science newsletter: Newsletter for Tuesday 26 March

Newsletter - March 26 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 26 MARCH

Feature for Today

On 26 Mar 1753, Benjamin Thompson was born in colonial America, later to become known as Count Rumford. Today's feature is a chapter from Leading American Men of Science (1910). That he should have a presence in a book of that title is ironic, because he was a soldier of fortune, served in the British army during the time of the American revolution, and fled to England after the fall of Boston.

For science in Britain, that was fortunate, for Rumford was, according to this biography, "another Franklin." He was an inventive and dilligent scientist, who assisted Joseph Banks in the founding of the Royal Institution in London.

But, judge him for yourself after, reading this substantial feature on Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford.

Book of the Day

On 26 Mar 1753, Count Rumford was born, the American-British physicist whose investigations of heat established the beginnings of modern theory that heat is a form of motion. He invented a double boiler, a kitchen stove and a coffee pot for the daily comfort of mankind. Today's Science Store pick is told in his own writings: Count Rumford on the Nature of Heat, by Benjamin Rumford. By his experiments, he overthrew the theories as to the nature of heat, which had been taken for granted by natural philosophers from the time of Aristotle. The experiments were conducted on a scale unexampled at the time, and by reasonings, founded on these experiments, Rumford established a landmark in the history of the theory. Available Used from $35.00 (as of time of writing).

Yesterday's pick: A Victorian Scientist and Engineer: Fleeming Jenkin and the Birth of Electrical Engineering, by Colin Hempstead and Gillian Cookson.
For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"Every human activity, good or bad, except mathematics, must come to an end." - Paul Erdös, Hungarian mathematician (born 26 Mar 1913)
	"A conceptual scheme is never discarded merely because of a few stubborn facts with which it cannot be reconciled; a conceptual scheme is either modified or replaced by a better one, never abandoned with nothing left to take its place." - James B. Conant, American chemist and educator (born 26 Mar 1893)
	"We are now witnessing, after the slow fermentation of fifty years, a concentration of technical power aimed at the essential determinants of heredity, development and disease. This concentration is made possible by the common function of nucleic acids as the molecular midwife of all reproductive particles. Indeed it is the nucleic acids which, in spite of their chemical obscurity, are giving to biology a unity which has so far been lacking, a chemical unity." - Cyril Dean Darlington, English botanist and geneticist (died 26 Mar 1981)

QUIZ
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
	Benjamin Thompson Rumford, born 26 Mar 1753, was an American-born British physicist whose investigations of heat overturned the prevailing theory and established the beginnings of the modern theory that heat is a form of motion. (He invented a double boiler, a kitchen stove and a drip coffee pot.) *What was the theory of heat Rumford replaced?*
Deaths
	Fred L. Maytag (1857-1937) started a farm implement company in Newton, Iowa, with three other men in 1893. Sales of their products experienced seasonal slumps, so in 1907, the company started to built a sideline product for sale outside of the farm implement line. *What was the sideline product Maytag's company introduced in 1907?*
	Henry Martyn Leland (1843-1932) founded a company to build an automobile on 22 Aug 1902, the first automobile with high-precision, fully-interchangable parts. Even though he eventually sold the business to another automobile manufacturer, the brand name of Leland's car remains on current product line. *What was the sideline product Maytag's company introduced in 1907?*
Events
	On 26 Mar 1994, a picture was released of a newly-discovered moon named Dactyl. It was imaged by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, on 28 Aug 1993. As a moon, Dactyl was the first of its kind. *What is extraordinary about this moon?*
	On 26 Mar 1953, a new vaccine to immunize people against polio was announced. What is the name of the researcher who developed this new polio vaccine?

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 March 26 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for March 25: The planet Jupiter; agricultural technological advance to improve crop yields that promised to alleviate world hunger; coal-tar oil; the decade including the year 1954; Pierre and Marie Curie.

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