detail from: KRK Art dizajn

GIANTS OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION 11

 Dr sci. SIMO JELAČA

MAX PLANCK (1858-1947), German physicist

Max Plank was the first to publicly announce and publish the Quantum Theory in 1900. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. He mathematically confirmed that the emitted energy of black bodies can be calculated as a direct product of frequency and Planck's constant (0.66256 x 10↓≥≥Js). This applies to products of whole numbers (1; 2; 3 etc.), so the law applies that energy appears in the form of indivisible portions of "Quantum". Until then, energy was believed to be continuous, so Planck's quantum theory seemed incredible. Planck's discovery was proven on warm bodies. Individual quanta of energy are very small, so the emission of energy really, that's why it looks continuous. When Mileva Maric and Albert Einstein explained the photoelectric effect in 1905, applying Planck's theory, and then Niels Bohr explained his atomic structure in 1913, Planck's theory became understandable and acceptable. Plank was soon accepted as the best German physicist and was awarded the Nobel Prize.

RUDOLF DIESEL (1858-1913), German engineer

Rudolf Diesel graduated from the Politechnikum in Munich, and worked as a refrigeration engineer. From 1885, he started dealing with internal combustion engines and constructed an engine with fuel injection into the cylinders in 1897. The engine was accepted and known by its name as the Diesel engine. It proved to be twice as efficient as previous engines, so their production soon began in Augsburg.

PIERRE CURIE (1859-1906), French physicist

Pierre Curie began his working career as a laboratory assistant at the Sorbonne University in Paris. He later became the chairman of the physics department there. With his brother, he built an electrometer, which was later used by his wife, Maria Scladowska – Curie. Pierre Curie found that ferromagnetic materials lose their magnetic properties at a certain point, now known as the Curie point. From 1898 he worked together with his wife Marija on testing the radioactivity of elements and they determined that the rays emitted by radium contain electropositive, electromagnetic and neutral particles. This discovery earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, shared by Pierre and Maria Curie with Antonie Henri Becquerel.

LEO BAEKELAND (1863-1944), Dutch American chemist

Baekeland is born Dutch and naturalized American. He was the first in the world to make artificial bakelite, which is considered the world's first plastic material. In addition, he was engaged in the production of photographic paper, which was bought by the Kodak company in 1899.

HENRY FORD (1863-1947), American engineer

Henry Ford is the man who set America on wheels. His talent was evident from childhood. Even as a teenager, he started working as an engineer in the city's heating plant in Detroit. From 1890, in his free time, he began to build his own self-powered car, which he successfully tested in 1895. As early as 1903, he formed the Ford Motor Company and began producing cars according to his design. He realized that the car must be accessible to the average citizen, so he soon expanded production. In 1908, he introduced the Model T, with great success, and for the first time set up a production system on the strip. He gave the workers a salary of $5/day, which was a big increase at the time. Thus, by producing sufficiently cheap cars, he transformed America.

JOVAN CVIJIC (1865-1927), Serbian geographer

Jovan Cvijic was born in Loznica and studied in Vienna. He was engaged in scientific work in the fields of geography, ethnography, geology, anthropology and achieved scientific achievements of world importance in them. In addition, he was also interested in history. He worked as a professor at Belgrade University and was its rector. He was elected an honorary doctor at the Sorbonne University in Paris, and in Serbia he was the president of the Royal Academy (now SANU), the founder of the Geographical Institute and the Serbian Geographical Society. He published hundreds of scientific works, among which the most important are: Basics for the geography and geology of Macedonia and Old Serbia; Anthropogeographic problems of the Balkan Peninsula and Geomorphology. Interested in the national issue of the Serbs, he published his speeches and articles; The annexation of Bosnia and the Serbian question and the Balkan question.

THOMAS HUNT MORGAN (1866-1945), American biologist

Thomas Morgan, working on hereditary traits, according to the discoveries of Johann Gregor Mendel and using Darwin's theory, created the first Chromosome Map in 1911, published the first Gene Theory in 1926 and received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1933.

MARIE CURIE (1867-1934), French physicist

Maria Skladowska – Kiri, from Poland, graduated from the Sorbonne in physics as the best student in her class in 1893. She was the first woman to stand out in the scientific world. She understood the phenomenon of radioactivity and in 1898 discovered the elements Plutonium and Radium. She received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903, which she shared with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel. Maria Kiri proved radioactivity as a property of rare elements. She determined that uranium ore has a higher degree of radioactivity than pure uranium, on the basis of which she concluded that uranium ore must contain some other elements, which are more radioactive, therefore hidden. And indeed, she found Polonium. Considering that radium is found in very small quantities in uranium ore, Maria and Pierre Curie had to process tons of uranium ore to obtain only a tenth of a gram of radium. 1902. Then Maria Kiri calculated the atomic weight of radium and determined its properties. Her research into the origin of radioactivity was left unfinished, which was completed by Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), who explained the meaning of alpha, beta and gamma particles. Maria Kiri proved that radiation consists of at least two types of radiation, with different properties. For this, she received the second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry in 1911, thus becoming the first and only double Nobel laureate. Unfortunately, while working with radioactive materials, she was irradiated and got leukemia, from which she died in 1934. The prominent physicist Pavle Savic worked with Maria Kiri.

BROTHERS WRIGHT WILBUR (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948), US pioneers of aviation.

The Wright brothers were the first to test their motor plane in 1903, and in 1908 made their first flight, lasting only 12 seconds, on December 17, 1908.

FRITZ HABER (1868-1934), German chemist

Fritz Haber was a physico-chemist by profession, who worked together with his son-in-law, Karl Bosch, to develop a process for the production of ammonia from hydrogen, which was applied to the production of artificial fertilizers. They also found a process for the production of nitric acid and the production of explosives during the First World War. Fritz Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918. When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Haber went to England and worked in Kevendis's laboratory at Cambridge University.

MIHAJLO PETROVIC – ALAS (1868-1943), Serbian mathematician

Mihajlo Petrovic Alas received his doctorate in Paris in 1894. He published 270 professional papers and 12 monographs and introduced new mathematical disciplines: Mathematical spectra and mathematical phenomenology. Special mathematical functions that bear Petrovic's name are also known in world science. In Paris, he lectured for one semester in the field of the original theory of mathematical spectra, on the basis of which he was nominated as a member of the French Academy of Sciences and Scientific Societies based on the book Travaux Scientifiques. In Belgrade, he created a very respectable School of Mathematics and contributed the most to mathematics gaining a prominent place in science in Serbia. Mika Alas occupied the top of Serbian science, and in world science he was recorded in the fields of differential equations, theoretical functions and computerization of algebra. His works are contained in 15 volumes, published between 1894 and 1943.

ERNEST RUTHERFORD (1871-1937), New Zealand and Canadian physicist

After the discovery of radioactivity by Becquerel in 1896, many scientists began to engage in research in this area. Among the most prominent were Marie Curie and her husband Pierre. The explanation of radioactivity was given by Ernest Radeford, who made the greatest contribution to nuclear physics. Radeford was born in New Zealand, but was educated at Cambridge University and then worked with John J. Thomas. Since 1898, he has been a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. There he determined the behavior of alpha and beta radioactivity, and in 1900 Radeford discovered the third type of radiation, gamma radiation. Radeford established that magnetic forces act on alpha and beta rays, reflect them, but do not act on gamma rays. In Montreal, Radeford met the Briton Frederik Soddy (1877-1956), with whom he discovered that radioactive elements decay. Their discovery of the decay process of radioactive substances was revolutionary and of enormous importance, and the decay of these elements leads to the creation of other elements. Radeford, examining alpha radiation, came to the conclusion that alpha particles are helium atoms, beta rays are made of electrons, and gamma rays are x-rays. After these discoveries, Radeford returned to Europe, to the University of Manchester, where he worked with Hans Wilhelm Geiger (1882-1945) and together they innovated the Geiger counter in 1908, which was used to measure the radioactivity of elements.

In 1910, Radeford suggested to Geiger that they bombard platinum foil with alpha rays, with which he determined that almost all particles pass through the foil with deflection (bending), and only one out of every eight thousand particles is repelled. In 1911, he drew the conclusion that this happens due to the fact that alpha particles are atoms, containing an atomic nucleus, and electrons circulate around the nucleus similar to planetary movements. The reason why one out of eight thousand particles returns is that they hit the positive atomic nucleus and bounce off each other, while all the others pass by the nucleus. This greatly explained the structure of the atom, which was later defined even more fully by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr in 1913. Ernest Redford received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.

GUGLIELMO MARCONI (1874-1937), Italian engineer

The Italian Marconi filed his patent for radio (No. 763772) on July 28, 1904. Before him, Nikola Tesla filed his patent for the same (No. 645576 and 649621) on September 2, 1897, which was even recognized in 1900. However, Marconi, as the first sender of a radio signal across the Atlantic in 1901, for his merits received the Nobel Prize in 1909. Marconi, based on the discoveries of Rudolf Herz and Nikola Tesla, realized his idea and thus remained remembered as the inventor of the radio, although his patent was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States of the American States in June 1943 (Court Decision No. 6369), and in favor of Nikola Tesla, who died before that (January 7, 1943).

HIRAM BINGHAM (1875-1956), American archaeologist

Hiram Bingham was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was educated at Harvard University. He became an expert on the Inca civilization in Peru. In 1911, he discovered Machu Picchu, one of the cities at the highest altitude (2057 m). Machu Picchu is a very well-preserved capital of the Incas, a stone building on an area of ​​about 40 ha. At the time of the discovery, Bingham had no idea that he had found a "lost city", which he explained only the following year when he returned to investigate it in more detail.

/ The author of this text is S.J. climbed to the highest point of the city of Machu Picchu (Huayna Picchu) in 1976./

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