Here is a list of ten most popular scientists across the world.
1. Galielei Galileo (Who Wonderstruck People from the Leaning Tower of Pisa):
The story of Galileo and Leaning Tower of Pisa is well- known in the history of science. At the age of 23, when he was working as a lecturer in Mathematics in Pisa University, he read in a religious book that if two bodies of different weights are allowed to fall simultaneously from the same height, the heavy body will hit the ground first. In fact, this was a statement made by Aristotle. Galileo was the first man who proved this statement wrong.
For this he selected the 180 feet high Leaning Tower of Pisa.
On the demonstration day, Galileo went up to the seventh floor of Pisa Tower with two metal balls weighing 100 pounds and 1 pound respectively. Thousands of people had turned up to witness his experiment. Among the crowd were many professors and students of Pisa University. Many superstitious spectators had blind faith in Aristotle’s statement given thousands of years earlier. They were freely abusing Galileo.
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Galileo put both the balls on one edge of the roof very carefully. Some people among the crowd became curious, but most spectators were whispering with each other that this man would prove to be a fool very soon by his own experiment. Galileo dropped both the balls simultaneously. The people were wonderstruck when the two balls hit the ground at the same time. In this way, many years old superstition was proved wrong scientifically. People may differ about the truth of this story. However, it is true that Galileo could understand many facts about gravitation and that is why he could prove the truth by his experiment.
Galileo, even after 350 years of his death, is still considered as one of the greatest scientists of the world. He was the first man who disproved many old notions by his experiments, although there were no sophisticated instruments available at that time. This Italian scientist right from his childhood was deeply interested in studying nature and science. That is why he could see every natural event with a scientific angle.
When he was 17 years old, one evening he went to Church to pray. It was getting dark and the caretaker was lighting the candles in the candelabra which hung from the roof by a chain. When he left it, it started swinging to and fro. Young Galileo observed it keenly and noticed that the time taken in each swing was the same. There were no watches during those days to measure the timing, but being a medical student he knew that the beat of the human pulse is fairly regular. To prove his observation he counted the number of pulse beats for each swing. He observed that each swing, whether big or small, took the same time. On this basis he made an instrument which is known as pulse meter. Later his son Vinsenji made the wall-clock on this basis. This has developed into today’s pendulum clock.
Galileo fabricated the first telescope. He has written in one of his books that when the news of his telescope reached Venice, the king Sing Aroia called him. The whole court was surprised to see this instrument. Many people went up to the top of the Venice Church and saw the ships nearly 10 times nearer with the help of this instrument. For about a month his telescope was tested by many people. With this instrument Galileo later explored the universe. With his telescope, he saw the satellites of Jupiter. He also proved that our Milky Way is composed of millions of stars.
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Galileo established the validity of the views of Copernicus. Copernicus had said that the sun is the centre of the universe, not the earth. Galileo also said that earth is not the centre of the universe, but like other planets it also revolves round the sun. When in 1616, he proved for the first time that the sun was the centre of the universe, and the earth revolves around the sun, he was summoned before the officials of the Church and was warned to stop this propaganda. Due to this binding he did not give any public speech till 1630.
After that Galileo published his famous book Dialogues Concerning the Two Principal Systems of the World. In this book, Galileo expressed his views freely. This was an offence in the opinion of Church officials, and as a result the 70-year old scientist was summoned before the court once again. The authorities were willing to pardon him if he accepted that his statements were wrong.
It is said that after acute pressurisation Galileo rose to admit his folly and discard his scientific beliefs. But his conscience rebelled and he was overcome with repentance. He looked towards the ground and said in a broken voice – “It is the earth which moves around the Sun.” For this defiance the aged scientist was put in prison. In 1637, Galileo became blind, and in January 1642 he passed away.
2. Charles Darwin (Who Laid the Foundation of the Modern Theory of Evolution):
Charles Darwin was the British naturalist who propounded the theory of evolution. Before him, it was believed that each species of life on earth appeared separately and that none had ever changed its form. He disproved this belief and established from his studies that evolution is the law of nature and all living things on earth have descended from common ancestors who lived millions of years ago. All plants and animals have evolved in an orderly way and continue to change even today.
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Charles Darwin was born at Shrewsbury in 1809, and was brought up by his eldest sister from age of eight. As a child, he had a passion for collecting insects and minerals and he made simple experiments in chemistry. At the age of 16, he went to Edinburg University to study medicine. But he was too gentle and sensitive to become a successful physician. The study of anatomy disgusted him and he was horrified by the surgical operations which, at that time, were performed without any anaesthetics. As a medical student, he was a great failure.
In 1828, he left Edinburg and went to Cambridge to study Theology. At Cambridge, he neglected his studies and spent more time in the pursuit of beetles than of theology. He just managed to take his degree. But during his stay at the university, he made valuable friends, including the professors of botany and geology.
In 1831, came his great opportunity. A naturalist was required to accompany a scientific expedition, which would sail round the world in the brigantine HMBS Beagle under the command of Captain Fits Roy. Two of Darwin’s Cambridge friends recommended him for the post. He went on the voyage which lasted for five years.
During this voyage, Darwin made collections of bones of extinct animals. He became increasingly interested in the relationship between the extinct animals and the existing ones. The strange marine iguana, the tortoises and the finches on the Galapagos Islands in the pacific puzzled him at first, because similar, yet quite different, forms of the same animals appeared on separate islands. Later, his observations on this subject helped him with his ideas on evolution.
On his return from this voyage, Darwin stayed in London for some time to write an account of his travels. In 1839, he married his cousin Emma Wedgowood, and, in 1844, they moved to Downe House in Kent.
During this period, Darwin received a letter from the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who had formed similar conclusions about evolution. A joint paper by Darwin and Wallace was read in 1858. In 1859, he put the theory of evolution in his famous book, ‘The Origin of Species by Natural Selection’. The book was published in the same year and its first edition was sold out on the day of its publication.
In this book, he set out the evidence that all the varied forms of life on earth could, in the course of time, have evolved from a common ancestry. He also pointed out that in the struggle for life only the ‘fittest’ creatures would survive and others die out.
The book created uproar when it was first published, because it was thought that it contradicted the religious belief about the creation of the world. But later, it was accepted by, practically, all biologists.
In 1868, he published another book, ‘The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication’ which is probably his second most important work. It tells that man, by selective breeding, could create quite distinct breeds of pigeons, dogs and other animals and also on a much larger scale, distinct varieties of plants. Other books which he wrote were – ‘The Various Contrivances by which Orchids are Fertilised by bisects’, ‘Insectivorous Plants’, ‘The Power of Movement in Plants’, ‘Descent of Man’, and ‘The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms’. In the last book, the part played by earth worms in maintaining the fertility of the soil was shown for the first time.
Darwin died at the age of 74 and was buried in Westminister Abbey, not far from the tomb of Sir Issac Newton. He had 10 children of whom seven survived him. Four of his sons were eminent scientists, and three of them, like their father, became fellows of the Royal Society.
3. Benjamin Franklin (The Famous Politician and Scientist):
There was a time when high- rise buildings were destroyed quite frequently by lightning. Benjamin Franklin invented a device for the protection of tall buildings from lightning. This device is known as the lightning conductor. The lightning conductor is a long metal rod with its upper end pointed. It is fixed on the roof of the building and its lower end is put into the earth. When an electrically charged cloud passes over the tall building, its charge is absorbed by the rod and relayed into the earth through the metal rod, and the building is protected from lightning. Today, almost all tall buildings in the world are fitted with lightning conductors. The story of the invention of the lightning conductor is very interesting.
In 1752, Benjamin Franklin conducted an experiment in connection with electrically charged clouds. He flew a homemade kite during a thunder storm. The kite was made of a silken cloth mounted on a wooden cross. About one foot of iron wire was protruding above the kite. A key was tied to the end of the metal string connected with the kite and the other end of the key was tied to a silken ribbon which Franklin held while flying the kite.
A bolt of light struck the kite wire and travelled down to the key causing a spark. This proved that lightning is electricity. It also proved that large electrically charged clouds can be brought to the earth. On the basis of this, Franklin invented the lightning rod for the safety of buildings from lightning of clouds.
The lightning conductor which was developed by Benjamin Franklin can be made as follows. Take a long strip of iron or copper, one end of which should be put about three to four feet deep into the earth and the strip running along with the tall building should be fitted in such a way on the roof that the other end of the strip protrude six to seven feet above the roof of the building. On this end a wire of brass about one foot in length should be fixed. With this equipment, the building will be fully protected from lightning, because the electrical charge from the cloud will travel through the metal strip into the earth.
During those days Professor Ritchman was also conducting some experiments related to the electricity of clouds. He made an apparatus for this purpose. When a thunder storm was expected, he stood under his apparatus. As soon as lightning struck, a blue fire ball travelled down the apparatus, and struck his head. The impact made a sound as if a pistol had been fired. The fire ball killed the professor instantaneously. Many such events happened in other parts, of the world also. Franklin was just fortunate that he was unharmed during his experimentation.
After 1753, many lightning conductors were made in the U.S.A. During those days, lightning conductors were called Franklin rods. In 1760, Edstone Lighthouse was protected by such a rod. In 1769, a committee was constituted in London to protect important buildings from lightning. Benjamin Franklin was appointed the chief of this committee.
In 1772, when a big store of gun-powder was destroyed in Italy due to lightning, the British gun-powder stores were protected by fitting lightning conductors on their roofs. Benjamin Franklin was nominated a member of this committee also. Even today, lightning conductors are made on the basic principle discovered by Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin was the son of a soap and candle maker. He was the tenth son among the seventeen children of his parents. He became a famous politician, philosopher, diplomat and inventor. He is best known as a scientist in the field of electricity.
Benjamin’s interest in science was not confined to electricity. He also studied the movement of the Gulf stream in the Atlantic ocean. He spent much time charting the Gulf’s temperature, speed and depth. He demonstrated to naval officers and scientists that sailors could calm a rough sea by pouring oil on it.
Franklin invented several other devices besides the lightning rod. The Franklin stove proved very useful for heating rooms. By arranging the fuels in his stove in a certain way, he made his sitting room twice as warm with one-fourth as much fuel as he had been using. Franklin’s invention of bi-focal eye glasses is widely made use of today. This invention allowed both reading and distant lenses to be set in a single frame.
Franklin discovered that disease spreads rapidly in poorly ventilated rooms. He also proved that acidulous soil can be improved by using lime.
Franklin refused to patent any of his inventions. He would not use them for profit. He preferred to have them used freely for the comfort and convenience of everyone. Franklin’s scientific achievements won him many honours. He was elected the member of the Royal Society, London. This was a rare honour for a person living in the colonies.
Benjamin Franklin made significant contributions in the independence of the U.S.A. He was one of the famous politicians who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1766.
A famous writer has written about two happiest incidents of Franklin’s life. One, when Franklin was flying the kite, he touched the key and felt so much pleasure which he had never felt before. The second was when he signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1887, he also helped to draw up the Constitution of the U.S.A. This great statesman and scientist died on April 17, 1790.
4. Blaise Pascal (Who Gave Pascal’s Law in Hydrostatics):
A seven-year old boy was busy making geometrical figures on the ground. He was so absorbed in his play that he was not aware of the surroundings. Suddenly, his father came in and scolded him. He snatched his books of mathematics. The father thought a boy of his age should not study a drab and difficult subjects like mathematics. But the boy continued his mathematical studies, and made some conclusions. At the age of 12, he proved before his father that the sum of the three angels of a triangle was equal to two right angles.
His father was impressed and allowed the boy to study mathematics freely. The name of this boy was Blaise Pascal, who, at the age of 12, proved this theorem which has become a universal theorem of geometry today. At the age of 17, he published an essay relating to mathematics which was admired by scientist like Descartes.
Pascal was a well-known mathematician, physicist, philosopher and religious writer. Perhaps, there may not be any student who has not studied Pascal’s law. According to this law when pressure is applied at any point in a fluid, it gets transmitted equally in all directions. On the basis of this law, the inventions of syringe, hydraulic press and hydraulic brakes became possible.
Pascal was born and brought up in France. He invented a triangle called Pascal’s triangle which consists of rows of numbers arranged in a certain way. It has proved very useful in the study of probability.
Pascal’s father was an accountant in the local administration. He used to do official work at home even late at night. Pascal was very unhappy about it. To help his father, he decided to develop a calculating machine which would reduce the pressure on his father in mathematical calculation. He invented a calculating machine which was operated by gear wheel. This machine could do the operations of addition and subtraction. It helped his father a great deal. He got this machine patented, but being costly, it could not be manufactured on a large scale. Based on Pascal’s model, the first commercial calculating machine was made by an American engineer William Burrughs in 1892.
Pascal did a lot of work on geometry, probability, hydrostatics, integral calculus etc. He wrote several religious books also. Early in 1659, Pascal fell seriously ill, and in 1662 he died.
5. Alexander Graham Bell (The Father of Telephone):
The telephone is a gift of science by which we can talk to our friends and relatives stationed thousands of kilometres away from us. It has connected one part of the world to the other. The credit of inventing the telephone goes to Alexander Graham Bell. He invented this useful device after prolonged experimentation. Later, Thomas Alva Edison made many improvements in it. The story of its invention is very interesting.
On 2nd June 1875, Alexander Graham Bell was working in his laboratory along with his assistant Thomas Watson. They were doing some experiments in sending several telegraph signals over one wire at the same time. During these experiments, Bell became interested in sending voice over a wire. One day, Bell was working on his telegraph receiver in one room while Watson was working in the other room. Bell was trying to hear something in his receiver. When the vibrations in the wires were stopped Watson produced some sound with his fingers.
This sound was heard by Bell. He became very happy with this achievement, and went running to Watson and told him that he had heard the sound of his fingers. After that they did some more experiments. Graham Bell’s first words on telephone were – “Watson, Watson, come here, I need you”. After making many improvements, Bell was issued a patent in 1876. A year later, he founded the Bell Telephone Company.
Bell was born in Scotland on March 3, 1847. He was brought up in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of 25, Bell opened a school in Boston to educate dumb and deaf people. In his spare time, he worked on the instruments which could be useful to the deaf. Although he could not succeed in the development of such instruments, on the basis of these experiments he was able to invent the telephone.
While he was doing some experiments in improving the telegraph, before the invention of the telephone, he met Thomas Watson, an expert in the field of telegraphy. They became friendly to each other, and Watson proved of great help to Bell. Ultimately Graham Bell developed the telephone on 2nd June 1875, with the help of Watson.
After making a successful telephone instrument, Bell demonstrated its performance in many countries. This brought him worldwide fame. In August 1877, Bell got married and the couple went for their honeymoon with a telephone set. One week after coming back, a telephone was installed in the gallery of the House of Commons. From this place, a part of the parliamentary proceedings was transmitted to an office of a newspaper. The first permanent telephone line was laid in Berlin in November 1877. In 1878, when Bell came back to the U.S.A., he found that telephone exchanges were being set up in there. Many improvements were made in the working of telephone by Thomas Alva Edison.
By 1915, telephone system had advanced to the extent that a 3400 miles long line was laid under the sea. Bell was invited from New York to inaugurate this line. Bell asked at the time of inauguration that Watson should be on the other end of the line. Bell then repeated the same old words – “Watson, come here; I need you”. In reply to this the laughing voice of Watson was heard – “Sir, at this time I cannot come to you, because I am so far off from you that it will take me one week to reach you”.
Bell was a very polite man. Success had not gone to his head. When he died in 1922 at the age of 75, all telephones in the U.S.A. remained silent for one minute in the memory of this great scientist.
6. James Clerk Maxwell (Scientist who gave Electromagnetic Theory of Light):
To understand light was a great puzzle to Scientists right from the time of Newton. For this, different scientists gave different theories. Some described light as particles and others as waves. Most of the scientists thought of ether as the medium through which light travels. The theories which were used to explain light were incomplete in one way or the other. This problem was solved by a British physicist, James Clerk Maxwell. He developed the electromagnetic theory of light which stood solid as a rock on all experimental fronts. This theory alone made Maxwell one of the world’s greatest scientists.
Nobody thought a simple child born in a village would develop a theory of science which would not only bring him world fame, but also resolve many problems of physics. This great scientist was born in Edinburgh. His father was a rich man. When he was only eight his mother expired and his father brought him up.
Right from his childhood Maxwell was very much attached to nature. He felt thrilled at the sight of lakes, mountains, and springs. He would often get totally lost in the colourful scenes of nature. Nature played an important role in developing his talent. It might be a gift of nature that, later he succeeded in giving an equation for various colours.
There is an idiom that coming events cast their shadows before, which became true for Maxwell. The signs of intelligence in him started appearing when he was a child. At the age of 15, he developed a mechanical method to make cartesian oval. Cartesian oval is a type of curvature m geometry. Maxwell wrote a paper on this method which was published by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. When he was 18, he did significant research related to the equilibrium between rolling curves and elastic solids. He presented these research papers also before the Royal Society. He wrote a sensational paper related to the rings of Saturn, for which he was bestowed the Adam Award.
The actual development of Maxwell’s talent took place when he came in contact with the Scottish scientist, Nichol. Nichol proved to be a great teacher for him. Maxwell started doing research on Nochol prism which proved very useful in developing Maxwell’s research capability. With Nichol, he published a research paper on colour blindness.
The most famous discovery of Maxwell was the electromagnetic theory of light. For this work, he got the inspiration form Michael Faraday. Although Faraday had himself known that light is electromagnetic in nature, but being not educated he was unable to give any mathematical base for this. Maxwell conducted many experiments to understand the electromagnetic nature of light and later gave the mathematical form to this. He later published his findings related to this subject in a paper called Dynamical Theory of Electromagnetic Field. After eight years, he published a book on the subject entitled Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.
Maxwell’s electromagnetic waves also propagated the elastic hypothetical medium ether. Later, the concept of ether was totally rejected, but his Electromagnetic Theory is true even today.
Apart from developing the Electromagnetic Theory, he made a disc which is known as Maxwell Disc. He also worked on Kinetic Theory of gases, and Maxwell Boltzmann Statistics. He worked in the world famous Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge and was made the first Cavendish professor of Physics at Cambridge in 1871. He strongly believed that real science should aim at helping the common man.
Apart from being a great scientist, Maxwell was also good at swimming, gymnastics and horse riding. He was a good poet too. This great scientist died in 1879 while serving the cause of science. Although Maxwell is not with us today, his electromagnetic theory will always serve the mankind.
7. Edward Jenner (Discoverer of Smallpox Vaccination):
About 250 years ago, smallpox was the most dreadful disease. Most of the sufferers died. Those who survived became ugly or blind. During the outbreak of an epidemic, thousands of people perished.
People were aware about smallpox for several centuries. They knew that a person who had suffered from smallpox once, would not get it again. Even during epidemics, such people remained unaffected. There was a cow disease called cowpox. In the west of England, people believed that dairymaids who had caught cowpox disease from their cows became immune to smallpox.
Jenner did more than any other person to reduce the menace of smallpox by discovering the smallpox vaccination.
Edward Jenner was born in 1749. His first interest was natural history. He studied medical science with great interest. During those times, anyone who wanted to study medicine had to undergo apprenticeship under an experienced surgeon. After this he was required to study for two years in a medical college or university. Jenner was apprenticed to a surgeon at the age of 13 in a village called Sodbury near Bristol, and then studied under John Hunter, a surgeon, in London up to the age of 21.
During his training period in 1766, a dairymaid came to the surgeon’s room to seek some advice. During the discussion that followed, the dairymaid told Jenner that she suffered from a disease called cowpox. Cowpox is a disease of cows, and one who milks a cow suffering from this disease can get it. Cowpox is a mild disease in which mild sores appear on the fingers and hands of the sufferer.
After completing his training at St. George Hospital, London, Jenner went back to Berkeley in 1773 and began his medical practice. After several years, he thought of the observation of the dairymaid. He enquired about this belief from many other persons, and found that they also held the same view.
In 1796, Jenner decided to put this belief to test. He took some fluid from a cowpox sore on a dairymaid’s finger. Then he injected this into an eight-year old boy named James Phipps. The boy had a mild attack of cowpox. Then after seven weeks, Jenner took some fluid from the sore of a man suffering from smallpox and injected it into the arm of James Phipps. The boy was not affected by smallpox germs. This clearly proved that he had become immune to smallpox due to cowpox.
At first, nobody took Jenner’s experiment seriously. Some medical practitioners believed that cowpox and smallpox were two different diseases, and by being injected with the cowpox germs, one could not be protected from smallpox. Some people made an adverse propaganda against him and said injecting a fluid from a cowpox sore into the human blood was a dreadful act. Jenner ignored all opposition, and explained that when man had been drinking cow’s milk, for thousands of years, there was nothing wrong about injecting the cowpox fluid into the human body. Even in the face of adverse public opinion, he went on collecting cowpox fluid consistently for the formulation of his smallpox vaccination.
Soon, the practice of vaccinating for the prevention of smallpox became widespread, and Jenner won world-wide acclaim for its discovery. He was honoured in many countries. In Holland and Switzerland, Clergymen asked people to get vaccinated. In Soviet Russia, those who were vaccinated first were given free training in vaccination, and were named vaccinoff. Jenner was awarded large sums of money by British Parliament in 1802 and 1806.
Jenner also made many other discoveries about animals. His last study was on the migration of birds. He devoted his whole life on fighting against smallpox. It is due to Jenner’s vaccine that all countries of the world have no fear of smallpox, and all human beings are immune to this dreaded disease. This great man died in 1823. Today, Jenner is not with us but his smallpox vaccine will always be used for the welfare of the mankind.
8. Leonardo Da Vinci (Who was called Ten Men-in-One):
Leonardo da Vinci has been called ten men in one. He was a painter, inventor, lute player, sculptor, military engineer, scientific observer, anatomist, architect, town planner and designer. The many facets of Leonardo’s genius earned him the tide ‘universal man’. His head was bustling with ideas about new devices and inventions. The 7,000 pages of his notebooks are an astonishing jumble of fantastic landscapes, studies of anatomy, engines of war, drainage systems, flying machines, puzzles, ciphers and codes.
The ‘universal man’ was the illegitimate son of a well-to-do lawyer. Little is known of his mother, Caterins, except that she married a builder and surrendered Leonardo to his father. In 1469, the father moved to Florence, where Leonardo was looked after for many years by uncle. At 14, after he had shown great talent in modelling, his father apprenticed him to the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio where he received a many-sided training. Leonardo remained in Florence till the age of 30, studying and working, but earning little.
In 1482, he wrote to the Duke of Milan, offering him his professional services. The Duke engaged him as military engineer in which position he devised numerous equipments ranging from chemical smoke to armoured vehicles and powerful weapons. He designed a weapon which was capable of producing a rain of shots.
At Milan, he worked as, an architecture also. He designed streets, canals, churches, staircases, stables, brothels, central heating systems and satellite towns. In 1495, he started working on his famous painting ‘Last Supper’ which was completed in 1497.
In 1499, Leonardo moved to Venice. The war with Turkey was on. He produced many innovations for sinking the Turkish fleet, such as mine boats, ram ships, submarines and bullet-proof vests for their crews. But his ideas were considered too expensive and fanciful to be put into use.
After 1500, Vinci returned to Florence where in 1503 he started work on his famous painting ‘Mona Lisa’. Mona Lisa would come to the great master’s studio for sittings every afternoon. After three years’ hard work, the painting was completed in 1506. After seeing the completed portrait, Vinci was himself fascinated by it. The enigmatic expression has tantalized millions of beholders over the centuries. Now this painting is on display in Louvre Museum in France.
After completing this painting, Vinci moved back to Milan where he stayed from 1506 to 1513. At that time Milan was under the French rule. There, he was commissioned to paint an altar-piece – The Virgin with Child and St. Anne. In 1513, he moved to Rome and the final stage of his life was spent as the guest of King Francis I, who granted him a pension.
Leonardo created many innovative designs of flying machines, both with flapping wings and rotating propellers. He gave detailed sketches of the human body. He constructed a water-clock, and suggested the use of ball-bearings. To aid the engineers of his day, he designed a crane for lifting heavy building blocks. This great ‘universal man’ died in 1519.
9. Sir Isaac Newton (Who Invented the Law of Gravitation seeing a Falling Apple):
The year was 1665. A young man returned to his native village, Woolsthorpe, for holidays. One day, the young man was sitting under an apple tree in his mother’s beautiful garden. Suddenly, he saw an apple falling to the ground. He began to wonder why the apple fell towards the ground. Why did it not go left, right or upward. Why all the bodies fell towards the earth? He concluded that there must be some force that attracts all things towards the earth. He also concluded that all bodies, from the lightest petal to the biggest star, attract each other by some force. Do you know who that young man was? He was the world famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton.
On the basis of the falling apple, Newton gave his famous ‘Law of Universal Gravitation’. According to this law, everybody in this universe attracts every other body with a force which is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Sir Isaac Newton is called the father of Physics, and is considered as one of the greatest scientists of the world.
The childhood of Newton was very interesting. He was sent to school at the age of twelve. In school he did not do well, though he was very good at drawing and mechanical inventions. An uncle of his, aware of this talent, arranged for him to go to Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of nineteen. In 1665, he did his graduation from there. He was fortunate to have worked with his professor of mathematics, Isaac Barrow, who saw an extraordinary talent in Newton. In 1669, Barrow gave up his professorship so that Newton could succeed him. Thus Newton became the professor of mathematics in Trinity College at the age of twenty-seven.
In 1672, Newton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his work in mathematics.
Newton solved many mysteries of nature. He showed that the sunlight which appears white is, in fact, composed of seven colours – violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. These seven colours can be separated with the help of prism, and the mixture of these seven colours produces white light. By rotating the Newton’s Disc seven colours can be merged to form the white colour.
Newton gave three ‘Laws of Motion’ which even today are taught to the students of physics. He also invented the mathematical method known as calculus. Actually Newton gave new dimensions to mathematics and physics.
Newton published his discoveries in the form of two books. His studies of light were described in his book ‘Opticks’ and his other findings were described in his second book ‘Principia’.
There are many stories about Newton, but the following incident is very significant and portrays his great personality. This incident occurred when he was a professor in Trinity College. At that time, he was about 51 and was engaged in compiling all his research experiments in the form of a book. One day, early in the morning, he went to the chapel for prayers. In his absence, a rat came onto the table and started destroying his research papers.
His faithful dog, Diamond, jumped at the rat to protect his master’s papers. During this scuffle, a burning candle fell on the papers and destroyed them. When Newton came back, he found that his work of many years had been turned into ashes. Newton did not lose his temper, but said to his dog – ‘Oh Diamond, you don’t know what mischief you have played’. It is said that this incident deeply shocked him, and affected his health to the extent that he almost lost his power of arguments.
In 1689, he was elected a member of parliament, representing his university. In 1703, he was elected President of the Royal Society and thereafter was re-elected President every year until his death. In 1705, he was knighted by Queen Anne in a special ceremony at Cambridge. But in spite of all these honours, he remained a modest, reserved man.
Even in old age, Newton was involved in discovering new things about heavenly bodies. At the age of 85, he went to London to preside over a meeting of the Royal Society. On his return he fell ill, and died on March 20, 1727. In scientific achievements, the name of Newton stands at the very pinnacle together with the names of Galileo and Einstein.
10. John Logie Baird (Inventor of Television):
A stupendous improvement over radio, television not only enables us to hear the news, but also gives us the visual impression of the event taking place in far off cities, countries and even continents instantaneously or within a short time.
This important communication device was not developed by a single man in a single day, but the most important contribution in the development of television was made by John Logie Baird. He was the first man who successfully televised messages in Great Britain in 1926.
John Logie Baird was born on August 13, 1888, in Helensburg near Glasgow. His father was an educated clergyman, but his income was quite low. Baird had two sisters and one brother, all elder to him. Before going to school, he spent most of his time with the son of a gardener. He had his primary education in a nearby school. In those days, photography was an important extracurricular subject in his school. He showed a keen interest in it and became the president of photography society of his school. Baird was so intelligent that even at the age of 12 he made a television line with the help of his friends and connected his top floor room with the houses of his four friends.
Later, he was educated at the Royal Technical College and the University of Glasgow. Despite ill health, he became an assistant engineer after five years of education. At the age 26, he was working in an electronic company at a salary of 30 shillings per week. After the First World War, he started manufacturing socks. From this, he earned about 1600 pounds.
After this, he opened a small factory for making jam and sauce. Due to the little consumption of these items, he had to stop this work also. Since he was not keeping good health, he decided to go to his friend in Trinidad. Baird had a happy time during his journey! He entered the ship’s radio cabin and became friendly with the operator. During the course of discussion, both of them discussed the possibility of sending pictures through the air.
In 1922, Baird returned to London at the age of 34. He was jobless, and had very little money. During these days of poverty, his determination to invent the television picked up. Baird prepared the outline of his experiment. He took hold of an old tea chest and obtained a cardboard box meant for packing hats. He cut a circular disc in it. He purchased an old electric motor from a junk dealer in which this disc with many holes was fitted.
When he rotated this disc, the illuminated object was projected in the form of light spots. He used variety of other materials such as projection lamp, selenium cell, neon lamp, radio valves etc. during his lengthy experiments. He made many adjustments in his apparatus for transmitting and receiving the signals. In the spring of 1924, his hard work bore fruit. He succeeded in transmitting the shadow of a Maltice cross up to a distance of three yards.
Baird had no money to proceed with his experiments. He advertised in newspapers for monetary help. As a result of these advertisements, he was able to collect some money. In 1925, the son of a shopkeeper named Gordan Selfriz came to see him and offered him some money. Baird gave him a demonstration of his television in his shop. It was a primitive demonstration in which blurred images were transmitted on to a screen.
On October 2, 1925, Baird used a specially built device for converting light into electrical signals in his apparatus. When he put on the switch of his apparatus, he was spellbound to see the result. He saw that the whole picture was clear and consistent. In January 1926, Baird gave the first very successful demonstration of the television pictures.
In 1929, German post office authorities offered him the facilities for establishing television services. In 1928, he had started working on colour television, and in 1929, he demonstrated it successfully. In 1929, Baird began a daily black and white service using a BBC transmitter. In 1936, however, the BBC became more interested in a system developed by Marconi, and Baird’s method of transmission was totally defeated by Marconi’s method.
Baird carried out researches on television throughout his life. In spite of bad health and shortage of money, he continued work on colour television even up to 1945. This great scientist died in 1946 due to exposure. Though many honours were given to Baird after his death throughout his life he struggled hard but received no honour.