b. ? 1493 and d. September 24, 1541

Swiss physician and chemist. He combined chemistry and medicine, freed chemistry from the restrictive fetters of alchemy by a clear definition of scientific aims and did much to spread the iatro-chemical doctrine. He taught that the object of chemistry was to prepare medicines, and he enriched medicine with a large number of valuable preparations. He was the first to give a name to copper vitriol, corrosive sublimate, sugar of lead and various antimony compounds as medicines. He brought into use dillute sulphuric acid, tincture of iron and iron saffron. He might properly be called the father of pharmacy.

In the great laboratory of nature this power is
doubtless the chief agent by which chemical changes
are wrought; and in “earth’s hidden chambers” it is
believed to be constantly in operation, separating
compounds and form their elements forming new
combinations. Modern science has learned to imitate,
though on a feeble scale, some of its wonders; and
although it has not discovered the long-sought
“philosopher’s stone,” which was supposed to be
able to transmute the baser metals into gold, it has,
nevertheless, in the development which it has given
to the useful arts, done a better service to mankind
than the older alchemists ever dreamed of.

b. September 24, 1829 and d. ?

American inventor. In 1859 he opened a saw manufactory in Sacramento, where he devised the adjustable saw-tooth that has made him widely known, and he brought out the chisel-bit saw-tooth. He completed and published a scale for the measurement of logs, which has been adopted as the legal standard in many States.

Hark! the round saw’s buzzing whirr
Through the oak and maple, beech and fir;
The boards pile high in measured heaps,
The sawyer close the record keeps.

All hail, then, Labor! Saviour true
From all the ills the slothful brew;
Bright badge of entrance into Heaven,
To every hand industrious given.

—Labor: Anonymous

1565—Veneer mills were invented by Reener at Augsburg, Bavaria.

1780—The circular saw was invented by Gervinus.

1802—A planing-machine for wood was constructed by Bramah.

1808—William Newberry invented the first band saw.

1819—The first saw-maker’s anvil was brought to America.

1820—Carpenters’ steel squares were first manufactured at Bennington, Vt.

1828—Wm. Woodworth’s planing-machine was introduced.

b. September 23, 1819 and d. ?

French natural philosopher. He distinguished himself by his researches into the properties and motion of light.

Hail, holy light-offspring of heaven, first-born!
Bright effluence of bright essence increate!
Or, hear’st thou, rather, pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who shall tell?-Before the sun,
Before the Heavens, thou wert, and, at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest
The rising world of waters, dark and deep
Won from the void and formless infinite.

—Milton

The sun digs the ore from our mines; he rolls the
iron, he rivets the plates, he boils the water, he
draws the train. He not only grows the cotton, but
he spins the fibre and weaves the web. There is not
a hammer raised, a wheel turned or a shuttle thrown,
that is not raised and thrown and turned by the sun.
His energy is poured freely into space, but our
world is a halting place where this energy is
conditioned.

—The Influences of the Sun: John Tyndall

1851, November 24—Thomas O’Conor Sloane was born. He devised a method for the determination of sulphur in illuminating gas. He invented the thermophote which is the only apparatus ever devised for registering automatically and mechanically the illuminating power of gas.

1050—Magnifying glasses were invented by Alhazen.