June 30, 2024

Marie Curie and I are practically related

Marie Curie and I are practically related

The Breezer newsletter

Hello all - 

Happy Sunday!  

This week, I read an article about the Marie Curie charity, which does great work in the UK running hospices, i.e. end-of-life care, across the country. But who was she?

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867. She moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne and eventually became a pioneering researcher in the field of radioactivity (a word actually introduced by Curie herself) along with her husband Pierre. In the course of her research, she discovered two new elements: Polonium (named after her native country) and Radium, an element over one million times more radioactive than Uranium.

Her work made possible the development of X-rays for surgery and laid a foundation for cancer treatments today. In 1903, the Curies shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel. This Thursday marks the anniversary of her death on 4 July 1934.

Another lesser-known scientific X-ray researcher of a different kind from the period was Ernest Bellairs from Christchurch, England. Around the turn of the 20th Century, Ernest was a senior administrator at the local Boscombe Hospital, during which time he improved the design of some of the first X-ray machines used at the hospital; X-ray machines made possible by Marie Curie’s recent discovery of Polonium and Radium in 1898. To achieve this he used his personal workshop attached to the side of his house in Bransgore, near Christchurch. That workshop now happens to be the living room of my current home.

 

Ferndale BransgoreFerndale in the 1880s and... yesterday - Top image courtesy of Hogs at the Honeypot: The Story of Hampshire Beekeepers by Frank Vernon

 

A short while ago, I pulled up the carpets to check for damp and found some still-liquid patches of oil, presumably from the machines he used to test the X-ray equipment. You can also feel the indent in the far wall where the workshop doors originally hung.

 

Podcast episode... a look back

Episode 31. Jazz for Peace​

 

Rick DellaRatta

 

Next Saturday marks the anniversary of the death of the legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong on 6 July 1971. Last year, I interviewed the colourful Rick DellaRatta about his own career as a Jazz musician and, latterly, as the founder of Jazz for Peace, a worldwide movement promoting peace through appreciation of Jazz.

During our chat, Rick told a wonderful story about Charles Black, an American civil rights activist who had renounced racism, having heard the 'tones of a genius black man’ outside a bar when he was 16 years old.

That genius turned out to be Louis Armstrong.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music or just about any other podcast player of your choice. Check out the show notes for the links and transcript to learn more.

My favourite quote from the episode...

And he tells me, "Which one do you wanna be the opening act for?" And he said, "I've got Dizzy Gillespie..." I said, "Did you say Dizzy Gillespie? "Yeah, I got Dizzy…”

“And so he literally put me in a mentorship situation with Dizzy Gillespie where we shared the same dressing room. You can't buy that kind of experience.


And on being in New York on the day of 9/11…

I literally watched the whole thing crumble down. You're seeing incredible fire, incredible destruction, people jumping out of windows. You were literally in something that would only exist on a movie screen.


And on the reason why jazz has a role to play in a search for peace…

If we fill our souls up with our greatest qualities; creativity, artistry, individuality, humanity, if we do that, we will have a better chance at avoiding the behaviour that leads to destruction.

 

Dates with History…

Later this week…

Of course, Thursday marks American Independence Day, 4th July 1776, when the 13 British-controlled colonies of the time declared their separation from Great Britain.

Two of the Founding Fathers of the United States were John Adams (2nd US President) and Thomas Jefferson (3rd US President) who played a pivotal role in this defining transformation.

Extraordinarily, both men died on the same day, exactly 50 years after the original Declaration of Independence. I had to read that several times when I first came across it. When I say “50 years after…”, I mean exactly 50 years to the day, i.e. 4 July 1826!

Not surprisingly, these twin deaths have been the subject of many a conspiracy theory since then, fuelled by a further presidential death 5 years later on the same day again; that of James Munroe, 5th US President, on 4th July 1831.

 


 

Let’s not forget that tomorrow, July 1st, marks Canada Day — the public holiday in Canada that marks the day, 1 July 1867, when the three British colonies of New Brunswick, Novia Scotia and the Province of Canada came together to form a unified, self-governing body. Canada remained part of the British Empire, however, and would have to wait another 115 years to gain full independence in 1982.

A couple more…

The first ever Tour de France bicycle race began on 1 July 1903; 19 days of torturous cycling interspersed with even more cheating and skullduggery than we have been subject to in modern times. Competitors would smoke and drink during the race, sabotage fellow riders’ tyres, and there were even rumours that some riders made unusually rapid progress by jumping on trains for part of the race!

On 1 July 1908, "S.O.S." was first adopted as the recognised international distress signal. I was always told that this stood for "Save Our Souls", but since it was first conceived by the German government, this tale is now looking a bit flaky. A more rational explanation would be that it is represented in Morse Code by the simple, easy to remember and read, 'dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot'.

 

By the way...

Earlier, I mentioned Ernest Bellairs. In parallel with his work on X-ray machinery, he was the founding Honorary Secretary of the Hants and Isle of Wight Bee-keepers’ Association, no less.

The Association boasted as its President Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria’s youngest child and Vice President Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the poet who lived on the Isle of Wight about that time.

My black-and-white understanding of beekeeping moved into glorious 3D colour last year when I interviewed Paula Carnell, the Queen bee of bee consultants who’s creating quite a buzz about health.

The Hants and Isle of Wight Bee-keepers’ Association was founded as a result of an intervention from the Reverend H.R. Peel, Secretary of the British Bee-Keepers' Association, who goaded local dignitaries by writing, “Hampshire will soon be the only Southern County without a Bee-Keepers' Association”, upon which Bellairs and others got to work.

Hants and Isle of Wight Bee-keepersFerndale in the 1880s and... yesterday - Top image courtesy of Hogs at the Honeypot: The Story of Hampshire Beekeepers by Frank Vernon

The Reverend H.R. Peel was the brother of Sir Robert Peel, former British Prime Minister, best known for founding the Metropolitan Police in London - The Peelers (the term ‘Bobbies’ also comes from the Robert in Robert Peel). Tuesday marks the anniversary of Sir Robert Peel’s death on 2 July 1850.

 

Question of the week...

Wednesday marks the anniversary of the world’s first colour television demonstration on 3 July 1928. Who demonstrated this? (clue: he also demonstrated the world’s first live television system 18 months earlier)

(answer at bottom of newsletter)

 

And finally...

With Wimbledon tennis fortnight starting tomorrow, it is a great time to resurface the droll comment from my favourite writer, poet, TV broadcaster and personality bar none, the late Clive James:

A traditional fixture at Wimbledon is the way the BBC TV commentary box fills up with British players eliminated in the first round.

 

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Chief Story Hunter

Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!


Steve

HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER

P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.

 

Answer to Question of the week: John Logie Baird, Scottish pioneering inventor and electrical engineer. In this picture, he is showing off his mechanical-scan television in 1931.

 

John Logie Baird

H. Winfield Secor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

 

NEXT WEEK'S BREEZER
Here’s to Weary Dunlop, a true Australian hero

LAST WEEK'S BREEZER
Where the Focke-Wulf am I?

 

 

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