Scientists, Engineers etc
*** A
Abel - John Jacob ..... born 1857 died 1938 ..... U.S biochemist who studied the chemical composition of body tissues which led, in 1898, to the discovery of adrenaline, the FIRST hormone to be identified. Abel called it epinephrine. He later became the FIRST to isolate amino acids from blood. He was also the FIRST professor of pharmacology (1893 to 1932) at John Hopkins University and in 1926 first crystallized insulin and showed it to be a protein
Accum - Frederick .. German-born scientist who was the FIRST scientist to leverage his expertise to expose the extent of food adulteration in early 19th century London. He was also responsible for the installation of gas lighting in Westminster in 1814
Achard - Franz Karl ..... born 1753 died 1821 ..... Swiss chemist who opened the FIRST beet sugar factory in Silesia in 1801
Adelard of Bath ..... the FIRST English scientist he translated the Arabic algebra book into Latin
Alken - Howard ..... born 1900 ..... U.S mathematician. In 1944 in conjunction with engineers from IBM he completed one of the FIRST computers, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator ( known as Mark 1), a programmable computer controlled by punched paper tape and using punched cards
Anaximander ..... born 610 died 547 BC ..... Greek astronomer and philosopher thought to be the FIRST to determine solstices and equinoxes, to have invented the sundial and to have produced the FIRST geographical map
*** B
Bainbridge - Kenneth Tompkins ..... born 1904 ..... U S physicist who was director of the FIRST atomic bomb test at Alamagordo, USA in 1945
Baker - Benjamin ..... English engineer who designed, among other things, London's FIRST underground railway ( the Metropolitan and District) in 1869
Bell - Henry ..... born 1767 died 1830 ..... Scottish engineer and pioneer of steam navigation who successfully launched the 30 ton Comet on the Clyde in 1812. It was the FIRST passenger-carrying steam-boat in European waters
Bessemer - Sir Henry ..... developed the FIRST economically viable steel-making process
Blackett - Patrick Maynard Stuart (Baron) ..... born 1897 died 1974 ..... English physicist who was the FIRST to photograph nuclear collisions involving transmutation in 1925. He pioneered research on cosmic radiation and in WW2 operational research
Bond - William Cranch ..... born 1789 died 1859 ..... American astronomer who was the FIRST director of Harvard University observatory from 1840 and was a pioneer of celestial photography
Bouch - Sir Thomas ..... born 1822 died 1880 ..... English civil engineer who designed the FIRST Tay (rail) Bridge which opened in 1877
Brindley - James ..... born 1716 died 1772 ..... British canal builder who was the FIRST to employ tunnels and aqueducts extensively in order to reduce the number of locks on a direct-route canal
Brown - Robert ..... born 1773 died 1858 ..... Scottish botanist who was the FIRST to describe and name the cell nucleus
*** C
Cockcroft - John Douglas ..... born 1897 died 1967 ..... British physicist who succeeded in splitting the nucleus of the atom for the FIRST time with E.T.S Walton in 1932. In 1951 they were jointly awarded a Nobel Prize
Cooper - Peter ..... died 1883 ..... built the FIRST American steam locomotive Tom Thumb
Cugnot - Nicolas ..... born 1728 died 1804 ..... French engineer who produced the FIRST high pressure steam engine when he was asked to design a steam-operated gun carriage whilst serving in the French army
*** D
Dalton - John ..... born 6th September 1766 ..... in 1794 he was the FIRST man to identify colour-blindness and in 1803 the FIRST man to produce the atomic theory in a lecture to the Manchester Institute
Darby - Abraham ..... born 1678 died 1717 ..... the FIRST man to use coke successfully in the smelting of iron - 1709. On January 1st 1781 the FIRST iron bridge in Britain and the FIRST wholly iron structure of this kind in the world opened to traffic. It was a 100 ft span built across the River Severn in 1779 between Benthall, Shropshire and Madeley Wood ( now the village of Ironbridge), and the iron used in its construction was cast at Coalbrookdale by Abraham Darby the third, grandson of the man who first smelted iron from coke
Davis - Robert ..... perfected the FIRST successful oxygen breathing apparatus for mining rescue work
*** E
Eads - James Buchanan - Captain ..... engineer who spanned the Mississippi River with the world's FIRST steel truss bridge
Ellet - Charles ..... U.S.A ..... built the FIRST wire suspension bridge - 1846-8 - the Wheeling Bridge, Ohio
*** F
Finlay - James ..... American who built the world's FIRST rigid suspension bridge - 1801 - across Jacob's Creek, Pennsylvania
Fulton - Robert ..... born 14th November 1765 died 24th February 1815 .. American engineer who was the FIRST to successfully apply steam to inland navigation. In 1814 he constructed the world's FIRST steam warship, Fulton the First and The Savannah was the FIRST steam powered vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1819
*** G
Galilei - Galileo ..... born February 15th 1564 died 1642..... Italian mathematician, astronomer and physicist who was the FIRST man to use the telescope to study the skies
Galli - Cesare ..... Italian scientist who was the FIRST in the world to clone a horse - Prometea - 2003
Gama - Antonio de Le๓n y .. died September 12th 1802 ..... Mexico's FIRST archaeologist and the FIRST European to record Aztec archaeology
*** H
Halley Edmond .…. born November 8th 1656 died 1742 ….. English astronomer and mathematician who FIRST identified the comet which bears his name. He also made the FIRST catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere, was the FIRST to make a complete observation of the transit of Mercury and the FIRST to recommend the observation of the transits of Venus with a view to determining the sun's parallax. In 1720 he succeeded John Flamsteed as astronomer-royal of England
Haywood - William .. a City of London corporation engineer who started the FIRST municipal public toilets and the FIRST underground public toilets in 1855
Horner- William George .. in 1829 he installed the world's FIRST public elevator at the Regent's Parl Coliseum, London
Horrocks - Jeremiah ..1619-1641.... English astronomer who was the FIRST in the world to observe a transit of Venus across the face of the sun on 24th November 1639 ( old style). He was only 20 years old at the time and had predicted the event ahead of time
*** J
Jenney - William Le Baron .. American who built the world's FIRST skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, Chicago - 1883 - 5
*** K
Kepler - Johann .. born 1571 died 1630 ..... German astronomer who predicted and observed the FIRST transit of Mercury across the sun in 1631
*** L
Laithwaite - Eric ..... Manchester University electrical engineering professor who built the FIRST linear electric motor in the late 1940s and which is now the technology behind the new hover trains (2005)
Lomonosov - Mikhail Vasilievich ..... born 1711 died 1765 ..... influential Russian scientist and man of letters who set up the FIRST chemistry laboratory in Russia at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences where he was Professor of Chemistry
*** M
McAlpine - Sir Robert ..... universally known as "Concrete Bob" he was the FIRST builder to use concrete for bridges and viaducts at the turn of the century and also built the FIRST Wembley Stadium
*** N
Niepce - Joseph Nic้phore .. born 1765 died 1833 ..... French chemist who in 1826 succeeded in producing a photograph on metal, said to be the world's FIRST
*** O
Oppenheimer - Robert ..... born 1904 died 1967 ..... American physicist who was in charge of the project to create the FIRST atomic bomb
*** P
Perkin - Sir William Henry .. born 12th March 1838 died 1907 .. English chemist who produced the FIRST synthetic dye, mauve, in 1856. This led to the foundation of the aniline dye industry
Peto - Sir Samuel .. built London's FIRST public conveniences
*** R
Rutherford Ernest- 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson .. born 30th August 1871 died 1937 .. New Zealand- born British physicist who was the FIRST to split the atom. He also made the FIRST successful wireless transmissions over two miles. In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
*** S
Shackleton-Fergus Frank . FIRST man to x-ray a live duck-billed platypus. He was born in Australia and in July 1936 received a message that a platypus had been found on the banks of a creek. The specimen was taken to Melbourne and returned to its home the following day. The results of the x-ray showed the finest soft tissue detail of the animal. His photographs of animals were described a being unique and having high scientific value and they were displayed in several exhibitions and led to him being asked by the Melbourne Museum to x-ray the Egyptian mummies in its collection. Among other things he demonstrated the FIRST use of microwaves in cooking in Australia and established the FIRST closed circuit television station in Melbourne. He also lectured on television and radio
Smith - William .. born 23rd March 1769 ..... in Churchill, Oxfordshire, England, he became a geologist and made the FIRST systematic study of England's geological strata
Sturgeon - William ..... English electrical engineer who devised the FIRST practical electromagnet
Sulston - Sir John ..... born March 27th 1942 ..... Cambridge biologist who won the Nobel prize in 2002 for his study of the nematode C.elegans, a worm that became the FIRST organism whose entire gene system could be mapped
Swan Sir Joseph Wilson .. born 1828 died 1914 ..... English physicist and chemist who, in February 1879, gave the worlds FIRST public demonstration of electric light when he presented his incandescent carbon lamp at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, now one of Britains oldest libraries. He was the FIRST to produce practicable artificial silk
Symington William ..... born 1763 died 1831 ..... Scottish engineer who built the FIRST successful steamboat. In 1787 he invented the steam road locomotive and a steam engine in 1788. His steamboat, the Charlotte Dundas, was completed in 1802
Szilard - Leo ..... born 1898 died 1964 ..... Hungarian-born US physicist who, in 1934, was one of the FIRST scientists to realize that nuclear fission, or atom splitting, could lead to a chain reaction releasing enormous amounts of instantaneous energy. after emigrating to the USA in 1938 he influenced Einstein to advise President Roosevelt to begin the nuclear arms programme
*** T
Telford - Thomas ..... FIRST president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the FIRST national body concerned with the engineering profession in England and which was founded in 1828
Teller - Edward ..... born 15th January 1908 ..... Hungarian-American physicist who was one of the architects of President Harry S Truman's crash programme to build and test the world's FIRST Hydrogen bomb in 1952
Trevithick - Richard .. born 1771 died 1833 ..... English engineer and inventor who built the FIRST steam-propelled railway locomotives.
*** V
Volta - Count Alessandro ..... born February 18th 1754 ..... the physicist who made the FIRST battery and gave his name to the measure of electricity (volt)
*** W
Wilkinson Eyre Architects ..... designers of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the world's FIRST tilting bridge - 2001
Winstanley - Henry .. died 26th November 1703 .. English engineer who built the FIRST Eddystone Lighthouse and was among those who perished when it was destroyed in a gale. He was supervising repairs to its structure at the time
Wood - Ralph ..... U.K..... in 1727 he built the world's FIRST railway bridge, known as the Causey Arch, near Tanfield, Co Durham
*** Y
Young - Thomas .. born 1773 ..... scientist who was the FIRST person to prove that light is a wave