Tag Archives: 1911

8 April 1911

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Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.

Superconductivity is a phenomenon that occurs when certain materials are cooled to extremely low temperatures, usually near absolute zero (-273.15°C or -459.67°F). At this temperature, some materials lose all electrical resistance and can conduct electricity with almost no energy loss, leading to zero electrical resistance and an ideal conductor.

The discovery of superconductivity dates back to 1911 when a Dutch physicist, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, discovered that the electrical resistance of mercury drops to zero at a temperature close to absolute zero. Since then, many other materials have been found to exhibit superconductivity, including metals, alloys, and some ceramics.

The phenomenon is explained by the behavior of the electrons in the superconductor. When the material is cooled below its critical temperature, the electrons form pairs called Cooper pairs, which can move through the material without any resistance. This is because the pairs are held together by a kind of attractive force that results from the interaction between the electrons and the atoms of the material.

Superconductivity has many practical applications, such as in the construction of powerful magnets used in medical imaging, particle accelerators, and magnetic levitation trains. However, the need for extreme cooling has limited the practicality of superconductors in everyday use, although research continues to develop materials that exhibit superconductivity at higher temperatures.

23 May 1911

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The New York Public Library is opened.

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch or the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system and a landmark in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The branch, one of four research libraries in the library system, contains nine separate divisions. The structure contains four stories open to the public. The main entrance steps are at Fifth Avenue at its intersection with East 41st Street. As of 2015, the branch contains an estimated 2.5 million volumes in its stacks.

The Main Branch was built after the New York Public Library was formed as a combination of two libraries in the late 1890s. The site, along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, is located directly east of Bryant Park, on the site of the Croton Reservoir. The architectural firm Carrère and Hastings constructed the structure in the Beaux-Arts style, and the structure opened on May 23, 1911. The marble facade of the building contains ornate detailing, and the Fifth Avenue entrance is flanked by a pair of stone lions that serve as the library’s icon. The interior of the building contains the Main Reading Room, a space measuring 78 by 297 feet with a 52-foot-high ceiling; a Public Catalog Room; and various reading rooms, offices, and art exhibitions.

The Main Branch was originally called the Central Building and was later known as the Humanities and Social Science Center. The Main Branch became popular after its opening, and saw 4 million annual visitors by the 1920s. It formerly contained a circulating library, though the circulating division of the Main Branch moved to the nearby Mid-Manhattan Library in the 1970s. Additional space for the library’s stacks constructed under adjacent Bryant Park was added in 1991, and the branch’s Main Reading Room was restored in 1998. A major restoration from 2007 to 2011 was underwritten by a $100 million gift from philanthropist Stephen A. Schwarzman, for whom the branch was subsequently renamed. Since 2018, the branch has been undergoing an additional expansion that is expected to be completed in 2021.

The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year. It was made a New York City designated landmark in 1967, though parts of the interior were separately listed as New York City designated landmarks in 1974 and 2017.

The Main Branch has been featured in many television shows, including Seinfeld and Sex and the City, as well as films such as The Wiz in 1978, Ghostbusters in 1984, and The Day After Tomorrow in 2004.

21 January 1911

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The first Monte CarloCar Rally takes place.

It was in 1909 that the idea of a car rally first took shape in Monaco. Alexandre Noghès, President of the “Association Sport Automobile Vélocipédique Monégasque”, predecessor of today’s “Automobile Club de Monaco”, suggested a race which would connect a large number of European cities from which the competitors would set off to converge on the finishing line in Monaco.

In January 21, 1911, everything was ready and the first rally took place. For almost a week, departures were staggered on dates and at times which corresponded to the distance separating them from Monaco. From Paris, Brussels, Geneva, Vienna and Berlin, cars set off on the roads, expected to clock up an average speed of 10 km/h including stops, with arrivals scheduled for Saturday, 28 January, in Monaco. Read more at Monte Carlo Legend.

The Monte Carlo Rally has become an annual rallying event organized by the Automobile Club de Monaco, which also organizes the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Monaco Kart Cup. It has been held since 1911, when the inaugural rally was opened by Prince Albert I – making it the longest-running event in all rally sport. More information is available here.

Facts and figures about the Automobile Club de Monaco and the races can be found at its official webpage.

12 December 1911

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Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.

New Delhi is an urban district of Delhi which serves as the capital of India and seat of all three branches of the Government of India.

The foundation stone of the city was laid by Emperor George V during the Delhi Durbar of 1911. It was designed by British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker. The new capital was inaugurated on 13 February 1931, by Viceroy and Governor-General of India Lord Irwin.

Although colloquially Delhi and New Delhi are used interchangeably to refer to the National Capital Territory of Delhi, these are two distinct entities, with New Delhi forming a small part of Delhi. The National Capital Region is a much larger entity comprising the entire NCT along with adjoining districts in neighboring states.

Calcutta was the capital of India during the British Raj, until December 1911. Calcutta had become the centre of the nationalist movements since the late nineteenth century, which led to the Partition of Bengal by then Viceroy of British India, Lord Curzon. This created massive political and religious upsurge including political assassinations of British officials in Calcutta. The anti-colonial sentiments amongst the public led to complete boycott of British goods, which forced the colonial government to reunite Bengal and immediately shift the capital to New Delhi.

Old Delhi had served as the political and financial centre of several empires of ancient India and the Delhi Sultanate, most notably of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857. During the early 1900s, a proposal was made to the British administration to shift the capital of the British Indian Empire, as India was officially named, from Calcutta on the east coast, to Delhi. The Government of British India felt that it would be logistically easier to administer India from Delhi, which is in the centre of northern India. The land for building the new city of Delhi was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1894.

During the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911, George V, then Emperor of India, along with Queen Mary, his consort, made the announcement that the capital of the Raj was to be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi, while laying the foundation stone for the Viceroy’s residence in the Coronation Park, Kingsway Camp. The foundation stone of New Delhi was laid by King George V and Queen Mary at the site of Delhi Durbar of 1911 at Kingsway Camp on 15 December 1911, during their imperial visit.

Large parts of New Delhi were planned by Edwin Lutyens, who first visited Delhi in 1912, and Herbert Baker, both leading 20th-century British architects. The contract was given to Sobha Singh. The original plan called for its construction in Tughlaqabad, inside the Tughlaqabad fort, but this was given up because of the Delhi-Calcutta trunk line that passed through the fort. Construction really began after World War I and was completed by 1931. The city that was later dubbed “Lutyens’ Delhi” was inaugurated in ceremonies beginning on 10 February 1931 by Lord Irwin, the Viceroy. Lutyens designed the central administrative area of the city as a testament to Britain’s imperial aspirations.

The 1931 postage stamp series celebrated the inauguration of New Delhi as the seat of government. The one rupee stamp shows George V with the “Secretariat Building” and Dominion Columns.
Soon Lutyens started considering other places. Indeed, the Delhi Town Planning Committee, set up to plan the new imperial capital, with George Swinton as chairman, and John A. Brodie and Lutyens as members, submitted reports for both North and South sites. However, it was rejected by the Viceroy when the cost of acquiring the necessary properties was found to be too high. The central axis of New Delhi, which today faces east at India Gate, was previously meant to be a north-south axis linking the Viceroy’s House at one end with Paharganj at the other. Eventually, owing to space constraints and the presence of a large number of heritage sites in the North side, the committee settled on the South site. A site atop the Raisina Hill, formerly Raisina Village, a Meo village, was chosen for the Rashtrapati Bhawan, then known as the Viceroy’s House. The reason for this choice was that the hill lay directly opposite the Dinapanah citadel, which was also considered the site of Indraprastha, the ancient region of Delhi. Subsequently, the foundation stone was shifted from the site of Delhi Durbar of 1911–1912, where the Coronation Pillar stood, and embedded in the walls of the forecourt of the Secretariat. The Rajpath, also known as King’s Way, stretched from the India Gate to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The Secretariat building, the two blocks of which flank the Rashtrapati Bhawan and houses ministries of the Government of India, and the Parliament House, both designed by Baker, are located at the Sansad Marg and run parallel to the Rajpath.

In the south, land up to Safdarjung’s Tomb was acquired to create what is today known as Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone. Before construction could begin on the rocky ridge of Raisina Hill, a circular railway line around the Council House, called the Imperial Delhi Railway, was built to transport construction material and workers for the next twenty years. The last stumbling block was the Agra-Delhi railway line that cut right through the site earmarked for the hexagonal All-India War Memorial and Kingsway, which was a problem because the Old Delhi Railway Station served the entire city at that time. The line was shifted to run along the Yamuna river, and it began operating in 1924. The New Delhi Railway Station opened in 1926, with a single platform at Ajmeri Gate near Paharganj, and was completed in time for the city’s inauguration in 1931. As construction of the Viceroy’s House, Central Secretariat, Parliament House, and All-India War Memorial was winding down, the building of a shopping district and a new plaza, Connaught Place, began in 1929, and was completed by 1933. Named after Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught, it was designed by Robert Tor Russell, chief architect to the Public Works Department.

After the capital of India moved to Delhi, a temporary secretariat building was constructed in a few months in 1912 in North Delhi. Most of the government offices of the new capital moved here from the ‘Old secretariat’ in Old Delhi, a decade before the new capital was inaugurated in 1931. Many employees were brought into the new capital from distant parts of India, including the Bengal Presidency and Madras Presidency. Subsequently, housing for them was developed around Gole Market area in the 1920s. Built in the 1940s, to house government employees, with bungalows for senior officials in the nearby Lodhi Estate area, Lodhi colony near historic Lodhi Gardens, was the last residential areas built by the British Raj.

3 November 1911

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Chevrolet starts competing with the Ford Model T.

William Crapo Durant’s greatest failure led to the creation of Chevrolet. A year after he incorporated General Motors, he went after Henry Ford’s third, and most successful, car company. Ford, according to Lawrence R. Gustin’s biography of Durant, was concerned about Selden’s patent suit claiming invention of the automobile, and was amenable to selling to GM if he could retain the rights for motorized farm implements.

GM was to pay Ford $2 million cash, plus $4 million at 5 percent interest over three years. On October 26, 1909, GM’s board “gave Durant authority to purchase Ford if financing could be arranged,” Gustin writes in “Billy Durant, Creator of General Motors.”

Banks were nervous about the nascent, fly-by-night auto industry, and refused Durant a $2 million loan for the downpayment. During a financial panic in 1910, GM’s board kicked Durant out and let bankers take over his company.

Durant began work on his comeback and set up retired Buick race driver Louis Chevrolet with his own Detroit shop in early 1911. Durant returned to Flint, Michigan, where he had seeded GM in the early 1900s, and bought the assets of the failing Flint Wagon Works. He then got former Buick engine builder Arthur C. Mason to set up a new operation, while Durant organized the Little Motor Car Company.

Durant incorporated the Chevrolet Motor Company on November 3, 1911. Louis Chevrolet was not an officer, but he experimented with large luxury cars while Chevrolet Motor Company’s Little brand sold lower-priced cars against Ford. The first “production” Chevrolet was the big, $2500 Classic Six of 1912, but the first Chevys, as we know them, were the 1914 Royal Mail roadster and Baby Grand touring car. Louis Chevrolet left his namesake company to return to racing.

The 1916 Chevrolet Four-Ninety was Durant’s direct shot at the Ford Model T. By now, Chevy was thriving with factories in places like Flint and New York City. Its success gave Durant the footing to buy up GM stock, with help from the DuPont family and a New York bank president, Louis J. Kaufman. Durant staged a coup d’etat, and on September 16, 1915, GM’s seventh anniversary, took control of GM again.

On December 23, 1915, Chevrolet stockholders increased capitalization from $20 million to $80 million, Gustin writes, and used the $60 million to buy up GM stock. Chevrolet bought GM. It wasn’t the other way around.