1800 in science

The year 1800 in science and technology included many significant events.

Events

• Royal Institution of Great Britain granted a Royal Charter.^[1]

Astronomy

• The central star of the Ring Nebula is discovered by Fredrich von Hahn: the central star is a white dwarf star with a temperature of between 100000 and 120000 K.

Chemistry

• Beryllium is discovered by Johann Bartholomäus Trommsdorff in beryl from Saxony, a new earth; he calls it Agusterde ("Agust Earth").
• Fulminates are discovered by Edward Howard.^[2][3][4]
• Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, begins publication in Paris of the comprehensive chemistry textbook Système des connaissances chimiques et de leurs applications aux phénomènes de la nature et de l'art.

Exploration

• The Antipodes Islands, formerly the home of large herds of fur seals, are discovered by the crew of the British ship HMS Reliance.
• Jacques Labillardière publishes Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse in Paris.

Medicine

• Xavier Bichat publishes Traité sur les membranes and Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort, pioneering texts in histology and pathology.^[5]
• Company of Surgeons granted a royal charter to become the Royal College of Surgeons in London.^[1]

Physics

• Alessandro Volta devises the first chemical battery, thereby founding the discipline of electrochemistry.^[6]
• Infrared rays are discovered by William Herschel, an English astronomer of German origin.^[1]

Technology

• Yeast is discovered, as a new way to make beer ferment (beer made before 1800 was lambic).
• Robert Fulton builds a practical experimental manually-propelled naval submarine Nautilus in France (first test dive July 29 at Rouen).
• Henry Maudslay develops the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe, allowing standardisation of screw thread sizes for the first time, in London.^[7][8]
• The first design for a cast iron twin leaf swing bridge is produced by Ralph Walker for London Docks.^[9]

Zoology

• November 4 – Major-General Thomas Davies first describes the Superb Lyrebird.^[10][11]

Awards

• Copley Medal: Edward Charles Howard

Births

• January 14 – Ludwig von Köchel, Austrian musicologist and botanist (died 1877)
• February 2 – Melanie Hahnemann, French homeopath (died 1878)
• February 11 – H. Fox Talbot, English pioneer of photography (died 1877)
• February 12 – John Edward Gray, English taxonomist (died 1875)
• February 23 – William Jardine, Scottish naturalist (died 1874)
• March 14 – James Bogardus, American inventor (died 1874)
• April 15 – James Clark Ross, English explorer of the Polar regions (died 1862)
• July 31 – Friedrich Woehler, German chemist (died 1882)
• December 29 – Charles Goodyear, American inventor of the vulcanization process (died 1860)
• Anna Volkova, Russian chemist (died 1876)

Deaths

• January 1 – Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, French naturalist (born 1716)
• March 14 – Daines Barrington, English naturalist (born 1727)
• November 5 – Jesse Ramsden, English scientific instrument maker (born 1735)

References