Milestone-Proposal talk:First Exploration and Proof of Liquid Crystals, 1889

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Advocate's comments to the proposal -- Apyuste (talk) 22:50, 12 September 2015 (CDT)

The achievement here proposed is quite suitable to aim for an IEEE Milestone. As an advocate to this proposal and by following the IEEE Milestone Program General Guidelines, I modestly suggest some recommendations in order to gain the nomination.

1. Milestones mainly honor the achievement rather than a place or a person, so a large emphasis on the former should be done over the later ones when wording the citation. Might your please consider next modification to citation (although, it has to be reminded that final wording is always on IEEE History Committee Members’ hands):

The first liquid crystal materials, cholesterol-acetate and cholesterol-benzoate, were explored in 1889 by Otto Lehmann in this building. The existence of a mesomorphic state of matter, originally named “flüssige Kristalle”, with double refraction and polarization properties was established. Lehmann’s experimental work on more than 100 liquid crystal materials proves him as the founder of liquid crystal technology, paving the way to future liquid crystal displays.

2. When referring the features that set Lehmann’s work apart from similar achievements, it could be quite interesting to refer the Reinitzer's work done just before the seminal 1889 Lehmann’s paper. More specifically, it is known that Reinitzer presented his results, before Lehmann, at a meeting of the Vienne Chemical Society, on May 3, 1888, with credits to Lehman and to his Viennese colleague Hofrath von Zepharovich.

3. References going from 3 to 8 are, in fact, different parts of the same compilation book titled “Crystals that flow. Classic papers from the history of liquid crystals”. As all those are, obviously, different papers, shouldn’t be any problem to be considered as independent citations. But, in order to guarantee that not any objection could be risen up, I would suggest including two more. As a natural option, I would recommend Reinnitzer's letter handed over to Lehmann on March 14, 1888 (if original copy is available in archives) and Reinnitzer's lecture to the Vienne Chemical Society (1888).

Other minor recommendations come next:

4. May be referred if there is any security setting at the site where the plaque would be mounted and, if so, which one.

5. It would be useful to indicate if the plaque, at the courtyard of honor referred in the proposal, would be mounted on a wall, on a stand, or on any other place.

6. It would be helpful that all citations referred all along the proposal were gathered, all together, in the specific section named “References to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement” in the application document.

Congratulations for this interesting proposal and my best wishes to obtain the IEEE Milestone nomination.

Prof. Antonio Perez Yuste Technical University of Madrid Spain

Re: Advocate's comments to the proposal -- Dieter Mlynski (talk) 06:25, 18 September 2015 (CDT)

Thank you for your supporting recommendations. We readily followed all of them. However, I am nor sure whether I successfully uploaded references 9 and 10. Therefore I shall transmit them by email to you. Sorry for this.

Dieter Mlynski

Comments by Theodore A. Bickart -- Tbickart (talk) 11:09, 15 September 2015 (CDT)

The citations for references and other documentation should be copied or moved to the sections set aside at the end of the nomination form for such materials. It is disconcerting to jump to those sections and find them essentially blank.

Re: Comments by Theodore A. Bickart -- Dieter Mlynski (talk) 06:28, 18 September 2015 (CDT)

Do I understand your comment correctly that you miss a list of our referrences in the proper place of the proposal. We have added this.

Dieter Mlynski

Citation -- Djkemp (talk) 08:01, 8 October 2015 (CDT)

A requirement is "is the citation understandable by the general public (e.g. spell out acronyms, avoid jargon)". As such this proposed citation is heavy on technical terms and will not be understandable by the general public.

Re: Citation -- Dieter Mlynski (talk) 05:44, 7 December 2015 (CST)

Sorry for our delay. We hope that the revised version of the citation is acceptable.