and author of reflective essays on a wide range of topics in biology topics. Today's book pick is: Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher, by Lewis Thomas. In this National Book Award Winning collection, ehich is elegant, suggestive, and clarifying, Thomas explores the world around us. He examines the complex interdependence of all things—going beyond the usual limitations of biological science and into a vast and wondrous world of hidden relationships. In these personal, poetic essays his topics range among computers, germs, language, music, death, insects, and medicine. The truly extraordinary facts about biology and microbiology give a fast education about cellular biology that is both a truly fascinating read and furthermore, able to leave the reader in actual awe.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $6.93. Used from $1.95. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | The surveyor ought to work in solitude. He must no more admit company while mapping than a writer admits visitors to his study while writing. This applies even to geological company, nay, even to the company of a skilled fellow-surveyor... The two authors of this book [Edward Greenly and Howell Williams] once thought that it would be pleasant to have a day's mapping together, and decided to break through their rule. The result was a ludicrous paralysis. The commonest operation seemed a mountain of difficulty. Next day the senior author (whose ground it was) swept an india-rubber over every line and went out again, when, hey presto! And all was clear. — Edward Greenly, British geologist (born 3 Dec 1861).  |
 | Chemical waste products are the droppings of science. — Lewis Thomas, American physician and author (died 3 Dec 1993). |
| | A man has a very insecure tenure of a property which another can carry away with his eyes. A few months reduced me to the cruel necessity either of destroying my machine, or of giving it to the public. To destroy it, I could not think of; to give up that for which I had laboured so long, was cruel. I had no patent, nor the means of purchasing one. In preference to destroying, I gave it to the public. [On his inability to keep for himself a profitable income from his invention of the Spinning Mule.] — Samuel Crompton, British inventor (born 3 Dec 1753). |
| 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 | |
 | Peter C. Schultz, born 3 Dec 1942 was an American ceramicist who, working with Corning Glass researchers Robert Maurer and Donald Keck, made a product (1970) capable of replacing and improving on copper in a specific now well-known application. What was this revolutionary product? |
 | Carl Koller, born 3 Dec 1857, was a Czech-born American ophthalmic surgeon who introduced a new surface anesthetic in eye surgery (1884) and inaugurated the modern era of local anesthesia. What was the anesthetic Koller introduced for eye surgery? |
| Deaths | |
 | James Challis (1803-1882) was a British clergyman and astronomer, famous in the history of astronomy for a failure. What was this failure? |
| Events | |
 | On 3 Dec 1984, shortly after midnight, inhabitants of Bhopal, India, suffered the world's worst industrial disaster. Over 40 tonnes of highly poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked out of the Union Carbide factory. Poisonous gases enveloped an area of 40 sq.kms. Thousands of people died. Over 500,000 suffered from acute breathlessness, pain in the eyes and vomiting as they ran in panic to get away from the poison clouds that hung close to the ground for more than four hours. For use in what final product was the methyl isocyanate gas being manufactured? |
 | On 3 Dec 1967, in Cape Town, South Africa, a team of surgeons performed the first human heart transplant. A South African businessman received the healthy heart of a woman who had died in a car crash. The patient survived 18 days before succumbing to double pneumonia, contracted after destruction of his body's immunity mechanism by drugs administered to suppress rejection of the new heart as a foreign protein. Who was the surgeon who led his team in this first heart transplant? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for December 2: raw liver • Gerardus Mercator • nuclear chain reaction • Mount Palomar Observatory • China.
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