1804 in science

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The year 1804 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space science

The drug morphine is isolated, and many elements are discovered, including cerium, iridium, osmium, palladium, and rhodium:

William Hyde Wollaston discovers palladium, and how to make malleable platinum.
Jöns Jakob Berzelius discovers cerium.
The element iridium is discovered in the acid-insoluble residues of platinum ores by English chemist Smithson Tennant.
The element rhodium is discovered by William Hyde Wollaston in crude platinum ore.
The element osmium is discovered by the English chemist Smithson Tennant.

German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner isolates morphine from opium for the first time.

May 14 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begin their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.

Alexander von Humboldt discovers that the Earth's magnetic field decreases from the poles to the equator.

Publication of The Anatomy of the Human Body, vol. 3, Nervous System by Charles Bell.^[2]
Antonio Scarpa publishes Riflessioni ed Osservazione anatomico-chirugiche sull' Aneurisma, a classic text on aneurisms.^[3]

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Jean Baptiste Biot study the atmosphere from a hot-air balloon.

James Parkinson publishes the first volume of Organic Remains of a Former World, supporting belief in Catastrophism.^[4]

February 21 - The Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly-built "Penydarren" steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad between Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.^[5]
The first Burr Truss bridge is built by Theodore Burr across the Hudson River in Waterford, New York.^[6]

February 6 - Joseph Priestley, chemist (born 1733)
August 30 - Thomas Percival, reforming physician and medical ethicist (born 1740)
September 20 - Pierre Méchain, astronomer (born 1744)
October 2 - Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, engineer (born 1725)

^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^ Jacyna, L. S. (2004). "Bell, Sir Charles (1774–1842)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1999. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1999. Retrieved 2011-04-06. Subscription or UK public library membership required
^ Richardson, Benjamin Ward (1886). "Antonio Scarpa, F.R.S., and Surgical Anatomy". The Asclepiad (London: Longmans, Green and Co.) 4 (16): 128–157. http://books.google.com/?id=-xVCQGjm3ZEC. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
^ Bevan, Michael (2004). "Parkinson, James (1755–1824)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21371. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21371. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
^ Rattenbury, Gordon; Lewis, M. J. T. (2004). Merthyr Tydfil Tramroads and their Locomotives. Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-52-0.
^ "The Burr Truss". Truss Styles of Covered Bridges. New York State Covered Bridge Society. January 2006. http://www.nycoveredbridges.org/page44.html. Retrieved 2011-12-13.