Celebrating the Life and Times of Two of the Original Geeks

Today we celebrate the life and accomplishments of John Frederic Daniell, a decorated British scientist in the fields of chemistry and meteorology. Yesterday we celebrated his birthday in London in 1790. Today is the anniversary of Daniell’s death, as he suddenly passed away just one day after his 55th birthday while attending a meeting at the prestigious Royal Society.

The British scholar was responsible for a number of successes and contributions to the world of science. He developed a new process for generating gas from resin and turpentine. He also invented a new hygrometer (device for measuring humidity) and a new pyrometer (thermometer for measuring very high temperatures). Both of these inventions became widely used in the meteorology community. However, Daniell is most renowned for inventing the first working electric battery.

Today we also are able to celebrate the birth of Joseph Priestley, the man responsible for inventing carbonation. Joseph turns 270 today, and ironically enough I had a difficult time fitting all of those candles on his cake. Priestly spent some time living near a brewery in Leads, England, and out of curiosity  began studying the clouds produced during the fermenting process. He soon discovered that the gas in these clouds was carbon dioxide, and that he was able to dissolve this gas with water, resulting in a bubbly beverage that we commonly refer to today as soda water.

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