1901 in science
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The year 1901 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Contents |
[edit] Biology
- Okapi, a relative of the Giraffe found in the rainforests around the Congo River in north east Zaire, is discovered (previously known only to local natives).
[edit] Chemistry
- May 27 - The Edison Storage Battery Company is founded in New Jersey.
- Europium is discovered by Eugène-Anatole Demarçay.
[edit] Computing
- December 13 (20:45:52) - Retrospectively, this becomes the earliest date representable with a signed 32-bit integer on digital computer systems that reference time in seconds since the Unix epoch.
[edit] Exploration
- August 6 - Discovery Expedition: Robert Falcon Scott sets sail on the RRS Discovery to explore the Ross Sea in Antarctica.
[edit] History of Science
- September 25 - Establishment of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, the world's first history of science society.[1]
[edit] Mathematics
- May/June - Russell's paradox: Bertrand Russell shows that Georg Cantor's naive set theory leads to a contradiction.[2]
- Élie Cartan develops the exterior derivative.
- Leonard Eugene Dickson publishes Linear groups with an exposition of the Galois field theory in Leipzig, advancing the classification of finite simple groups and listing almost all non-abelian simple groups having order less than one billion.[3]
- Aleksandr Lyapunov proves the central limit theorem rigorously using characteristic functions.[4]
[edit] Paleontology
- Publication begins of A Monograph of British Graptolites by Gertrude L. Elles and Dr Ethel M. R. Wood, edited by Charles Lapworth.
[edit] Photography
- Eastman Kodak introduce the 120 film.
[edit] Physics
- Albert Einstein publishes his conclusions on capillarity.[5]
- Owen Richardson describes the phenomenon in thermionic emission which gives rise to Richardson's Law.[6]
- Ivan Yarkovsky describes the Yarkovsky effect, a thermal force acting on rotating bodies in space, in a pamphlet on "The density of light ether and the resistance it offers to motion" published in Bryansk.[7]
- December 12 - Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland, the letter "S" in Morse.[8]
[edit] Physiology and medicine
- November 25 - Auguste Deter is first examined by Dr Alois Alzheimer in Frankfort leading to a diagnosis of the condition that will carry his name.[9]
- Epinephrine is rediscovered by Jokichi Takamine, who names it adrenaline.
- Ivan Pavlov develops the theory of the "conditional reflex".[10]
- Georg Kelling of Dresden performs the first "coelioscopy" (laparoscopic surgery), on a dog.[11]
- William C. Gorgas controls the spread of yellow fever in Cuba by a mosquito eradication program.[12]
[edit] Technology
- August 30 - Hubert Cecil Booth patents the electrically powered vacuum cleaner in the U.K.[13]
- November 30 - Frank Hornby of Liverpool is granted a U.K. patent for the construction toy that will become Meccano.[14]
- December 3 - King C. Gillette files a U.S. patent application for his design of safety razor utilizing thin, disposable blades of stamped steel.[15]
- Ernest Godward invents the spiral hairpin in New Zealand.
[edit] Publications
- H. G. Wells' "scientific romance" The First Men in the Moon and his collected articles on futurology Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought.
[edit] Awards
- First Nobel Prizes awarded
- Wollaston Medal for Geology - Charles Barrois
[edit] Births
- January 14 - Alfred Tarski (d. 1983), Polish Jewish logician and mathematician.
- February 28 - Linus Pauling (d. 1994), American chemist, Nobel Prize winner for chemistry and peace.
- August 10 - Franco Rasetti (d. 2001), Italian physicist.
- September 29 - Enrico Fermi (d. 1954), Italian physicist.
- December 5 - Werner Heisenberg (d. 1976), German theoretical physicist.
- December 16 - Margaret Mead (d. 1978), American cultural anthropologist.
- December 20 - Robert J. Van de Graaff (d. 1967), American physicist.
[edit] Deaths
- January 21 - Elisha Gray (b. 1835), American electrical engineer.
- February 22 - George FitzGerald (b. 1851), Irish mathematician.
[edit] References
- ^ "DGGMNT". http://www.dggmnt.de/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=215. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
- ^ Griffin, N. (2004). "The Prehistory of Russell's Paradox". In Link, Godehard (ed). One Hundred Years of Russell's Paradox: mathematics, logic, philosophy. p. 350. ISBN 9783110174380. http://books.google.com/?id=Xg6QpedPpcsC&pg=PA350.
- ^ Parshall, K. H. (1991). "A study in group theory: Leonard Eugene Dickson's Linear groups". Mathematical Intelligencer 13: 7–11.
- ^ Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
- ^ Einstein, A. (1901). "Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen". Annalen der Physik 309 (3): 513–523. Bibcode 1901AnP...309..513E. doi:10.1002/andp.19013090306. http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/annalen/history/einstein-papers/1901_4_513-523.pdf.
- ^ Nobel Foundation (1928). "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1928: Owen Willans Richardson". Nobelprize.org. http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1928/richardson-bio.html. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
- ^ Beekman, George. "The nearly forgotten scientist Ivan Osipovich Yarkovsky". Journal of the British Astronomical Association 115 (4): 207–212. Bibcode 2005JBAA..115..207B. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2005JBAA..115..207B. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
- ^ Bussey, Gordon (2000). Marconi's Atlantic Leap. Coventry: Marconi. ISBN 0-9538967-0-6.
- ^ "Alois Alzheimer". Whonamedit?. http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/177.html. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
- ^ Todes, Daniel Philip (2002). Pavlov's Physiology Factory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 232 et seq. ISBN 0801866901.
- ^ Schollmeyer, Thoralf et al. (November 2007). "Georg Kelling (1866-1945): the root of modern day minimal invasive surgery. A forgotten legend?". Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics 276 (5): 505–9. http://www.springerlink.com/content/f73114kw12533111/fulltext.pdf. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ Porter, Roy (1997). The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: a medical history of humanity from antiquity to the present. London: HarperCollins. p. 474. ISBN 0-00-215173-1.
- ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ "Hornby's 1901 patent". http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB190100587&F=0. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
- ^ US 775134 "Razor"
