1830 in science

The year 1830 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

• March 16 – Great Comet of 1830 (C/1830 F1, 1830 I) first observed in Mauritius.
• Johann Heinrich Mädler and Wilhelm Beer produce the first map of the surface of Mars.

Biology

Frontispiece of Lyell's Principles of Geology

• Charles Bell publishes his Nervous System of the Human Body.
• William Jackson Hooker commences publication of The British Flora.

Exploration

• October 14 – HMS Beagle returns to England from her first voyage, a hydrographic survey of the Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego regions of South America.

Geology

• Charles Lyell publishes the first volume of his Principles of Geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation.

Medicine

• Thomas Southwood Smith publishes the standard textbook A Treatise on Fever in London.

Technology

• July 13 – John Ruggles is granted United States patent No. 1, for applying rack railway equipment to the "Locomotive steam-engine for rail and other roads".
• August 31 – Edwin Budding is granted a United Kingdom patent for the lawnmower.
• Aeneas Coffey is granted a United Kingdom patent for an improved column still.

Publications

• Charles Babbage publishes Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes.

Awards

• Copley Medal: not awarded

Births

• March 5 – Étienne-Jules Marey (died 1904), physiologist.
• March 5 – Charles Wyville Thompson (died 1882), marine biologist.
• May 10 – François-Marie Raoult (died 1901), chemist.
• August 19 – Lothar Meyer (died 1895), chemist.
• October 24 – Marianne North (died 1890), botanist.

Deaths

• March 2 – Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring (born 1755), physician, anatomist, paleontologist and inventor.
• March 29 – James Rennell (born 1742), cartographer and oceanographer.
• May 16 – Joseph Fourier (born 1768), mathematician.