The Great Geek Manual

1870
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a “Printing Telegraph Instruments.” (US No. 103,924)

1892
Thomas Edisonis granted patents for a “System of Electric Lighting,” an “Incandescent Electric Lamp,” a “System of Electrical Distribution,” an “Incandescent Electric Lamp,” an “Electric-Lighting System,” and an “Ore-Screening Apparatus.” (US No. 476,527-32)

1939
Harley Iams and Albert Rose of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) introduce the Orthicon television camera tube. The device uses a simple cylindrical tube four to five inches in diameter to focus the electron scanning beam with a magnetic coil.

1951
AT&T and International Telephone and Telegraph signed a cross-licensing patent agreement that will lead to the complete standardization of the American telephone industry. The move results in interchangeable telephone hardware being used across North America.

1953
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) launches its color television system, which is compatible with black and white receivers. Visit the official RCA website.

1954
English mathematician Alan Turing, who will later widely be recognized as the father of computer science, eats an apple soaked in cyanide and commits suicide at the age of forty-two. Turing’s suicide comes after his arrest and conviction for “Gross Indecency” arising from the discovery of his sexual affair with another man. Turing had spiraled deeper and deeper into depression after being forced to undergo a series of estrogen treatments that left him impotent and obese following the conviction.
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1683
The general public is admitted for the first time to the world’s first university museum, the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, in Oxford. It is the first public museum to open in Britain, and perhaps in the entire world. The building serves several purposes. The basement contains a chemistry laboratory, the ground floor contains lecture halls, and the top floor houses a collection of curiosities acquired by Elias Ashmole and donated to the university. Visit the official Ashmolean website.

1899
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for his “Filament for And Process of Incandescent Lamps.” (US No. 626,460) “I form a filament of highly-refractory non-conducting material which is preferably porous, and incorporate therein isolated particles of carbon, so as to produce spark gaps between the particles, whereby high-tension currents, either alternating, continuous, or intermittent, will be conducted from particle to particle of the carbon to raise the filament to incandescence. … The highly refractory material I prefer to use … is an oxid or oxids of the rare earths – such as the oxid of zirconium, thorium and others.”

1902
Scottish chemist professor James Dewar exhibits air in the solid state and a jet of liquid air rising six feet above it with beautiful effects, before the Prince and Princess of Wales.
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I was in my mid-teens when I discovered that I was a writer. Notice that I didn’t say ‘wanted to be a writer.’ ‘Want’ has almost nothing to do with it. It’s either there or it isn’t. If you happen to be one, you’re stuck with it. You’ll write whether you get paid for it or not. You won’t be able to help yourself. When it’s going, well, it’s like reaching up into heaven and pulling down fire. It’s better than any dope you can buy. When it’s not going well, it’s much like giving birth to a baby elephant.

- Belgarath the Sorcerer by David Eddings, June 1, 1996.

Art

• Over at Flickr, dbx1 has posted photos of My Little Zombie Pony.

Film

• Arnold’s career may have some life in it yet, because according to MovieHole, Director Robert Rodriguez Wants Schwarzenegger in Predators.
• Cinema Blend reviews 10 Hollywood Cliches Which Can Go Either Way.
• Daily Fill compares Pixar’s track record to other blockbusters, like the James Bond franchise. Turns out Pixar is kicking some serious butt.
• I couldn’t help but laugh. This list of The Worst-Dressed Women Warriors in Fantasy could only have been written by a woman, because most of the women on it are way too hot for a guy to complain.

Literature

• Free Fiction: Listen to “System, Magic, Spirit” by T.D. Edge at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
• Free Fiction: Read “28 Daytrips Later” by Sumit Dam at Sumitsays.com.
• Free Fiction: Read “All Cats Are Gray” by Andre Alice Norton (1953) at Feedbooks.

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I love it. Emo-ware for the next generation. Get your own for US$20 in sizes ranging from Small to X-Large.

Source: MySoti

1783
The first hot-air balloon ascent flies unmanned for ten minutes. It was constructed by the French brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier at their home town of Annonay, France.

1833
Ada Byron, who will later become the Countess Lovelace, meets computer pioneer Charles Babbage in England. Byron will later become known for writing a description of Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine.

1924
Ernst Alexanderson transmits the first facsimile message across the Atlantic.

1938
The first machine to produce intelligible speech-like sounds is exhibited by Bell Telephone scientists Homer Dudley, Richard Riesz, and Stanley Watkins. Called “Pedro, the Voder,” it is put on display to the public at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition to human voices, it can imitate the sound of various farm animals. It is basically a spectrum-synthesis device operated from a finger keyboard and a foot pedal pitch control. Its operation requires a user to be very familiar with its use.

1939
The film The Wizard of Oz is first screen tested.
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I put my heart and my soul into my work,
and have lost my mind in the process.

- Vincent van Gogh