1912 in science

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The year 1912 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Contents 1 Biology 2 Chemistry 3 Exploration 4 Geology 5 History of science 6 Mathematics 7 Medicine 8 Metallurgy 9 Meteorology 10 Paleontology 11 Physics 12 Psychology 13 Technology 14 Other events 15 Awards 16 Births 17 Deaths 18 References

Biology

• July 23 – Horace Donisthorpe first discovers Anergates atratulus in the New Forest, England.

Chemistry

• Peter Debye derives the T-cubed law for the low temperature heat capacity of a nonmetallic solid.
• Casimir Funk introduces the concept of vitamins.^[1]
• Frans, a German chemist working for Griesheim-Elektron, patents a means of producing vinyl chloride from acetylene and hydrogen chloride using mercuric chloride as a catalyst.
• Fritz Klatte discovers polyvinyl acetate, and applies for a patent for its preparation from acetylene gas^[2] although it is not successfully commercialized at this time.
• Wilbur Scoville devises the Scoville scale for measuring the heat of peppers.

Exploration

• January 17 – British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four reach the South Pole to find that Amundsen has beaten them to it. They will die on the return journey (March 16–29).^[3]
• March 7 – Roald Amundsen announces in Hobart that his expedition reached the South Pole on last December 14.

Geology

• January – Alfred Wegener proposes a fully formulated theory of continental drift.^[4][5]

History of science

• Isis, the journal of the history of science, is founded in Ghent by George Sarton.
• Georgius Agricola's De re metallica (1556) is first published in an English translation, made by Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover, in London.
• Voynich manuscript discovered.

Mathematics

• Publication of the 2nd volume of Principia Mathematica by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.
• Karl F. Sundman solves the n-body problem for n=3.

Medicine

• Harvey Cushing identifies Cushing's disease, caused by a malfunction of the pituitary gland.

Metallurgy

• Krupp engineers Benno Strauss and Eduard Maurer patent austenitic stainless steel (October 17)^[6] and Elwood Haynes (in the United States) and Harry Brearley (of Brown-Firth in Sheffield, England) independently discover martensitic stainless steel alloys.^[7][8]

Meteorology

• April 5 – Milutin Milanković’s Contribution to the mathematical theory of climate, his first work in this field, is published in Belgrade.

Paleontology

• December 18 – Skull of "Piltdown Man" presented to the Geological Society of London as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown form of early human. It is revealed to be a hoax in 1953.^[3]

Physics

• Victor Hess discovers that the ionization of air increases with altitude, indicating the existence of cosmic radiation.
• Max von Laue suggests using crystal lattices to diffract X-rays.
• Walter Friedrich and Paul Knipping diffract X-rays in zinc blende.

Psychology

• Carl Jung publishes Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (Psychology of the Unconscious).
• Sabina Spielrein delivers her paper on "Destruction as the Cause of Coming Into Being" to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.

Technology

• April 14–15 – RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg and sinks on her maiden voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States.^[3][9]
• The British Royal Navy introduces the director ship gun fire-control system using the Dreyer Table, a mechanical analogue computer.^[10]

Other events

• Conférence internationale de l'heure radiotélégraphique.

Awards

• Nobel Prize
  • Physics – Nils Gustaf Dalén
  • Chemistry – Victor Grignard; Paul Sabatier
  • Medicine – Alexis Carrel

Births

• January 21 – Konrad Emil Bloch (d. 2000), German-born biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• January 27 – Francis Rogallo (d. 2009), American aeronautical engineer.
• January 30 – Werner Hartmann (d. 1988), German physicist.
• March 1 – Boris Chertok (d. 2011), Russian rocket designer.
• March 23 – Wernher von Braun (d. 1977), German-born physicist and engineer.
• April 19 – Glenn T. Seaborg (d. 1999), American physical chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• May 22 – Herbert C. Brown (d. 2004), English-born chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• May 30 – Julius Axelrod (d. 2004), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• June 23 – Alan Turing (d. 1954), English computer scientist.
• June 30 – Ludwig Bölkow (d. 2003), German aeronautical engineer.
• August 11 – Norman Levinson (d. 1975), American mathematician.
• August 13 – Salvador Luria (d. 1991), Italian-born biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• August 30 – Edward Mills Purcell (d. 1997), American physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• September 7 – David Packard (d. 1996), American electronics engineer.
• September 22 – Herbert Mataré (d. 2011), German physicist.
• October 1 – Kathleen Ollerenshaw, English mathematician.
• November 14 – Tung-Yen Lin (d. 2003), Chinese-born civil engineer.
• November 19 – George Emil Palade (d. 2008), Romanian-born microbiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Deaths

• February 10 – Joseph Lister (b. 1827), British inventor of antiseptic.
• February 12 – Osborne Reynolds (b. 1842), British physicist.
• March 29
  • Robert Falcon Scott (b. 1868), English Antarctic explorer.
  • Edward Wilson (b. 1872), English physician and naturalist.
• May 30 – Wilbur Wright (b. 1867), American aviation pioneer.
• July 17 – Henri Poincaré (b. 1854), French mathematician.
• August 7 – François-Alphonse Forel (b. 1841), Swiss pioneer of limnology.

References