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Chemistry

• Isaac Holden produces a form of friction match.

Mathematics

• Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet publishes a memoir giving the Dirichlet conditions, showing for which functions the convergence of the Fourier series holds; introducing Dirichlet's test for the convergence of series; the Dirichlet function as an example that not any function is integrable; and, in the proof of the theorem for the Fourier series, the Dirichlet kernel and Dirichlet integral.¹ He also introduces a general modern concept for a function.²
• Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky publishes his work on hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometry.³
• S. D. Poisson publishes Sur l'attraction des sphéroides.

Medicine

• Dr Benjamin Guy Babington makes the first known use of a laryngoscope.⁴

Palaeontology

• Jules Desnoyers names the Quaternary period.
• Engis 2, part of the skull of a young child and other bones, recognised in 1936 as the first known Neanderthal fossil, is found in the Awirs cave near Engis in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) by Philippe-Charles Schmerling.⁵

Technology

• May – Cyrill Demian patents a version of the accordion in Vienna.
• June 30 – Henry Robinson Palmer files a British patent application for corrugated iron for use in buildings.⁶
• July 23 – In the United States, William Burt obtains the first patent for a form of typewriter, the typographer.⁷
• October 6–14 – The Rainhill Trials, a steam locomotive competition, are run in England and won by Stephenson's Rocket.
• December 19 – Charles Wheatstone patents the concertina in Britain.⁸
• William Mann invents the compound air compressor.
• Louis Braille publishes the first description of his method of embossed printing that allows the visually impaired to read.⁹

Higher Education

• Chalmers University of Technology founded in Gothenburg, Sweden.
• Technical University of Denmark (originally named 'College of Advanced Technology') founded in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• University of Stuttgart founded in Stuttgart, Germany.
• Ecole Centrale Paris (originally named 'École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures') founded in Paris, France.

Awards

• Copley Medal: not awarded¹⁰

Births

• February 2
  • Alfred Brehm (died 1884), German zoologist.
  • William Stanley (died 1909), English inventor.
• March 23 – N. R. Pogson (died 1891 in science), English-born astronomer.
• April 28 – Charles Bourseul (died 1912), Belgian-born telegraph engineer.
• April 30 – Ferdinand von Hochstetter (died 1884), German-born geologist.
• July 30 – George Rolleston (died 1881), English physician and zoologist.
• August 13 (O.S. August 1) – Ivan Sechenov (died 1905), "father of Russian physiology".
• August 23 – Moritz Cantor (died 1920), German historian of mathematics.
• August 24 - Emanuella Carlbeck (died 1901), Swedish pioneer in the education of students with intellectual disability.
• September 7 – August Kekulé (died 1896), German chemist.
• September 30
  • Franz Reuleaux (died 1905), German mechanical engineer, "father of kinematics".
  • Joseph Wolstenholme (died 1891), English mathematician.
• October 15 – Asaph Hall (died 1907), American astronomer.
• November 4 – Hanna Hammarström (died 1909), Swedish inventor.

Deaths

• March 1 – Thomas Earnshaw (born 1749), English watchmaker.
• April 6 – Niels Henrik Abel (born 1802), Norwegian mathematician.
• May 10 – Thomas Young (born 1773), English physicist.
• May 29 – Humphry Davy (born 1778), English chemist.
• June 29 – James Smithson (born 1764), English mineralogist, chemist and benefactor.
• November 14 – Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (born 1763), French chemist.
• October 10 – Maria Elizabetha Jacson (born 1755), English botanist.
• December 28 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (born 1744), French naturalist.
• undated – Huang Lü, Chinese scientist.

References

1. Bressoud, David M. (2007). A radical approach to real analysis (2nd ed.). [Washington, D.C.]: Mathematical Association of America. pp. 218–227. ISBN 978-0-88385-747-2. 978-0-88385-747-2 ↩

2. Elstrodt, Jürgen (2007). "The Life and Work of Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (1805–1859)" (PDF). Clay Mathematics Proceedings. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-05-22. Retrieved 2011-10-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20210522140235/http://www.uni-math.gwdg.de/tschinkel/gauss-dirichlet/elstrodt-new.pdf ↩

3. Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. pp. 108–111. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8. 978-1-84724-008-8 ↩

4. Radomski, Teresa (2005). "Manuel García (1805–1906): a bicentenary reflection" (PDF). Australian Voice. 11: 25–41. Retrieved 2012-02-07. http://www.harmonicorde.com/Radomski%20Australian%20Voice.pdf ↩

5. Schmerling, Philippe-Charles (1833). Recherches sur les ossements fossiles découverts dans les cavernes de la Province de Liège. Liège: P.-J. Collardin. S. 1–66. ↩

6. Thomson, Nick (2011). Corrugated Iron Buildings. Oxford: Shire Publications. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-0-7478-0783-4. 978-0-7478-0783-4 ↩

7. U.S. Patent 5581X. https://patents.google.com/patent/USX5581 ↩

8. "Portfolio of Historic Concertina Patents". http://www.concertina.com/patents/index.htm#wheatstone-patent-1829 ↩

9. Procédé pour écrire les Paroles, la Musique et le Plain-chant au moyen de points, à l'usage des Aveugles et disposés pour eux. Paris. ↩

10. "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 July 2020. https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal ↩