Today in History – January 14, 2005 – Huygens Probe Lands on Titan. After spending seven years in space, the Huygens probe separated from the main Cassini spacecraft on December 24, 2004, and spent the next three weeks traveling to the moon Titan. After beginning its descent, it transmitted scientific data for nearly five hours [...]

[Read more →]

Today in History – January 13, 1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile. The plastic car Ford patented used soy-based plastics and was 25% to 33% lighter than conventional cars of his day. Ford’s dream was to use agricultural-based plastics to provide another market for farmers to sell their crops. Sustainability in design is [...]

[Read more →]

Today in History – January 09, 1839 – Louis Daguerre announces his photographic process. The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Niepce. Together with Louis Daguerre they further refined the process. The process involved silver-coated copper plates mixed with iodine to create a layer of silver iodine. After being exposed to light [...]

[Read more →]

Today in History – January 7, 1913 – William Merriam Burton is awarded the patent for thermal cracking. Cracking is a process where organic molecules and broken down into simpler molecules by breaking carbon-carbon bonds. This process is used to breakdown crude oil into one of its many products. These methods were pioneered in by [...]

[Read more →]

Today in History – January 5, 1892 – Construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge. After years of gathering support and funding for the bridge, Joseph Strauss oversaw its construction. The project was so massive that a Golden Gate District was formed to build the bridge. All in all the bridge ended up costing about [...]

[Read more →]