Famous Inventors Born in December!

Annie Jump Cannon

Date of Birth: December 11, 1863

Profession: American astronomer

Notable Works: Cannon developed the star classification system in use today.

Astronomy students learn the system using the mnemonic “Oh! Be A Fine Girl — Kiss Me!” The system ranks stars by their temperature, color and spectrum lines in seven categories. Annie achieved many firsts in astronomy. She was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, the first woman to win a Henry Draper medal, and the first woman to be elected as an officer in the American Astronomical Society. The AAS even established an Annie Jump Cannon Award to be awarded to female astronomers who make distinguished contributions to astronomy within five years of receiving their doctorate.

Paul Greengard

Date of Birth: December 11, 1925

Profession: American neurobiologist

Notable Works: Greengard shares the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel for their research on how neurotransmitters function in the nervous system.

Greengard discovered slow synaptic transmission in nerves involves protein phosphorylation. This chemical reaction involves a phosphate molecule attaching itself to a protein and changes the function of the protein.

Robert Koch

Date of Birth: December 11, 1843

Profession: German physician

Notable Works: Koch was one of the pioneers of microbiology. He isolated and identified the bacterias that cause cholera, tuberculosis, and anthrax. He would receive the 1905 Nobel Prize in Medicine for identifying the tuberculosis bacterium.

Eric Werner von Siemens

Date of Birth: December 13, 1816

Profession: German electrical engineer

Notable Works: Siemens’s name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens. He founded the electrical and telecommunications conglomerate Siemens and invented the electric tram, trolley bus, electric locomotive and electric elevator.

Charles Edgar Duryea

Date of Birth: December 15, 1861

Profession: American engineer

Notable Works: Mr. Duryea was the engineer of the first working American gasoline-powered car and co-founder of Duryea Motor Wagon Company.  It was in Springfield that Charles and his brother, Frank, produced and road-tested America’s first gasoline-powered car.

Joseph Henry

Date of Birth: December 17, 1797

Profession: American scientist

Notable Works: Henry discovered the electromagnetic phenomenon of self-inductance. He also discovered mutual inductance independently of Michael Faraday, though Faraday was the first to make the discovery and publish his results. Henry developed the electromagnet into a practical device. He invented a precursor to the electric doorbell (specifically a bell that could be rung at a distance via an electric wire, 1831) and electric relay (1835). His work on the electromagnetic relay was the basis of the practical electrical telegraph

Joseph John Thomson

Date of Birth: December 18, 1856

Profession: English physicist

Notable Works: Thomson is best known for the discovery of the electron. Joseph managed to build a cathode ray tube that allowed the beam of rays to be bent by both electric and magnetic fields. This led him to the idea cathode rays were made up of negatively charged particles. His initial findings had the mass at less than the mass of a hydrogen atom. Thomson was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for this early work.

Upendranath Brahmachari

Date of Birth: December 19, 1873

Profession:  Indian physician and scientist 

Notable Works: Brahmachari synthesized urea-stibine (carbostibamide) in 1922 and determined that it was an effective treatment for kala-azar (visceral leishmaniasis).

Grote Reber

Date of Birth: December 22, 1911

Profession: American inventor 

Notable Works: Reber is a pioneer of radio astronomy, which combined his interests in amateur radio and amateur astronomy. Grote was instrumental in investigating and extending Karl Jansky’s pioneering work and conducted the first sky survey in radio frequencies. His 1937 radio antenna was the second ever to be used for astronomical purposes and the first parabolic reflecting antenna to be used as a radio telescope. For nearly a decade he was the world’s only radio astronomer.

Charles Babbage

Date of Birth: December 26, 1792

Profession: English inventor

Notable Works: Babbage is considered by some to be the “father of the computer”. Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, the Difference Engine, that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage’s Analytical Engine, programmed using a principle openly borrowed from the Jacquard loom.

Asa Griggs Candler Sr.

Date of Birth: December 30, 1851

Profession: American business tycoon and politician

Notable Works: A druggist in 1888, Asa Griggs Candler met John Stith Pemberton and was intrigued by a sweet, carbonated drink he had developed. Candler bought the Coca-Cola recipe from Pemberton, for an amount rumored to be $2,300. The drink was derived from brewed coca leaves, as well as caffeine, carbonated water, and sugar. In 1892, he founded the Coca-Cola Company. The following year, he trademarked the brand and developed it as a major company.