Portal:Technology/Selected biography archive

March 18, 2006
Sir Isaac Newton, PRS, (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, inventor, and natural philosopher who is generally regarded as one of the most influential scientists in history. Newton wrote the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica wherein he described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics. By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from this system, he was the first to show that the motion of bodies on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws. The unifying and deterministic power of his laws was integral to the scientific revolution and the advancement of heliocentrism. Among other scientific discoveries, Newton realized that the spectrum of colours observed when white light passes through a prism is inherent in the white light and not added by the prism (as Roger Bacon had claimed in the 13th century), and notably argued that light is composed of particles. He also developed a law of cooling, describing the rate of cooling of objects when exposed to air. He enunciated the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. Finally, he studied the speed of sound in air, and voiced a theory of the origin of stars.

December 24, 2005 - February 20, 2006
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an inventor and businessman who developed many important devices. "The Wizard of Menlo Park" was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention. Edison is considered the most prolific inventor, holding 1,093 patents in his name. Some of these inventions were not completely original but improvements of earlier patents, and were actually works of his numerous employees. Edison was sometimes criticized for not sharing the credit, but it was understood by his experimenters that all work was the property of their employer. Nevertheless, Edison received patents worldwide, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known as the Edison Trust).

February 20, 2006 - March 18, 2006
John Harrison (March 24, 1693–March 24, 1776) was the English clock maker who designed and built the world's first successful maritime clock, one whose accuracy was great enough to allow the determination of longitude over long distances. The eldest son of a carpenter, Harrison built and repaired clocks in his spare time as a youth. Legend has it that he was given a watch when he was six to amuse him while he was in bed with smallpox, and he spent hours listening to it and studying its moving parts. (As clocks and watches of all kinds were rare and expensive at the time, and Harrison came from a family of fairly modest means, it is likely the legend is false or the timepiece was broken enough to be worth little.) In pursuit of the longitude prize, Harrison designed a series of improved clocks using a variety of materials, from iron to brass to wood, to balance the clock's expansions and contractions with changing temperature. In 1773, he was finally awarded the prize.

March 18, 2006 - May 7, 2006
Benjamin Franklin (January 17 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most prominent of the Founders and early political figures and statesmen of the United States.

Franklin was interested in science and technology, carrying out his famous electricity experiments and invented the Franklin stove, medical catheter, lightning rod, swimfins, glass harmonica, and bifocals. He also played a major role in establishing the higher education institutions that would become the Ivy League's University of Pennsylvania and the Franklin and Marshall College. In addition, Franklin was a noted linguist, fluent in five languages. He also practiced and published on astrology (see Poor Richard's Almanack).

Franklin was also noted for his philanthropy and several liaisons, including that which produced his illegitimate Loyalist son William Franklin, later the colonial governor of New Jersey. Towards the end of his life, he became one of the most prominent early American abolitionists. Today Franklin is pictured on the U.S. $100 bill.

In 1743, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life (in between bouts of politics and moneymaking).

May 7, 2006 - July 31, 2006
Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849–April 11, 1926) was an American botanist, horticulturist, and pioneer of agricultural science. He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank's varied creations included fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables. He developed a spineless cactus (useful for cattle-feed) and the plumcot.

Burbank's most successful strains and varieties include the Shasta daisy, the Fire poppy, the July Elberta peach, the Santa Rosa plum, the Flaming Gold nectarine, the Burbank plum, the Freestone peach, and the Burbank potato. Burbank also bred the white blackberry and the nectarine. A natural sport (genetic variant) of the Burbank potato with russet (reddish-brown) skin later became known as the Russet-Burbank potato: this large, brown-skinned, white-fleshed potato has become the predominant processing potato in the United States of America.

Burbank's work spurred the passing of the 1930 Plant Patent Act four years after his death. The legislation made it possible to patent new varieties of plants (excluding tuber-propagated plants). In supporting the legislation, Thomas Edison testified before Congress in support of the legislation and said that "This [bill] will, I feel sure, give us many Burbanks." The authorities issued Plant Patents #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #18, #41, #65, #66, #235, #266, #267, #269, #290, #291, and #1041 to Burbank posthumously.

July 31, 2006 - February 3, 2007
Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English mathematician, analytical philosopher, mechanical engineer and (proto-) computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991, working from Babbage's original plans, a difference engine was completed, and functioned perfectly. It was built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, indicating that Babbage's machine would have worked. Nine years later, the Science Museum completed the printer Babbage had designed for the difference engine; it featured astonishing complexity for a 19th-century device.