Newsletter for Saturday 26 October

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY NEWSLETTER - 26 OCTOBER

Book of the Day

On 26 Oct 1948, a killer smog blanketed Donora, Pennsylvania, caused by fluoride-laden fumes from the local smelting plant. It resulting in 20 immediate deaths and a legacy of illness and mortality for the rest of the community. It remains the worst recorded industrial air pollution accident in US history. The tragedy shocked the nation and changed attitudes towards industrial pollution. Today's Science Store pick is: Pennsylvania Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival (Disasters Series), by Karen Ivory, who dramatically recalls Donora's toxic smog, among twenty-two disasters from over two centuries of Pennsylvania history. This suspenseful collection of stories includes the Johnsontown flood, an underground inferno, the worst commercial nuclear power plant accident and the Flight 93 crash of 9/11. It is available New from $3.99. Used from $2.93. (As of time of writing.). For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science History Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	The history of mathematics, as of any science, is to some extent the story of the continual replacement of one set of misconceptions by another. This is of course no cause for despair, for the newly instated assumptions very often possess the merit of being closer approximations to truth than those that they replace. - Frank C. DeSua, American mathematician (born 26 Oct 1921).
	There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions. - Charles Proteus Steinmetz, German-American electrical engineer and inventor (died 26 Oct 1923).
	It may be unpopular and out-of-date to say�but I do not think that a scientific result which gives us a better understanding of the world and makes it more harmonious in our eyes should be held in lower esteem than, say, an invention which reduces the cost of paving roads, or improves household plumbing. - Alfred Tarski, Polish-American mathematician and logician (died 26 Oct 1983).

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
	Giovanni Maria Lancisi, born 26 Oct, was an Italian clinician and anatomist, personal physician to three popes, who is considered the first modern hygienist. He obtained his M.D., a month before age 18 years. About two decades later, having examined the causes of sudden deaths, he published De motu cordis mortibus, on the problems of cardiac pathology. A decade after that, he identified malaria as being transmitted by flies, and not due to “bad air.” In what century was he born? (i.e. in which century was the carrier of malaria understood?)
Deaths
	A Russian-born U.S. pioneer in aircraft design (1889-1972) is best known for his successful development of the helicopter. He also produced the first multi-engine airplane, the four-engined “The Grand.” This revolutionary aircraft featured such things as an enclosed cabin. a lavatory, upholstered chairs and an exterior catwalk atop the fuselage so passengers could take a turn about in the air. Can you name this man?
	Charles Steinmetz (1865-1923) was an German-American electrical engineer and inventor who was responsible for the expansion of the electric power industry in the U.S. His mathematical analyses of alternating current systems helped establish them as the preferred form of electrical energy. In 1893, he joined a newly organized company as an engineer and then consultant until his death. What is the company where Steinmetz spent most of his career?
Events
	On 26 Oct 1948, a killing smog blanketed the small town of Donora, Pennsylvania, in the U.S.. The people of that working class community went to bed not knowing that a suffocating cloud of industrial gases would descend upon them during the night. The cloud, a poisonous mix of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and metal dust, came from the smokestacks of the local smelter where most of the town worked. Over the next five days, twenty residents died and half the town's population were hospitalized. What metal was produced by the smelting plant outside Donora?

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 October 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 October 25: 10 year cycle • Evangelista Torricelli • the decade containing the year 1955 • Iapetus.

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