TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 6 JANUARY
On 6 Jan 1745, Jacques Étienne Montgolfier was born, a French ballooning pioneer, who with his brother Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, developed the hot-air balloon and conducted the first untethered flights. An initial experiment with a balloon of taffeta filled with hot smoke was given a public demonstration on 5 Jun 1783. This was followed by a flight carrying three animals as passengers on 19 Sep 1783, shown in Paris and witnessed by King Louis XVI.
The big day was 21 Nov 1783, when their balloon carried the first two men on an untethered flight—the first manned balloon flight. For more on the Montgolfier Brothers, read this site's web page: The Montgolfier Brothers: Pioneer Balloonists.
On 6 Jan 1745, Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier was born, French ballooning pioneer, who with his brother developed the hot-air balloon and conducted the first untethered flights. Today's book pick is: The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783-1784: With a Word on the Importance of Ballooning for the Science of Heat and the Art of Building Railroads (Princeton Legacy Library), by Charles Coulston Gillispie. This is a definitive historic work by the same science historian who was the chief editor for the fifteen-volume, shelf-long set of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography. For his book on the Montgolfier brothers, Gillespie uses archival sources to describe not only their ballooning projects, but also their other science and technological contributions, such as Joseph Montgolfier's work with internal combustion engines.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $57.50. Used from $3.75. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | The universe flows, carrying with it milky ways and worlds, Gondwanas and Eurasias, inconsistent visions and clumsy systems. But the good conceptual models, these serena templa of intelligence on which several masters have worked, never disappear entirely. They are the great legacy of the past. They linger under more and more harmonious forms and actually never cease to grow. They bring solace by the great art that is inseparable from them. Their permanence relies on the immortal poetry of truth, of the truth that is given to us in minute amounts, foretelling an order whose majesty dominates time. — Émile Argand, Swiss geologist (born 6 Jan 1879).  |
 | A set is a Many that allows itself to be thought of as a One. — Georg Cantor, German mathematician (died 6 Jan 1918). |
 | Thought isn’t a form of energy. So how on Earth can it change material processes? That question has still not been answered. — Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, Russian geochemist and mineralogist (died 6 Jan 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 | |
| | On 6 Jan 1745, Jacques Étienne Montgolfier was born, a French pioneer of the hot-air balloon with his brother, Joseph-Michel. An initial experiment with a balloon of taffeta filled with hot smoke was given a public demonstration on 4 Jun 1783. This was followed by a flight carrying three animals as passengers on 19 Sep 1783. One of these animals was named Montauciel (Climb-to-the-sky). What were the three animals on the first "passenger" flight? |
| Deaths | |
 | Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (1904-1990) was a Soviet physicist who shared the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physics with fellow Soviet scientists for their investigation of the phenomenon exhibited by electrons as they pass through a transparent medium at a speed higher than the speed of light in that medium. What phenomenon is associated with such very high speed electrons in a transparent medium? |
 | Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884) was a Austrian pioneer of the study of heredity. He made two very important generalizations from his experiments, known today as the Laws of Heredity. Mendel coined the present day terms in genetics: recessiveness and dominance. With what did Mendel experiment to formulate his laws of heredity? |
| Events | |
 | On 6 Jan of a certain year, the first adult heart transplant in the U.S. was performed at the Stanford Medical Center, Stanford, California, by by Dr. Norman Shumway (pictured). The 54-year-old patient, whose heart had been damaged by virus infection, survived for 15 days after the surgery. In what decade was this U.S. heart transplant operation performed? |
 | On 6 Jan 1851, the rotation of the Earth was proved experimentally by a scientist working in the cellar of the house he shared with his mother. Three months later, he demonstrated his discovery to Napoleon. Who was the scientist, and what was his equipment |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for January 5: decade including the year 1948 • the decade including the years 1901 (application) or 1904 (issued) • peanuts (one of his products was peanut butter) • diabetes • decade including the year 1896 • Golden Gate Bridge.
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