TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 12 APRIL
On 12 Apr 1705, William Cookworth was born, the English chemist who pioneered the manufacture of porcelain in Britain. He discovered deposits of kaolin and China stone (forms of decomposed granite) near St. Austell, Cornwall (1756). It was sufficiently pure to make a Chinese-style pure white porcelain. He spent many years experimenting to perfect the product.
For John Smeaton’s new Eddystone lighthouse, he formulated a hydraulic cement that both set quickly and hard enough to withstand erosion from the sea waves.
He patented his porcelain process (17 Mar 1768), and ran a factory for ten years, though unprofitably, before selling out to another manufacturer.
China clay is an important industrial product used today in coated paper, toothpaste, paint, rubber, plastics, pharmaceuticals and agricultural products.
Chances are, you are were not aware of William Cookworthy, but he paved the way producing fine china before the famous work of Josiah Wedgewood. To fill the gap in your knowledge about William Cookworthy, read a short article on The Plymouth China.
On 12 Apr 1897, Edward Drinker Cope died, an American paleontologist and prolific taxonomist of vertebrate paleontology. He led many natural history surveys in the American West for the precursors of the U.S. Geological Survey, making many important finds on his trips, including dinosaur discoveries in western North America.
He lived at a time of intense effort to discover more and more new and interesting fossils. His efforts were in competition with paleontologist Othaniel Charles Marsh, and the heated rivalry was notorious enough to be called “The Bone Wars” or “The Great Dinosaur Rush.”
During the early years of the Bone Wars, Charles Sternberg collected fossils in Kansas for Edward Drinker Cope. Today's book pick is: , by , who provides interesting insights into Cope and the other participants in the age of expeditions seeking paleontological specimens. The book is written in an easy reading style, and covers the full experiences of starvation, heat, bad water, bad tempered horses, broken wheels, wind and weather. All this is the background that in not visible when we see the result of their efforts on display in a museum.
It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | Statistics are somewhat like old medical journals, or like revolvers in newly opened mining districts. Most men rarely use them, and find it troublesome to preserve them so as to have them easy of access; but when they do want them, they want them badly. — John Shaw Billings, American surgeon and librarian (born 12 Apr 1838).  |
 | The decisive step in evolution, the first step toward macroevolution, the step from one species to another, requires another evolutionary method than that of sheer accumulation of micromutations. — Richard B. Goldschmidt, German-American zoologist (born 12 Apr 1878). |
 | The oldest picture-book in our possession is the Midnight Sky. — Edward Walter Maunder, English astronomer (born 12 Apr 1851). |
| 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 Safar, born 12 Apr 1924, was an Austrian-American physician whose pioneering procedure of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is credited with saving countless lives. In the 1960s the technique was combined with new chest compressions, producing what is known today as CPR, or cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. What nickname was given to the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation procedure? |
| Deaths | |
 | George Wald (1906-1997) was an American biochemist who received a share of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1967 for his work on the chemistry of vision. While researching the biochemistry of vision at Harvard University, he disclosed the presence of a certain vitamin in the retina of the eye. Which vitamin did Wald find in the retina? |
| Events | |
 | On 12 Apr 1981, the first shuttle was launched into space, to become the first of NASA's series of reusable spacecraft. What was the name of this first shuttle into space? |
 | On 12 Apr 1961, a Russian became the first man to orbit the Earth in a capsule called Vostok 1. What is the name of the first cosmonaut to orbit the Earth? |
 | On 12 Apr 1898, Marie Curie observed a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, where one of her teachers, Prof. Gabriel Lippmann announced her discovery of a substance much more radioactive than uranium. Which element had Curie discovered that was more active than uranium? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for April 11: James Parkinson • Sony • ten • CSM (Command/Service Module) spacecraft name: Odyssey; Mission name: Apollo 13 • the decade including the year 1900.
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