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On This Day: 4th of November
On this day in 1818:
"Galvanisation"
The murderer Matthew Clydesdale was executed by hanging. His body was taken to the anatomy theatre at the Old College in High Street, where Dr Andrew Ure of Anderson's Institution and James Jeffray, Professor of Anatomy at the University, conducted a series of experiments using a galvanic battery, passing an electric current through the corpse. The resulting spasms and convulsions reportedly caused consternation among the attending students, and "several... were forced to leave the appartment from terror or sickness, and one gentleman fainted". The experiment gave rise to a persistent rumour that the professors had attempted to bring the corpse back to life.
This was one of the last occasions on which the corpse of an executed criminal was sent for dissection in Scotland.
On this day in 1938:
Speeding
Professor Thomas Patterson wrote to the Court to ask that steps be taken "to ensure that motor cars passing out of the University grounds through the archway between the Engineering Building and Pearce Lodge should do so at a very slow pace, in view of the danger to pedestrians...".
On this day in 1959:
Inauguration of the new Engineering Building
Inauguration of the new Engineering Building as Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, accompanied by Chancellor, Lord Boyd-Orr, unveils a commemorative plaque in the entrance hall
On this day in 1964:
KDF 9
The University's English Electric KDF 9 Computer was inaugurated by Sir Willis Jackson, Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Imperial College of Science and Technology.
Births and Deaths
On this day in 1855
Frederick Orpen Bower was born.
On this day in 1907
T Ferguson Rodger was born.
On this day in 1714
John Boyle 3rd Earl of Glasgow was born.
On this day in 2000
Ian Sneddon died.
On this day in 1967
Sir John Boyd died.
On this day in 1974
Jean Robertson died.
On this day in 1863
James Young was born.
On this day in 0
William Cleland was born.
On this day in 1866
George Donald was born.
On this day in 1865
Archibald Fairlie was born.
On this day in 1866
William Hutchison was born.
On this day in 1868
John Thomas Brown Laverick was born.
On this day in 1875
Harry Somerville Martyn was born.
On this day in 1869
John Harry Miller was born.
On this day in 1869
Alexander White was born.
On this day in 1869
James Boyle was born.
On this day in 1886
Annie Marion Conway was born.
On this day in 1875
James Duncan Cowan was born.
On this day in 1884
Robert Daly was born.
On this day in 1885
Elizabeth Fairley was born.
On this day in 1874
Percy Hepburn was born.
On this day in 1877
Robert Jack was born.
On this day in 1886
Bernard Ireland Macalpine was born.
On this day in 1887
Jessie Lilian Brown Macphail was born.
On this day in 1876
William Topping Morton was born.
On this day in 1881
James Arthur Neilson was born.
On this day in 1959
James Dunlop Paterson died.
On this day in 1887
Andrew Peebles was born.
On this day in 1885
James Tait Smith was born.
On this day in 1876
Alexander Dunbar Thomson was born.
On this day in 1877
Joseph Walker was born.
On this day in 1883
John Whitehead was born.
On this day in 1930
Lindsay Anderson Summers was born.
On this day in 1882
John Leitch Rodger was born.
On this day in 1889
Robert Johnston was born.
On this day in 2008
Mei'e Ren died.
On this day in 1914
Cornelius Maximilian Cosmann was born.
On this day in 1801
John Hamilton died.
On this day in 1890
John Telfer was born.
On this day in 1878
Plummer Dewar died.
On this day in 1892
David Stephen Mitchell was born.
On this day in 1915
Hugh McCartney died.