TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 28 JULY
On 28 Jul 1861, Major Henry B. Hersey was born, an American meteorologist and balloonist. He was an Inspector in the U.S. Weather Bureau and participated in the first international balloon race. Clearly, his knowledge of atmospheric temperatures and currents gained from his vocation, was a great asset to his avocation.
You know by now that your Webmaster really enjoys first-person narratives from history, and hopes you do also. Hersey wrote an article, in Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (1908) which is a good opportunity to vicariously participate in the infancy of ballooning in American in the early 19th century. Here, you can read his thoughts in his own words, of his own Experiences in the Sky, as he writes about the dangers, failures, thrills and successes involved. It is illustrated by the original several drawings and photographs with the article.
Enjoy!
On 28 Jul 1840, Edward Drinker Cope was born, 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. Today's book pick is: , by .
Cope was a keenly intellectual, energetic, and argumentative naturalist, who soared to international prominence. He was among the last of the great school of late 19th century naturalists who studied almost everything, excelling in the study of reptiles, amphibians, and fish, fossil and modern alike. Here, the author has critically looked into Cope, the man, more than any other previous biographer. Cope was internationally acclaimed for his scientific work, yet lost his fortune in bad mining ventures. Though he remained a complex, fierce-minded man, the author also shows him to have another side as a very human, personable, self-assured, and brilliant man.
It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | There is no form of prose more difficult to understand and more tedious to read than the average scientific paper. — Francis Crick, English biochemist and biophysicist (died 28 Jul 2004).  |
 | It’s almost a sort of fairy story tale, just what a novelist would write about a discovery. [Describing how the original idea on the principle of the maser came to him.] — Charles Townes, American physicist (born 28 Jul 1915). |
 | Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite. — Karl Raimund Popper, Austrian-British philosopher of science (born 28 Jul 1902). |
| 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 | |
 | Jacques Piccard, born 28 Jul 1922, was a Swiss oceanic engineer who helped his father, Auguste Piccard, build the bathyscaphe for deep-sea exploration. In 1960, he made the deepest ocean dive. What depth was reached in the ocean in 1960? |
 | Earl Tupper, born 28 Jul 1907, was the American inventor of a flexible, lightweight material that was used to make plastic gas masks during World War II. He then turned his attention to its use in consumer products. What consumer product did he invent? |
| Deaths | |
 | Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996) was an American naturalist, author, conservationist, and wildlife artist whose field books did much in the United States and Europe to stimulate public interest. What animals were the object of his study? |
 | On 28 Jul 1968, Otto Hahn died, the German physical chemist who, with Fritz Strassmann, is credited with a discovery for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944. What was this discovery? |
| Events | |
 | In 1863, in consequence of the injury to vegetation produced by the alkali works in the English counties of Lancashire and Cheshire, the Alkali Works Act was passed “for the more effectual condensation (95 per cent) of muriatic acid gas,” a byproduct of the manufacturing process. By what name is this acid now known? |
 | On 28 Iul 1977, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline reached full operation as the first oil arrived at Valdez Marine Terminal. It had left Prudhoe Bay on 20 Jun 1977. By 1 Aug 1977, the first tanker loaded with North Slope oil left the Port of Valdez. To the nearest hundred miles, how long is the Trans-Alaska Pipeline? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for July 27: haemin • lead • meteorology • insulin • the decade including the year 1888 • Atlantic Ocean.
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