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Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and the Mount Blanc

Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and the Mount Blanc

Tabea Tietz
On August 3, 1787, Swiss physicist and Alpine traveller Horace-Bénédict de Saussure made the third ascent of the Mount Blanc and determined via scientific measurement Mont Blanc to be the highest mountain in Europe. Horace-Benédict de Saussure – Growing Up in the Alps Horace Bénédicte de Saussure was born on February 17, 1740 near Geneva, Switzerland. Saussure received encouragement from his father, Nicolas de Saussure, his uncle Charles Bonnet, the naturalist and poet Albrecht von Haller and…
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engineering
The Tower Subway – the World’s First Tube Railway

The Tower Subway – the World’s First Tube Railway

Tabea Tietz
On August 2, 1870, the Tower Subway, the first tube railway in the world, was opened under the River Thames in London, England. Engineer James Henry Greathead used a tunnelling shield he modified from Barlow’s design to bore the 6-ft diameter tunnel near the Tower of London. It opened with steam operated lifts and a 12-seat carriage shuttled from end to end by wire rope powered by a steam engine. The Idea of an…
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biology
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and the Evolution

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and the Evolution

Harald Sack
On August 1, 1744, French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was born. Lamarck was an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws. He gave the term biology a broader meaning by coining the term for special sciences, chemistry, meteorology, geology, and botany-zoology. “Do we not therefore perceive that by the action of the laws of organization . . . nature has in favorable times, places, and climates multiplied…
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literature
Primo Levi and the Best Science Book ever Written

Primo Levi and the Best Science Book ever Written

Harald Sack
On July 31, 1919, Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi was born. As a writer, he is noted for his restrained and moving autobiographical account of and reflections on survival in the Nazi concentration camps. His book The Periodic Table, a collection of short stories published in 1975, and named after the periodic table in chemistry, was named it the best science book ever by the Royal Institution of…
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engineering
Vladimir Zworykin and the Invention of Television

Vladimir Zworykin and the Invention of Television

Tabea Tietz
On July 30, 1888, Russian inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology Vladimir Zworykin was born. Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes. He played a role in the practical development of television from the early thirties, including charge storage-type tubes, infrared image tubes and the electron microscope. Vladimir Zworykin – Youth in Russia Vladimir Kosmich Zworykin was born in Murom, Russia, the son of Kosma A. Zworykin, a wealthy businessman,…
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physics
Isidor Isaac Rabi and the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Isidor Isaac Rabi and the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Tabea Tietz
On July 29, 1898, Polish-born American physicist and Nobel laureate Isidor Isaac Rabi was born. He is best known for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance imaging. He was also involved in the development of the cavity magnetron, which is used in microwave radar and microwave ovens. “My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child…
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geography
John Speed and his Atlas of the British Isles

John Speed and his Atlas of the British Isles

Harald Sack
On July 28, 1629, English cartographer and historian John Speed passed away. He is considered the most famous of English map-makers. His best-known work is a landmark: the first atlas of the British Isles, the Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (1612), which was reprinted for well over a century after his death. Framed productions of maps from his atlas remain popular to hang in homes. John Speed – “An Ambitious,…
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biology
Thomas Say – the Father of American Descriptive Entomology and American conchology

Thomas Say – the Father of American Descriptive Entomology and American conchology

Tabea Tietz
On July 27, 1787, American self-taught naturalist, entomologist, malacologist, herpetologist and carcinologist Thomas Say was born. A taxonomist, he is widely considered the father of descriptive entomology in the United States. Thomas Say – Early Years Thomas Say was the great-grandson of the co-founder of the American Philosophical Society, John Bartram (1699-1777), and the great-nephew of William Bartram (1739-1823). The whole family consisted of members of a Quaker sect. Say’s statement that he belonged…
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war/crime
The Last Victim of the Spanish Inquisition

The Last Victim of the Spanish Inquisition

Harald Sack
On July 26, 1826, Cayetano Ripoll, a schoolmaster in Valencia, Spain, teaching deist principles should become the last victim executed by the Spanish inquisition. Ripoll has the dubious honor of being the last of the many people known to have been executed under sentence from a Church authority for having committed the act of heresy. For almost 350 years the Spanish inquisition tried to secure the primacy of the Catholic Church in…
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engineering
Thomas Tompion – the Father of English Clockmaking

Thomas Tompion – the Father of English Clockmaking

Tabea Tietz
On July 25, 1639, English clock maker, watchmaker and mechanician Thomas Tompion was baptized. He is still regarded to this day as the Father of English Clockmaking. Tompion’s work includes some of the most historic and important clocks and watches in the World. The Son of a Blacksmith Thomas Tompion was born in Northill, Bedfordshire, England, the son of a blacksmith and became an an apprentice of a London clockmaker around 1664.Very…
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