1939 in science

	…1929; 1930; 1931; 1932; 1933; 1934; 1935; ; 1936; 1937; 1938; 1939; 1940; 1941; 1942; ; 1943; 1944; 1945; 1946; 1947; 1948; 1949…;
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

The year1939 in scienceand technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

Robert Oppenheimerjointly predicts two new types of celestial object:
- WithGeorge Volkoff,he calculates the structure ofneutron stars.^[1]
- WithHartland Snyder,he predicts the existence of what will come to be calledblack holes.^[2]

Biology

Autumn –DDT's properties as aninsecticideare discovered byPaul MüllerofGeigy.^[3]

Cartography

Kavrayskiy VII projectiondevised byVladimir V. Kavrayskiy.^[4]

Chemistry

January 7 – French physicistMarguerite Pereyidentifiesfrancium,thelast chemical elementfirst discovered in nature, as a decay product of²²⁷Ac.^[5]
April 30 –Nylonfabric is first introduced to the general public at theNew York World's Fair.
July –Edward Adelbert DoisyofSaint Louis Universitypublishes the chemical structure ofvitamin K.^[6]
Linus PaulingpublishesThe Nature of the Chemical Bond,a compilation of a decade's work onchemical bonding,explaininghybridization theory,covalent bondingandionic bondingas explained through electronegativity, andresonanceas a means to explain, among other things, the structure ofbenzene.^[7]

Computer science

September 4 –Alan TuringandGordon Welchmanreport to the United KingdomGovernment Code and Cypher School,Bletchley Park.^[8]
October –John V. AtanasoffwithClifford Berrydemonstrate the first prototypeAtanasoff–Berry ComputeratIowa State University.^[9]
Publication ofVannevar Bush's article "Mechanization and the Record" proposing aproto-hypertext collective memorymachine which he soon afterwards calls 'memex'.

History of science and technology

Cornelis de Waardbegins to publish theJournaalofIsaac Beeckman.
Philosopher and historianAlexandre Koyréoriginates the termScientific Revolutionto describe the emergence ofmodern scienceduring theearly modern period,from the lateRenaissanceto the late 18th century.^[10]
Quarry Bank Mill,an 18th-century working (at this time)cotton millin northwest England, is donated to theNational Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.

Mathematics

Richard von Misesposes thebirthday probleminprobability.^[11]

Physics

January–February – Discovery ofnuclear fissionis announced independently byOtto HahnandLise Meitner.^[12]^[13]^[14]On January 26,Niels Bohrreports the splitting of the uranium nucleus with a release of two hundred million electron volts of energy to a conference on the campus ofGeorge Washington Universityin Washington, D.C.^[15]
August 2 – TheEinstein–Szilard letteris signed byAlbert Einstein,advising President of the United StatesFranklin D. Rooseveltof the potential use ofuraniumto construct anatomic bomb.It is delivered on October 11.
October 21 – First meeting of theAdvisory Committee on UraniumunderLyman James Briggs,authorised by President Roosevelt to overseeneutronexperiments.

Physiology and medicine

John H. Lawrenceuses beams of energizedneutronsfrom aparticle acceleratorto treat a patient withleukemia.
DrsPhilip Levineand Rufus Stetson publish a first case report on the clinical consequences of non-recognizedRhfactor,hemolytictransfusion reactionandhemolytic disease of the newbornin its most severe form.^[16]
Maudsley Hospitalmoves to an evacuated school in north London as theMill HillEmergency Hospital where treatment ofcombat stressis pioneered.
Intramedullary rodis first used by GermanGerhard Küntscher.

Technology

January 1 –Hewlett-Packardis founded as an electronics company inPalo Alto, California.
January 11 – First flight of theLockheed P-38 Lightningin the United States.
August 27 – Flying theHeinkel He 178,Erich Warsitzmakes the first flight entirely onturbojetpower (theHeS 3 jet engine).
November 1–2 –Physicist Hans Ferdinand Mayerwrites theOslo Reporton German weapons systems and passes it to the BritishSecret Intelligence Service.
December 29 – First flight of the Consolidated XB-24 "Liberator"bomber prototype in the United States.
Homer Dudleyand Robert Riesz ofBell Labsin the United States publicly demonstrate theVoder(voice operating demonstrator)speech synthesismachine.
Kirlian photographyis invented bySemyon Kirlian.
American industrial psychologistFritz Roethlisberger,with William J. Dickson, publishesManagement and the Worker: an account of a research program conducted by the Western Electric Company, Hawthorne works, Chicago.

Events

November 6 –Sonderaktion Krakau:TheGestapoarrests scientists from theJagiellonian Universityand other institutions inKraków,Poland;on November 27 they are sent toSachsenhausen concentration camp.

Awards

Nobel Prizes

Births

January 20 –Chandra Wickramasinghe,Ceylonese-born British astronomer.
January 22 –Helmut Rauch,Austrian physicist (died2019)
April 17 –Jan Hoem,Norwegian population scientist (died2017)
May 12 –Chuck Hull,American inventor, pioneer of3D printing.
May 13 -Brian J Ford,British biologist, broadcaster, writer and lecturer.
May 18 –Peter Grünberg(died 2018), German physicist, winner of theNobel Prize in Physics.
May 19 –Dick Scobee(killed 1986), Americanastronaut.
June 26 –Julia Polak(died 2014), Argentine-born Britishpathologistand pioneer oftissue engineering.
June 28 –Klaus Schmiegel,German-born organic chemist, inventor ofProzac
August 12 –David King,South African-born British physical chemist.
August 19 –Alan Baker(died 2018), English mathematician.
September 9 –John Dwyer,Australian public health practitioner.
September 24 –Jacques Vallée,French ufologist.
October 7
- John Hopcroft,American theoreticalcomputer scientist.
- Harry Kroto(died 2016), English organic chemist, winner of theNobel Prize in Chemistry.
October 10 –Neil Sloane,Welsh-born American mathematician.
November 7 –Barbara Liskov,American computer scientist,Turing Awardwinner.
November 11 –Alf Adams,English physicist.
November 18 –John O'Keefe,American-born Britishneuroscientist,winner of theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Deaths

February 4 –Edward Sapir(born 1884), American anthropological linguist.
February 12 –S. P. L. Sørensen(born 1868),Danish chemist.
March 6
- Cuthbert Hilton Golding-Bird(born 1848), Englishsurgeon.
- Dorothea Pertz(born 1859), Englishbotanist.
April 26 –Anne Walter Fearn(born 1867), American physician.^[17]
May 14 –Fanny Searls(born 1851), American botanist.^[18]
July 15 –Eugen Bleuler(born 1857),Swiss psychiatrist.
September 23 –Sigmund Freud(born 1856),Austrian-bornpsychoanalyst.
October 7 –Harvey Cushing(born 1869), Americanneurosurgeon.

References

^Phys. Rev.55:pp. 374–381. 1939.
^Phys. Rev.56:pp. 455–459. 1939.
^"The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1948".NobelPrize.org.RetrievedMay 11,2011.
^Snyder, John P. (1993).Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections.University of Chicago Press.ISBN 978-0-226-76747-5.
^van der Krogt, Peter."87 Francium".Elementymology & Elements Multidict.RetrievedJanuary 7,2019.
^MacCorquodale, D. W.; Binkley, S. B.; Thayer, S. A.; Doisy, E. A. (1939). "On the Constitution of Vitamin K₁".Journal of the American Chemical Society.61(7): 1928–1929.doi:10.1021/ja01876a510.
^"Linus Pauling: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954".Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1942–1962.Elsevier. 1964.RetrievedFebruary 28,2007.
^Smith, Michael(2007).Station X: the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park.Pan Grand Strategy Series (rev. ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. p. 60.ISBN 978-0-330-41929-1.
^Mollenhoff, Clark R. (1988).Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer.Ames: Iowa State University Press.ISBN 978-0-8138-0032-5.
^Shapin, Steven(1996).The Scientific Revolution.University of Chicago Press.
^Crilly, Tony (2007).50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know.London: Quercus. p. 133.ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
^Hahn, O.; Strassmann, F. (January 6, 1939). "Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle".Naturwissenschaften.27(1): 11–15.Bibcode:1939NW.....27...11H.doi:10.1007/BF01488241.S2CID 5920336.
^Meitner, Lise; Frisch, O. R. (February 16, 1939)."Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction".Nature.143(3615): 239–240.Bibcode:1939Natur.143..239M.doi:10.1038/143239a0.S2CID 4113262.Archivedfrom the original on May 25, 2011.Retrieved22 May2011.
^Frisch, O. R. (February 18, 1939)."Physical Evidence for the Division of Heavy Nuclei under Neutron Bombardment".Nature.143(3616): 276.Bibcode:1939Natur.143..276F.doi:10.1038/143276a0.
^Announcement of the Atomic Ageplaque next to the entrance of the Physics Department at GWU (erected 2002).
^Levine, P.; Stetson, R. E. (1939). "An unusual case of intragroup agglutination".JAMA.113(2): 126–7.doi:10.1001/jama.1939.72800270002007a.
^Clifton J., Philips (1971). "Fearn, Anne Walter". In James, Edward T. (ed.).Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary.Vol. 1. p. 603.ISBN 978-0-67462-734-5.
^Tiehm, Arnold (1985). "Fanny Searls (1851-1939)".Brittonia.37(1): 42.doi:10.1007/BF02809668.S2CID 87755152.

[1] Phys. Rev.55:pp. 374–381. 1939.

[2] Phys. Rev.56:pp. 455–459. 1939.

[3] "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1948".NobelPrize.org.RetrievedMay 11,2011.

[4] Snyder, John P. (1993).Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections.University of Chicago Press.ISBN 978-0-226-76747-5.

[5] van der Krogt, Peter."87 Francium".Elementymology & Elements Multidict.RetrievedJanuary 7,2019.

[6] MacCorquodale, D. W.; Binkley, S. B.; Thayer, S. A.; Doisy, E. A. (1939). "On the Constitution of Vitamin K₁".Journal of the American Chemical Society.61(7): 1928–1929.doi:10.1021/ja01876a510.

[7] "Linus Pauling: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954".Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1942–1962.Elsevier. 1964.RetrievedFebruary 28,2007.

[8] Smith, Michael(2007).Station X: the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park.Pan Grand Strategy Series (rev. ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. p. 60.ISBN 978-0-330-41929-1.

[9] Mollenhoff, Clark R. (1988).Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer.Ames: Iowa State University Press.ISBN 978-0-8138-0032-5.

[10] Shapin, Steven(1996).The Scientific Revolution.University of Chicago Press.

[11] Crilly, Tony (2007).50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know.London: Quercus. p. 133.ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.

[12] Hahn, O.; Strassmann, F. (January 6, 1939). "Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle".Naturwissenschaften.27(1): 11–15.Bibcode:1939NW.....27...11H.doi:10.1007/BF01488241.S2CID 5920336.

[13] Meitner, Lise; Frisch, O. R. (February 16, 1939)."Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction".Nature.143(3615): 239–240.Bibcode:1939Natur.143..239M.doi:10.1038/143239a0.S2CID 4113262.Archivedfrom the original on May 25, 2011.Retrieved22 May2011.

[14] Frisch, O. R. (February 18, 1939)."Physical Evidence for the Division of Heavy Nuclei under Neutron Bombardment".Nature.143(3616): 276.Bibcode:1939Natur.143..276F.doi:10.1038/143276a0.

[15] Announcement of the Atomic Ageplaque next to the entrance of the Physics Department at GWU (erected 2002).

[16] Levine, P.; Stetson, R. E. (1939). "An unusual case of intragroup agglutination".JAMA.113(2): 126–7.doi:10.1001/jama.1939.72800270002007a.

[17] Clifton J., Philips (1971). "Fearn, Anne Walter". In James, Edward T. (ed.).Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary.Vol. 1. p. 603.ISBN 978-0-67462-734-5.

[18] Tiehm, Arnold (1985). "Fanny Searls (1851-1939)".Brittonia.37(1): 42.doi:10.1007/BF02809668.S2CID 87755152.

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