TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 28 JANUARY
On 28 Jan 1855, William Seward Burroughs was born, the American inventor who produced the first practical adding machine. He invented a mechanical device to do arithmetic chores. Today, dear reader, you likely have a cellphone or wristwatch, which weighs a fraction, gives results in a fraction of the time, and costs a fraction when compared to Burroughs’ device. But don't let that belittle Burroughs’ accomplishment. In his time he provided bank clerks with the ability to add numbers accurately, and print out the results. He died only a few years after establishing the successful company, which by merger became Unisys in the 1980s. By answering the need to calculate in his time, Burroughs set in motion an industry that now produces the cellphone in your time.
The article, The Burroughs Adding Machine from the book The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922 (1922) says “There is no story in American industrial history more absorbing, more replete with human interest…” Also, there is a sad contrast between the fortunes of the city of Detroit then, when compared to now, when the centre of innovation has moved to Silicon Valley. Which gives another dimension as you read this article.
On 28 Jan 1884, Auguste Piccard was born, Swiss-Belgian physicist who explored both the great heights of the upper stratosphere and also the great depths of the sea in ships of his own design. His twin brother, Jean-Felix, born of course on this same day, also made stratospheric balloon ascents, complementing Auguste's research of cosmic rays. Today's book pick is: Between earth and sky, by Auguste PICCARD who reveals in his own words his motivation, how he accomplished his astonishing achievements and the valuable data he gathered. Several decades before space travel, he explored the limits of previously inaccessible heights and depths.
It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | As to rocket ships flying between America and Europe, I believe it is worth seriously trying for. Thirty years ago persons who were developing flying were laughed at as mad, and that scorn hindered aviation. Now we heap similar ridicule upon stratoplane or rocket ships for trans-Atlantic flights. — Auguste Piccard, Swiss-Belgian physicist (born 28 Jan 1884).  |
 | A crystal is like a class of children arranged for drill, but standing at ease, so that while the class as a whole has regularity both in time and space, each individual child is a little fidgety! — Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, British crystallographer (born 28 Jan 1903). |
| | Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole. — William Seward Burroughs, American inventor (born 28 Jan 1855). |
| 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 | |
| | Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, born 28 Jan 1903, was a British crystallographer who developed several X-ray techniques for the study of crystal structure. Her experimental determination of the structure of the benzene ring by x-ray diffraction, which showed that all the ring C-C bonds were of the same length. She also measured the internal C-C-C bond angles. What size is the C-C-C bond angle in benzene? |
| Deaths | |
 | An American teacher (1948-1986) was chosen to be the first private citizen in space. Aboard the space shuttle Challenger, she was one of the seven astronauts killed when the rocket exploded 73 seconds after takeoff. Can you name this astronaut? |
 | Emil Klaus Julius Fuchs was a physicist who fled from Nazi Germany to Britain, where he was naturalized in 1942, and joined the British atomic bomb research project. From 1943 he worked on the atom bomb with the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, U.S.A. For what is Klaus Fuchs most remembered? |
| Events | |
 | On 28 Jan of a certain year, after a number of years of denial, a U.S. government study conceded that cancer and premature deaths of workers at 14 nuclear weapons plants since WW II were caused by radiation and chemicals. According to the Energy Secretary, “This is the first time the government is acknowledging that people got cancer from radiation exposure in the plants.” In which decade did the U.S. government publicly admit that cancer deaths of nuclear weapons workers were caused by radiation exposure. |
 | On 28 Jan 1896, the first motor car speeding fine in Britain was handed out to Walter Arnold, for exceeding the legal speed limit by 6 mph, while driving through the town of East Peckham in Kent. In 1896, what was the legal speed limit for motor cars within residential areas in Britain? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for January 27: USS Nautilus • Charles Lutwidge Dodgson • first U.S. astronaut to walk in space • birds • decade including the year 1926 • soil.
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