- 1770 German physicist Thomas Seebeck born; discovered the Seebeck effect (inverse of the Peltier effect) where for a circular metal loop, half of one metal and half of another, if you keep one bimetallic join cooler than the other, electricity flows in the loop; AKA the thermocouple effect.
- 1794 Bavarian musician Theobald Boehm born; invents the modern flute fingering mechanism.
- 1869 French mathematician Élie Cartan born; introduced modern differential forms, wedge products and the exterior derivative; invented spinor theory used in quantum mechanics.
- 1919 American engineer Presper Eckert born; coinventor (with John Mauchly) of the first general-purpose electronic computer, ENIAC.
- 1928 American songwriter Tom Lehrer born; wrote "Be Prepared", "Lobachevsky", "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park", "The Elements", "The Masochism Tango", "Rickety Tickety Tin".
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Today in History: April 9
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
We reserve the right to delete comments, but the failure to delete any particular comment should not be interpreted as an endorsement thereof.
In general, we expect comments to be relevant to the story, or to a prior comment that is relevant; and we expect some minimal level of civility. Defining that line is inherently subjective, so try to stay clear of insulting remarks. If you respond to a comment that is later deleted, we may take your response with it. Deleting your comment isn't a personal knock on you, so don't take it as such.
We allow a variety of ways for commenters to identify themselves; those who choose not to do so should take extra care. Absent any prior context in which they may be understood, ironic comments may be misinterpreted. Once you've earned a reputation for contributing to a conversation, we are likely to be more tolerant in those gray areas, as we'll understand where you're coming from.