Today in History – March 9, 1964 – First Ford Mustang rolls off assembly line. Ford sold 22,000 of the sporty car on the first day of sales in April 1965. The Mustang was one of the most successful product launches in automotive history with over one million units sold in its first 18 months. The craze continues today as new models capture America’s youthful spirit.

The very first Mustang – the 1962 Mustang I Concept – made its debut in October 1962, and its name was a tribute to the legendary North American P51 Mustang fighter plane from World War II. The first regular production Mustang that rolled off the assembly line on March 9, 1964 was a Wimbledon White convertible with a 260-cubic inch V-8. Mustang is currently at its fifth generation since 2005.

The birth of Mustang
The ford company was experiencing a downswing in 1964. Chevrolet Corvair Monza had pulled ahead in sales even though Ford Falcon had had good sales in years past. Lee Iacocca, Ford Division general manager at that time, came up with the idea of creating a car that could be designed by the people. Though initially rejected, he eventually talked management into going along with this plan. In order to keep the development costs down, the new vehicle used as many parts from existing Ford car models as possible. The chassis, suspension and drivetrain components were inherited from the Ford Falcon and Fairlane. The car had a unitized platform-type frame, which was taken from the 1964 Falcon, and welded box-section side rails, including welded crossmembers. The durability problems with the new frame led to the unusual step of engineering the convertible first. The resulting new Ford automobile is a two-seater convertible – known as Mustang.

Some fun facts and stories:

• While the first Mustang was on a promotional tour of Canada, a Ford dealer in St. Johns, Newfoundland ‘mistakenl’ sold the car to Caption Stanley Tucker, a pilot with Eastern Provincial Airlines. Ford reacquired the car from Capt. Tucker in 1966 in exchange for Mustang number 1,000,001, and the original car is now on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.
• Mustang sales reached the one million-mark in 1966. To-date, more than eight million have been sold, and it has been the best-selling sports car for 17 years straight years.
• Mustang was the first, and perhaps only, car to park on the 86th floor observation deck of New York’s Empire State Building. In October 1965, Ford engineers disassembled a 1966 Mustang convertible and took it up in four sections using the building’s passenger elevators.
• The Ford Mustang SSP (Special Service Package) was a lightweight police car package based on the Ford Mustang produced between 1982-1993, and was meant to provide a speedier option for police departments. The SSP was a special Foxbody Mustang trim made exclusively for law enforcement use.
• Mustangs have figured prominently in the movies, including the James Bond films “Goldfinger” and “Diamonds are Forever” staring Sean Connery, “Bullitt” starring Steve McQueen, and “Gone in 60 Seconds” (both the original 1974 film and the 2000 remake starring Nicholas Cage).
• Mustang recently made its appearance as new avatar of KITT, a car with the most advanced artificial intelligence technologies, in the short TV movie “Knight Rider” premiered on 17 February, 2008 on NBC. This moive was a story continued from the popular TV series “Knight Rider” from 1982 staring David Hasselhoff. The car used in the 1982 series was a Pontiac Firebird.

See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on the Ford Mustang and automotive engineering and design or visit the Mechanical Engineering Education Community site.

Also on this date in 1611, Johann Fabricius discovers sunspots and in 1859 the first escalator was patented.

Part of the information on this page comes from Wikipedia – Ford Mustang, History of the Ford Mustang and Ford Motor Company Press Release.

Today in History – March 8, 1775 – Priestley discovers oxygen through experiments with mice. Oxygen was independently discovered in the 1770’s; the most famous names associated with this discovery are Joseph Priestley, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier. Credit is usually given to Joseph Priestley as he had the first publication on the discovery (“Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air”). Earlier Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered that red-hot manganese oxide (MnO₂) produces a gas he called “fire air”. In 1774 Priestly reproduced an earlier experiment by pharmacist Pierre Bayen in which heated mercury oxides produced a discharge of gas and a loss of mass. Lavoisier also performed a similar experiment and made note of the gas in his notebook. On March 8, 1775, Priestley demonstrated with mice that sealed containers of the new gas could support life longer than atmospheric gas. He experimented on himself and said that he felt “peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards. Who can tell but that, in time, this pure air may become a fashionable article in luxury.” He speculated that the gas was “dephlogisticated air”, using what would soon be a discredited phlogiston theory. The name “oxygen” was actually coined by Lavoisier and he is credited with best appreciating the discovery’s significance and developing a systematic theory of combustion.

For more information see the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on Joseph Priestley and the discovery of oxygen. For related curricular resources, visit the Chemical, Biochemical, Biomolecular Engineering disciplinary communities.

Also on this date is International Women’s Day.

Today in History – March 7, 1979 -  Voyager 1 transmits first images of a ring system around Jupiter. Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977 and it passed Saturn in November 1980. A second spacecraft, the Voyager 2, was launched earlier on August 20, 1977. Later in 1979 improved images were provided by Voyager 2 after it went into the shadow of Jupiter and looked back toward the sun. The Voyager 2 images clearly revealed a system of three rings. One image captured a faint outer ring made up of fine, microscopic particles and was named the “gossamer ring”.

Voyager 1 continued a trajectory that took it out of the solar system, making it the most distant spacecraft from Earth and our Sun (as far as we know). It  passed the termination shock, the place where the solar wind abruptly slows down, and traveled through a zone called the heliosheath where the Sun’s magnetic field and solar wind dominate the environment. Its boundary, called the heliopause, is where the interstellar wind takes over. Although Voyager 2, was launched earlier, the Voyager 1 reached the outer solar system and interstellar space earlier due to its trajectory design for outer space and gravity-assist from Jupiter. The Voyager crafts are estimated to have sufficient electrical power to operate their radio transmitters until at least after 2025 – over 48 years after launch.

Sharing Carl Sagan’s belief that Earth is not the only planet with advanced technology, I find the “Golden Record “ one of the most interesting parts of the Voyager mission. This gold-plated copper “phonograph record” is a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. Assembled by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, these sounds and images were “selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth“.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on the Voyager 1 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 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patents the first telephone. For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on the Alexander Graham Bell and telecommunications. Additional curricular materials can be found on the Electrical Engineering Education Community site.

March 8th is International Women’s Day – “a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future”. On March 8th and the weekend before, thousands of events are held throughout the world to celebrate women’s achievements and highlight global issues concerning women and girls.

March is also Women’s History Month. This celebration was initially inspired by the March 8th 1857 protest by women factory workers in  New York City over working conditions. As a consequence,  International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909. It wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week  in the U.S. to be commemorated the second week of March and expanded it in  1987 to cover the entire month.

Below I highlight some of our blogs on women’s contributions to engineering, computer science and entrepreneurship.

Mary Kies was the first woman to receive a U.S. patent. There were many women inventors before her, but prior to the Kies patent U.S. Patent law would not let women own a patent, or property for that matter

Patricia Galloway, first female president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), blogs on Elsie Eaves – first female engineer in ASCE to be elected as a full member on March 14, 1927.

Lucy Sanders, CEO of the Center for Women in Information Technology blogs on the unveiling of the ENIAC on February 14, 1946, the world’s first digital electronic computer, as well as on the contributions of women in computing.

Jasmina Vujic, Chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of California at Berkeley, blogs on Lise Meitner and her groundbreaking publication that first introduced the world to nuclear fission on February 11, 1939.

Chad-Eric Montgommery blogs on two African American women. On March 1, 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African American woman to receive a medical degree. Also see the blog on Sara Breedlove Walker, the first self-made millionairess hair product inventions for African American women.

Check out Michael Smith blog’s on Josephine Cochrane’s patent for the first commercially successful dishwasher on December 28, 1886.

Pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Helen Taussig, was one of the doctors at Johns Hopkins who performed the first open heart surgery on November 29, 1944.

I enjoyed researching the blog for November 13, 1913  Mary Phelps Jacobs invents modern bra. And also for the one on Dr. Mary Walker, the first female army surgeon to be awarded the Medal of Honor on November 11, 1875. Mary Kies was the first woman to receive a U.S. patent, on May 5, 1809. My daughter blogs on Florence Rena Sabin as the first woman to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences on April 25, 1925.

This year we can  celebrate Ruth Handler’s invention of the Barbie doll, now that the first Barbie computer engineer has been announced.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s many educational resources on women in engineering, women in information technology, women inventors and gender equity. One of my favorite resources is FairerScience, with practical advice on how to develop gender equitable classrooms and practices in math, science and engineering. We also have community groups in engineering diversity and broadening participation in computing portal.

For a more indepth analysis of the issues associated with gender equity in our faculties and recommended solutions, read our “most commented” resource – the National Academies’ Beyond Bias and Barriers report. My editorial on the report was published in ASEE Prism, November 2006, vol. 16 (3). During the last presidential election both the Obama and McCain  commented on the report and other issues concerning women in science and technology during the election.   We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions as well.

Also on this date – March 8, 1775 – Priestley discovers oxygen through experiments with mice.

Today in History – March 5, 1991 – The 5 millionth patent is issued for a process turning garbage into fuel by Lonnie O. Ingram, a professor of microbiology at the University of Florida; Tyrell Conway, a former post-doctoral student at the university, and Flavio Alterthum, a visiting professor who is now chairman of the microbiology department at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. See related resources on biofuels and renewable energy.

The first U.S. patent went to Samuel Hopkins on July 31, 1790 for an improvement “in the making Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process.” President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson signed the patent. Only two other patents were granted that year, one for a new candle-making process and the other the flour-milling machinery of Oliver Evans.

The Engineering Pathway has a number of educational resources on patents and inventors. I’m a big fan of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). NCIIA “fosters invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship in higher education as a way of creating innovative, commercially viable, and socially beneficial businesses and employment opportunities in the United States.” The website provides information on faculty and student grant opportunities, conferences and resources.

One question I’ve had is why do we not hear more about patents by women? It turns out that pior to the U.S. Patent Act of 1790, only men could author a patent. Even after the federal law was passed, women couldn’t patent as most states did not allow women to legally own property. For example, there is much speculation that the authorship of the cotton gin patent of 1794 should have included Catherine Greene on the patent, as well as that of the African American slaves who also were not allowed to patent. In fact, it was not until March 3, 1831 that Thomas Jennings became the first African-American to receive a patent for his invention of ‘dry-scouring’, a process better known today as dry-cleaning. See Chad-Eric Montgomery’s March 3rd blog on this event.

Mary Kies’ invention was a process for weaving straw with silk or thread. Alas the patent file was destroyed in the great Patent Office fire in 1836 and an exact copy of the patent is no longer available. Kies invention has been credited for boosting the U.S. hat industry. Even First Lady, Dolley Madison praised her contributions. Until about 1840, most of the other 20 patents issued to women concerned applications that women saw in their everyday work: apparel, tools, cook stoves, and fire places.

As March is Women’s History Month, I highlight some of our other blogs on women’s contributions to engineering, computer science and entrepreneurship.

Patricia Galloway, first female president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), blogs on Elsie Eaves – first female engineer in ASCE to be elected as a full member on March 14, 1927.

Lucy Sanders, CEO of the Center for Women in Information Technology blogs on the unveiling of the ENIAC on February 14, 1946, the world’s first digital electronic computer, as well as on the contributions of women in computing.

Jasmina Vujic, Chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of California at Berkeley, blogs on Lise Meitner and her groundbreaking publication that first introduced the world to nuclear fission on February 11, 1939.

Chad-Eric Montgommery blogs on two African American women. On March 1, 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African American woman to receive a medical degree. Also see the blog on Sara Breedlove Walker, the first self-made millionairess hair product inventions for African American women.

Check out Michael Smith blog’s on Josephine Cochrane’s patent for the first commercially successful dishwasher on December 28, 1886.

Pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Helen Taussig, was one of the doctors at Johns Hopkins who performed the first open heart surgery on November 29, 1944.

I enjoyed researching the blog for November 13, 1913  Mary Phelps Jacobs invents modern bra. And also for the one on Dr. Mary Walker, the first female army surgeon to be awarded the Medal of Honor on November 11, 1875. Mary Kies was the first woman to receive a U.S. patnet, on May 5, 1809. My daughter blogs on Florence Rena Sabin as the first woman to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences on April 25, 1925.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s many educational resources on women in engineering, women in information technology, women inventors and gender equity. One of my favorite resources is FairerScience, with practical advice on how to develop gender equitable classrooms and practices in math, science and engineering. We also have community groups in engineering diversity and computing diversity.

For a more indepth analysis of the issues associated with gender equity in our faculties and recommended solutions, read our “most commented” resource – the National Academies’ Beyond Bias and Barriers report. My editorial on the report was published in ASEE Prism, November 2006, vol. 16 (3). Obama and McCain Campaigns both commented on the report and other issues concerning women in science and technology during the election.  Read a side-by-side comparison here. The first one concerns the recommendations of the Beyond Bias and Barriers report. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions as well.

Today in History-March 3, 1831–Thomas Jennings became the first African-American to receive a patent for his invention of ‘dry-scouring’, a process better known today as dry-cleaning.

As a free man, he established a local business in New York in which he sold clothing. However, customers became disgruntled that there was no means to effectively clean the materials used in the clothing Jennings sold. He took it upon himself to find a solution to this problem. He began testing cleaning liquids in hopes of finding a better way to clean the clothing, the one that worked best was the ‘dry-scouring’ idea which he sought and received patent for in 1831. “Under the United States patent laws of 1793 (and later, as revised in 1836), a person must sign an oath or declaration stating that they were a citizen of the United States” in order to receive a patent. Before the laws revision in 1836, slaves were allowed to make patents also. Since Jennings was free, he was able to patent his idea. It is documented that the money he received from the patent was used to free his family and endorse the abolishment of slavery. However, when the law which allowed him to make his patent was revised in 1836 (5 years after receiving his patent), slaves could not make patents because they were not considered citizens. This law was revised, after slave-owner Oscar Stuart took credit for his slave (Ned’s) invention of the ‘double cotton scraper’. He claimed, “the master is the owner of the fruits of the labor of the slave both manual and intellectual”. This case is essential in understanding the importance of Jennings status as a free man. His freedom validated his citizenship at the time of his patent making him the first African American to receive a patent. Jennings went on to serve as “the assistant secretary for the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania”. His accomplishments are extraordinary, making him a monumental figure ‘Today in History’.

For more information, browse the Engineering Pathway’s resources on African American scientists, engineers & inventors and our engineering diversity website.

Readers interested in inventions by African Americans may want to view the following blogs: 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),  First African-American in Space, (August 30), Howard University founded in 1866 (November 20), John Hopkins hospital performs first open heart surgery (November 29), and Birth of first self-made millionairess (December 23).

March is Women’s History Month. This celebration was initially inspired by the March 8th 1857 protest by women factory workers in  New York City over working conditions. As a consequence,  International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909. It wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week  in the U.S. to be commemorated the second week of March and expanded it in  1987 to cover the entire month.

Below I highlight some of our blogs on women’s contributions to engineering, computer science and entrepreneurship.

Mary Kies was the first woman to receive a U.S. patent. There were many women inventors before her, but prior to the Kies patent U.S. Patent law would not let women own a patent, or property for that matter

Patricia Galloway, first female president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), blogs on Elsie Eaves – first female engineer in ASCE to be elected as a full member on March 14, 1927.

Lucy Sanders, CEO of the Center for Women in Information Technology blogs on the unveiling of the ENIAC on February 14, 1946, the world’s first digital electronic computer, as well as on the contributions of women in computing.

Jasmina Vujic, Chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of California at Berkeley, blogs on Lise Meitner and her groundbreaking publication that first introduced the world to nuclear fission on February 11, 1939.

Chad-Eric Montgommery blogs on two African American women. On March 1, 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African American woman to receive a medical degree. Also see the blog on Sara Breedlove Walker, the first self-made millionairess hair product inventions for African American women.

Check out Michael Smith blog’s on Josephine Cochrane’s patent for the first commercially successful dishwasher on December 28, 1886.

Pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Helen Taussig, was one of the doctors at Johns Hopkins who performed the first open heart surgery on November 29, 1944.

I enjoyed researching the blog for November 13, 1913  Mary Phelps Jacobs invents modern bra. And also for the one on Dr. Mary Walker, the first female army surgeon to be awarded the Medal of Honor on November 11, 1875. Mary Kies was the first woman to receive a U.S. patent, on May 5, 1809. My daughter blogs on Florence Rena Sabin as the first woman to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences on April 25, 1925.

This year we can  celebrate Ruth Handler’s invention of the Barbie doll, now that the first Barbie computer engineer has been announced.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s many educational resources on women in engineering, women in information technology, women inventors and gender equity. One of my favorite resources is FairerScience, with practical advice on how to develop gender equitable classrooms and practices in math, science and engineering. We also have community groups in engineering diversity and broadening participation in computing portal.

For a more indepth analysis of the issues associated with gender equity in our faculties and recommended solutions, read our “most commented” resource – the National Academies’ Beyond Bias and Barriers report. My editorial on the report was published in ASEE Prism, November 2006, vol. 16 (3). During the last presidential election both the Obama and McCain  commented on the report and other issues concerning women in science and technology during the election.   We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions as well.

Dr. Crumpler was born in Delaware to Absolum Davis and Matilda Webber in 1831. Interestingly enough, the date she received her degree was one year after the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 – in other words, she received her degree only a year after slavery became illegal (slavery wasn’t even considered fully abolished until 13th amendment which occurred December 12, 1865). Obviously, the discrimination faced at these times for African Americans was unimaginable. Dr.Crumpler didn’t stop with the medical degree; she began her practice in Boston shortly thereafter before moving to Richmond, Virginia at the end of the Civil war in 1865. Richmond, Virginia was part of what was known as the Southern Black Belt. She arrived in Richmond during the Reconstruction era. During this period, blacks experienced very intense discrimination as they struggled to fully break free from the chains of slavery. Dr.Crumpler moved to Richmond because she felt it would be “a proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children. During my stay there nearly every hour was improved in that sphere of labor. The last quarter of the year 1866, I was enabled . . . to have access each day to a very large number of the indigent, and others of different classes, in a population of over 30,000 colored.” In 1883, she published her book “Book of Medical Discourse” in which she gave a summary of her career path. There are no known images of Dr.Crumpler, but the magnitude of her accomplishments are extraordinary making her a prominent figure today in history.

For more information, browse the Engineering Pathway’s resources on African American scientists, engineers & inventors, gender equity, and our engineering diversity website.

Today in History – February 29, 1940 – The Nobel Prize in Physics was presented to Ernest Lawrence “for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements”. Due to WWII, the prize could not be awarded in Sweden and was awarded instead in Berkley, California on this date.

In 1929 Ernest Lawrence invented the cyclotron, a particle accelerator designed to bombard atoms of various elements, disintegrating the atoms to subparticles, sometimes resulting in completely new elements. Hundreds of radioactive isotopes of the known elements were discovered from the cyclotron, including the transuranium element, plutonium, the first synthetic element to be produced on a large scale. Ernest Lawrence’s brother, John, collaborated with him in studying medical and biological applications of the cyclotron, laying the foundation for today’s diagnostic tools and radiation treatment for cancer.

During World War II Ernest Lawrence made vital contributions to the development of the atomic bomb under the Manhatten Project. After the war he worked hard to obtain international agreement on the suspension of atomic-bomb testing and was a member of the U.S. delegation at the 1958 Geneva Conference on this subject. His work to “control the atom” from misuse was controversial and his lack of support for colleagues brought before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities during the control war came under criticism by both the right and the left.

This discovery provides an interesting case in engineering ethics and the social implications of technology. Today, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), named after Lawrence, has taken the lead in a diverse range of projects in particle physics and energy, such as environmental energy technologies.

See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on particle physics and the cyclotron or visit the Nuclear Engineering Education, Chemical Engineering Education or Engineering Ethics community sites for more information.

It is interesting to note that Lawrence grew up in a small town in South Dakota. My grandfather, who worked as an aeronautical and civil engineer, went to high school with him and recalls that small towns in the West provided fertile ground for young minds excited about opportunities in science and engineering. The Hewlett Foundation has recently re-visited this concept and is funding the Engineering Schools of the West Initiative.

Today in History – February 27, 1932 - Chadwick publishes his discovery of the neutron. Until 1932, the atom was known to consist of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by enough negatively charged electrons to make the atom electrically neutral. Most of the atom was empty space, with its mass concentrated in a tiny nucleus. The nucleus was thought to contain both protons and electrons because the proton (otherwise known as the hydrogen ion, H+) was the lightest known nucleus and because electrons were emitted by the nucleus in beta decay.”

So how was the neutron discovered? After four years as a prisoner of war in WWI in Germany, James Chadwick returned to his native England to rejoin the mentor of his undergraduate days, Ernest Rutherford, who was now head of Cambridge University’s nuclear physics lab. Chadwick received a PhD under Rutherford in 1921 and then became his assistant director of the lab.

In 1919 Rutherford discovered the proton, a positively charged particle within the atom’s nucleus. But Rutherford and Chadwick and other researchers were finding that the proton did not seem to be the only particle in the nucleus.

As they studied atomic disintegration, they kept seeing that the atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus, equivalent to the positive charge of the atom) was less than the atomic mass (average mass of the atom). Take the helium atom, for example, with an atomic mass of 4, but an atomic number (or positive charge) of 2. Since electrons have almost no mass, it seemed that something besides the protons in the nucleus were adding to the mass. One leading explanation was that there were electrons and additional protons in the nucleus as well — the protons still contributed their mass but their positive charge was canceled out by the negatively charged electrons. So in the helium example, there would be four protons and two electrons in the nucleus to yield a mass of 4 but a charge of only 2. Rutherford also put out the idea that there could be a particle with mass but no charge. He called it a neutron, and imagined it as a paired proton and electron. There was no evidence for any of these ideas.

Chadwick kept the problem in the back of his mind while working on other things. Experiments in Europe caught his eye, especially those of Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie. They used a different method for tracking particle radiation. Chadwick repeated their experiments but with the goal of looking for a neutral particle — one with the same mass as a proton, but with zero charge. His experiments were successful. He was able to determine that the neutron did exist and that its mass was about 0.1 percent more than the proton’s. He published his findings with characteristic modesty in a first paper entitled “Possible Existence of Neutron.” He received the  Nobel Prize in physics in 1935 for this discovery.

See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on James Chadwick and the neutron. or visit the Nuclear Engineering Education and the Chemical Engineering Education community sites for more information.