2013 ingenious-ireland-the ingenious irish-iet-slideshow
TRANSCRIPT
The Ingenious Irish
Great Irish scientists & innovators whose ideas shaped the world
Mary Mulvihill, www.ingeniousireland.ieIET 23.5.2013 (c) Copyright Ingenious Ireland, 2013
Some great scientists...
The ‘father’ of chemistry – Robert Boyle
Boyle’s Law (gas volume and pressure)
• Experiments with an air pump• Modern analytical chemistry• Modern concept of an element• Litmus tests, for acid, base and neutral• Analytical tests for mineral water• Assays for gold and silver and salts• Formalin as a preservative
Irish algebra, helped to put a man on the Moon
Sir William Rowan Hamilton 1805-18651843: invented Quaternion algebraHamilton also laid the foundations of quantum mechanics.
A great experimentalist: John Tyndall
• First proof of Greenhouse gas effect (absorption spectroscopy of gases)
• First explanation of why the sky is blue
•First proof of Pasteur’s germ theory
•Champion and populariser of science,
•Mountaineer & glaciologist
•Tyndall institutes
New micro drop analyser based on Tyndall’s work on spectrometry
The world’s largest telescope: 1845-1917
Birr Castle ‘Leviathon’, Restored to working order.
1845: Revealed the spiral nature of galaxies and nebulae
The whirlpool galaxy1845 Birr 2005 Hubble Space Telescope
1846: We invented seismology
Robert MalletIngenious engineer 1810-81
R&J Mallet: first seismic atlas of the world
Reveals the Pacific rim of fire, 1850s
George Francis FitzGerald 1851-1901
Radio waves, cosmic snowballs, the speed of light
Plaque at No 7 Ely Place
1892: First electrical measurement of starlight
Fitzgerald, Monck & Minchin, 16 Earlsfort Terrace
George Gabriel Stokes
Stokes’s conjectureStokes’s phenomenonStokes’s layerStokes’s lineStokes’s law of hydrodynamics Stokes’s aw of fluorescenceNavier-Stokes equations . . .
the stokes, the standard unit of kinematic viscosity, is equal to 1cm2/second.
Lucasion Professor at Cambridge (Newton and Hawking)
Thermodynamics and degrees Kelvin
William Thomson, Baron Kelvin 1824-1907
His many inventions included an instrument that made the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable possible.
We split the atom1951 Nobel physics prize Ernest Walton, with John Cockcroft
Experimental accelerator and detector, 1932
Proved e=mc2
Began the atomic era
Walton plaque, TCD Physics Dept
Erwin Schrodinger, Nobel prize 1933
The Austrian physicist lived in Dublin 1939-1956 and took Irish citizenship.
His book, ‘What is Life?’, written in Dublin, inspired a generation of biologists, including Crick and Watson.
Erwin Schrodinger plaque, 64 Merrion Square
J.D. Bernal, aka Sage1901-71
X-ray crystallography of biological molecules
X-Ray chrystallography
Dame Kathleen Lonsdale 1903-71
The structure of benzene and diamond, and other inorganic molecules
Engineering & technology
(Rather a lot of militaristic technology!)
Steam turbineCharles Parsons 1884 – made the 20th-century possible
We electrified the world!
Turbinia, 1890sParsons’s turbine-powered ship
. . . and revolutionised transport at sea
World’s first guided missile
Louis Brennan’s ‘dirigible’ torpedo, 1860s
Mallet’s ‘portable’ 36” mortar for the Crimean War
We changed the face of war
The first commercial submarine John Philip Holland, 1890s
Sir Howard Grubb
1902: The first effective submarine periscope
The world’s best telescopes
Grubb optical works, Rathmines: casting the Melbourne telescope
We proposed the Suez Canal
Explorer Francis Rawdon ChesneyImages: www.ulsterhistory.co.uk
Quality of life (and death). . .
Artificial fertiliser:Sir James Murray, 1817He invented a way to make minerals soluble for plants.
We revolutionised farming:
Lightweight tractor: Harry Ferguson, 1930sManufactured initially by Ford, replaced the horse
1991: Rooster potato
Teagasc Oakpark Carlow
Francis Rynd, Dublin’s Meath Hospital
1843 The hypodermic syringe
Arthur LearedFirst exhibited Crystal Palace, London, 1851
1851: The modern stereo, rubber stethoscope
John Joly’s ‘Dublin Method’, used radon gas in place of radium
1910-14 First effective radiotherapy for cancer
John Joly:Colour photography 1890sThe steam calorimeter
Sir James Martin, 1893-1981Image: www.martin-baker.com
Saving military pilots: the MB ejector seat
1860: The humane hangman’s drop
Lucinda Sly, hanged on this trapdoor, Carlow 1835
Rev Samuel Haughton
And now for something completely different. . .
What made Guinness great was quality control and statistics . . .
William Sealy Gosset, Guiness Brewer
1908 Student ‘t’ test
We invented whiskey . . . Not once, but twice!
In the Middle-Ages, missionaries and Crusaders brought distilling back from the Arab world.The Irish distilled beer, and made the first proto-whiskey
The continuous, column still – the first heat exchange deviceAeneas Coffey, 1830Produced whiskey so pure it was almost industrial alcohol!
Milk chocolate: Sir Hans Sloane, 1680s
The Irish add milk to everything, inventing new industries, such as milk chocolate and Baileys cream liqueur.
Joe ‘Tayto’ Murphy
1954 Flavoured crisps
We’re still inventing flavours:Shamrock-flavoured crisps :-)
Gordon FosterTrinity College Dublin
1960s: The ISBN
The Penny Black: 1840World’s first adhesive stamp.Hard to separate
Dublin printer Henry ArcherThe Royal Mail paid him £4000 for his patents.
1850 Perforated stamps
Irish stamp marking 350 years of Boyle’s Law, in 2012Now ‘peel and stick’ -- but still with ‘perforations’
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