Exceptional individuals.
Discussion
I love reading stories of individual achievements and great discoveries or 'firsts'. Usually historical figures, mostly unknown yet what some people managed to achieve given they were pioneers within whatever challenge they were undertaking is remarkable.
So, on to my first selection to share.
Auguste Piccard (The inspiration behind the namesake on StarTrek)
Born Jan 1894
Died Mar 1962
In 1931 Auguste and his brother set a record altitude balloon record reaching nearly 52,000 ft. Increased over the coming years to 75,000 ft making them the first humans to enter the stratosphere.
In the mid-1930s, Piccard's interests shifted when he realized that a modification of his high-altitude balloon cockpit would allow descent into the deep ocean. By 1937, he had designed the bathyscaphe, a small steel gondola built to withstand great external pressure. Construction began, but was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Resuming work in 1945, he completed the bubble-shaped cockpit that maintained normal air pressure for a person inside the capsule even as the water pressure outside increased to over 46 MPa (6,700 psi). Above the heavy steel capsule, a large flotation tank was attached and filled with a low density liquid for buoyancy. Liquids are relatively incompressible and can provide buoyancy that does not change as the pressure increases. And so, the huge tank was filled with gasoline, not as a fuel, but as flotation. To make the now floating craft sink, tons of iron were attached to the float with a release mechanism to allow resurfacing. This craft was named FNRS-2 and made a number of unmanned dives in 1948 before being given to the French Navy in 1950.[6] There, it was redesigned, and in 1954, it took a man safely down 4,176 m (13,701 ft).
Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer, wearing improvised crash helmets, September 1930
Piccard and his son, Jacques, built a second bathyscaphe and together they dove to a record-breaking depth of 3,150 m (10,335 ft) in 1953.
imo, a truly exceptional individual.
So, on to my first selection to share.
Auguste Piccard (The inspiration behind the namesake on StarTrek)
Born Jan 1894
Died Mar 1962
In 1931 Auguste and his brother set a record altitude balloon record reaching nearly 52,000 ft. Increased over the coming years to 75,000 ft making them the first humans to enter the stratosphere.
In the mid-1930s, Piccard's interests shifted when he realized that a modification of his high-altitude balloon cockpit would allow descent into the deep ocean. By 1937, he had designed the bathyscaphe, a small steel gondola built to withstand great external pressure. Construction began, but was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Resuming work in 1945, he completed the bubble-shaped cockpit that maintained normal air pressure for a person inside the capsule even as the water pressure outside increased to over 46 MPa (6,700 psi). Above the heavy steel capsule, a large flotation tank was attached and filled with a low density liquid for buoyancy. Liquids are relatively incompressible and can provide buoyancy that does not change as the pressure increases. And so, the huge tank was filled with gasoline, not as a fuel, but as flotation. To make the now floating craft sink, tons of iron were attached to the float with a release mechanism to allow resurfacing. This craft was named FNRS-2 and made a number of unmanned dives in 1948 before being given to the French Navy in 1950.[6] There, it was redesigned, and in 1954, it took a man safely down 4,176 m (13,701 ft).
Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer, wearing improvised crash helmets, September 1930
Piccard and his son, Jacques, built a second bathyscaphe and together they dove to a record-breaking depth of 3,150 m (10,335 ft) in 1953.
imo, a truly exceptional individual.
Edited by TellYaWhatItIs on Friday 12th March 17:26
Err, you might want to correct his date of birth. Unless time travel was one of his achievements. 
I nominate John Snow. The 19th century physician whose work has probably saved millions of lives.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow
I nominate John Snow. The 19th century physician whose work has probably saved millions of lives.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow
SpudLink said:
Err, you might want to correct his date of birth. Unless time travel was one of his achievements.
I nominate John Snow. The 19th century physician whose work has probably saved millions of lives.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow
Snow demonstrated the requirement to challenge the dominate scientific consensus in order to better understand things by using evidence based methods. Something we seem to have pushed aside for the last 12 months or so. I nominate John Snow. The 19th century physician whose work has probably saved millions of lives.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow
Deservedly on a list of exceptional people or achievements.
Edmund Hillary - everybody knows he was the (joint) first to summit Mount Everest but what he did for the people of Nepal after that was if anything even more impressive.
Nicholas Winton.
Chuck Feeney - duty-free billionaire who aimed to give away all of his money to charity in his lifetime and did it.
Nicholas Winton.
Chuck Feeney - duty-free billionaire who aimed to give away all of his money to charity in his lifetime and did it.
markcoznottz said:
I still think the greatest ever human achievement was those long ship voyages of discovery in the 1500-1700’s. Floating to the other side of the world in a wooden ship, with a very young crew. And making contact with essentially an alien culture, how did they communicate?
Good shout.Or before that, the people who populated the far Polynesian islands circa 300BC.
DIW35 said:
John Harrison, responsible for the first really accurate marine chronometer. that allowed ships to navigate with greater accuracy.
Seconded. To think that he could make and assemble the intricate mechanism by candlelight and it could place a master mariner anywhere in the world at a time when people still sh*t out of the bedroom window - fantastic craftsman. I consider those timepieces in awe.Johann Sebastian Bach
This guy was composing stuff like this:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98w25S5yASc
in the early 1700's
This guy was composing stuff like this:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98w25S5yASc
in the early 1700's
Thomas Cochrane
Hero of the Napoleonic wars, literary inspiration, Admiral of 3 Navies, liberator of Chile and Peru, magnificently corrupt politician, exiled warlord, member of the House of Lords and all round bounder and cad!
“He quarrelled lavishly and spectacularly with superiors, subordinates, employers, political opponents, members of his own party, multiple admirals, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the entire body of officers and sailors of the Chilean navy.”
https://twitter.com/russincheshire/status/13598455...
Hero of the Napoleonic wars, literary inspiration, Admiral of 3 Navies, liberator of Chile and Peru, magnificently corrupt politician, exiled warlord, member of the House of Lords and all round bounder and cad!
“He quarrelled lavishly and spectacularly with superiors, subordinates, employers, political opponents, members of his own party, multiple admirals, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the entire body of officers and sailors of the Chilean navy.”
https://twitter.com/russincheshire/status/13598455...
Edited by bobthemonkey on Friday 12th March 22:31
Trouble with Exceptional Individuals from history is that, not withstanding their great contributions to
culture,arts, science, they sometimes have dark secrets not compatible with modern standards.
So, great people like Churchill, Marie Stopes, Ghandi, Conan Doyle, Virginia Woolf, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa,
Rudyard Kipling , even Philip Larkin have to get the red card of doom and sit in the dressing room of shame for eternity.
I will plump for the shamefully unknown Dr. Jonas Salk who developed a vaccine for polio, thus saving millions of lives.
[ praying he's not a antisemite or a pederast ]
culture,arts, science, they sometimes have dark secrets not compatible with modern standards.
So, great people like Churchill, Marie Stopes, Ghandi, Conan Doyle, Virginia Woolf, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa,
Rudyard Kipling , even Philip Larkin have to get the red card of doom and sit in the dressing room of shame for eternity.
I will plump for the shamefully unknown Dr. Jonas Salk who developed a vaccine for polio, thus saving millions of lives.
[ praying he's not a antisemite or a pederast ]
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