By Richard T. Cartwright, PE, CHMM, (IHMM, AHMP and APICS) Fellow
The saying, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” is more than a cliché. It is a reminder that we must constantly be learning from the past. Here’s a look back at major historical events that happened today in the world of hazardous materials.
February 7, 2008
After a massive sugar dust explosion that killed 14 workers and injured 38 others, the Chemical Safety Board released a statement encouraging industry to support a combustible dust standard.
February 7, 1984
“Bubble Boy”, who was born without immunity to disease, touched his mother for the first time after he was removed from a plastic bubble. David Vetter died two weeks later. He had lived since birth in this protective, germ-free environment. Born with a rare disorder called severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) he lacked T-cells. T cells belong to a group of white blood cells known as lymphocytes, which play a central role in cell-mediated immunity. The good news is that Duke University researchers in 1999 reported that early treatment with bone marrow from a parent or sibling can now save most SCID patients. After a few months, transplanted marrow stem cells, precursors to blood cells, can evolve to become a patient’s own T-cells.
February 7, 1932
James Chadwick, an English physicist, announced the discovery of a neutral particle inside the nucleus of atoms. After graduating from Cambridge, he worked in Berlin under Geiger. Later, Chadwick worked in England with Ernest Rutherford. He worked on the scattering of alpha particles and on nuclear disintegration. By bombarding beryllium with alpha particles, Chadwick discovered the neutron for which he received the Nobel Prize for Physics. He led the U.K.’s work on the atomic bomb in WWII.
February 7, 1904
A fire in Baltimore’s business district wind-whipped into uncontrollable conflagration (destroying 1,500 buildings in 80 blocks). The fire was believed to have been started by a discarded cigarette. The Great Baltimore Fire ($200 million in property damages) was the most destructive fire in the U.S. since the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
February 7, 1863
John Newlands, British chemist, organized known elements by listing them in a table determined by atomic weight, according to his law of octaves. He arranged elements both in order of succession and in such a way as to get elements with similar characteristics on the same line of his table. This required some fudging on Newlands’ part and ultimately resulted in some inaccuracies. In 1913, Henry Moseley established that properties of the elements varied periodically according to their atomic number, not atomic weight.
February 7, 1817
America’s first public street lamp fueled by manufactured gas illuminated a major street corner in Baltimore. The first U.S. commercial gas lighting company distilled tar and wood to manufacture its gas.
February 7, 1814
Gardner Colton, an American lecturer, was born. He was the first to administer nitrous oxide (laughing gas) as an anesthetic. Dentist Horace Wells attended one of Colton’s public demonstrations of the properties of nitrous oxide. Wells observed a volunteer paid no heed to any pain when he accidentally gashed his leg while stumbling around under the influence of a moderate dose of the gas. Wells suggested using the gas as an anesthetic, and even volunteered to have Colton administer nitrous oxide while one of Wells’ molars was extracted by another dentist.
February 7, 1812
The most violent of a series of four major earthquakes (7.7 magnitude) struck New Madrid, Mo. It created a fluvial tsunami on the Mississippi River causing the river to run backward for several hours. A series of tremors between December 1811 and March 1812 were the most powerful in the history of the U.S.’s lower 48 states.
February 7, 1804
John Deere, American agricultural equipment inventor and pioneer manufacturer, was born. As a blacksmith in a prairie town, he frequently repaired wood and cast-iron plows of eastern U.S. design because local soils were heavy and sticky. By 1838, he produced several suitable steel plows of his own new design. His agricultural machine business expanded upon moving to Moline, Illinois. The John Deere Company later diversified with production of harrows, drills, cultivators and wagons.
Historical hazardous materials management events are posted 365 days a year at this LinkedIn discussion group.
