October 8th Birthday

James Frank Duryea

James Frank Duryea was an American inventor who with his brother Charles Duryea built the first automobile with multiple copies manufactured in the U.S. On 28 Nov 1895, Frank drove the car to win first prize in the first American Automobile Race in Chicago. The Duryeas' No.5 travelled at an average speed of 7.3 mph). Early in 1896, the Duryeas manufactured 13 copies of the car. Frank developed the "Stevens-Duryea," an expensive limousine, which remained in production into the 1920s. The brothers are recognised as "Fathers of the American Automobile Industry."

Duryean was born in 1869 near Canton, Illinois. Charles organized the Duryea Power Company, which manufactured a three-cylinder car until 1914. He later became a consulting engineer. He died on February 15th, 1967.

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Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr.

Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels. The Dune saga is set in the distant future and taking place over millennia Dune itself is the "best-selling science fiction novel of all time," and the series is widely considered to be among the classics in the genre.

In 1947 Frank Herbert sold his first science fiction story, "Looking for Something", to Startling Stories. His first novel ‘The Dragon in the Sea’ was published in 1955. Herbert began researching Dune in 1959 and it took six years to research and write. Dune and the Dune saga constitute one of the world's best-selling science fiction series and novels; Dune in particular has received widespread critical acclaim, winning the Nebula Award in 1965 and sharing the Hugo Award in 1966.

Herbert was born in 1920 in Tacoma, Washington. He died on February 11, 1986. In recent years, Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have added to the Dune universe, stating that they in part used notes left behind by Frank Herbert and discovered over a decade after his death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert