There is a relationship between electricity and magnetism that is part of every electric motor, every generator, and every electronic transmission. Hans Christian Oersted was the first to notice it while doing another experiment. Since his professional career started as a result of his effective lectures there was no problem spreading the word. (For better or for worse, one use of this was the electric meter, patented on this date.) He also was the first person to hold metallic aluminum in his hand and the chemist who found the compound that makes black pepper hot.
One of the most important labor actions in history started on this day in London. Dockworkers made two pence per hour, and were often called in to work and sent home after only an hour's work - they struck for two and a half pence an hour and a guarantee of four hours work. The strike involved unskilled labor for the first time, there were more strikers than any previous work stoppage, there was no violence reported, and the general public believed in the justice of their cause.
We also have Macbeth taking the throne, the creation of the Oregon Territory, the beginning of Social Security, and a couple of interesting holidays.
1040 - Macbeth, Mormaer of Moray and his ally Thorfinn, Mormaer of Orkney, meet Scottish king Duncan I in battle at Bothganowan near Elgin. Duncan is killed and Macbeth becomes king of the Scots for 17 years.
1848 - Congress created the Oregon Territory, an area encompassing present-day Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and western Montana, after an all-night session in the Senate, southern senators had opposed the anti-slavery provision of the act at length. President Polk signed the bill and appointed General Joseph Lane as Governor.
1888 - Oliver B. Shallenberger of Rochester, Pennsylvania, chief electrician at Westinghouse, received US patent #388,003 for the electric meter. In April he accidentally discovered that AC could be used to make things turn, but consciously chose to focus on metering electricity rather than creating an improved AC motor.
1889 - Ben Tillett, secretary to the Tea Coopers and General Labrourers' Association, called for a general strike on the docks of London, seeking a minimum wage of 2.5 pence per hour and a minimum call of 4 hours. Before the month-long strike ended 200,000 were on strike in London and Liverpool. Two thirds of the funds received to support the strikers came from Australia. The Great London Dock Strike was peaceful, successful, widely supported by the public, and was the first general strike of unskilled labor.
1935 - The Social Security Act (Public Law No. 271, 74th Congress) passed and became law with President Franklin Roosevelt's signature at 3:30 pm. There was no office space in Washington City large enough to handle the expected volume of records, a former Coca-Cola bottling plant in Baltimore became the headquarters.
Assunta, Nulvi, Sassari (Sardinia) - Commemorating the end of a 16th century plague. Procession of villagers in traditional costume carrying tall candles (candelieri); dances; poetry competitions in which contestants must sing the verse they write on subjects told them just before the competition; traditional music performed on accordions, barrel organs, and launeddas; winemaking competition.
The Chung Yuan Festival, China - lunar (floats) - Sacrificial feasts are set out in temples and elaborate chanting ceremonies for the dead are conducted by Taoist and Buddhist priests. The whole of the 7th month is dedicated to the spirits of the dead because, according to Buddhist tradition, the gates of hell are open during this time and they are free to roam the earth at will.
1777 - Hans Christian Oersted, Danish physicist, chemist - Born to an apothecary at Rudkjoebing on Langeland Island. Self-educated with younger brother with only slight tutoring, sufficient to gain entry to university in 1794. Earned doctorate in science at the University of Copenhagen in 1799, managed an apothecary's shop and gave public science lectures, popularity of lectures led to a professorship of physics at Copenhagen in 1806. Philosophically committed to concept of unity of the forces of nature, based on works of Immanuel Kant. In 1820, while demonstrating the heating effect of the Voltaic Pile, the first battery, noticed that a compass needle jumped toward a wire when electric current passed through it, revealing a relationship between electricity and magnetism. Also in 1820 isolated piperine, the pungent compound in black pepper. Researched the compression of gasses and liquids. In 1825 his attempt to isolate aluminum succeeded in producing an impure form of the metal, but was unble to reproduce the process. In 1829 he was appointed director of the Polytechnic School of Copenhagen and was chosen secretary of the Science Academy of Copenhagen. Appointed foreign member of the French Science Academy in 1842. The metric unit of magnetic field strength was defined and named after him in 1932. He died at Copenhagen on 9 March 1851.
Today we know four types of forces - electromagnetic, gravitational,
and the strong and weak nuclear forces. But the existence of the latter
two was not even suspected before this century. I don't believe that we
have found all the forces in nature yet. There is probably at least one
more type of energy operation at the physical level which serves to support
psychic phenomena.
- William Tiller
He had that nameless charm, with a strong magnetism, which can only be
called "It."
- Elinor Glyn
Science and religion no more contradict each other than light and electricity.
- William Hiram Foulkes
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