A Breif Overview of Scientific Progress in the Modern Era

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A Brief Overview of Scientific Progress in the Modern Era A group directed by Major Alexeyev of the Bakinskii Corps of Mining Engineers hand-drilled an oil well in the Baku region in 1848. Crawford Williamson Long used ether for the first time on March 30, 1842 to remove a tumor from the neck of a patient, James M. Venable, in Jefferson, Georgia. Long subsequently removed a second tumor from Venable and used ether as an anesthetic in amputations and childbirth. The results of these trials were published in 1849 in The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal. The world's first large refinery opened at Ploiești, Romania, in 1856-1857, with United States investment. The first commercial oil well in Canada became operational in 1858 at Oil Springs, Ontario (then Canada West). Businessman James Miller Williams dug several wells between 1855 and 1858 before discovering a rich reserve of oil four metres below ground. Williams extracted crude oil, refining much of it into kerosene lamp oil. Belgian Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir (1822–1900) produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine similar in appearance to a horizontal double-acting steam engine, with cylinders, pistons, connecting rods, and flywheel in which the gas essentially took the place of the steam. This was the first internal combustion engine to be produced in numbers in 1860. Louis Pasteur's research showed that the growth of micro-organisms was responsible for spoiling beverages. With this established, he invented a process by 1862 in which liquids such as milk were heated to kill most bacteria and moulds. This process was soon afterwards known as pasteurization. In 1855 an Act of Parliament was passed approving the construction of an underground railway between Paddington Station and Farringdon Street via King's Cross. The Great Western Railway (GWR) gave financial backing to the project when it was agreed that a junction would be built linking the underground railway with its mainline terminus at Paddington. The Metropolitan Railway opened on 9 January 1863 and was carrying over 26,000 passengers a day within a few months of opening. In 1864 James Clerk Maxwell of Edinburgh announced his electromagnetic theory of light, which was perhaps the greatest single step in the world's knowledge of electricity. Maxwell had studied and commented on the field of electricity and magnetism as early as 1855/6 when On Faraday's lines of force was read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society. The paper presented a simplified model of Faraday's work, and how the two phenomena were related. He reduced all of the current knowledge into a linked set of differential equations with 20 equations in 20 variables. In 1865, the French engineer Pierre-Émile Martin took out a license from Siemens and first applied his regenerative furnace for making steel. The most appealing characteristic of the Siemens regenerative furnace is the rapid production of large quantities of basic steel, used for example to construct high-rise buildings. The usual size of furnaces is 50 to 100 tons. The Siemens-Martin process complemented rather than Page 1 of 10

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Transcript of A Breif Overview of Scientific Progress in the Modern Era

A Brief Overview of Scientific Progress in the Modern EraA group directed by Major Alexeyev of the Bakinskii orps of Mining Engineers hand!drilled an oil wellin the Baku region in 1848"rawford #illia$son %ong used ether for the first ti$e on March &'( )*+, to re$ove a tu$or fro$ the neck of a patient( -a$es M" .enable( in-efferson( /eorgia" %ong subse0uently re$oved a second tu$or fro$ .enable and used ether as an anesthetic in a$putations and childbirth" 1he results of these trials were published in1849inThe Southern Medical and Surgical Journal"1he world2s firstlarge refineryopenedat Ploie3ti( 4o$ania( in )*56!1857( with 7nited States invest$ent"1hefirst commercial oil wellin anada beca$e operational in1858at Oil Springs( Ontario 8then anada #est9" Business$an -a$es Miller #illia$s dug several wells between )*55 and )*5* before discoveringarichreserve of oil four $etres below ground" #illia$s extracted crude oil( refining $uch of it into kerosene la$p oil"Belgian -ean -oseph Etienne %enoir 8)*,,:);''9 produced agas-fired internal combustion engine si$ilar in appearance to a horiorest2s );'6 GaudionGwasalsodevelopedasaradiodetector( and soon led to the develop$ent of the triode tube" =n 1887( Prof" Aeinrich Aert< in a series of experi$ents provedthe actual existence ofelectric wa$es" 1he discovery of electric waves in space naturally led to the discovery and introduction in the closing years of the );th centuryofwireless telegrahy(various syste$s of which are nowin successful use on shipboard( lighthousesandshoreandinlandstationsthroughout the world( by $eans of which intelligence is trans$itted across the widest oceans and large parts of continents"=n1889(/ottlieb Cai$lerand#ilhel$ Maybachbuilttheirfirst automobilewhich was so$ewhat influencedby bicycle designs" 1here was no production in /er$any( but it was licensed to be built in >ranceandpresentedto the public in Paris in October )**; by both engineers"Aer$an Aollerith invented the recording of data on a medium that could then be read by a machine" Prior uses of $achine readable $edia had been for control( notdata"Afterso$einitialtrialswithpapertape( he settledonunchedcards(developingpunchedcard data processing technology for the 1890 +, census" Ae founded theTabulating Machine Company8)*;69 which was one of four co$panies that $erged to for$ o$puting 1abulating 4ecording o$pany 8149( later rena$ed =BM"=n1891( notableadditions toour knowledgeof the pheno$ena of electro$agnetic fre0uency and high potential current were contributed by Dikola 1esla" A$ongst theno$el e-erimentsperfor$edby1esla was to take in his hand a glass tube fro$ which the air had been exhausted( then bringing his body into contact with a wire carrying currents of high potential( the tube was suffused with a pleasing bright glow" Another experi$ent was tograspabulbthat was suspended fro$ a single wire attached to a high otential. high fre#uencycurrentcircuit( when a platinu$button within the bulb was brought to vivid incandescence( the experi$enter at this ti$e standingonaninsulating platfor$" 1he fre0uency and potential involved in the experi$ents$adeby1eslaat thisti$ewereof the order of one or $ore $illion cycles and volts" =n )*;&( #estinghouse won the bid to electrify the )*;& #orld2s olu$bian Exposition in hicago with alternating current" 1his #orld2s >air devoted a building to electrical exhibits" =t was a key event in the history of /'oweras #estinghouseand1eslade$onstrated thesafetyandreliabilityofalternatingcurrent tothe A$erican public"1he chloralkali rocess is an industrial process for the electrolysis of sodiu$ chloride solution 8brine9" Cependingonthe $ethod( several products besides hydrogen can be produced" =f the products are separated( chlorine and sodiu$hydroxide 8caustic soda9 are the productsF by $ixing( sodiu$ hypochlorite or sodiu$chlorate are produced( dependingonthe te$perature" Aigher te$peratures areneededfor the production of sodiu$ chlorate instead of sodiu$ hypochlorite"0ndustrial scale roductionbegan in 1892"Page & of )'A Brief Overview of Scientific Progress in the Modern EraAugust ?Jhler designed a new $ethod of illu$ination whichusesaperfectlydefocusedimageofthelight sourceto illu$inatethe sa$ple" 1his work was published in189"in the Keitschrift fLr wissenschaftliche 1ikroskoieand was soon followed by publication of an English translation in the -ournal of the 4oyal Microscopical Society" GMber eine neue Art von StrahlenN( was published on ,*Cece$ber)*;5" On5-anuary)*;6( an Austrian newspaper reported#ilhel$ onrad4Jntgen2s discoveryof a newtype of radiation" 4Jntgenwas awarded an honorary Coctor of Medicine degree fro$ the 7niversityof #Lrebruary he took the first radiograph to direct a surgical operation" Ae also took the firstO!ray of the hu$anspine" Aall!Edwards2 interest in O!rays cost hi$ his left ar$( which had to be a$putated in );'* as a conse0uence of O!ray der$atitis =n1897( che$istsworkingat BayerA/produceda syntheticallyalteredversionof salicin( derivedfro$ the species Filipendula ulmaria 8$eadowsweet9( which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid" 1he identity of the lead che$ist on this project is a $atter of controversy" Bayer states the workwas done by >elix Aoff$ann( but the -ewish che$ist Arthur EichengrLn later clai$ed he was the lead investigator andrecordsofhiscontributionwereexpungedunder the Daair9 inParis using peanut oil fuel"=n1901?arl %andsteiner discoveredhumanblood grous" Mixing blood fro$ two inco$patible individualscanleadtoani$$uneresponse( andthe destruction of red blood cells releases free he$oglobin into the bloodstrea$( which can have fatal conse0uences" ?arl%andsteinerdiscoveredthatwhen inco$patible types are $ixed( the red blood cells clu$p( andthat this i$$unological reactionoccurs when the receiver of a blood transfusion has antibodies against the donor blood cells" Ais work $ade it possible to deter$ine blood type and allowed a way for blood transfusions to be carried out $uch $ore safely" >or this discovery he was awarded the Dobel Prile$ing recounted the discovery of enicillinonthe$orningof >riday( Septe$ber ,*( 1928" =t was a fortuitous accidentQ in his laboratory in the base$ent of St" Mary2s Aospital in %ondon( >le$ing noticed a Petri dish containing Staphylococcusplateculturehe$istakenlyleftopen( wasconta$inatedbyblue!green$ould"1herewasa haloofinhibitedbacterial growtharoundthe$ould" >le$ing concluded the $ould released a substance reressingthegrowthandlysingthebacteria" Ae grew a pure culture and discovered it was a %enicillium $ould( now known to be %enicillium notatum" harles 1ho$( an A$erican specialist working at the 7"S" Cepart$ent of Agriculture( was the acknowledged expert( and >le$ing referred the $atter to hi$" >le$ingcoinedtheter$GpenicillinGtodescribethe filtrateof abrothcultureof the%enicillium$ould" Even in these early stages( penicillin was found to be $osteffecti$eagainst )ram-ositi$ebacteria( and ineffective against /ra$!negative organis$s and fungi"=n the autu$n of1929( Aer$ann -ulius Oberth conducted a static firing of his firstli#uid-fueled rocket motor( whichhena$edthe'egeld(se" 1he engine was built in a workshop space provided by the 4eich =nstitution of he$ical 1echnology" Ae was helpedinthisexperi$ent byan)*yearoldstudent #ernher von Braun( who would later beco$e a giant in both/er$anand A$ericanrocket engineeringfro$ the );+'s onward"=n August1929L) *+, -rafZeppelindeparted for a daringenterpriseQ acircumna$igationof theglobe" 1he growing popularity of the Ggiant of the airG $ade it easyforCr" AugoEckenertofindsponsors" Oneof these was the A$erican press tycoon #illia$ 4andolph Aearst"-raf )eppelinflew to >riedrichshafen( then 1okyo( %os Angeles( and back to %akehurst( in ,) days 5 hours and &) $inutes"Page E of )'A Brief Overview of Scientific Progress in the Modern Era=n1929Britishmotor $ehicle roductionwas do$inatedbyMorris8foundedby #illia$Morrisin );)' in Oxford9 and Austin 8founded by Aerbert Austinin%ongbridgein);'5afterheleft #olseley9 which between the$ produced around 6'S of total 7? output" Singer 8oventry $otorcycle $anufacturer startedbuildingcarsin);'59followedinthirdplace that year with )5S of production"=n 19"1the ter$ GSuper o$puting MachineG is used bytheDewRork#orldnewspaper todescribe the ColumbiaDifference Tabulator( a one!of!a!kind special purpose tabulator!based $achine $ade for the olu$bia StatisticalBureau(a $achine so$assive it was nickna$ed GPackardG" Poly8$ethyl $ethacrylate9 is a transparent ther$oplastic( oftenusedasalightweight orshatter!resistant alternative to glass" he$ically( it is the synthetic poly$er of $ethyl $ethacrylate" 1he $aterial was developed in );,* in various laboratories( and was first brought to $arket in 19"" by the 4oh$ and Aaas o$pany( under the trade$ark 8le-iglas"1heBritishwerethefirsttofullyexploitradarasa defence against aircraft attack" 1his was spurred on by fears that the /er$ans were developing death rays" 1he Air Ministry asked British scientists in19"4to investigate the possibility of propagating electro$agnetic energy and the likely effect" >ollowing a study( they concluded thata death ray was imractical but that detection of aircraft aeared feasible" 4obert #atson #att2stea$de$onstratedto hissuperiorsthecapabilitiesof aworkingprototype and then patented the device" =t served as the basis for thehainAo$enetworkof radars todefend/reat Britain"A$pheta$ine was first synthesiired o$bustion Engine )*6, Micro Organis$s( Pasteuriirst 7nderground 4ailway)*6+ Electricity and Magnetis$(,' .ariables and E0uations )*65 4egenerative >urnace( heap Steel )*6E Antiseptic Surgery Cyna$ite )*6; Periodic 1able of the Ele$ents )*E6 Otto =nternal o$bustion Engine)**, S$okeless opper -acketed artridged Bullet )**+ /ra$ Staining Edison Effect )**E Electric #aves( #ireless 1elegraphy )**; Cai$ler!Maybach Auto$obile )*;' Punched ards Cata Storage )*;) 1esla Experi$entsW )*;& hicago #orld >air )*;, =ndustrial hloralkali Process )*;& Cefocused Microscope =llu$ination )*;6 4Jntgen Ciagnostic =$aging )*;E Aspirin );'' Marie urie >aculty Me$ber 4adioactivity Ciesel Engine );') Au$an Blood /roups( 1ransfusions );'& Ditrogen Based >ertiliarbenQManagerial =ndustrial Enterprise );)5 /eneral 4elativity >okker E"= );,) 4CO );,& A$ylobarbitone Anesthetic );,6 Aerodyna$ic 1heoryof 1urbine Cesign( 1urboprop );,E Studio Sound >il$ 7ncertainty Principle #avefunction of an Electron(Spin( Positron );,* Penicillin );,; ?egeldLse Keppelin circu$navigationof the globe Morris( Austin( Singer );&) Packard Cifference 1abulator );&& Plexiglass );&+ Ben