Bern Dibner

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Bern Dibner ( Ukrainian Берн Дібнер , scientific transliteration Bern Dibner ; * 6 August July / 18 August  1897 greg. In Lysjanka , Kyiv Governorate , Russian Empire ; †  January 6, 1988 in Wilton , Fairfield County ) was a US American electrical engineer , industrialist , philanthropist , technical and science historian . Dibner founded the Burndy Engineering Company in 1924 and the Burndy Library in 1941 , a library on the history of technology and science. His son established the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 at the request of his late father .

Life

Career and entrepreneur

Bern Dibner spent the first years of his life in his birthplace Lysjanka in what is now Ukraine. 1904, the year the Russo-Japanese War began , the family emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City . Bern Dibner, the youngest of eight children, was seven years old at the time. He grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan , where he attended primary school and later the Hebrew Technical Institute in the East Village .

After serving in World War I , Dibner studied at the private Polytechnic University of New York (Brooklyn Poly) and graduated in 1921 with a degree in electrical engineering . Soon after graduating in 1923, he developed the first solderless electrical connections (the first solderless electrical connector - a new way to join cable and wire) . Since he could not find anyone interested in his development in the industry, he patented his invention and founded the Burndy Engineering Company, later Burndy Corporation, in the Bronx in 1924 for the production of electrical connections. He formed the company name Burndy as an onomatopoeic alienated partial initial word from his name components Bern Dibner . Over the years, the company acquired 23 further patents and Dibner expanded the company into a global technology company, leading in some areas. In World War II Dibner served as Lieutenant Colonel (Lieutenant Colonel) of the Air Force stationed in Europe.

His company, later based in Norwalk , Connecticut , maintained its specialization in the manufacture of electrical interconnect devices for decades. In 1961 he listed the company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) . In the course of the digital revolution , the Burndy Corporation expanded its product range to include electronic components. In 1988 the French company Framatome Connectors International (FCI), part of the Souriau industrial group, bought the Burndy Corporation. During the Acquisition of the increased share price of Dibners companies on the NYSE by 41.8%.

Dibner died at his home in Wilton, Connecticut, at the age of 90 that year, before the company was sold. With just under 18,000 residents, Wilton is one of the wealthiest communities in the United States.

Research on the history of technology

In addition to his entrepreneurial activity, Bern Dibner worked all his life on technical history topics. His research spanned a broad spectrum, from Leonardo da Vinci to the Galvani - Volta controversy on animal electricity to the Atlantic Cable .

His particular interest in da Vinci led him to Switzerland in 1936 , where he enrolled at the University of Zurich to study the history of science. In total he published over 100 books and specialist articles. His best-known work is The Heralds of Science from 1955 (updated 1980), in which he compiled the 200 most important books in the history of science and their authors. The book became a widely used resource for bibliographers, booksellers, students, and scholars. In addition, Dibner was passionate about collecting original scientific texts and books on the history of science.

Burndy Library and Dibner Institute

His passion for collecting old technical texts culminated in the Burndy Library , which Dibner founded in 1941. The library is one of the world's largest institutions with original texts on the history of technology and science from the 18th and 19th centuries. It contains works by Isaac Newton and Louis Pasteur and, as a special feature, an edition from 1544 of Archimedes' text Philosophi ac Geometrae . The library was originally located in Dibner's company in Norwalk. In 1974 Bern Dibner donated a quarter of the Smithsonian Institution's holdings . The donation was intended to form the basis for setting up a research library on the history of technology and science. Two years later, the Smithsonian opened the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology from these holdings .

Shortly before his death in 1988 gave Bern Dibner expressed the wish on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Technical University of Massachusetts ) in Cambridge to establish a research institute for technical and scientific history. In 1992, his only son David Dibner and his wife Frances Dibner implemented his wish and founded the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT . David Dibner (1927–2005) was also an engineer and joined his father's company in 1952 as chairman. When the institute was founded in 1992, the Burndy Library also moved to MIT. In 2006, the total inventory of around 67,000 works was donated by the Dibner Family and the Dibner Family Fund to the Huntington's Disease Library in San Marino near Los Angeles , California , while the Dibner Institute was closed.

Huntington Library , home of the Burndy Library since 2006

Dibner Fund

Bern Dibner founded the Dibner Fund (Dibner Fund) in 1957 to support various projects from his assets. In addition to the gift of the Burndy Library, $ 11.6 million went to Huntington from this fund. The Dibner Institute and the History of Science Society (HSS), which George Sarton and Lawrence Joseph Henderson founded in 1912 , also received regular financial donations . In particular, the fund supported the publication of the HSS magazine Isis . Dibner was friends with the co-founder of the HSS and science historian George Sarton, who also immigrated to the USA. After Dibner's son David had headed the fund for some time, his grandson Brent Dibner took over as chairman in 2002.

Honors

In 1967 Dibner was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1974 he was honored for his scientific work with the Vinci Medal Leonardo da and 1976 with the George Sarton Medal Award, a prestigious award for the History of Science of the History of Science Society. In honor of the scientist, the Huntington's Disease Library also established the Dibner Hall of the History of Science . In 1983, Gleeson Library awarded him the University of San Francisco , the Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting .

In addition, the international Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Bern awarded Dibner the Leonardo da Vinci Medal in 1974 . In 1985 Dibner donated the SHOT the Dibner Award (The Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits) . The annually awarded prize is intended for exhibitions that are suitable to promote an understanding of the history of technology and industry among the general public and among historians. In 1995, the Bielefeld Historical Museum was the first European museum to receive the Dibner Award for its exemplary exhibition of power and steam engines as the world's best representation of industrialization and its social history .

Fonts (selection)

  • Galvani-Volta. A Controversy that Led to the Discovery of Useful Electricity . Burndy Library, Norwalk 1952.
  • The Heralds of Science , Burndy Library, Norwalk 1955 (updated 1980)
  • Oersted and the Discovery of Electromagnetism . Burndy Library, Norwalk 1961.
  • Alessandro Volta and the Electric Battery . Watts, New York 1964.
  • Victoria and the Triton . Blaisdell Publishing Company, New York 1964 ISBN 0486217345
  • Moving the obelisks; a chapter in engineering history in which the Vatican obelisk in Rome in 1586 was moved by muscle power, and a study of more recent similar moves , Burndy Library, New York 1950, reprint 1970.
  • With Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich and Ladislao Reti: Leonardo, the inventor. Belser-Verlag, Stuttgart 1981.
  • Leonardo da Vinci- military engineer , Burndy Library 1946

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d ЗНАНИЕ - СИЛА Наука и жизнь российского предпринимателя: Шесть ипостасей Берна Дибнера; znanie-sila.online, Bern Dibner, short biography, based on a speech by Dibner from 1983 on the award of the Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting by the Gleeson Library at the University of San Francisco (Russian)
  2. ↑ a b c JSTOR Memorials. Silvio A. Bedini: Bern Dibner, 1897-1988
  3. ↑ Gift of Major Library on History of Science to The Huntington ( Memento of the original of July 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: History of Science Society, Newsletter, Vol. 35, Number 4, October 2006, Page 5 (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hssonline.org
  4. ↑ Procet MUSE ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Alex Roland: David Dibner, 1927-2005 , in: Technology and Culture, vol 47, No. 2, April 2006 E- ISSN 1097-3729 Print ISSN 0040-165X  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / muse.jhu.edu  
  5. ↑ COMPANY NEWS Burndy Takes Bid From Framatome , in: New York Times , December 6, 1988 (English)
  6. ↑ The Town of Wilton Connecticut, homepage see subpage History and other subpages (English)
  7. ↑ University of Konstanz ( Memento of the original from November 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.4 MB) Sven Dierig: Neuron Doctrine and Neuroglia. On the persistence of a style of thinking in the genesis of modern neurobiology . Inaugural dissertation, Konstanz 1994, p. 81 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / opus.bsz-bw.de
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens (PDF; 113 kB) Dibner Hall of the History of Science: Bern Dibner, 1897–1988 (short biography, English)
  9. ^ The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology History
  10. ^ The Tech, online edition Sarah H. Write: David Dibner , October 18, 2005
  11. ↑ The Burndy Library at MIT The Burndy Library has moved and the Dibner Institute has closed. ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / burndy.mit.edu
  12. ^ History of Science Society Society Editor: History of Science Society
  13. ^ Massachusetts Institute of Technology News Office: Brent Dibner named chair of Dibner Institute , May 22, 2002
  14. ^ American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Book of Members ( PDF ). Retrieved April 2, 2016
  15. ↑ History of Science Society ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The George Sarton Medal, list of winners  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hssonline.org
  16. ↑ University of San Francisco  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Gleeson Library: Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting (English)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / hopper.usfca.edu  
  17. ↑ The Society for the History of Technology: Awards, Prizes, Grants ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Dibner Award (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.historyoftechnology.org
  18. ↑ Historical Museum Bielefeld Power and Steam Engines
  19. ^ Bielefeld-Info Historical Museum
personal data
SURNAME Dibner, Bern
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Дібнер, Берн (Ukrainian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American engineer, industrialist, and historian of science
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Lysyanka , Cherkassy Oblast , Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1988
Place of death Wilton , Fairfield County