Today in History – February 7, 1984 – The first untethered spacewalks were made by Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart. Each used a manned maneuvering unit (MMU) in an orbit 150 nautical miles above the Earth. McCandless was the first to leave the cargo bay untethered in space. They were both charged with checking out the equipment by maneuvering within the cargo bay, then flying away and returning. Data were collected to test and demonstrate the capabilities of the MMU flights with the goal of eventually using it for a planned retrieval of the Solar Max satellite on a later shuttle mission.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on spacewalks and space exploration. For related educational resources, visit the Aerospace Engineering Education Community site. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Also on this date in 1863, the Law of Octaves was used as the basis for the Periodic Table and the in 1935 the first Monopoly game was marketed. Don’t laugh, educational games can be an engaging and effective form of learning in engineering.

Today in History – February 6, 1959 - Kilby patents the integrated circuit.

Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at the small Fairchild Semiconductor start-up company were both working on the concept of an integrated circuit in 1958. Prior to this invention, only parts of a circuit – such as the transistor – were fabricated using semiconductor technology.   Even though some of the other parts were composed of substrates using germanium or silicon, they were soldered together on other substrates to form the circuit.  The integrated circuit concept was to make all of the parts, such as the capacitors and resistors, and their connections out of silicon on a single chip. By September 12, Kilby had built a working model.

On February 6, 1959 Kilby applied for a patent and Texas Instruments was issued U.S. patent # 3,138,743 in 1964 for “Miniaturized electronic circuits”.

Noyce was aware of the work at Texas Instruments and was careful to improve on their design and submitted a more detailed patent application on July 30, 1959. On April 25, 1961, the patent office awarded Robert Noyce the first patent for an integrated circuit, while Kilby’s application was still being analyzed. Both Fairchild and Texas Instruments introduced commercial ICs  in 1961

Today, both men are acknowledged as having independently conceived of the idea and are given credit as the inventors of the integrated circuit. Kilby was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000. Most believe that Robert Noyce would have shared this prize had he been alive. (Nobel Prizes cannot be awarded posthumously.)

Jack Kilby is also well known as the inventor of the portable calculator in 1967 and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1970. Robert Noyce co-founded Intel in 1968.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on integrated circuits or view our Electrical Engineering Education community site.

Today in History – February 5, 1901 -the loop-the-loop roller coaster ride was patented. Building on concepts from earlier vertical loop roller coasters (1850′s) this design relied on centripetal forces to hold the car in the loop while traveling at high speeds. Edward Prescot patented and build the Loop-the-Loop of steel in Coney Island (upper left photo). Ironically,  Coney Island’s original gravity switchback railroad (see next paragraph) burned down in 1901, making way for the loop-the-loop. At the time, more people watched than dared to actually ride the looping roller coaster. They made more money charging to be in the viewing area than on the actual ride fees.

On December 22, 1885, LaMarcus Thompson patented the first Gravity Switchback Railway roller coaster (center photo above). It was also built at Coney Island and became the precursor to the modern roller coaster. At the top of one platform, riders climbed into cars and then rode them down a 600 foot track and up to another tower, where they were switched to another track. Thompson’s installation at Coney Island was also a business innovation a it was one of the first “pay per ride”, offering people a short escape from the real world to enjoy themselves for a short thrill. This started a tradition and business model that forms the basis for today’s theme and amusement parks.

Loved working with M.S. student Tim Jacobi who did his thesis on his idea for a roller coaster ride; a version of which was tested and built. Read more about Tim and the “Thrill Ride”.

See the Engineering Pathway’s resources on theme parks and roller coaster design. For curricular resources, visit the Mechanical Engineering Education, the Engineering Mechanics Education or the Engineering Management Education community sites.

February is African American History Month. Celebrate by browsing the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on African American scientists, engineers & inventors and our computing and engineering diversity websites.

Readers interested in inventions by African Americans may want to view the following blogs: Martin Luther King Day (January 20),  Ice cream scoop invented (February 2),  First patent by African American Inventor Latimer (February 10), First African American woman to receive an American medical degree (March 1),  First African American to recieve a patent (March 3),  The Real McCoy (July 12),  First African-American in Space, (August 30), Howard University founded in 1866 (November 20), John Hopkins hospital performs first open heart surgery (November 29), Rosa Parks Day (December 1), and Birth of first self-made millionairess (December 23).

Today in History – February 3, 1958 -  Rachael Carson publishes the Silent Spring. Rachel Carson, a writer, scientist and ecologist, worked seventeen years for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, where she learned about the problems of pesticides on the environment. She is best known for her book called Silent Spring, which is often credited with shifting public consciousness about the environment and providing the foundation for today’s environmental movement. Carson faced much hostility from chemical companies due to her criticism of the over use of pesticides and the lack of scientific and public oversight.

The Engineering Pathway has a number of resources on Rachel Carson and environmental ethics. I am particularly impressed with the ethics module hosted by the National Academy of Engineering titled Rachel Carson – Silent Springs. For more educational resources, see our agricultural engineering education, environmental engineering education and chemical engineering education community pages. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Carson was an engaging writer and some of her observations were hypotheses that did not stand the test of time after more thorough scientific analyses were conducted, making her the object of criticism even today. Yet one must understand that she was writing at a time that full scientific scrutiny was not available and it was “early days” of public disclosure of the effects of pesticides and other commonly used chemicals. I find John Tierney’s editorial in the New York Times, for example, to be unmindful of this context. He makes a good point that pesticides have had positive effects as well, such as greatly increasing yield of agricultural products and reducing the spread of diseases spread by insects; I agree, there are always tradeoffs in the implementation of any technology.

On the other hand, I find myself questioning Teirney’s own scientific integrity (no educational credentials in science that I know of) and have found his criticisms to often be out of context and misleading. I have been at the wrong end of his criticism for a report I co-authored with the National Academies titled: Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering. I suppose it helps sell newspapers, but for someone claiming the scientific high ground, he really seems to miss the point and loves to blow up controversial subjects in misleading ways. The Presidents of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Science and The Institute of Medicine immediately wrote an excellent response to Tierney’s criticism. Interested readers might also be interested in the editorial by two of the report’s co-authors as well, Jo Handelsman and Robert Birgeneau. I can only imagine the attacks Carson must have lived through a half decade ago, with most of the chemical industry using their vast resources to discredit her and the environmental movement she inspired. Fortunately, these same companies have come to recognize the importance of the environmental impact and sustainability of their products, not to mention, the market sensitivities.

Today in History – February 1, 1972 – First scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395. I was an undergraduate in engineering when the HP-35 was released. I couldn’t afford to buy one and stuck with my slide rule. But the next year, I gave in and bought the next model, the HP-45 and it was well worth the money at the time. The calculators were easy to use, portable and reliable. The market responded by developing cheaper calculators, while Hewlett Packard kept the cost high and increased the functionality.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on the electronic calculators and history of computing. For more educational resources, see our electrical engineering education and computer engineering education community pages. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Today in History – January 31, 1958 – Explorer 1 became the United States of America’s first satellite to orbit the Earth after it was launched on January 31, 1958. After the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, the United States of America embarked upon a program to launch it own artificial satellite. The first American attempt to launch a satellite using a Vanguard 1 rocket occurred in December 1957 and failed miserably.

Following this failure, the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency, located at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL, was directed to launch a scientific satellite using a Jupiter C rocket developed under Dr. Wernher von Braun. The artificial satellite was designed, built and operated by the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the direction of Dr. William Pickering.

The satellite instrumentation of Explorer 1 was a cosmic ray counter designed by Dr. James Van Allen, a physicist at the University of Iowa. The cosmic ray counter experiment was designed to measure the radiation that surrounds the Earth. Once in orbit, the cosmic ray counter began to overload and measured a much lower cosmic ray count than previously assumed. Given this new information, Dr. Van Allen theorized that the cosmic ray equipment may have been exposed to very strong radiation caused by a belt of charged particles trapped in space by Earth’s magnetic field.

The data returned by Explorer 1 and another satellite launched in March 1958 prove the existence of intense belts of radiation that surround the Earth. These belts of radiation are now called Van Allen Belts and are considered to be the first major scientific discovery of the space age.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on the Explorer I and satellites. For more educational resources, see our aeronautical engineering education and electrical engineering education community pages. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Today in History – January 28, 1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after launch, killing the entire crew. American’s stared in shock at their televisions watching the Challenger accident in full motion video. The 35th Challenger’s flight had been previously scheduled for January 22, but delayed because of bad weather, high winds and icicles on the launch apparatus. Never had there been a launch approved in freezing weather conditions, but NASA had assured the public that the conditions were safe. They were anxious to launch due to economic considerations and scheduling backlogs. Political pressure has been suggested as well due to NASA’s heavy publicizing of Christa McAuliffe as the first school teacher in space. She had been selected under a highly competitive process from among 10,000 entries for the opportunity. The Challenger disaster was a severe blow to the American space program, bringing manned flights to a halt for many years. It was also a blow to the American public who had come to think of the Space Shuttle as an important symbol of national identify.

Speaking before the launch, Christa McAuliffe said: “One of the things I hope to bring back into the classroom is to make that connection with the students that they too are part of history, the space program belongs to them and to try to bring them up with the space age.”

Morton-Thiokol, one of the contractors for the Solid Rocket Motor was convinced that the cold weather would cause problems and had briefed NASA about their concerns. Two engineers, Robert Ebeling and Roger Boisjoly had previously urged a redesign on the booster rockets due to O-ring erosion in the booster field joints. The lowest temperature experienced by the O-rings in any previous mission was 53°F in the January 24, 1985 flight; the temperature predicted for Florida on January 28th was much lower, in the low 20′s °F.

The Rogers commission confirmed the cause of the Challenger disaster explosion to have been caused by a leak through the faulty O-ring seal in one of the solid rocket boosters. According to testimony by Morton-Thiokol engineer Boisjoly, management put pressure on the engineers to OK the launch saying: “Take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat.” The recommendation was reversed, discounting the concern about the O-rings as being “inconclusive” and launch was recommended, “based on their engineering assessment”, even though the engineers had no part in this recommendation. In spite of concerns expressed by others, NASA managers decided to approve the boosters for launch despite the fact that the predicted launch temperature was outside of their operational specifications and any test conditions.

Engineers must learn from both the technical and organizational failures that led to the tragic Challenger accident. The Engineering Pathway digital library has information on several excellent case studies, lesson plans and other curricular materials that can be used in the classroom. The Texas A&M case, for example, leads to these discussions questions:

• “What could NASA management have done differently?
• What should Roger Boisjoly have done differently (if anything)? In answering this question, keep in mind that at his age, the prospect of finding a new job if he was fired was slim. He also had a family to support.
• What do you (the students) see as your future engineering professional responsibilities in relation to both being loyal to management and protecting the public welfare?”

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on the Challenger accident or engineering ethics.

Today in History – January 26, 1926 – Scottish Engineer John Baird gives first public demonstration of television in London. According to BBC News, his first prototype in 1924 was crudely made of a washstand, a tea chest and a project lamp in a biscuit tin, scanning disks made from carboard and lenses, all held together with srcap wood, darning needles, strings and sealing wax. Nevertheless, he managed to transmit a flickering image for a few feet. On 26 January 1926, he gave the first world’s demonstration to fifty scientists in London. By 1927 he was transmitting an image of over 438 miles between London and Glasgow and started the Baird Television Development Company. Other firsts include: first transmission of a human face in 1925 (see right photo above), first transatlantic television transmission between London and New York in 1928 and first demonstration of color and stereoscopic television.

Baird’s system was amazing in that it was entirely mechanical, but it couldn’t compete against new electronic systems, such as those being developed by Marconi in the United States. Marconi’s approach was ultimately adopted for early television systems, but Baird’s contributions paved the way by introducing the concept and providing the first proof of concept. Prior to this BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) was concentrating on radio production because they thought television would be a passing fad. In 1936 they adopted a television service using the electronic television technology developed by Marconi and thus Baird’s contributions are less well known.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on the color television. For more educational resources, see our electrical engineering education and computer engineering education community pages. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Also on this date in 1905, Cullinan Diamond (“Star of Africa”), the largest diamond ever found, is unearthed. On January 26, 1697,  Isaac Newton solves Bernoulli’s brachistochrone problem, inventing the “calculus of variations”. And in 1992, Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect.

Today in History – January 26, 1697-  Isaac Newton solves Bernoulli’s brachistochrone problem, inventing the “calculus of variations”. The story goes that Jean Bernoulli gave Isaac Newton a challenge solve the following problem in six months:

We are given two fixed points in a vertical plane. A particle starts from rest at one of the points and travels to the other under its own weight. Find the path that the particle must follow in order to reach its destination in the briefest time.

Rather than take 6 months, Newton is reported to have solved the problem the next day. However, the solution, which is a segment of a cycloid, was solved, in part, by Leibniz, L’Hospital, Newton and the two Bernoullis. In fact, there appears to have been quite a lively, and in some cases bitter, debate about the fine points of the solution. Regardless, the challenge was to provide the seed for further development of the theory of calculus of variation used in a wide range of engineering problems, such as optimal control and optimization.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on Isaac Newton, the Brachistochrone problem and calculus of variations.

Also on this date in 1905, Cullinan Diamond (“Star of Africa”), the largest diamond ever found, is unearthed. On January 26, 1926, Scottish Engineer John Baird gives first public demonstration of television in London. And in 1992, Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect. Check out the Engineering Pathway’s resources on teaching and learning for persons with disabilities.