1911 in science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The year 1911 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
- June 28 â The Nakhla meteorite (from Mars) lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.[1] It suggests the first signs of water on Mars.
Conservation
- May 19 â Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, is established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior.
- July 7 â The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and Japan, meeting in Washington, D.C., sign the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911, prohibiting open-water seal hunting of the endangered fur seal in the North Pacific Ocean,[2] the first international treaty to address wildlife conservation issues. In the next six years, the seal population increases by 30%.[3]
Geology
- January 3 â 1911 Kebin earthquake: An earthquake of 7.7 moment magnitude strikes near Almaty in Russian Turkestan.[4]
Exploration
- July 24 â American explorer Hiram Bingham III rediscovers the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, Peru, and introduces it to the world.
- December 14 â Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and a team of four become the first people to reach the South Pole.
Mathematics
- Robert Remak's doctoral dissertation Ãber die Zerlegung der endlichen Gruppen in indirekte unzerlegbare Faktoren establishes that any two decompositions of a finite group into a direct product are related by a central automorphism.
- Traian Lalescu publishes Introduction to the Theory of Integral Equations, the first ever monograph on the subject of integral equations.
Medicine
- Eugen Bleuler expands on his definition of schizophrenia as a condition distinct from Dementia praecox, in Dementia Praecox oder Gruppe der Schizophrenien.[5][6][7]
Physics
- April 8 â Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers the phenomenon of superconductivity.[8]
- June 24â30 â Domenico Pacini runs a series of measurements of underwater ionization in the Gulf of Genoa, demonstrating that the radiation later recognised as cosmic rays cannot be originated by the Earth's crust.
- October â The first Solvay Congress of physicists convenes.
- Ernest Rutherford explains the GeigerâMarsden experiment and derives the Rutherford cross section by deducing the existence of a compact atomic nucleus from scattering experiments. He proposes the Rutherford model of the atom and demonstrates that J. J. Thomson's plum pudding model is incorrect.
- Charles Wilson finishes a sophisticated cloud chamber.
Psychology
- The Ponzo illusion, a geometrical-optical illusion, is first demonstrated by Italian psychologist Mario Ponzo.[9]
Technology
- January 18 â Eugene Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, the first aircraft landing on a ship.
- June 5 â Charles F. Kettering files a United States patent for an electric starter motor.[10]
- November 4 â MS Selandia, the first large ocean-going diesel ship, is launched in Denmark; Ivar Knudsen is the diesel engineer. The 1909-launched Dutch diesel tanker Vulcanus also enters service this year.
- John Joseph Rawlings files a United Kingdom patent for a wall plug.[11]
- The Lewis automatic light machine gun is invented by United States Army Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis, based on initial work by Samuel Maclean.[12]
Other events
- MarchâMay â A serialized version of Frederick Winslow Taylor's monograph The Principles of Scientific Management[13] appears in The American Magazine, boosting the efficiency movement.
Awards
Births
- January 26 â Polykarp Kusch (died 1993), German-born molecular physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- February 14 â Willem Johan Kolff (died 2009), Dutch inventor of hemodialysis.
- March 26 â Bernard Katz (died 2003), German-born biophysicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- April 3 â Michael Woodruff (died 2001), English pioneer of organ transplant surgery.
- April 6 â Feodor Lynen (died 1979), German biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- April 8 â Melvin Calvin (died 1997), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- April 16 â William T. Stearn (died 2001), English botanist.
- April 18 â Maurice Goldhaber (died 2011), Austrian-born American physicist.
- May 22 â Anatol Rapoport (died 2007), Russian-born mathematical psychologist.
- June 13 â Luis Alvarez (died 1988), American experimental physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- June 25 â William Howard Stein (died 1980), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- July 3 â Herbert E. Grier (died 1999), American electrical engineer.
- July 4 â Frederick Seitz (died 2008), American solid-state physicist.
- July 5 â Emil L. Smith (died 2009), American biochemist studying protein structure and function and biochemical evolution.
- July 9 â John A. Wheeler (died 2008), American theoretical physicist.
- August 9 â William A. Fowler (died 1995), American nuclear and astrophysicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- August 29 â John Charnley (died 1982), English orthopaedic surgeon.
- September 29 â R. V. Jones (died 1997), English physicist, expert in electronic military defence.
- October 5 â Pierre Dansereau (died 2011), French Canadian ecologist.
- November 27 â Fe del Mundo (died 2011), Filipino pediatrician and National Scientist of the Philippines.
- December 14 â Hans von Ohain (died 1998), German aeronautical engineer.
- December 23 â Niels Kaj Jerne (died 1994), English-born Danish immunologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Deaths
- January 17 â Sir Francis Galton (born 1822), English explorer and biologist.
- February 15 â Theodor Escherich (born 1857), German-born pediatric bacteriologist.
- March 1 â Jacobus van 't Hoff (born 1852), Dutch chemist.
- May 21 â Williamina Fleming (born 1857), American astronomer.[15]
- May 24 â Ernst Remak (born 1849), German neurologist.
- June 26 â Signe Häggman (born 1863), Finnish pioneer of physical education of disabled people.
- December 2 â George Davidson (born 1825), English-born geodesist, astronomer, geographer, surveyor and engineer in the United States.
- December 10 â Joseph Dalton Hooker (born 1817), English botanist.
- December 13 (O.S. November 30) â Nikolay Beketov (born 1827), Russian chemist.