Category: Giant Birthday

Happy birthday Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (March 12, 1824 – October 17, 1887) . Back in 1845 while still a student he created Kirchhoff’s circuit laws which solidified the mathematics for basic electronic circuit design. The contributions Kirchhoff made to physics where instrumental in advancing science in the 19th century.

In 2003 the IEEE honored him by creating the Gustav Robert Kirchhoff Award for “outstanding contributions to the fundamentals of any aspect of electronic circuits and systems that has a long-term significance or impact.”

Biographies:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Wikipedia

There is one of his books available @ Google books: Researches on the solar spectrum, and the spectra of the chemical elements

James Watt was born on this day, January 19th, in 1736 at Greenock, Scotland. He was a mechanical engineer and inventor who’s steam engine was a key ingredient in the start of the Industrial Revolution. For this and his other contributions to science and technology the SI unit for power was named the watt in 1960. For more information check out the biographical reference links below. I think I’ll celebrate his birthday buy having a piece of PIE (sorry couldn’t resist the bad EE geek joke).

Biographies:
Wikipedia
James Watt by Andrew Carnegie
James Watt by Thomas H. Marshall
Birmingham Jewellery Quarter – More about James Watt
James Watt: Important Scots
BBC – History – James Watt
Watt letters collection at the Cornwall County Council

Louis Harold Gray was born on November 10th, 1905 in London, England. Professor Gray worked primarily with understanding the biological effects of radiation. Because his work was instrumental in the birth of radiobiology, the SI unit of absorbed dose was named the gray to honor him.

Biographies:
Wikipedia
LH Gray Memorial Trust
UCLA Medical Physics

More information on his work:
Review Article: the birth of the Gray Laboratory at Mount Vernon Hospital
Gray Cancer Institute

Today, October the 24th, is the birthday of Wilhelm Eduard Weber. He was born at Wittenberg, Germany in 1804. I don’t have time to write more about him so I’ll try to write a more detailed post for his birthday next year.

The SI unit of magnetic flux is named the weber to honor his work.

More information:
Wilhelm Eduard Weber – Wikipedia
The Virtual Laboratory People
Weber biography
Encyclopedia of Earth

Some of his books at Google Books (not in English so I can’t read them)
Elektrodynamische Maassbestimmungen
Wilhelm Weber’s Werke

On this day, September 22, 1791 in South London, England, Michael Faraday was born. Faraday’s work in chemistry, electricity, and magnetism were instrumental in advancing science in the 19th century. Sadly, because of the prejudice of the society of the time, Faraday was not considered a gentleman and did not receive as much honor and respect in his early years as he deserved. In the 20th century we have made up for this a bit by awarding him an honor only a very few receive, the SI unit of capacitance is named the farad to honor his work.

There is a lot of good information about him on the web so rather than repeat it here I’ll send you to the references cited below and end this post with one of my favorite Faraday quotes. In his laboratory notebook dated March 19, 1849 at the end of many paragraphs of deep thoughts he writes:

ALL THIS IS A DREAM. Still examine it by a few experiments. Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature; and in such things as these, experiment is the best test of such consistency. (from “The Life and Letters of Faraday” By Bence Jones Vol. II page 253)

Faraday’s rock solid belief that only through meticulous repeatable experiments could the truth of nature be divined is as essential in the 21st century as it was in the 19th. So, lets all celebrate the life of this self educated, lower class, son of a blacksmith who laid the foundations for much of our present technological society.

Wikipedia Biography

Books
Biography
The Life and Letters of Faraday By Bence Jones Vol. I
The Life and Letters of Faraday By Bence Jones Vol. II

Written by Michael Faraday:
from Project Gutenberg
Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1
The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday

Google Book Search 12 volumes

On July 10th 1856, Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia.

In 1884, Tesla came to the US and began working for Thomas Edison. While Edison was a good inventor/businessman, Tesla was a truly great Electrical Engineer/Scientist. This distinction is why he won the “War of Currents” against Edison in later years. Wikipedia has an excellent biography with many references and links. In 1960 the SI derived unit of magnetic flux density was named the tesla in his honor.

On this day in 1824 (June 26th) William Thomson was born in Belfast, Co. Antrim, Ireland. He was the younger brother of James who was the first Giant Birthday I celebrated on this blog. In recognition of his important work on an absolute temperature scale the SI base unit for temperature is named the Kelvin. For more information see the links below.

Biographies:
Wikipedia
Eric Weisstein’s World of Scientific Biography
Physics World – PhysicsWeb
University of Glasgow – Lord Kelvin Online
Lord Kelvin: An Account of His Scientific Life … – Google Books

Publications by Lord Kelvin:
The Second Law of Thermodynamics: Memoirs by … – Google Books
Many papers from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London and the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh are available from Google Books. Here are a few samples:
On the Electrification of Air – Royal Society of London
Leakage from electrified Metal Plates … – Royal Society of Edinburgh
Electrification of Air and other Gases … – Royal Society of London

Today June 13th is another Giant Birthday, James Clerk Maxwell was born in 1831 at Edinburgh, Scotland. There are number of good biographies on the web (see list below) so I will not bother writing a summary biography for this post.

Maxwell’s greatest contribution is his grouping and independent derivation of equations originally developed by Gauss, Ampere, Faraday and others into what is commonly referred to as Maxwell’s Equations. This and his other work in physics has been so instrumental in the advancement of our understanding that I feel he ranks right up with Newton and Einstein in importance to science overall. In the now nearly obsolete CGS system, the derived unit of magnetic flux was named the maxwell in his honor.

James Clerk Maxwell’s importance to physics is highlighted by these quotations from other giants in science.

Albert Einstein –
“The special theory of relativity owes its origins to Maxwell’s equations of the electromagnetic field”
“The work of James Clerk Maxwell changed the world forever”

Max Planck –
“He achieved greatness unequalled.”

Carl Sagan –
“Maxwell’s equations have had a greater impact on human history than any ten presidents.”

Richard Feynman –
“From a long view of the history of mankind – seen from, say, ten thousand years from now – there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell’s discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade.”

Biographies:
Wikipedia
National University of Singapore
University of St Andrews
James Clerk Maxwell Foundation
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
EdinPhoto

On May 6th 1896 Rolf Maximilian Sievert was born in Stockholm Sweden. Sievert devoted his life to the measurement and medical usage of ionizing radiation. His invention of the Sievert chamber for consistent measurement of radiation dosage helped pave the way for the safe control of ionizing radiation in medical applications. In recognition of his achievements, the SI unit for equivalent dose and efficient dose was designated the sievert, Sv, in 1979.

Professor Rolf Sievert worked with many organizations on radiation protection issues including the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute (SSI), the International Commission for Radiological Protection (ICRP) and, the International Commission for Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU, Chairman 1956 to 1962).

For further reading:
Biography – Wikipedia
SI Unit the Sievert – Wikipedia
Rolf Sievert, the man and the unit – Karolinska Institutet
Radiobiology
BBC – h2g2 – The Measurement of Radioactivity