On This Day
1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London.
Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children’s hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust.
The hospital is the largest centre for child heart surgery in the UK and one of the largest centres for heart transplantation in the world. In 1962 they developed the first heart and lung bypass machine for children. With children’s book author Roald Dahl, they developed an improved shunt valve for children with water on the brain (hydrocephalus), and non-invasive (percutaneous) heart valve replacements. They did the first UK clinical trials of the rubella vaccine, and the first bone marrow transplant and gene therapy for severe combined immunodeficiency.[1]
It is closely associated with University College London (UCL) and in partnership with the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, which is adjacent to it, is the largest centre for research and postgraduate teaching in children’s health in Europe.[2]
In 1929, J. M. Barrie donated the copyright to Peter Pan to the hospital.
Born On This Day
1838 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (d. 1914)
Margaret Eloise Knight (February 14, 1838 – October 12, 1914[1]) was an American inventor, notably of the flat-bottomed paper bag. She has been called “the most famous 19th-century woman inventor”.[2]
Early life
Margaret Knight was born on February 14, 1838, in York, Maine to James Knight and Hannah Teal. After her father died when she was young, Knight’s family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire. She received a basic education, but left school with her siblings to work at a cotton mill. At the age of 12, Knight witnessed an accident at the mill where a worker was stabbed by a steel-tipped shuttle that shot out of a mechanical loom. Within weeks she invented a safety device for the loom that was later adopted by other Manchester mills. The device was never patented and the exact nature of it is unknown, though it may have been either a device to stop the loom when the shuttle thread broke or a guard to physically block a flying shuttle.[3] Health problems precluded Knight from continuing work at the cotton mill and in her teens and early 20s she held several jobs, including home repair, photography and engraving.[3]
Career
Knight moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1867 and was hired by the Columbia Paper Bag Company.[3] In 1868, Knight invented a machine that folded and glued paper to form the flat-bottomed brown paper bags familiar to shoppers today. Knight built a wooden model of the device, but needed a working iron model to apply for a patent. Charles Annan, who was in the machine shop where Knight’s iron model was being built, stole her design and patented the device. Knight filed a successful patent interference lawsuit and was awarded the patent in 1871.[4] With a Massachusetts business partner, Knight established the Eastern Paper Bag Co. and received royalties.
Her many other inventions included lid removing pliers, a numbering machine, a window frame and sash, patented in 1894, and several devices relating to rotary engines, patented between 1902 and 1915.[5]
Later life and legacy
Knight never married and died on October 12, 1914, at the age of 76.
A plaque recognizing her as the “first woman awarded a U.S. patent” and holder of 87 U.S. patents hangs on the Curry Cottage at 287 Hollis St in Framingham. However, Knight was not actually the first: either Mary Kies or Hannah Slater has that honour.[6][7][8][9]
Knight was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.[1] The original bag-making machine is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.
FYI
By Keith Schneider: Heidi Toffler, Unsung Force Behind Futurist Books, Dies at 89
Heidi Toffler, a researcher and editor who for decades served an essential though anonymous collaborative role alongside her celebrated husband, Alvin Toffler, in producing global best-selling books about the consequences of rapid change, died on Feb. 6 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 89.
MessyNessy 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCXL): Discovery of a 3000-2000 BC ‘high priest’ in a vessel during the Uruk excavation of 1929/30; Snapshots from the longest motorsports event in history; The BMW Isetta, ready to take on the world; An Instagram Account that will renew your fascination with Birds; Meet the Insta-Gramma and more ->
By Kelly Faircloth: The Steamy, Throbbing History of Romance Novel Covers
By Erik Shilling: Assman Will Not Take This Sitting Down
By Kyle Mizokami: These Ancient Warships Built For World War II Are Still in Service 74 Years Later
By Melanie Ehrenkranz: Actually, Secretly Filming Students’ Cleavage Is Illegal, Canada’s Supreme Court Rules
“A student attending class, walking down a school hallway or speaking to her teacher certainly expects that she will not be singled out by the teacher and made the subject of a secretive, minutes-long recording or series of recordings focusing on her body,” the court wrote, adding that “given the content of the videos recorded by Mr. Jarvis and the fact that they were recorded without the students’ consent, I would likely have reached the same conclusion even if they had been made by a stranger on a public street rather than by a teacher at school in breach of a school policy.”
Gizmodo Science: New Research Could Help Keep Stink Bugs Out of Your House; Remote-Controlled Probe Picks up Radioactive Debris at Fukushima for the First Time; This Walking Robot Navigates Using the Sun, No GPS Required and more ->
By Eugen S. Robinson: OZY’s New Podcast: Doomsday Prophecies From an End-Times Expert
Why you should care
Because people predicting the end of the world only have to be right once.
By Molly Fosco: Happy Valentine’s: The $1,500 Divorce — Great Idea or the End of Marriage?
Why you should care
Erin Levine’s company, Hello Divorce, is changing the legal culture and cost of splitting up.
When hate mail rolls in from attorneys, Erin Levine saves it for her “wall of shame.” They include an email from a Stanford law professor, whom she considered an ally, that accused her of providing “false hope” to her clients. That hope? To make divorce stress-free and affordable.
Levine, 40, is soft-spoken, but don’t let that fool you. She was once one of them — a divorce lawyer in California. That is until she became disillusioned and ended up launching her Hello Divorce platform. “The culture of divorce pits one spouse against each other,” Levine says. “And it’s not just about law — it’s child custody, finances and wellness, but the industry is so segmented.”
The average cost of divorce in the U.S. is $18,000. With kids, it’s $27,000. The average spend on Hello Divorce is just $1,500. The software lets you navigate your divorce either entirely on your own, or with legal help from California-based attorneys. As for the attorneys not so easily separated from their billable hours: “Bring it on,” Levine says.
Interview by Lara Takenaga: BEHIND THE BYLINE • DANIEL JONES Our Modern Love Editor on How His Job Is ‘a Lot Like Online Dating’
Sad day? How about the pledges that have died or been eternally messed up by going through these abusive hazing processes? Sad that it has taken so long to shut these abusive fraternities down.
By Doha Madani: 9 Louisiana State frat members arrested and chapter closed over alleged hazing incident “This is a sad day for the university, but one that illustrates the cultural shift occurring at LSU,” the university said.
Cade Rain Duckworth, 23, is facing felony charges of attempted battery, battery, and false imprisonment as well as three misdemeanor counts of criminal hazing.
Gaston Thomas Eymard, 23; Shakti P. Gilotra, 22; and Malcolm Richard McNiece, 23, are facing charges of battery and criminal hazing.
Three others — Blake Andrew Chalin, 20; Alexander Joseph Rozas, 23; and Garrett Joseph Sanders, 21 — were charged with criminal hazing.
All nine men were booked into jail in East Baton Rouge Parish, according to LSU. It is unclear whether the men have lawyers or if they have made an initial court appearance.
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Adina Mayo: 8 Last Minute Ideas for Valentine’s Day
Open Culture: Women’s Hidden Contributions to Modern Genetics Get Revealed by New Study: No Longer Will They Be Buried in the Footnotes; Hear Neil Gaiman Read Aloud 15 of His Own Works, and Works by 6 Other Great Writers: From The Graveyard Book & Coraline, to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven & Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and more ->
Today’s email was written by Adam Pasick, edited by Jessanne Collins, and produced by Luiz Romero. Quartz Obsession The Purdie Shuffle: The world’s most hypnotic drum loop
Only a tiny percentage of musicians get to have a hit song, and huge careers are even more rare. Then there’s the prodigiously productive drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, who created an entire sound and feel that changed rock and soul music forever: The loping, grooving drum beat known as the Purdie Shuffle.
“The Purdie Shuffle is a groove that seems to spin in concentric circles as it lopes forward,” wrote David Segal for the New York Times in 2009. “The result is a Tilt-a-Whirl of sound, and if you can listen without shaking your hips, you should probably see a doctor.”
Today’s email was written by Katherine Ellen Foley, edited by Jessanne Collins and Whet Moser, and produced by Luiz Romero. Quartz Obsession The chills: When music gives us all the feels
When Pharrell Williams attended a class at the Clive Davis Recorded Music Institute at New York University in 2016, he came prepared to dish out constructive criticism to a group of unsuspecting students presenting songs they produced for homework. But when Maggie Rogers presented a demo of “Alaska,” it was Williams who was caught off guard: He teared up while Rogers bopped her head to her beats. In 2017, the song—essentially unedited—peaked in the Billboard Top 20.
Ideas
Zest it Up Hometalker Atascadero, CA: How to Dry Flowers Fast and Easy
By Hometalk Highlights: 15 Pallet Coffee Tables That Look Way Too Good To Be DIY
By Killmyfill: Heated Boots
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for October 16 October 16, 2024Picture of the day Window in Arkadi Monastery (gr. Μονή Αρκαδίου) in Rethmyno Regional District, Crete, Greece
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for October 15 October 15, 2024Picture of the day Purple sea urchin (Sphaerechinus granularis), Garajau Marine Nature Reserve, Madeira, Portugal
Recipes
By Gwen Ihnat: Cooking fish in paper hearts is a foolproof and impressive Valentine’s Day dinner
By Lolly Jane: Rice Krispie Caramel Marshmallows
By In the Kitchen With Matt: Chocolate Pancakes
By Marianholdings: Easy 5-Ingredient Custard
By Mimikry: French Apple Pie – Crumbly Crunchy Delicious!
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