TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 9 APRIL
On 9 Apr 1806, the great Victorian civil and mechanical engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born. His life was one of great originality and productivity on many notable projects. In 1823, he began work with his father, Marc Brunel, on the Thames Tunnel, and later became the resident engineer at the site.
In 1829, Isambard designed a suspension bridge to cross the River Avon at Clifton. In 1831, he was appointed chief engineer at the Bristol Docks, and Brunel later designed the Monkwearmouth Docks and others at Plymouth, Cardiff, Brentford and Milford Haven. In 1833, age 27, he was appointed chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, the line that linked London to Bristol. He went on to build more bridges, viaducts, and three steam ships.
A passenger on board the the first voyage of the Steam-ship Great Western, sailing from Bristol to New York, April, 1838, kept a journal. It was published in an American newspaper, and so it survives for us to read. Share the excitement he felt, and the interesting story he tells, in his Journal Of the First Voyage of the Steam-ship Great Western, April 1838.
On 9 Apr 1806, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born, rightly admired as one of the greatest of all engineers. His leading role in the transport revolution of the nineteenth century, left an indelible mark on the British landscapeand engineering history. His projects included railways, tunnels, bridges, and great steamships. If you know little about this astonishingly productive Victorian, it is time to remedy that! Today's book pick is: Brunel: The Life and Times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, by Angus Buchanan, who, as Emeritus Professor of the History of Technology at the University of Bath, is well-qualified to spellbind you with Brunel’s ebullience, foresight, hard work and ambition.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $389.99. Used from $2.96. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | While electric railroading is perhaps the most important branch of electrical engineering, at least as regards commercial importance, considering the amount capital invested therein, nevertheless it is a remarkable fact that while most other branches of electrical engineering had been developed to a very high degree of perfection, even a few years ago theoretical investigation of electric railroading was still conspicuous by its almost entire absence. All the work was done by some kind of empirical experimenting, that is, some kind of motor was fitted up with some gearing or some sort of railway car, and then run, and if the motor burned out frequently it was replaced with a larger motor, and if it did not burn out, a trailer was put on the car, and perhaps a second trailer, until the increase of the expense account in burn-outs of the motors balanced the increased carrying capacity of the train. — Charles Proteus Steinmetz, German-American electrical engineer and inventor (born 9 Apr 1865).  |
 | I had come to the conclusion, that the principal alimentary matters might be reduced to the three great classes, namely the saccharine, the oily and the albuminous. — William Prout, English biochemist and physiologist (died 9 Apr 1850). |
 | Truth more easily comes out of error than out of confusion. — Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher (died 9 Apr 1626). |
| 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 | |
 | J. Presper Eckert, Jr., born 9 Apr 1919, was an American engineer and co-inventor of the first general-purpose electronic computer, a digital machine that was the prototype for most computers in use today. In 1946, Eckert with John W. Mauchly fulfilled a government contract to build a digital computer to be used by the U.S. Army for military calculations. What was this computer named? |
 | Eadweard Muybridge, an English photographer, born 9 Apr 1830, is remembered for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion. One notable example is his series of photographs of a running horse which answered what had been a hotly debated issue. What question about a horse's gait did Muybridge solve? |
| | Isambard Kingdom Brunel, an English civil and mechanical engineer, born 9 Apr 1806, had great originality and was highly productive. His outstanding projects include railways, tunnels, bridges, viaducts and steamships (including the first transatlantic steamer). His largest steamship was used to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable. What was the name of Brunel’s largest steamship? |
| Deaths | |
 | Sir Patrick Manson (1844-1922) was a Scottish parasitologist who founded the field of tropical medicine developing it as a distinct field of study. He was the first to discover (1877-79) that an insect can be host to a developing parasite (the worm Filaria bancrofti) that is the cause of a human disease (filariasis, which occurs when the worms invade body tissues). What insect did Manson identify as the host for spreading this parasitic worm? |
| Events | |
 | In 1959, NASA announced the selection of America’s first seven astronauts for project Mercury that had been chosen from 110 applicants. Project Mercury, NASA's first high profile program, was an effort to learn if humans could survive in space. NASA required astronaut candidates to be male, not over 40 years old, not more than 5' 11" height and in excellent physical condition. One of them became the first American in space in 1961. What are the names of two of these famous astronauts? Or, try for all seven names. |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for April 8: radioactive isotope carbon-14 as a tracer • the pituitary • Otis traveled upward on a demonstration elevator, and at top called for the elevator’s cable to be suddenly cut with an axe. • 3D motion picture, viewed wearing spectacles with one red and one green lens to produce the illusion of depth • largest sunspot group ever on record.
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