September In Chemistry

September in Chemistry
This resource is for teachers at schools and colleges with electronic daily information screens. Download this PowerPoint, then cut and paste each page into your information PowerPoint.
written and compiled by Anthony Hardwicke, RSC Schoolteacher Fellow

Today in Chemistry
On September 1st 1877, Francis William Aston, the inventor of the mass spectrometer, was born. This is the first one he made in 1919. Mass spectrometers
are now routinely used by forensic scientists to ‘weigh’ atoms and molecules and identify unknown substances

Today in Chemistry
Frederick Soddy was born on September 2nd 1877. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1921 for his work on radioactivity. He was one of the first chemists to realise that elements can exist as different isotopes. Isotopes are atoms with the same number of protons in their nuclei (same atomic number), but different numbers of neutrons (and hence, different mass numbers).

Today in Chemistry
On September 3rd 1976 the unmanned Viking 2 probe landed on Mars. The primary mission objectives were to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the
atmosphere and surface, and search for evidence of life. Chemists analysed the atmosphere and soil using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer that was mounted on the probe. The search for life still goes on…

Harry Kroto discovered the football-shaped allotrope of carbon, C60 buckminsterfullerene, on September 4th 1986. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996.
Today in Chemistry

Today in Chemistry
On September 5th 1864, W. Esson and A. Harcourt of Oxford University published a breakthrough paper in Scientific News stating that ‘the rate of a chemical reaction is directly proportional to the quantity of substance undergoing change’. In other words, if you double the concentration, you double the rate of reaction. We now know other factors, such as temperature, also affect rate.

Today in Chemistry
John Dalton was probably born on September 6th 1766 - despite what it says on the cottage! He is famous for reviving atomic theory (the idea that everything in the universe is made up of tiny particles called atoms). He also carried out some important experiments on gases and came up with Dalton’s law of partial pressures.

Today in Chemistry
On September 7th 1910, Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the first pure sample of radium. They started with a tonne of uranium ore and after ten years of back-breaking work, ended up extracting three-tenths of a gram of radium from it!! They shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 for discovering radium in 1898.

Today in Chemistry
On September 8th 1854, the anaesthetist
John Snow removed the handle of a water
pump in Broadwick Street in London. Over 500 people had died of cholera over a period of a few months and Snow tried plotting where all the victims lived. Using maps of the water supply in the area, he deduced that all the victims had probably drunk water from the Broadwick Street pump. After he removed the handle of the pump, it turned out that untreated sewage was indeed leaking into the well that supplied the pump. Using scientific understanding and logical deduction, John Snow saved thousands of lives. There’s now a pub called the John Snow where the contaminated water pump used to be!

Today in Chemistry
In a milestone case for forensic chemistry, a young German girl vanished and was later found murdered. Chemical analysis of blood stains contributed to a conviction on September 9th 1898.

Today in Chemistry
On September 10th 1984 DNA fingerprinting was discovered by Alec Jeffreys of Leicester University. He discovered it accidentally while researching inheritance patterns of illnesses. DNA fingerprinting is now a routine
forensic tool.
As well as being used to convict criminals, it has also been used to free people that have been falsely imprisoned.

Today in Chemistry
On September 11th 1967 the early space probe Surveyor 5 landed on the moon and began to analyse the elements on the surface.

Today in Chemistry
On September 12th 1897, Marie and Pierre Curie had a baby daughter Irene. She continued her parents’ work on artificial radioisotopes and went on to share the 1935 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with her husband Frederic Joliot.

Today in Chemistry
On September 13th 1945, the element americium, Am, was first isolated at the Wartime Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago. It is a man-made element and is used in smoke alarms.

Today in Chemistry
The inventor of the battery, Georges Leclanché died on September 14th 1882. His 1.5 volt battery was made up of a porous pot containing manganese dioxide and a carbon rod as current collector which was immersed in an electrolyte of ammonium chloride solution with a negative terminal of zinc metal.

Today in Chemistry
On September 15th 1932, Neil Bartlett, who prepared the first noble gas compound, was born. His work was a triumph for chemists’ ability to use mathematical calculations to predict whether or not reactions will occur. Bartlett calculated that a compound of xenon and platinum hexafluoride should be stable. Sure enough, he tried the experiment and created xenon platinum hexafluoride, the first noble gas compound.

Today in Chemistry
On September 16th 1987, 24 nations signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Previously, chlorofluorocarbons had been widely used in household refrigerators and aerosol cans. This treaty has stopped nearly all the production and use of CFCs.

Today in Chemistry
P.C. Hewett patented his mercury vapour lamp in the United States on September 17th 1901. The mercury vapour lamp was an
important forerunner of the fluorescent lights and energy-saving light bulbs that we use today.

Today in Chemistry
From the 1950s to the 1980s, Russia and America manufactured and stockpiled nuclear weapons. Both sides had more than enough nuclear weapons to obliterate each
other. On September 18th 1987 the US President, Ronald Reagan announced that over 1000 nuclear warheads would be scrapped.

Today in Chemistry
The first underground nuclear test explosion was carried out on September 19th 1957 in the Nevada Desert. Previously nuclear weapons tests were all
above ground, producing radioactive fallout – that’s progress I suppose!

Today in Chemistry
The inventor of the thermos flask, James Dewar, was born on September 20th 1842. The picture shows a reconstruction of his original flask. He was the first person to liquefy hydrogen, which is not as easy as it sounds - you have to cool it down to –259C!

Today in Chemistry
On September 21st 1860, Louis Pasteur visited the French Alps to carry out a series of experiments comparing pure mountain air with city air. His results contributed to his germ theory of disease, which is now one of the most fundamental axioms of medicine.

Today in Chemistry
Michael Faraday, one of the greatest chemists of all time, was born on September 22nd 1791. He made the first studies of electrolysis and electromagnetic induction and also liquefied chlorine. Some of his original experiments and chemicals can be seen at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, London.

Today in Chemistry
On September 23rd 1915, John Sheehan, who first made semi-synthetic penicillin, was born. Penicillin was one of the first antibiotics, but was very difficult to obtain from mould. Synthesising the compound directly revolutionised the treatment of bacterial infection.

Today in Chemistry
Amedeo Avogadro published a paper on September 24th 1811, which stated that equal volumes of gases contained the same number of molecules. Considering that John Dalton had only published his atomic theory a couple of years earlier, Avogadro’s Law was quite a cutting-edge and fairly abstract idea and it took over 50 years for it to be accepted by other scientists.

Today in Chemistry
On September 25th 1866, T.H Morgan, who discovered the function of chromosomes, was born. Chromosomes contain DNA and are found in the nuclei of cells. Morgan won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1933.

Today in Chemistry
On September 26th 1754, Joseph-Louis Proust, famous for Proust’s Law, was born. This law states that when two chemicals react together they do so in simple ratios. These ratios are written as the big numbers (stoichiometric coefficients) in balanced chemical equations. He was also the first person to isolate glucose (from grape juice) and to realise that oxides and hydroxides are not the same thing.

Today in Chemistry
On September 27th 1910, a patent for the production of ammonia was issued to Fritz Haber and Robert Le Rossignol. This process is still used today to manufacture ammonia on a large scale from hydrogen
and nitrogen, by passing a mixture of them over an iron catalyst.

Today in Chemistry
On September 28th 1852, Henri Moissan, who discovered the element fluorine, F, was born.

Today in Chemistry
On September 29th 1901, Enrico Fermi, who did research into nuclear reactions by bombarding atoms with neutrons, was born. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938 and the element fermium, Fm, was named after him.

Today in Chemistry
William Morton’s claim that he used ether (ethoxyethane) as an anaesthetic for the first time on September 25th 1866, whilst removing a tooth from his patient Eben Frost, may be incorrect. There is evidence that Crawford Williamson Long used ether as far back as 1842.