Anniversaries of Discovery
Besides this year being proclaimed the Year of Light by UNESCO, it is also a year full of anniversaries of scientific discoveries. In 1915, John Renshaw Carson performed the first mathematical analysis of AM signaling. This led to amplitude modulation, the earliest modulation method used to transmit voice by radio. In this same year, Einstein published his general theory of relativity.
William Prout’s hypothesis, introduced in 1815, was a driving force in atomic weight and atomic structure research. In 1865, August Kekulé discovered the ring-shaped structure of the benzene molecule. Also in this year, James Clerk Maxwell explained electromagnetism, establishing a model for doing theoretical physics.
100 years before Kekule and Maxwell, Scottish inventor James Watt’s improvement to the steam engine led the way for the Industrial Revolution and inspired the science of thermodynamics.
These and many more anniversaries can be commemorated by images from our archives. Please enjoy this special featured selection of snapshots from science history. To see more images like the ones we’ve selected, type the scientist or invention in the search engine.
A new steam engine, page of patent application from E. Robinson and A.E. Musson ‘James Watt and the Steam Revolution’, London: Adams and Dart, 1969.
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives
John Kraus making radio field strength measurements at 5-meters wavelength in connection with his PhD dissertation research in physics in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives. Date: circa 1932
Portrait of August Kekule from ‘Memorial Lectures Delivered Before The Chemical Society.’ by Chemical Society (Great Britain) London.
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Brittle Books Collection.
Earliest known photograph of Albert Einstein.
Hebrew University of Jerusalem Albert Einstein Archives, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives.
Portrait of William Prout.
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, William G. Myers Collection
Portrait of James Maxwell.
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives.
