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| NEWSLETTER - NOVEMBER 1 | |
| 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. | |
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| Quotations for Today | |
| "Scientists still do not appear to understand sufficiently that all earth sciences must contribute evidence toward unveiling the state of our planet in earlier times, and that the truth of the matter can only be reached by combing all this evidence. . . It is only by combing the information furnished by all the earth sciences that we can hope to determine 'truth' here, that is to say, to find the picture that sets out all the known facts in the best arrangement and that therefore has the highest degree of probability. Further, we have to be prepared always for the possibility that each new discovery, no matter what science furnishes it, may modify the conclusions we draw." - Alfred Wegener (born 1 Nov 1880) "At the time I was experimenting with ether there were physicians in high authority and of justly distinguished character who were advocates of mesmerism, and recommended the induction of the mesmeric state as adequate to prevent pain in surgical operations. Notwithstanding thus sanctioned, I was an unbeliever in the science, and of the opinion that if the mesmeric state could be produced at all, it was only on "those of strong imaginations and weak minds," and was to be ascribed solely to the workings of the patient's imagination. Entertaining this opinion, I was the more particular in my experiments on etherization." - Crawford W. Long, American physician considered to be the first to use ether anaesthetic in surgery (born 1 Nov 1815) "Energy may be like the Eastern magicians, of whom we read that they had the power for changing themselves into a variety of forms, but were nevertheless very careful not to disappear altogether. . . . It is necessary to penetrate the various disguises that our magician assumes before we can pretend to explain the principles that actuate him in his transformations." - Balfour Stewart, Scottish meteorologist and geophysicist (born 1 Nov 1828) | |
| QUIZ | |
| Births | |
| Sir Hermann Bondi, born 1 Nov 1919, was an Austrian-born British mathematician and cosmologist who, with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold, formulated a theory of the universe (1948) which addressed a crucial problem: "How do the stars continually recede without disappearing altogether?" What is the name of their theory of the universe? | |
| Alfred L. Wegener, born 1 Nov 1880, was a German scientist, meteorologist, geophysicist; formulated the first complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis. He presented evidence that about 250 million years ago all the present-day continents had formed a single supercontinent which had subsequently broken away and drifted apart. He was also interested in paleoclimatology, and took part in several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation since 1906. He died during his fourth expedition What was this supercontinent called? | |
| Deaths | |
| Victor Mills (1897-1997) was an American chemical engineer who joined Proctor& Gamble company in 1926, and soon after developed a continuous process to superheat the liquid soap and spray it in concentrated form through an extruder producing bars of Ivory soap. That cut the production time from seven days to just a couple of hours. Another of his famous inventions was a product created to utilize the clean, absorbent paper available from a pulp mill acquired by the company. What was the product? | |
| Events | |
| On 1 Nov of a certain year, the first United States test of a thermonuclear device, a hydrogen bomb dubbed "Mike," was exploded at Eniwetok Atholl in the Pacific, 3,000 miles west of Hawaii. It exploded with a blinding white fireball more than three miles across, completely obliterating Elugelab, leaving an underwater crater a 6240-ft wide and 164-ft deep in the atoll where an island had once been. In what decade was this test made? | |
| On 1 Nov 1923, an American company bought the rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles. Can you name this company? | |
| Answers | |
| When you have your answers ready to all the questions above, you'll find all the information to check them, and more, on the November 1 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. | |
| Fast answers for the previous newsletter for October 31: partial vacuum, carbon filament incandescent lamp; the spiral shape of objects - previously seen as only clouds - which were much later identified as galaxies; the decade containing the year 1992; the flame of the safety lamp is surrounded by a fine metal gauze cylinder. The wire absorbs or conducts away the heat of the flame inside so it does not explode gas outside the lamp. | |
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