Recent history

Inventions patented by Ostrejko13 in 1900 and 1901 paved the way for the development of modem commercial activated carbons. In one patent he described a basic process in which metallic chlorides were incorporated with vegetable substances and the mixture then carbonized at a suitable temperature. In another patented process, vegetable charcoal was heated at bright red heat with the simultaneous action of carbon dioxide. 

The first powdered commercial carbon, Eponite, was produced in Europe in 1909, using wood as a source material and working under the Ostrejko patents.1 Norit, an activated carbon manufactured in Holland, first appeared about 1911 and soon became widely known in the sugar industry. 

The first activated carbon produced in America was developed accidently from an endeavor to find utility for leached black-ash, a waste product in the manufacture of soda pulp.26 When pulverized, black-ash resembles lamp black, and a factory was erected to process it into a pigment. Because of certain cblor characteristics, however, the finished pigment was not generally accepted by the paint and ink industries. Vigorous efforts to find other sales outlets were of no avail and the factory was about to be abandoned, when, quite by accident, one of the workers stumbled on the discovery that black-ash has decolorizing power. The product, now named Filtchar, was sold as a substitute for bone char and fuller s earth. Marketing difficulties soon developed because of uneven quality of the product some batches were satisfactory, others were not. Very few tests were then available to measure decolorizing power and none were suitable for quality control of the Filtchar. 

Research developed the test with Sudan III dye to measure the relative efficiency of each batch of Filtchar,14 and by selection it became possible to furnish activated carbon of satisfactory uniform quality to consumers. But the test accomplished much more for it was now possible to study factors that influenced the decolorizing power of black-ash, and within a short time carbon of improved quality was produced. 

Early interest in the development of activated carbon was stimulated by a belief that a large potential market existed in the cane sugar industry. Some early studies seemed to indicate that powdered activated carbon could be applied directly to the raw cane juice and thereby eliminate the need for an intermediate stage in which raw sugar is first produced, which then must be redissolved and recrystallized. However, this hope was not realized factory operation disclosed that the intermediate stage of raw sugar was still necessary. 

It was Joseph Priestley who discovered oxygen. He realized that this gas was the component of ordinary air that was responsible for combustion and made animal respiration possible. Priestley told the chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier about his discovery of oxygen. He at once saw the significance of this substance and the door was opened for the chemical revolution that established modem chemistry. 

Lavoisier showed by a series of unique experiments that combustion was due to the combination of a burning substance with oxygen and that when carbon was burned, fixed air (carbon dioxide) was produced. An earlier proposed substance phlogiston therefore did not exist, and the phlogiston theory soon disappeared to be replaced by the carbon cycle. Lavoisier used the laboratory balance to give quantitative support to his work and he used chemical equations in his papers. He further defined elements as substances that could not be decomposed by chemical means and firmly established the law of the conversation of mass. He developed a chemical nomenclature that is still used today and founded the first chemical journal. 

In the early 19th century (1803), Dalton proposed his atomic theory. In 1811, Amedeo Avogadro made clear the distinction between atoms and molecules of elementary substances, hi addition, the concepts of heat, energy, work, and temperature were developed. The first law of thermodynamics was set forth by Julius Robert von Mayer and the second law of thermodynamics was postulated by Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). Later in the century, Clausius, Ludwig Boltzmarm, and James Clerk Maxwell related the ideal gas law in terms of a kinetic theory of matter. This led to the kinetics of reactions and the laws of chemical equilibrium. 

It was Carnot who proposed the correlation between heat and work. Josiah Willard Gibbs discovered the phase rule and provided the theoretical basis of physical chemistry. And, it was Walther Hermann Nemst who proposed the third law of thermodynamics and contributed to the study of physical properties, molecular stmctures, and reaction rates. Jacobus Hendricus van t Hoff related thermodynamics to chemical reactions and developed a method for establishing the order of reactions. Nearing the 

This scientific explosion has had an enormous influence on society. Processes were developed for synthesizing completely new substances that were either better than the natural ones or could replace them more cheaply. As the complexity of synthesized compounds increased, wholly new products appeared. Plastics and new textiles were developed, energy usage increased, and new drugs conquered whole classes of disease. 

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The recent history of the world use of coal roughly follows that of the United States for two reasons. First, the United States and the industrial nations have had, in the aggregate, similar energy behavior in terms of energy sources. Second, the United States itself accounts for about one quarter of world energy rise. Thus, world energy use patterns reflect, to a considerable degree, those of the United States. 

The story of luminescence advances since 1970 is best found in the current literature. It is too large and diversified to be readily summarized in a single article and too recent to edit for the most important events. Luminescence studies are so pervasive throughout all the fields of science that each special sphere of inquiry could have its own recent history of luminescence. Many of the most important developments of today will necessarily remain hidden to most scientists until later discoveries reveal their significance. For these reasons, this report continues with a personal selection of topics, chosen to guide the reader to a potpourri of interesting recent reports. 

In a case-control study of pesticide factory workers in Brazil exposed to methyl parathion and formulating solvents, the incidence of chromosomal aberrations in lymphocytes was investigated (De Cassia Stocco et al. 1982). Though dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was coformulated with methyl parathion, blood DDT levels in the methyl parathion-examined workers and "nonexposed" workers were not significantly different. These workers were presumably exposed to methyl parathion via both inhalation and dermal routes however, a dose level was not reported. The exposed workers showed blood cholinesterase depressions between 50 and 75%. However, the baseline blood cholinesterase levels in nonexposed workers were not reported. No increases in the percentage of lymphocytes with chromosome breaks were found in 15 of these workers who were exposed to methyl parathion from 1 week to up to 7 years as compared with controls. The controls consisted of 13 men who had not been occupationally exposed to any chemical and were of comparable age and socioeconomic level. This study is limited because of concomitant exposure to formulating solvents, the recent history of exposure for the workers was not reported, the selection of the control group was not described adequately, and the sample size was limited. 

Can we expect millions of former vassals in Asia to rally around their erstwhile totalitarian oppressors Can we rally Europe solely around the fear of Soviet enslavement while we deliberately sustain the forces which twice in recent history have enslaved that continent ... 

Sostoa A, Lobon-Cervia J (1989) Fish and fisheries of the river Ebro actual state and recent history. In Petts GE, Moller H, Roux AL (eds) Historical change of large alluvial rivers Western Europe. Wiley, New York, pp 233-247... 

The AHA/ASA guidelines recommend that antiplatelet therapy as the cornerstone of antithrombotic therapy for the secondary prevention of ischemic stroke and should be used in noncardioembolic strokes. Aspirin, dopidogrel, and extended-release dipyridamole plus aspirin are all considered first-line antiplatelet agents (see Table 13-1). The combination of aspirin and clopido-grel can only be recommended in patients with ischemic stroke and a recent history of myocardial infarction or coronary stent placement and then only with ultra-low-dose aspirin to minimize bleeding risk. 

Recent history of behavioral or visual changes, headache, pain, or stiess Family history positive for psychogenic vomiting... 

Scientists today are more aware than ever before of the existence of what has been called the Information Revolution . At no other time in recent history has so much information become available from so many different traditional resources— including books, reviews, journals, and meetings—as well as personal computer-based materials such as data bases, alerting services, optical-disk-based information, and news media. 

Cronin G, Hay ME (1996a) Susceptibility to herbivores depends on recent history of both the plant and animal. Ecology 77 1531-1543... 

Virginia Scott Jenkins now-classic 1994 volume, The Lawn An American Obsession, carefully and exhaustively traces the arrival of the turfgrass lavm to America and its expansion into a ubiquitous ground cover, with serious attention to the environmental problems that such a transformation entailed. This work is especially notable for the way it emphasizes the remarkably recent history of a landscape that seems so quintessentially normal and timeless to many of us. ... 

The recent history of the mixed-conifer forest of the San Bernardino Mountains has be n analyzed. This analysis included an initial inventory of ecosystem components and processes, as indicated in Figures 12-8 through 12-12. The inventory emphasizes ponderosa and Jeffrey pines, the most dominant species in the climax community, and is... 

Up until more recent history, most of the separators and membranes historically used had not been specifically developed for battery applications. Thus, future research should be aimed at developing separators that are specifically tailored for battery applications. The general objectives of separator research should be as follows (a) to find new and cost-effective separators, (b) to understand the separator properties in batteries, and (c) to optimize separator properties related to specific cell performance, life. 

Recent history of unplanned operation or process incidents, upsets, and near-misses, particularly those involving flammable release, fire, or explosion... 

We are now in a position to sketch a brief recent history of astronomy, concentrating on the mainly spectroscopic concerns and highlighting the very real dialectic that has sprung up between Earth- and space-based astronomy, between Europe and the rest of the world. 

Cardiac effects Hypertension, in some cases severe, requiring acute treatment, has been reported in patients receiving bupropion alone and in combination with nicotine replacement therapy. Exercise care if bupropion is used in in patients with a recent history of Ml or unstable heart disease. 

Cardiac patients Venlafaxine has not been evaluated in patients with a recent history of Ml or unstable heart disease. 

Use in patients with concomitant illness Sinus bradycardia, defined as heart rate up to 50 bpm and a decrease of at least 15 bpm from baseline, was observed in 1.5% of nefazodone-treated patients compared with 0.4% of placebo-treated patients (P 0.05). Treat patients with a recent history of Ml or unstable heart disease with caution. 

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