Evangelista Torricelli (1607-47):
This Italian mathematician and physicists best known for the invention of the barometer for measuring atmospheric pressure. Before he became professor of philosophy and mathematics in 1642, he was secretary of the famous scientist Galileo.Torricelli gave a definition of atmospheric pressure, and invented the barometer in 1643. To honor him, a unit of atmospheric density and barometric pressure, called the torr, is named after him.
image source: 8e57487048d92f1d4381-b1cf9e400bde416ba8b02c6592a8690c.r16.cf2.rackcdn.com/8CC5DE8A-9115-49E4-99A4-843F7500229C.jpg
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-99):
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Was a German chemist after whom the Bunsen burner, a gas burner used in laboratories, was named. However, the real inventor of the burner was Michael Faraday. Bunsen only improved the design and helped popularize the burner. Bunsen is considered one of the greatest chemist of the 19th century. He has several discoveries to his credit, including the antidote for arsenic poisoning, and the zinc-electric cell.
Sir William Henry Bragg (1862-1942):
Was a British physicist. he and his son Sir William Lawrence Bragg the 1915 Nobel Prize in physics, the first father-son team to win the awards, for their study of the structure of crystals using x-rays (the same rays that are used to take photographs of Brocken bones in the body). During the First World War, Bragg led a research team that invented the hydrophone, an instrument use to detect submariners.
Michael Faraday (1781-1867):
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Was one of the most prominent scientist of the nineteenth century. He made important discoveries in both physics and chemistry. His most important discovery was that a current flows in a wire that is moved through a magnetic field. This phenomenon led to the invention of the electric generator. Faraday investigated what happens when electricity is passed through liquids and solutions, the field that of study known as electrolysis. The two fundamental laws in this field that he formulated are know as Faraday’s law of electrolysis. Faraday’s work in chemistry include the discovery of the important organic chemical benzene.
Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827):
This Italian physicist is known for his pioneering work in electricity. He made the first electric battery, called the voltaic pile. Among his many other contribution to science was the invention of the device known as the electrophorus which produce static charges. Napoleon made Volta a Count in honor of his work. Volta, the unit of electric voltage, is name after him.
Hermann Staudinger (1881-1965):
ADVERTISEMENTS:
In 1920, this German chemist proposed for the first time that plastics were made of giant long chain molecules. The lead to a sudden burst of scientific investigations on plastics. As a consequence, a large number of new plastics were introduced in the 1920s and 1930s. This included PCV. Staudinger won the Nobel Prize in1953 for contributing to the development of plastics.
Benjamin Peary Pal (1906 – 1989):
This Indian agricultural scientist worked on the development of disease-resistant varieties of wheat. He was the first Director of the India Council of Agricultural Research at New Delhi.
Henry Walter Bates (1825 -92): This English naturalist and explorer developed the theory of mimicry to explain similarities among species. His work was used by Charles Darwin as proof of his theory of natural selection. During his 12 year travels along the upper Amazon river, he collected specimens of nearly 15000 animal species, more than half of which had not been classified earlier.
Frederick Gardner Cottrell
An American chemist, in 1906 invented the electrostatic precipitator, an electrical device for removing suspended impurities such as dust, fumes or mist from air and other gases. It has proved to be of immense use in removing pollution causing substances from the exhausts of factories and power plants. It works by charging the polluting molecules and then depositing them on electrodes which are oppositely charged. (Recall that opposite charges attract each other.)