detail from: KRK Art dizajn

GIANTS OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION 8

Dr sci. SIMO JELAČA

LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895), French chemist and biologist

Louis Pasteur's name is known all over the world, primarily for the pasteurization process, named after him. And although he was a chemist by training, he became better known in medicine. He was the first in the world to make a vaccine against rabies, as well as a vaccine against anthrax. It is known that Edward Jenner made the first smallpox vaccine, but for a long time after that invention nothing significant was done.

In 1880, Pasteur discovered that the chicken cholera bacterium, left for a long period of time, if injected into poultry, did not cause cholera. When he subsequently inoculated the same poultry with a fresh active culture of the bacteria, the poultry survived. In 1882, he created a vaccine against anthrax, which occurs very rarely in humans but is widespread in cattle, and in 1885, he created a vaccine against rabies. When they brought him a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten in several places by a rabid dog, Pasteur gave him a vaccine and the boy survived. The news spread and already the following year around 2,500 patients were vaccinated. There were slightly less than 1% of fatal accidents. This was the best reason for other scientists to rush to find vaccines for various other diseases. Pasteur succeeded in preventing the spread of tuberculosis in many ways through the process of pasteurization, a process he devised in the technologies of milk and alcohol. He established that these are microorganisms, which are killed at temperatures above 63°C for about 30 minutes. Pasteur also concluded that sterilized materials, which are not exposed to air, do not become contaminated, while materials exposed to air become contaminated and spoil. Through his actions, he improved the production of wine and beer, and significantly helped the silk industry in preventing the harmful effects of the silkworm.

In Paris, the Pasteur Institute was built in 1888, where Pasteur was buried in 1895. When the Germans ordered Meister to open Pasteur's grave for them in 1940, for the purpose of questioning, Meister committed suicide, not wanting to do it to them.

JOHAN GREGOR MENDEL (1822-1884), Austrian botanist

The father of genetics, the Austrian Mendel, had the lowest grades in biology during his schooling. As a scientist, he published the work "Experiments with Plant Hybrids" (Experiments with Plant Hybrids) in 1866. He was a priest, and his ministry forbade him to engage in biological experiments, which he nevertheless did unnoticed. His laboratory was a monastery garden, and his work gained recognition shortly after 1900, after numerous other researchers had performed similar experiments.

            JEAN-JOSEPH LEONARD (1822-1900), French inventor

In some books, the name Etienne is mentioned for this scientist, which leaves readers with the possibility of one or the other. Even as a child, when he lived in Belgium, he said: "When I grow up, I will make a machine that will work by itself."

It is known that the first beginnings of working on an internal combustion engine date back to 1680, by the famous Dane Christian Huygens (1629-1695). Its working principle is based on the ignition of gunpowder, although it has never been used. Then, in 1807, the Swiss Francois Isaac de Rivaz constructed the first internal combustion engine, based on the principle of oxygen and hydrogen combustion. He even constructed a vehicle for this engine, but this invention also remained commercially unsuccessful. Only in 1860 Jean-Joseph Etienne Lenoir (Jean

Joseph Etienne Lenoir) patented the first internal combustion engine, which revolutionized the transportation industry.

At the age of 16, Lenoir moved to Paris, where, working in the field of electricity, he made several useful devices. One of the devices is an electric spark motor. At first he used compressed air and coal gas for a two-stroke engine, since kerosene was not yet in use. Over the next five years, he sold about 500 of his engines, and already in 1861 he made a version of the engine for a boat and in 1863 a version for a tricycle.

They were followed by the Frenchman Alphonse Bean de Rochas, who patented the first four-stroke engine in 1862, and then the German Nikolaus August Otto (1832-1891), who made a much more successful engine, based on the principle of applying a mixture of gas and air. It was only with Gottlieb Daimler's engine (1834-1900) that oil was used as a fuel, and since then a revolution has taken place in the development of internal combustion engines. By the way, Daimler worked for Otto in his factory.

JOHAN GREGOR MENDEL (1822-1884), Austrian botanist

The father of genetics, the Austrian Mendel, had the lowest grades in biology during his schooling. As a scientist, he published the work "Experiments with Plant Hybrids" (Experiments with Plant Hybrids) in 1866. He was a priest, and his ministry forbade him to engage in biological experiments, which he nevertheless did unnoticed. His laboratory was a monastery garden, and his work gained recognition shortly after 1900, after numerous other researchers had performed similar experiments.

FRANCIS GALTON (1822-1911) English scientist

Galton is the nephew of Charles Darwin. He studied medicine and while working in South Africa published several papers in the domain of hereditary traits. In science, he was recorded as the first person who introduced the identification of people by fingerprints in 1892

            GUSTAV KIRCHHOFF  (1824-1887), German physicist

Gustav Kirchhoff was the first to define the thermodynamics of radiation. While still a student, he established the law of electric currents, which was named Kirchhoff's law after him. At the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, he specialized in electrical and spectral analysis, which led to the discovery of the elements cesium and rubidium. Kirchhoff also explained the Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum, as the absorption of spectral waves in the solar atmosphere, by applying Kirchhoff's radiation law.

LORD KELVIN (1824-1907), British physicist

Scottish William Thomson began his studies in Glasgow at the age of 10 in 1834. Working together with James Joule, he described the Joule-Thomson effect in 1852-1859. year. He patented a telegraph receiver for communication with submarines, and in 1892 he was admitted to the House of Lords and was named Lord Kelvin.

He completed his studies at the University of Cambridge, where he remained teaching physics for 50 years. He was particularly interested in the fields of thermodynamics and electromagnetism. With Dzaul, he proved the principle of conservation of energy, and he himself established the Second Law of Thermodynamics, according to which heat is transferred only from a hotter to a colder body, and never the other way around. With Joule, he determined the Joule-Thomson effect, according to which gasses lose heat by expanding, which resulted in the application of refrigeration technology in industry. Thomson (Lord Kelvin) was also able to determine the age of the Sun and the Earth, although these values ​​today differ considerably from modern calculations. In the world of science, the Kelvin temperature scale is also used, with an absolute zero of 0°K=-273.16°C, according to which 0°C=273.16°K, and the boiling point of water is 373.16°K.

In electromagnetism, Thomson studied Faraday's achievements and mathematically supplemented his findings. Kelvin's contribution to science was the creation of the basis of the electromagnetic theory of light, although mathematically still insufficiently defined. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) defined it more fully later. Thomson calculated the appropriate electrical voltage suitable for underwater cables, on the basis of which the first transatlantic cable was laid in 1866, which made him rich and introduced to the House of Lords (Lord Kelvin), under which he is much better known in the scientific world. He was president of the University of Glasgow for 53 years.

JOSEPH SWAIN (1828-1914), English physicist and chemist

Joseph Swann is a pioneer of electric lighting and photography. He patented the carbon photo process in 1864 and bromide paper for color photography. He was also the first to make artificial silk. He made the first electric lamp in 1860, that is, 20 years before Edison. Later, he and Edison founded the joint company "Edison & Swan United Electric Lighting Company" in 1883. Based on this data, the conclusion is that Edison was credited with the first electric light bulb based on Swan's invention, not his. The same will be seen for a number of other inventions attributed to Edison, as the greatest American inventor.

            JAMES CLARE MAXWELL (1831-1879), Scottish physicist

Maxwell, investigating the connection between electricity and magnetism, according to Faraday's idea, concluded that they are the same phenomenon, of a wave nature, whose speed is equal to the speed of light (300,000 km/sec) and that visible light is electromagnetic. natural radiation. He also claimed that infrared and ultraviolet light are of the same nature. This claim of Maxwell's was soon confirmed, in 1888, by Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894).

In 1864, Maxwell published the dynamic theory of the electric field, which offered a mathematical explanation of electromagnetism, known today as Maxwell's formula. He also studied the thermodynamics of the movement of gas molecules, from which the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution law emerged, which explains the generation of heat due to the movement of molecules. In addition, Maxwell took the first color photograph in 1861. And in the fields of astronomy, he established that Saturn's rings are composed of countless small bodies, which harmoniously, in a regular mutual arrangement, revolve around Saturn. In 1871, Maxwell founded the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where he served as Distinguished Professor of Physics. He got cancer early and died at the age of 48. In the scientific world, Maxwell is recognized as the best physicist after Newton.

NIKOLAUS OTTO (1832-1891), German engineer

Otto is known worldwide for his first four-stroke internal combustion engine. He built his first motorcycle in 1861, and in 1867 he received a gold medal for it at an exhibition in Paris. Some literature notes that it is someone else's patent, although it is still attributed to Nikolaus Ott.

GUSTAVE ​​EIFFEL (1832-1923), French engineer

Eiffel's most famous work is his famous tower in Paris, built for the World Exhibition in 1889. Eiffel studied art and specialized in metal structures, especially bridges. According to his projects, the following were built: a bridge in Bordeaux (Bordeaux 1858), a bridge in the city of Porto (in Portugal) and a bridge in the south of France, 162 m long, over the Troyer River. He also constructed the movable dome above the observatory in Nice, as well as the Statue of Liberty in New York, which France gave to the United States of America.

The tower in Paris is 320 meters high and in its time was the tallest building in the world, until 1930. Eiffel built it as a temporary building, but it has become the biggest tourist attraction of Paris and France, bringing millions of visitors every year. years and brings sufficient income

.

ALFRED NOBEL (1833-1896), Swedish chemist

The Swedish Alfred Bernhard Nobel is a world name, not so much as a scientist, but because of the fact that every year awards are given in his name to the most deserving scientists, writers and fighters for peace, where Nobel received most of his education Russia, and he spoke Russian, French , English, German and Swedish. He was engaged in chemistry and in his own factory produced liquid nitroglycerin (explosive) for engineering purposes. In 1864, his factory exploded, killing his brother and four other workers. Two years later, in 1866, he created a stable explosive (nitroglycerine absorbed in kieselguhr), called dynamite. He profited financially with this, on the basis of which a fund for awards for the best achievements was established and this fund bears his name. The first Nobel Prizes in the fields of medicine, physics and chemistry were awarded in 1901, and Nobel himself, although a manufacturer of explosives, was a pacifist.

WILHELM GOTTLIEB DAIMLER (1834-1900), German engineer

In 1885, Daimler patented the first internal combustion engine (ICE) based on the principle of burning oil. In the same year, he made the first motorcycle, and in 1886, the first car with four wheels, with his SUS engine. In 1889, he constructed the first two-stroke four-cylinder engine and produced the first Mercedes car in the same year. Mercedes was the name of the daughter of Emil Jelinek, who participated in car racing, driving a Daimler car under the pseudonym Mercedes. In 1900, the industrial production of cars under the name Daimler-Mercedes began. In 1893, Karl Benz started the mass production of cars with four cylinders, and in 1926, the Daimler and Benz companies merged.

DMITRI MENDELEEV (1834-1907), Russian chemist

Dmitri Mendeleev was the seventeenth child in the family, born in Tobolsk, Siberia. His parents had a glass factory, and his father was blind. Hence Dmitri's schooling was very difficult. He studied pedagogical sciences in St. Petersburg, which qualified him for regular studies at Russian universities. The greatest influence on Mendeleev was the Italian Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826-1910), during his lecture on the connections between atoms and molecules in 1860 in Karlsruhe. Having understood the atomic weights of the elements, Mendeleev would later use this for his greatest discoveries. From 1860, Mendeleev was the president of the University of St. Petersburg, and in 1869 he published his book Principles of Chemistry in which he attached the greatest importance to the atomic weights of the elements. He compiled the Periodic Table of the Elements, with properties that fit his table extremely well. He thus determined that some elements had not yet been discovered and left empty spaces in the table for them. He even predicted their properties and atomic weight. All this was fully confirmed in the following years, when gallium, scandium and germanium were discovered. Mendeleev also predicted the weights of some elements, which had previously been wrongly calculated (e.g. gold) and corrected them. Later, more precise measurements confirmed this as correct. Mendeleev first published his Periodic Table of Elements in 1869, which, like a number of other works, was not immediately widely accepted, although it soon became a universal standard throughout the world. In 1955, the 101st element of the peroid system was discovered, which was named Mendelevium. He missed the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry by just one vote

To be continued...

SHARE THIS PAGE ON: