January 19, 1736: James Watt, Scottish instrument maker & inventor, was born. His steam engine contributed substantially to Industrial Revolution. He improved Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine, which was simple in design: it acted as a pump & a jet of cold water was used to condense the steam. Watt improved on this design by adding a separate condenser & system of valves to make the piston return to top of the cylinder after descending. He later adapted the engine to rotary motion, making it suitable for variety of industrial purposes, & invented the flywheel plus the governor. January 19, 1991: Kuwait Oil Fires were set by retreating Iraqi army at end of the Gulf War. At peak, the oil well fires were burning at the rate of six million barrels per day. It took 10 months to extinguish all the fires. Bad news was that half a billion gallons of crude oil spilled into the Persian Gulf. January 19, 1982: Heater exploded in Oklahoma Elementary School, where 6 students & their teacher died. January 19, 1981: Earthquake (6.8-magnitude) struck Indonesia, where 305 people died. January 19, 1922: U.S. Geological Survey predicted Americas oil supply would run out in 20 years. This was not the first or last false warning of petroleum shortages. January 19, 1917: TNT ammunition factory exploded near London, England, where 73 people died. Fire broke out in melt-pot room, which ignited hazardous materials being processed. Debris was strewn for miles around, with red-hot chunks of rubble creating numerous fires. January 19, 1915: Georges Claude, French engineer & chemist, received U.S. patent for his neon light invention. January 19, 1883: Heavy fog in North Sea caused collision of two steam ships, where 357 people died. For those who did not make it onto a lifeboat, cold water was deadly. Hypothermia & drowning claimed hundreds of lives within minutes. January 19, 1825: Thomas Kensett, American engraver, along with his father-in-law Ezra Daggett, patented food storage in tin cans. January 19, 1813: Sir Henry Bessemer, British inventor & engineer, was born. He developed first process for manufacturing steel inexpensively. Bessemer converter removed impurities from molten pig iron by oxidation through air being blown through the molten iron. Oxidation raised temperature of the iron mass, keeping it molten. The oxidation process removed impurities such as silicon, manganese, & carbon as oxides, which oxides either escaped as gas or formed a solid slag.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 20:04:25 +0000
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