December 2025: Science History from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago

December 2025: History of science 50, 100 and 150 years ago

By Mark Fischetti

1975

Heimlich maneuver

“The list of first aid procedures that the medical profession encourages laypeople to undertake is short because of the fear that tactics applied in ignorance may do more harm than good. Today, however, the American Medical Association has cautiously endorsed the “Heimlich maneuver” as a first aid procedure when a person is choking on a foreign object, described by Henry J. Heimlich, the Cincinnati surgeon who developed it. In the Heimlich maneuver, you position behind the victim and wrap your arms around their waist place the thumb side of your fist or the heel of your palm against the victim’s upper abdomen, between the navel and the bottom of the rib cage, and perform a quick upward thrust. The action elevates the diaphragm, thereby compressing the lungs and forcing air through the trachea. Heimlich writes that since he first described the technique, he has heard of it from 162 people. whose life was saved.

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1925

Universe exhausted

“What does science say about the future? The physicist can tell us that the universe is ‘running out,’ because heat tends to escape by radiation from the surfaces of stars, planets, and all other bodies. Slowly, then, all things must cool, exhausted to the point of exhaustion, so that the final scene of the play shows only cold, dark bodies, frozen, rigid and lifeless, moving in their orbits in impenetrable darkness. The more completely irreversible seems to be the new discovery process by which matter is transformed into free energy So, before the last glimmers of light disappear, the main players – the stars – are reduced to mere shrunken remains of their former selves.

Telephone diplomacy

“The embassies and consulates, the university fellowships, the lecture tours, the propaganda – all of this has for years had as its supreme aim a better understanding, a closer friendship between America and the Old World. Now comes the announcement that soon you will be able to pick up your telephone and speak with a person in London as easily as if they were on the next street. What’s more, you can do it for the price of five dollars for three minutes. This is an achievement that surpasses a century of effort for an international agreement. When people speak directly to each other easily, cheaply and constantly in their daily affairs, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to misunderstand each other. As an assurance of peace, the establishment of the transatlantic telephone rate of five dollars for three minutes may well rank among the best treaties ever signed.

1875

New route to Siberia

“Professor Nordenskiöld’s recent trip from Norway to Siberia, via the Yugorsky Strait and the Kara Sea, caused a sensation in Russia. At a meeting of the Society for the Encouragement of Trade and Industry, Mr. Sidorov said that this trip should be considered the discovery of a new world, since it would in all probability lead to the establishment of a regular line of communication between Northern Europe and the Siberia, and the vast resources of the latter country would finally find an outlet along its path of great river highways.

Drive chips

“Mr. Bertolotto, the famous flea trainer, is now in New York to exhibit his curious success. The insect he employs appears to be the species of flea common to dogs. The first lesson, he says, is to put the fleas in a small circular glass box, where, by jumping and banging their heads against the glass for a day or two, one ends up inculcating in them the idea that it is useless to jump. During the remainder of their natural life, approximately eight months – they just crawl.

The instructor then attaches a delicate pair of metal tweezers to the middle of the flea’s body; to the clamps, any desired form of miniature vehicle, such as a wheelbarrow, car or cart, is attached, and the chip trots along with the load. The professor exploits his insect students to complete many curious tasks, such as operating a divining wheel, playing in an orchestra, or running errands. Fleas can feed twice a day on the instructor’s arm.

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