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Tabea Tietz

geology
Sir Edward Sabine and the Earth’s Magnetic Field

Sir Edward Sabine and the Earth’s Magnetic Field

Tabea Tietz
On October 14, 1788, Irish astronomer, geophysicist, ornithologist, explorer, soldier and the 30th President of the Royal Society Sir Edward Sabine was born. His aim was to study the shape of the Earth and its magnetic field. He led the effort to establish a system of magnetic observatories in various parts of British territory all over the globe, and much of his life was devoted to their direction, and to analyzing their…
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geography
The Origins of the Greenwich Prime Meridian

The Origins of the Greenwich Prime Meridian

Tabea Tietz
On October 13, 1884, Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian, dividing the Earth into the Eastern and the Western hemisphere. At the International Meridian Conference held in Washington, D.C., 22 countries voted to adopt the Greenwich meridian as the prime meridian of the world. The French argued for a neutral line, mentioning the Azores and the Bering Strait but eventually abstained and continued to use the Paris meridian until 1911. The British Meridian Before…
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explorer
The Northern Expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen

The Northern Expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen

Tabea Tietz
On October 10, 1861, Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen was born. Nansen led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, cross-country skiing on the island, and won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude of 86°14′ during his North Pole expedition of 1893–96. Although he retired from exploration after his return to Norway, his techniques of polar travel…
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physics
Karl Schwarzschild and the Event Horizon

Karl Schwarzschild and the Event Horizon

Tabea Tietz
On October 9, 1873, German physicist and astronomer Karl Schwarzschild was born. He provided the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity, for the limited case of a single spherical non-rotating mass, which he accomplished in 1915, the same year that Albert Einstein first introduced general relativity. The Schwarzschild solution leads to a derivation of the Schwarzschild radius, which is the size of the event horizon of a…
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engineering
Karl Nessler and the Invention of Permanent Waves

Karl Nessler and the Invention of Permanent Waves

Tabea Tietz
On October 8, 1906, German inventor Karl Ludwig Nessler presented his newly invented apparatus to produce permanent waves in his hairdresser salon in Oxford Street, London. Karl Nessler Education and Training Karl Nessler was the son of the shoemaker Bartholomäus Nessler and his wife Rosina (née Laitner) from the Black Forest town of Todtnau below the Feldberg. The idea for the permanent wave allegedly came to him already in his youth. It…
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space
Luna 3 and the First Picture of the Far Side of the Moon

Luna 3 and the First Picture of the Far Side of the Moon

Tabea Tietz
On October 7, 1959, Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 for the very first time photographed the far side of the Moon. Though it returned rather poor pictures by later standards, the historic, never-before-seen views of the far side of the Moon caused excitement and interest when they were published around the world, and a tentative Atlas of the Far Side of the Moon was created after image processing improved the pictures. A Cylindric Canister…
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mathematics
Richard Dedekind and the Real Numbers

Richard Dedekind and the Real Numbers

Tabea Tietz
On October 6, 1831, German mathematician Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind was born. He is known for making important contributions to abstract algebra (particularly ring theory), algebraic number theory and the foundations of the real numbers. “Numbers are the free creation of the human mind.” Richard Dedekind Richard Dedekind – Early Years Richard Dedekind, the son of the Braunschweig lawyer and university teacher Julius Dedekind, attended the Martino-Katharineum Braunschweig and studied mathematics at the Collegium…
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aviation
Reaching the Edge of Outer Space – the X-15 Rocket Space Plane

Reaching the Edge of Outer Space – the X-15 Rocket Space Plane

Tabea Tietz
On October 3, 1967, the X-15 rocket plane achieved a world record speed of Mach 6.7, which is 7,274 km/h (4,520 mph or over a mile per second) with U.S. Air Force pilot Pete Knight. As by today, this record still holds for the highest speed ever reached by a manned, powered aircraft. Among the notable pilots of the X-15 was also Neil Armstrong,[4] later a NASA astronaut and first man to set…
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physics
Willy Ley and the German Society for Space Travel

Willy Ley and the German Society for Space Travel

Tabea Tietz
On October 2, 1906, German-American engineer, science writer, spaceflight advocate, and historian of science Willy Ley was born. Ley is known for being one of the first members of the German Society for Space Travel, one of the first group of men to experiment with rockets. Fiercely anti-Nazi, unlike Wernher von Braun, in 1934, he emigrated to the U.S. rather than pursuing military applications of rocketry. In the U.S., he became a popularizer of space…
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engineering
The Waterways of James Brindley

The Waterways of James Brindley

Tabea Tietz
On September 30, 1772, English engineer and pioneer canal builder James Brindley probably passed away. One of the most notable engineers of the 18th century, he is best known for the construction of the first English canal of major economic importance. James Brindley – Early Years James Brindley, was born in 1716 in Tunstead, Derbyshire, the son of a wealthy farming and artisan family. He grew up in the then undeveloped region of…
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