Newsletter for Wednesday 13 November

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY NEWSLETTER - 13 NOVEMBER

Feature for Today

On 13 Nov 1855, a proposal for a tunnel under the English Channel was reported in the New York Daily Times. The idea came from a French engineer, Léopold Favre, who said that within five years Boulogne could be connect by a railway line to Dover. The tunnel would run 18½ miles (30-km) under the Channel, with about 1½ mile (2-km) approaches under the shores at each ends. Excavated at no less than 82-ft (50-m) below the sea bed, the tunnel would be lined with a double arch: one of granite and impermeable cement and an inner arch of thin, iron plates with perforations to reveal even slight leakage. An atmospheric railroad using a compressed air tube would avoid smoke and carry passengers and freight such as coal. Ventilation shafts would rise above the highest water level in islands formed by excavated rock. To sense the enthusiasm to link England and France, almost a century and a half before the Chunnel was actually bored, read the New York Daily Times article “An Underground Alliance—A Tunnel to Connect England and France” from Nov 1855. The Scientific American article published in the same month on “Tunnels and Tunnelling” concluded with a skeptical remark about the reality of the expens involved.

Book of the Day

On 13 Nov 1866, Abraham Flexner was born, a giant in sweeping reform of U.S. medical education. In 1908, Flexner published his first book which was an unrelievedly critical attack on American higher education, railing against excessive lecture mode with little practical training. Ranging from his early, pathbreaking work in experimental primary schools to the founding of the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Abraham Flexner's influence on American education was deep, pervasive, and enduring. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, he worked toward restructuring the nation's medical schools. He left a lasting mark on some of the nation's most renowned schools of medicine. Today's Science Store pick is: Iconoclast: Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning, by Thomas Neville Bonner, who provides the definitive biography of Abraham Flexner. It is available New from $29.79. Used from $16.92. (As of time of writing.). For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science History Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education... no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both. - Abraham Flexner, American educator (born 13 Nov 1866).
	Now comes the reign of iron � and cased sloops are to take the place of wooden ships. - John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren, American inventor (born 13 Nov 1809).

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
	Edward Adelbert Doisy, born 13 Nov 1893, was an American biochemist who shared the 1943 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his isolation and synthesis of a vitamin that encourages blood clotting. In 1936-39 Doisy isolated two forms of the vitamin, (one from lucerne seed and a second from fish meal, in a pure crystalline form), and determined their chemical structures, Which vitamin is this?
Deaths
	Herbert Eugene Ives (1882-1953) was a physicist and inventor of transmission of mechanical video pictures. He directed research into a television process at the AT&T Co. at Bell Laboratories, New York. Live images of Commerce Secretary Hoover were transmitted in the first successful long distance demonstration of television, sent from Washington D.C. to New York, over long distance wires. In which decade was this first long distance demonstration of television made?
Events
	On 13 Nov 1971, Mariner-9 became the first man-made object to orbit another planet. The mission of the unmanned craft was to return photographs mapping 70% of the surface, and to study the planet's thin atmosphere, clouds, and hazes, together with its surface chemistry and seasonal changes. Which planet did Mariner-9 orbit?
	On 13 Nov 1946, the first artificial snow in the U.S. from a natural cloud was produced over Mount Greylock, Mass. An airplane spread snow-inducing material for three miles at a height of 14,000 ft. Although the snow fell an estimated 3,000 feet, it evaporated as it fell through dry air, and never reached the ground. What was the snow-inducing material?

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 13 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. Fast answers for the previous newsletter for November 12: iron • for a gas at constant pressure, its volume is directly proportional to its absolute temperature • Pluto • decade containing the year 1935 • they appeared to come from the same point in the Leo constellation.

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Copyright

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