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.
March 7, 1930
Stanley Miller, American chemist, was born. He made a series of famous experiments to determine the possible origin of life from inorganic chemicals on primeval, just-formed earth. He passed electrical discharges (simulating thunderstorms) through mixtures of reducing gases (hydrogen, ammonia, methane and water) believed to have been earth’s earliest atmosphere. Several days later, simple amino acids (basic building blocks of proteins) were formed. This primeval soup is accepted as a plausible explanation of the origin of complex organic molecules of life.
March 7, 1883
Danish chemist Johann Kjeldahl first reported his analytical method, which is still used today. The Kjeldahl method enables laboratory determination of the nitrogen content in organic compounds. It is a very practical procedure for applications in agriculture, medicine and drug manufacture. Kjeldahl developed his method to investigate the protein content of grain and its transformation during beer fermentation. His method replaced previous inexact and more cumbersome procedures.
March 7, 1876
Scottish-born, Canadian/American inventor Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his telephone. Inside his telephone, sound waves caused electric current to vary in intensity and frequency, causing a thin, soft iron plate, called the diaphragm, to vibrate. These vibrations were transferred magnetically to a wire connected to a diaphragm in another, distant instrument. When that diaphragm vibrated, the original sound was replicated in ear of the receiving instrument.
Historical hazardous materials management events are posted 365 days a year at this LinkedIn discussion group.
