Gday...

1811  -             Elisha Otis, inventor of the automatic safety brake for elevators, is born.

Elisha Graves Otis was born in Halifax, Vermont, USA, on 3 August 1811. As a young man, circumstances caused Otis to change jobs many times. It was while he was working for a New York bed factory that he determined there was a need for a safety elevator to move people and equipment safely to the upper floors of the building. Otis built the first modern passenger elevator which used his invention of a safety device which prevented the car from falling if the cables broke.

His invention was demonstrated in front of a large crowd at the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York in 1854. After ascending in his new elevator, Otis called for the elevator's cable to be cut with an axe. The elevator platform did not fall, but held, secured by a brake using toothed guiderails in the elevator shaft and a spring-loaded bar that automatically caught in the toothed rail of the elevator car if the cable failed. Today, the Otis Elevator Company is the worlds largest company in the manufacture and service of elevators, escalators, moving walks and people-moving equipment.

1856  -             Alfred Deakin, Australia's second Prime Minister, is born.

Alfred Deakin was born on 3 August 1856 in Fitzroy, Melbourne. In 1879, Deakin gained a seat in the colonial Parliament of Victoria, and after holding office in several ministries, he began to turn his efforts towards the push for Federation. Following Federation in 1901, he was elected to the first federal Parliament as MP for Ballarat, becoming Attorney-General in Prime Minister Edmund Barton's government.

Deakin succeeded Barton as Prime Minister in 1902 when the latter retired. Deakin's own Protectionist Party did not hold a majority in either house, and he was unwilling to accept aspects of Labor's legislation, so he retired in 1904. Watson and Reid succeeded him, but when they proved unable to maintain a stable ministry, Deakin returned to office in 1905. He was pushed out by the Labor Party in 1908, but after forming a coalition with Reid, Deakin again returned as Prime Minister in 1909 heading up a majority government, a position he held until his defeat at the polls in 1910. Deakin retired from politics altogether in 1913, and died in 1919.

1990  -             The highest temperature ever known in Britain is recorded in Leicestershire... at 37 degrees C.

In mid 1990, England endured a run of unusually hot weather. Firemen battled around the clock to fight blazes in the North Yorkshire countryside, while penguins at Bristol Zoo had to be dosed daily in cold water to prevent dehydration. Coastal areas and the roads leading to them were packed with people hoping to cool down, and even reservoir levels were falling, although there was no immediate likelihood of water restrictions being implemented. The highest temperature ever recorded in Britain - 37 degrees Celsius - was reached on 3 August 1990. The new record was broken thirteen years later when 38.1 degrees C was recorded at Gravesend, Kent on 10 August 2003.

In context: the hottest recorded temperature in Australia to that date was 53 degrees C at Cloncurry, Queensland, on 16 January 1889. The world heat record goes to Marble Bar in Western Australia, which recorded maximum temperatures equalling or exceeding 37.8°C on 161 consecutive days, between 30 October 1923 and 7 April 1924.

Cheers - John