Mad Science: Einstein's Fridge, Dewar's Flask, Mach's Speed, and 362 Other Inventions and Discoveries that Made Our World

748 Pages·2012·3.22 MB·English

by  Randy Alfred

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For the founders of the feast:
Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein Charles Babbage and Ada
Lovelace Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace Henry
David Thoreau and Rachel Carson
And my parents, Eleanore and Pete Alfred, who showed me the
rainbow
Give up your Ptolemy,
Rise up and follow me.
—COPERNICUS, AS GLOSSED
BY NANCY L. STARK
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
AA Amy Ashcroft
AM Alexis Madrigal
AW Angela Watercutter
BK Brandon Keim
BM Betsy Mason
BXC Brian X. Chen
CB Chris Baker
CK Chris Kohler
DC Doug Cornelius
DD Daniel Dumas
DK David Kravets
DS Darryl Siry
DT Dylan Tweney
DV Danielle Venton
EH Evan Hansen
EM Erik Malinowski
EVB Eliot Van Buskirk
HH Hugh Hart
HL Hadley Leggett
JCA John C Abell
JBJ Jason B. Jones
JM Jess McNally
JP Jason Paur
JSL John Scott Lewinski
KB Keith Barry
KS Kerstin Sjödén
KZ Kim Zetter
LG Lisa Grossman
LK Leander Kahney
LW Lewis Wallace
MC Michael Calore
NS Noah Shachtman
PG Priya Ganapati
RA Randy Alfred
RS Ryan Singel
SG Scott Gilbertson
ST Scott Thill
TB Tony Borroz
TL Tony Long
ZR Zach Rosenberg
January 1
1583: First New Year of Gregorian Calendar
The calendar established by Julius Caesar in 45 was running
BCE
ten days behind the real seasons of the year. Easter arrived too
late in spring.
All because the Earth year is about eleven minutes short of 365¼ days. Without
a calendar correction, Easter would eventually have fallen in summer, and
Christmas in the spring. So Pope Gregory XIII appointed a commission. It
proposed eliminating three leap years every four centuries (years ending in 00,
unless divisible by 400). That would prevent further creep of the calendar
against the seasons. But to reset the calendar immediately, ten days had to be
eliminated. The pope decreed the new calendar should start in October 1582.
The day after October 4 would not be October 5, but October 15.
This was just months away. Only Italy, Spain, and Portugal made deadline.
Many people feared their lives were being shortened by ten days. The pious
worried that saints might not listen to prayers that were ten days late. Everyone’s
birthday moved up ten days too, so 365 days would pass between one birthday
and the next. Rents, interest, and wages had to be discounted for that October,
since it now had only twenty-one days.
A mob in Frankfurt rioted against the pope and his mathematicians. France
made the change in December. Parts of the Low Countries jumped from
December 21, 1582, directly to January 1, 1583, skipping Christmas. Most
Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar by 1584. But Europe became
a patchwork of calendars. You could cross a border and go backward or forward
ten days. (Makes the international date line kid stuff.) The Julian calendar (see
here) held on until 1752 in Britain and its colonies, and right through 1918 in
Russia.
As a result, the old Soviet Union used to celebrate its October Revolution in
November.—RA
Also January 1:
1801: Piazzi Discovers Ceres, First Known Asteroid
1845: Telegraph Helps Capture Murderer John Tawel
1915: Aspirin Tablets Replace Powdered Form (see here)
Also Sixteenth Century:
May 4, 1536: C U @ the Piazza (see here)
January 2
1870: Building the Brooklyn Bridge
Construction begins on the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s the first
suspension bridge to use steel—rather than iron—cables.
Conceived in 1867 by famed bridge designer John Augustus Roebling, it was by
far the world’s longest suspension bridge, with a deck that connected Manhattan
and Brooklyn suspended by cables hung from two neo-Gothic towers that
pierced the skyline. Not precisely certain of the strength of his materials,
Roebling designed the bridge to be six times stronger than it had to be. As a fail-
safe, he added straight, diagonal cables to stiffen the superstructure. They make
the bridge not a true suspension bridge (which has just vertical stringers, or
suspender cables, hanging from huge, curved catenary cables) but a hybrid of
suspension and cable-stayed design. That hybrid also gives the steel webwork its
characteristic—and mesmerizing—crisscross appearance.
Roebling died of tetanus in 1869, the result of an injury sustained while
surveying the bridge site. John’s son Washington assumed the title of chief
engineer, but tragedy struck again when he became ill with the bends (severe
decompression sickness) after rapidly exiting one of the bridge’s caissons. It fell
to Washington’s wife, Emily Warren Roebling, to supervise construction of the
bridge. Though never formally trained as an engineer, Emily had studied
alongside her husband and began her own research after he became bedridden.
Historian David McCullough credits Emily with saving the project, and she rode
alongside President Chester Arthur during the ceremonial opening of the bridge,
in May 1883. The Brooklyn Bridge has over the years carried P.T. Barnum’s
elephants, light-rail, and six lanes of automotive traffic, as well as the thousands
of pedestrians who left Lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11,
2001.
But it’s not for sale, no matter what that guy on the corner tells you.—KB