1803 in science
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The year 1803 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy[]
- April 26 – A meteorite shower falls on L'Aigle in Normandy; Jean Baptiste Biot demonstrates that it is of extraterrestrial origin.[1][2][3]
Botany[]
- Publication (posthumously) of André Michaux's Flora Boreali-Americana in Paris, the first flora of North America.
- University of Tartu Botanical Gardens established.
Chemistry[]
- January 1 – William Henry's formulation of his law on the solubility of gases first published.[4]
- September 3 – English scientist John Dalton starts using symbols to represent the atoms of different chemical elements.
- October 21 – John Dalton's atomic theory and list of molecular weights first made known, at a lecture in Manchester.[5][6]
- William Hyde Wollaston discovers the chemical element rhodium.
- Smithson Tennant discovers the chemical elements iridium and osmium.
- Cerium is discovered in Bastnäs (Sweden) by Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger, and independently in Germany by Martin Heinrich Klaproth.[7]
- Claude Louis Berthollet publishes Essai de statique chimique in Paris.
Exploration[]
- June 9 – Matthew Flinders completes the first known circumnavigation of Australia.[8]
Mathematics[]
- Gian Francesco Malfatti presents his conjecture regarding Malfatti circles.[9][10][11]
Medicine[]
- Jean Marc Gaspard Itard first recognises pneumothorax.
- Dr Thomas Percival of Manchester publishes his Code of Medical Ethics, coining the expression medical ethics.[12]
Meteorology[]
- Luke Howard publishes the basis of the modern classification and nomenclature of clouds.[13][14]
Technology[]
- Robert Ransome invents the self-sharpening chilled cast-iron ploughshare in Ipswich, England.
- The first Fourdrinier continuous papermaking machine is installed in Hertfordshire, England.
Transport[]
- January 4 – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat", in Scotland.
- July 26 – The Surrey Iron Railway, a wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon, is opened, being the first public railway line in England.
- Thomas Telford begins work on construction of the Caledonian Canal and improving roads in Scotland.[15][16]
Awards[]
Births[]
- February 26 – Arnold Adolph Berthold, German physiologist (died 1861)
- February 28 – Christian Heinrich von Nagel, German geometer (died 1882)
- April 1 – Miles Joseph Berkeley, English cryptogamist (died 1889)
- May 12 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (died 1873)
- May 24 – Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French naturalist (died 1857)
- June 8 – Amalia Assur, Swedish dentist (died 1889)
- July 31 – John Ericsson, Swedish-born mechanical engineer and inventor (died 1889)
- October 3 – John Gorrie, American physician and inventor (died 1855)
- October 6 – Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, Prussian physicist and climatologist (died 1879)
- October 16 – Robert Stephenson, English railway engineer (died 1859)
- November 29 – Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician and discoverer of the Doppler effect (died 1853)
- December 21 – Joseph Whitworth, English mechanical engineer (died 1887)
Deaths[]
- May 8 – John Joseph Merlin, English inventor (born 1735)
- October 14 – Aimé Argand, Swiss physicist and chemist (born 1750)
References[]
- ^ "Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni". Institute for Learning Technologies, Columbia University. Archived from the original on May 14, 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of Scientists. Oxford University Press. 1999. p. 101.
- ^ Gounelle, M. (2003). "The meteorite fall at L'Aigle on April 26th 1803 and the Biot report" (PDF). Retrieved August 18, 2011.
- ^ Henry, William (January 1, 1803). "Experiments on the Quantity of Gases Absorbed by Water, at Different Temperatures, and under Different Pressures". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. London. 93: 29–274. doi:10.1098/rstl.1803.0004.
- ^ Dalton, John (1805). "On the Absorption of Gases by Water and Other Liquids". Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. 2nd Series. 1: 271–87. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
- ^ "John Dalton, the man and his legacy: the bicentenary of his Atomic Theory". Retrieved February 17, 2008.
- ^ "Cerium". Visual Elements. London: Royal Society of Chemistry. 1999–2005. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
- ^ "British History Timeline". BBC History. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
- ^ Dörrie, H. (1965). "Malfatti's Problem". 100 Great Problems of Elementary Mathematics: their History and Solutions. New York: Dover. pp. 147–151. ISBN 0-486-61348-8.
- ^ Goldberg, M. (1967). "On the Original Malfatti Problem". Mathematics Magazine. 40 (5): 241–247. doi:10.2307/2688277. JSTOR 2688277.
- ^ "Malfatti's Problem". cut-the-knot. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ^ Davis, Michael (Fall 1999). "Writing a Code of Ethics" (PDF). Perspectives on the Professions. Chicago: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at IIT. 19 (1): 1–3. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
- ^ Howard, Luke (1803). "On the modifications of clouds, and on the principles of their production, suspension and destruction". Philosophical Magazine. 16 (62): 97–107, 344–57. doi:10.1080/14786440308676310.
- ^ Thornes, John E. (1999). John Constable's Skies. The University of Birmingham Press. ISBN 1-902459-02-4.
- ^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 354. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 239–240. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
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- 19th century in science
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