Wikipedia
1838 in science
The year 1838 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy edit
- Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star, 61 Cygni, using parallax. Thomas Henderson (Alpha Centauri) and Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (Vega) announce their measurements using parallax shortly afterwards.
- Claude Servais Mathias Pouillet makes the first quantitative measurements of the heat emitted by the Sun.
- Peter Andreas Hansen publishes a revision of the lunar theory, Fundamenta nova investigationis orbitae verae quam luna perlustrat.
Biology edit
- May 9 – Royal Agricultural Society of England established.
- Proteins discovered by Gerardus Johannes Mulder[1] and named by Jöns Jakob Berzelius.[2]
- Matthias Schleiden discovers that all living plant tissue is composed of cells.
- Andrew Smith begins publication of Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa.
Chemistry edit
- Bulat steel alloy developed by Pavel Petrovich Anosov.
- Electrotyping is invented by Moritz von Jacobi in Russia.[3]
Exploration edit
- August 18 – The United States Exploring Expedition under U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes sets sail for a four-year circumnavigation westabout.
- In Australia, Charles Sturt proves that the Hume and Murray are the same river.
Mathematics edit
- Augustus De Morgan introduces the term 'mathematical induction'.[4]
- S. D. Poisson publishes Recherches sur la probabilité des jugements en matière criminelle et en matière civile, containing his work on probability theory and introducing Poisson distribution.
Medicine edit
- Jean Esquirol publishes Des maladies mentales considerées sous le rapport médicale, hygiènique et médico-legal in Paris. This includes the first description of what will later become known as Down syndrome.[5]
- John Gorrie experiments with cooling the hospital wards of malarial patients in Apalachicola, Florida.[6]
Technology edit
- January 6 – Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrates the electrical telegraph.
- April 4–22 – The paddle steamer SS Sirius (1837) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Cork, Ireland, in eighteen days, though not using steam continuously.[7]
- April 8–23 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's paddle steamer SS Great Western (1838) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Avonmouth, England, in fifteen days, inaugurating a regular steamship service.[8]
- Liverpool-built barque Ironsides becomes the first large ocean-going iron ship.[9]
- William Barnett obtains a United Kingdom patent for an internal combustion engine, the first with compression of the gas/air mixture in the cylinder.[10][11]
- David Bruce, Jr., invents the Pivotal Typecaster, which replaces hand typecasting in printing.
- The first screw-pile lighthouse is built by Alexander Mitchell on Maplin Sands in the Thames Estuary.
- Charles Wheatstone originates the stereoscope.
Events edit
- A statue of English chemist and physicist John Dalton (in marble by Sir Francis Chantrey) is erected in Manchester during the scientist's lifetime.
Awards edit
Births edit
- January 5 – Camille Jordan (died 1922), French mathematician.
- January 29 – Edward W. Morley (died 1923), American chemist.
- February 18 – Ernst Mach (died 1916), Austrian physicist.
- March 3 – George William Hill (died 1914), American astronomer.
- March 12 – William H. Perkin (died 1907), English chemist.
- March 15 – Alice Cunningham Fletcher (died 1923), Cuban-born American ethnologist, anthropologist and social scientist.
- April 8 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin (died 1917), German founder of the Zeppelin airship company.
- April 16 – Ernest Solvay (died 1922), Belgian chemist.
- April 18 – Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (died 1912), French chemist.
- April 21 – John Muir (died 1914), Scottish-born American naturalist.
- May 6 – Alexandra Smirnoff (died 1913), Finnish pomologist.
- June 4 – John Grigg (died 1920), New Zealand astronomer.
- July 19 – Joel Asaph Allen (died 1921), American zoologist.
- August 6 – George James Symons (died 1900), English meteorologist.
- December 12 – Sherburne Wesley Burnham (died 1921), American astronomer.
Deaths edit
- March 16 – Nathaniel Bowditch (born 1773), American mathematician.
- April 6 – José Bonifácio de Andrada (born 1763), Brazilian statesman and mineralogist.
- May 11 – Thomas Andrew Knight (born 1759), English horticulturalist.
- July 5 – Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (born 1774), French otorhinolaryngologist.
- August 21 – Adelbert von Chamisso (born 1781), German botanist.
- September 1 – William Clark (born 1770), American explorer.
- September 27 – Bernard Courtois (born 1777), French chemist.
- October 1 – Charles Tennant (born 1768), Scottish chemist and industrialist.
References edit
- ^ Mulder, G. J. (1838). "Over Proteine en hare Verbindingen en Ontledingsproducten". Natuur- en Scheikundig Archief. 6: 87–162.
- ^ Vickery, Hubert Bradford (1950). "The Origin of the Word Protein". Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 22 (5): 387–93. PMC 2598953. PMID 15413335.
- ^ Heinrich, Herbert (December 1938). "The Discovery of Galvanoplasty and Electrotyping" (PDF). Journal of Chemical Education. 15 (12): 565–575. Bibcode:1938JChEd..15..565H. doi:10.1021/ed015p565. Retrieved 2012-06-21.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
- ^ "Down's syndrome". Whonamedit?. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
- ^ Burke, James (1978). Connections. London: Macmillan. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-333-24827-0.
- ^ "Steamship Curaçao". from the original on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 22 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ Grantham, John (1859). On Iron Ship Building (2nd ed.). London: Lockwood. pp. 13–14.
- ^ Patent No. 7615, Obtaining motive power from inflammable gases by compression and explosion.
- ^ Clerk, Dugald (1897). Gas and Oil Engines. London: Longman Green & Co.
- ^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 July 2020.