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1802 in science
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<h2 id="astronomy">Astronomy</h2> <ul><li>March 28 – <a href="/facts/H._W._Olbers/KgvJSXxD">H. W. Olbers</a> discovers the <a href="/facts/Asteroid/g7Ulr1VB">asteroid</a> <a href="/facts/2_Pallas/onjUgYtA">Pallas</a>, the second known.</li> <li>May 6 – <a href="/facts/William_Herschel/SsruaBvq">William Herschel</a> coins the term <i>asteroid</i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> and on July 1 first uses the term <a href="/facts/Binary_star/TYlDe1bD">binary star</a> to refer to a star which revolves around another.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="biology">Biology</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Pierre_Andr%25C3%25A9_Latreille/YPQCmIvf">Pierre André Latreille</a> begins publication of his <i>Histoire naturelle générale et particulière des crustacés et insectes</i>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/George_Montagu_(naturalist)/ykRj9HAG">George Montagu</a> publishes his <i><a href="/facts/Ornithological_Dictionary%3b_or_Alphabetical_Synopsis_of_British_Birds/63VBoB6R">Ornithological Dictionary; or Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds</a></i>.</li> <li>In the <a href="/facts/History_of_evolutionary_thought/Ah1RKqf0">history of evolutionary thought</a> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck/3lxaPmqM">Jean-Baptiste Lamarck</a> publishes <i>Recherches sur l'Organisation des Corps Vivants</i>, proposing that all life is organized in a vertical chain of progressive complexity.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Gottfried_Reinhold_Treviranus/9sY4lmBm">Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus</a> begins publication of <i>Biologie; oder die Philosophie der lebenden Natur</i>, proposing a theory of the transmutation of species.</li></ul></li></ul> <h2 id="chemistry">Chemistry</h2> <ul><li>June – The first account of <a href="/facts/Thomas_Wedgwood_(photographer)/kwLhn6vL">Thomas Wedgwood</a>'s experiments in <a href="/facts/Photography/ezLPT43M">photography</a> using <a href="/facts/Silver_nitrate/U5w4A3DN">silver nitrate</a> is published by <a href="/facts/Humphry_Davy/aDNRfNou">Humphry Davy</a> in the <i>Journal of the <a href="/facts/Royal_Institution/6uT4MCUV">Royal Institution</a></i> in London.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> Since a fixative for the image has not yet been devised, the early photographs quickly fade.</li> <li>July – <a href="/facts/William_Hyde_Wollaston/U0MXYKA3">William Hyde Wollaston</a> notes the discovery of the <a href="/facts/Noble_metals/Pe9EKIvU">noble metal</a> <a href="/facts/Palladium/P7y0ESWf">palladium</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Charles%2527s_law/kU3S85Kq">Charles's law</a> (the "law of volumes"), describing how <a href="/facts/Gas/hVVAoodV">gases</a> tend to expand when heated, is first published in <a href="/facts/France/CxIeIKM3">France</a> by <a href="/facts/Joseph_Louis_Gay-Lussac/co1Ne63y">Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="ecology">Ecology</h2> <ul><li>Civil engineer and geographer François Antoine Rauch publishes <i>Harmonie hydro-végétale et météorologique: ou recherches sur les moyens de recréer avec nos forêts la force des températures et la régularité des saisons par des plantations raisonnées</i> in <a href="/facts/Paris/DrNHpwnA">Paris</a>, arguing against <a href="/facts/Deforestation/L1TNhN9p">deforestation</a>.</li></ul> <h2 id="geology">Geology</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/James_Smithson/9kX2J27g">James Smithson</a> proves that <a href="/facts/Zinc_carbonate/ffvou3Re">zinc carbonates</a> are true <a href="/facts/Carbonate/FES1QHkN">carbonate</a> minerals and not <a href="/facts/Zinc_oxide/P7sTyDez">zinc oxides</a>, as was previously thought.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a></li> <li><a href="/facts/John_Playfair/2t52a16I">John Playfair</a> publishes <i>Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth</i> in <a href="/facts/Edinburgh/PcsoaK9h">Edinburgh</a>, popularising <a href="/facts/James_Hutton/Y8HUhQIu">James Hutton</a>'s theory of geology.</li> <li><a href="/facts/James_Sowerby/g2pFfhxr">James Sowerby</a> begins to issue his <i>British Mineralogy, or, coloured figures intended to elucidate the mineralogy of Great Britain</i> in London, the first comprehensive illustrated reference work on the subject.</li></ul> <h2 id="medicine">Medicine</h2> <ul><li>June – The first <a href="/facts/Pediatric_hospital/vAdcDXj9">pediatric hospital</a>, the <a href="/facts/Necker-Enfants_Malades_Hospital/158kpEWK">Hôpital des Enfants Malades</a>, opens in Paris, on the site of a previous <a href="/facts/Orphanage/tKhd7Bfg">orphanage</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a></li> <li><a href="/facts/London_Fever_Hospital/WxEK4f2z">London Fever Hospital</a> founded.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Charles_Bell/gKnT2dN2">Charles Bell</a> publishes <i>The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings</i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="meteorology">Meteorology</h2> <ul><li>December – <a href="/facts/Luke_Howard/LFdp01yY">Luke Howard</a> presents the basis of the modern classification and nomenclature of clouds, at a lecture in London.</li></ul> <h2 id="physics">Physics</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Johann_Wilhelm_Ritter/p6jWzEB2">Johann Wilhelm Ritter</a> builds the first <a href="/facts/Electrochemical_cell/o7oEnYVl">electrochemical cell</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="surveying">Surveying</h2> <ul><li>April 10 – <a href="/facts/Great_Trigonometric_Survey/nkxNE8Se">Great Trigonometric Survey</a> of <a href="/facts/India/QW4TV4sy">India</a> begins with the measurement of a baseline near <a href="/facts/Chennai/8ngv75bW">Madras</a>.</li></ul> <h2 id="technology">Technology</h2> <ul><li>November 5 – <a href="/facts/Marc_Isambard_Brunel/5A119kbY">Marc Isambard Brunel</a> begins installation of his <a href="/facts/Block_(sailing)/INE3Cokx">blockmaking</a> machinery at <a href="/facts/Portsmouth_Block_Mills/LyleqayB">Portsmouth Block Mills</a> in <a href="/facts/England/U9mE5bGL">England</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a></li> <li>George Bodley of <a href="/facts/Exeter/yTQmILuj">Exeter</a> in England patents the first enclosed <a href="/facts/Kitchen_stove/v0QMRzbT">kitchen stove</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="publications">Publications</h2> <ul><li>January 2 – Rev. <a href="/facts/Abraham_Rees/F1r58HTX">Abraham Rees</a> begins publication in London of <i><a href="/facts/Rees%2527s_Cyclop%25C3%25A6dia/fKuxSauJ">The New Cyclopædia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences</a></i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="awards">Awards</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Copley_Medal/bBwd6QzN">Copley Medal</a>: <a href="/facts/William_Hyde_Wollaston/U0MXYKA3">William Hyde Wollaston</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19"><sup>19</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="births">Births</h2> <ul><li>February 6 – <a href="/facts/Charles_Wheatstone/935jnRhj">Charles Wheatstone</a>, English inventor (died <a href="/facts/1875_in_science/uXaVxjU1">1875</a>)</li> <li>April 4 – <a href="/facts/Dorothea_Dix/U1oxtp3l">Dorothea Dix</a>, American mental health reformer (died <a href="/facts/1887_in_science/3TPmT9t4">1887</a>)</li> <li>July 9 – <a href="/facts/Thomas_Davenport_(inventor)/LtgLVH3u">Thomas Davenport</a>, American inventor (died <a href="/facts/1851_in_science/BlgTCsgL">1851</a>)</li> <li>August 5 – <a href="/facts/Niels_Henrik_Abel/6kMfdRkT">Niels Henrik Abel</a>, Norwegian mathematician (died <a href="/facts/1829_in_science/L1KDALdh">1829</a>)</li> <li>October 10 – <a href="/facts/Hugh_Miller/dCbSKcpE">Hugh Miller</a>, Scottish geologist (suicide <a href="/facts/1856_in_science/5jhUepAI">1856</a>)</li> <li>December 15 – <a href="/facts/J%25C3%25A1nos_Bolyai/JeXBranr">János Bolyai</a>, Hungarian mathematician (died <a href="/facts/1860_in_science/RDhtEhvt">1860</a>)</li></ul> <h2 id="deaths">Deaths</h2> <ul><li>April 14 – John Mackay, Scottish botanist (born <a href="/facts/1772_in_science/zyDLwvxa">1772</a>)</li> <li>April 18 – <a href="/facts/Erasmus_Darwin/yyYdTLl5">Erasmus Darwin</a>, English author of <i><a href="/facts/Zoonomia/hsKg3X6j">Zoonomia</a></i> (born <a href="/facts/1731_in_science/VdhvlMaB">1731</a>)</li> <li>November 16 – <a href="/facts/Andr%25C3%25A9_Michaux/MX3nmaBj">André Michaux</a>, French botanist (born <a href="/facts/1746_in_science/9dd8kNKE">1746</a>)</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Herschel, William (6 May 1802). "Observations on the two lately discovered celestial Bodies". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 92: 213–232. doi:10.1098/rstl.1802.0010. JSTOR 107120. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/Doi_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Hilton, James L. (2001-09-17). "When Did the Asteroids Become Minor Planets?". Archived from the original on 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2006-08-16. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090825024347/http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/minorplanets.php" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20090825024347/http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/minorplanets.php</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Herschel, William (1802). "Catalogue of 500 New Nebulae, Nebulous Stars, Planetary Nebulae, and Clusters of Stars; With Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 92: 477–528 [481]. Bibcode:1802RSPT...92..477H. doi:10.1098/rstl.1802.0021. JSTOR 107131. <a href="https://zenodo.org/record/1432308/files/article.pdf" target="_blank">https://zenodo.org/record/1432308/files/article.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Osborn, Henry Fairfield (1905). From the Greeks to Darwin: an outline of the development of the evolution idea (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan. p. 160. <a href="/wiki/Henry_Fairfield_Osborn" target="_blank">/wiki/Henry_Fairfield_Osborn</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"An Account of a method of copying Painting upon Glass and making profiles, by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver." Invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. with Observations by H. Davy. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Hirsch, Robert (2017). Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography. Taylor & Francis. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 354. ISBN 0-304-35730-8. <a href="0-304-35730-8" target="_blank">0-304-35730-8</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Gay-Lussac, J. L. "Recherches sur la dilatation des gaz et des vapeurs". Annales de chimie. XLIII: 137. Retrieved 29 September 2010. <a href="http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/gaygas.html" target="_blank">http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/gaygas.html</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"Who was James Smithson? – A Man of Science". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-18. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070612070808/http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/who_04.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20070612070808/http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/who_04.html</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Smithson, James (1803). "A Chemical Analysis of Some Calamines". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Pt. I. Retrieved 25 February 2011. <a href="http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/calamine.html" target="_blank">http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/calamine.html</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Ballbriga, Angel (1991). "One century of pediatrics in Europe". In Nichols, Buford L.; Ballabriga, A.; Kretchmer, N. (eds.). History of Pediatrics 1850–1950. Nestlé Nutrition Workshop Series. Vol. 22. New York: Raven Press. pp. 6–8. ISBN 0-88167-695-0. <a href="0-88167-695-0" target="_blank">0-88167-695-0</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Jacyna, L. S. (2004). "Bell, Sir Charles (1774–1842)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1999. Retrieved 2011-04-06. (subscription or UK public library membership required) <a href="http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1999" target="_blank">http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1999</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Berg, Hermann (2008). "Johann Wilhelm Ritter: the Founder of Scientific Electrochemistry". Review of Polarography. 54 (2): 99–103. doi:10.5189/revpolarography.54.99. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5189%2Frevpolarography.54.99" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.5189%2Frevpolarography.54.99</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Wetzels, Walter D. (1978). "J. W. Ritter: the Beginnings of Electrochemistry in Germany". In Dubpernell, G.; Westbrook, J. H. (eds.). Selected Topics in the History of Electrochemistry. Princeton: Electrochemical Society. pp. 68–73. <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Bagust, Harold (2006). The Greater Genius? – a biography of Marc Isambard Brunel. Hersham: Ian Allan. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-7110-3175-3. <a href="978-0-7110-3175-3" target="_blank">978-0-7110-3175-3</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>Cornforth, David; Speight, Anne (2009-05-03). "Bodley & Co". Exeter Memories. Retrieved 2011-03-12. <a href="http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/bodley.php" target="_blank">http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/bodley.php</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>"The History of Ranges". Tarvin: Antique Fireplaces & Ranges. Retrieved 2011-03-12. <a href="http://www.antiquefireplacesandranges.com/historyofranges.html" target="_blank">http://www.antiquefireplacesandranges.com/historyofranges.html</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:18"><p>Underwood, John (Spring–Summer 2010). "The subversive encyclopedia". Science Museum Library & Archives Newsletter. Science Museum at Wroughton. Archived from the original on 2011-01-17. Retrieved 2011-11-12. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110117233801/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/science_library/~/media/EF4C87E781D6416E8CC65F252635C086.ashx" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20110117233801/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/science_library/~/media/EF4C87E781D6416E8CC65F252635C086.ashx</a> <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:19"><p>"Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 21 July 2020. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal" target="_blank">https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal</a> <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>