Category Scientist & Invensions

               ‘Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration’. Thomas Alva Edison, the greatest inventor of all times, is the most suitable example of his own saying. This great outstanding US inventor had the credit of making 1001 inventions. Can you imagine a world without electric light, recorded music, cinema etc., which are the contributions of this great genius?

               Edison was born on February 11, 1847 at Milan, Ohio. His father was an incharge of a light house at Lake Huron. Although he could not continue his studies in his school, he was very inquisitive from his boyhood to learn by understanding. When he was only ten years old he set up a laboratory in the basement of his father’s working place. He loved to mix liquids and powders to observe the reactions.

               At the age of 12, he began selling newspapers and candy in trains. As a very keen observer he learnt some preliminary techniques of telegraphy from the Station Master, which led him later to work as a roving telegrapher. During his stint as a supervisor in a Telegraph company he created a stock printer. With the money received from it, he set up a laboratory for carrying out his experiments and research work. In subsequent years he invented phonograph – the machine for recording and reproducing sound. Edison thus had made man’s voice immortal. In 1878, he demonstrated the light bulb – a carbon filament electric bulb. 

               While experimenting on electric lamp, he discovered an important scientific principle known as ‘Edison effect’. This discovery led to the invention of electron valves and the modern electronics industry rests on this principle. In 1882, he set up a power generating station which supplied power to a few residents of New York City. Later he developed the kinetograph which was the first step towards motion picture camera. Cinema houses are here today because of the inventive genius of Edison. His other inventions include the spheres of X-rays, telephone and other electronic items. His inventions made him one of the richest men in America.

This great genius passed away on 18 October, 1931.

          Galileo, even after 350 years of his death, is still considered as one of the greatest scientists of the world. He was the first man to disprove many old notions about nature and to use modern scientific methods.

          He was born in the town of Pisa, Italy, in 1564. His father was a merchant and taught music in his spare time. Young Galileo was a talented boy, interested in music and painting. He used to make scientific toys in his childhood. He was a keen observer. Galileo studied at the University of Pisa.

          When in an evening he went to chapel to pray, it was getting dark and the caretaker was lighting the candles in candelabra which hung from the roof by a chain. When he released it, it started swinging to and fro. Young Galileo observed it keenly and noticed that with each swing it covered shorter distance. Galileo felt that although the distance of the swing was becoming less and less, yet the time taken in each swing was the same. There was no watch during those days. It was a problem for him to test his idea. Immediately an idea flashed in his mind. He knew that the beat of human pulse is fairly regular. He felt his own pulse and then counted the number of beats for each swing. To his great delight his observation seemed to indicate that his idea was correct. This discovery was used 60 years later in making the pendulum clocks.

          At the age of 23 Galileo became Professor of mathematics at Pisa University. After two years of teaching he was declared the best teacher. During those days he had read in a religious book that if two bodies of different weights are allowed to fall simultaneously from the same height, the heavier body will hit the ground first. He proved this statement to be wrong. From the leaning tower of Pisa he dropped two spheres, one of 100 pounds and the other of 1 pound simultaneously. This great experiment was seen by thousands of people. It was highly surprising to everybody that both the spheres hit the ground at the same time.

          Galileo made the first telescope of the world. He observed many heavenly bodies through it. With his telescope he saw the satellites of Jupiter and studied many stars of the Milky Way.

         Galileo established the validity of the views of Copernicus. Copernicus had said that the earth is not the centre of the universe but it is simply a member of the solar system. Galileo proved for the first time that the sun was the centre of universe and that the earth revolves around the sun. These views of Galileo were published in a book.

          His discoveries offended the leading churchmen because he had disproved many notions cherished by religious people. As a result he was put in prison. By that time he had become quite old. The authorities were willing to pardon him if he accepted that his statements were wrong. He was pressurized; Galileo bowed before the authorities and said, “I am in your hands. God only knows the truth, but I feel earth revolves around the sun”. Later in 1637, Galileo became blind and in January 1642 the great discoverer died.

          Albert Einstein, the mathematical physicist famous for his Theory of Relativity, is called the father of modern physics. He was born on March 14, 1879 at Ulm in Germany. When he was only one year old, his family moved to Munich. Einstein spent his boyhood there. He was shy and dreamy in his childhood. Since his mother was fond of playing piano, he also learnt it from her.

          Right from the beginning, Einstein showed a keen interest in scientific instruments. He was very sharp in mathematics, but just mediocre in other subjects. When he was fifteen, his family moved to Italy. From there he was sent to the Zurich University of Switzerland. Here his genius began to flower. He turned to be an extraordinary scholar of physics and mathematics.

          He completed his education in the year 1900. He wanted to become a teacher, but could not get a teaching job of his choice. Finally he joined the Swiss Patent Office at Berne as a clerk. He married a young Yugoslav science student, Mileva Marec. The couple had two sons.

Continue reading “Why Einstein is called the greatest scientist of the 20th century?”

          Enrico Fermi was a great Italian-American theoretical physicist. He was one of the chief architects of the nuclear physics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938 for his outstanding discovery of neutron-induced nuclear reactions.

          Fermi was born in Rome on 29th September 1901. He was a brilliant student and obtained his doctorate in Physics from the University of Pisa at the age of 21. His research was on X-rays.

          In 1926 Fermi became a full time Professor of theoretical physics at the University of Rome. In 1929, he was elected a member of the Italian Academy. In 1934 he succeeded in making a fundamental discovery in the field of physics. This was the result of 10 years of arduous research. He discovered that when elements are bombarded with slow neutrons, the material becomes radioactive and begins to emit radiation. In this process the element changes into a different material. For example, iron, when made artificially radioactive by neutron bombardment, turned into manganese. In this way Fermi found about 80 new artificial nuclei. 

           About this time, Italy, under Mussolini, was in the grip of a Fascist government. This affected Fermi directly because his wife was a Jew. So he wanted to leave Italy. Fortunately at this time (in 1938) he was named for Nobel Prize. He was given permission to go to Sweden to receive the award. Fermi left Italy with his family never to return. After receiving the award, he went to U.S. and became a citizen of United States. Subsequently he became Professor for Nuclear Studies at Columbia University.

            In 1942, during World War II, Fermi built the first atomic reactor in an empty Squash court in Chicago. Here he set off the first man-made nuclear chain reaction. Later he helped to develop the atom bomb.