The year 1803 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

* April 26 – A

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

shower falls on L'Aigle in Normandy;

Jean Baptiste Biot Jean-Baptiste Biot (; ; 21 April 1774 – 3 February 1862) was a French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who co-discovered the Biot–Savart law of magnetostatics with Félix Savart, established the reality of meteorites, made an early b ...

demonstrates that it is of extraterrestrial origin.

Botany

* Publication (posthumously) of André Michaux's ''Flora Boreali-Americana'' in Paris, the first

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

of North America. *

University of Tartu Botanical Gardens University of Tartu Botanical Gardens ( et, Tartu Ülikooli Botaanikaaed), is a botanical garden in Tartu, Estonia. It belongs to the University of Tartu. The Garden was established in 1803. Originally, it was located at Vanemuise street near wha ...

established.

Chemistry

* January 1 – William Henry's formulation of his law on the solubility of gases first published. * September 3 – English scientist

John Dalton John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He is best known for introducing the atomic theory into chemistry, and for his research into colour blindness, which he had. Colour b ...

starts using symbols to represent the atoms of different

chemical elements A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler sub ...

. * October 21 –

atomic theory Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. Atomic theory traces its origins to an ancient philosophical tradition known as atomism. According to this idea, if one were to take a lump of matter a ...

and list of

molecular weight A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioch ...

s first made known, at a lecture in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. *

William Hyde Wollaston William Hyde Wollaston (; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable ingo ...

discovers the chemical element

rhodium Rhodium is a chemical element with the symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is a very rare, silvery-white, hard, corrosion-resistant transition metal. It is a noble metal and a member of the platinum group. It has only one naturally occurring isoto ...

. * Smithson Tennant discovers the chemical elements

iridium Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, it is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density of ...

and

osmium Osmium (from Greek grc, ὀσμή, osme, smell, label=none) is a chemical element with the symbol Os and atomic number 76. It is a hard, brittle, bluish-white transition metal in the platinum group that is found as a trace element in alloys, mos ...

. *

Cerium Cerium is a chemical element with the symbol Ce and atomic number 58. Cerium is a soft, ductile, and silvery-white metal that tarnishes when exposed to air. Cerium is the second element in the lanthanide series, and while it often shows the +3 o ...

is discovered in

Bastnäs Bastnäs ( sv, Bastnäs or ) is an ore field near Riddarhyttan, Västmanland, Sweden. The mines in Bastnäs were earliest mentioned in 1692. Iron, copper and rare-earth elements were extracted from the mines and 4,500 tons of cerium was produced be ...

(

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

) by

Jöns Jakob Berzelius Jöns is a Swedish given name and a surname. Notable people with the given name include: * Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779–1848), Swedish chemist * Jöns Budde (1435–1495), Franciscan friar from the Brigittine monastery in NaantaliVallis Gratiae ...

and Wilhelm Hisinger, and independently in Germany by Martin Heinrich Klaproth. * Claude Louis Berthollet publishes
Essai de statique chimique
' in Paris.

Exploration

* June 9 –

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

completes the first known circumnavigation of Australia.

Mathematics

Gian Francesco Malfatti Giovanni Francesco Giuseppe Malfatti, also known as Gian Francesco or Gianfrancesco (26 September 1731 – 9 October 1807) was an Italian mathematician. He was born in Ala, Trentino, Italy and died in Ferrara. Malfatti studied at the College of Sa ...

presents his conjecture regarding

Malfatti circles In geometry, the Malfatti circles are three circles inside a given triangle such that each circle is tangent to the other two and to two sides of the triangle. They are named after Gian Francesco Malfatti, who made early studies of the problem o ...

Medicine

* Jean Marc Gaspard Itard first recognises pneumothorax. * Dr

Thomas Percival Thomas Percival (29 September 1740 – 30 August 1804) was an English physician, health reformer, ethicist and author who wrote an early code of medical ethics. He drew up a pamphlet with the code in 1794 and wrote an expanded version in 18 ...

publishes his ''Code of Medical Ethics'', coining the expression ''

medical ethics Medical ethics is an applied branch of ethics which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. T ...

''.

Meteorology

Luke Howard Luke Howard, (28 November 1772 – 21 March 1864) was a British manufacturing chemist and an amateur meteorologist with broad interests in science. His lasting contribution to science is a nomenclature system for clouds, which he proposed i ...

publishes the basis of the modern classification and nomenclature of clouds.

Technology

Robert Ransome Robert Ransome (1753 – 7 March 1830) was an English maker of agricultural implements. He founded the company later known as Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies. Early life and career Robert Ransome was born in Wells, Norfolk, son of Richard Ransome, a s ...

invents the self-sharpening chilled cast-iron ploughshare in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, England. * The first Fourdrinier continuous papermaking machine is installed in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England.

Transport

* January 4 – William Symington demonstrates his ''

Charlotte Dundas ''Charlotte Dundas'' is regarded as the world's second successful steamboat, the first towing steamboat and the boat that demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships.Fry, p. 27. Early experiments Development of experimental steam engi ...

'', the "first practical steamboat", in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. * July 26 – The Surrey Iron Railway, a

wagonway Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...

between

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...

and

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, is opened, being the first public railway line in England. *

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...

begins work on construction of the

Caledonian Canal The Caledonian Canal connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William in Scotland. The canal was constructed in the early nineteenth century by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. Route The canal r ...

and improving roads in Scotland.

Awards

Copley Medal The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society, for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given every year, the medal is t ...

: Richard Chenevix

Births

* February 26 –

Arnold Adolph Berthold Arnold Adolph Berthold (also Arnold Adolf Berthold) (26 February 1803, in Soest – 3 January 1861, in Göttingen) was a German scientist, most notably a physiologist and zoologist . He is best known in modern science for his pioneering experim ...

, German

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

(died 1861) * February 28 – Christian Heinrich von Nagel, German geometer (died 1882) * April 1 – Miles Joseph Berkeley, English cryptogamist (died 1889) * May 12 –

Justus von Liebig Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 20 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at t ...

, German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

(died 1873) * May 24 –

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French naturalist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

, French naturalist (died 1857) * June 8 –

Amalia Assur Amalia Assur (June 8, 1803 – 1889) was the first female dentist in Sweden. Amalia Assur was born in Stockholm as the daughter of the Jewish dentist Joel Assur (1753–1837), the Dentist of the Royal Family, who has been referred to as one of the ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

dentist (died

1889 Events January–March * January 1 ** The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada. ** Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka experiences a vision, leading to the start of the Ghost Dance movement in the ...

) * July 31 –

John Ericsson John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which com ...

, Swedish-born mechanical engineer and inventor (died 1889) * October 3 – John Gorrie, American physician and inventor (died 1855) * October 6 – Heinrich Wilhelm Dove,

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n physicist and climatologist (died 1879) * October 16 – Robert Stephenson, English railway engineer (died 1859) * November 29 – Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician and discoverer of the

Doppler effect The Doppler effect or Doppler shift (or simply Doppler, when in context) is the change in frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the wave source. It is named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who d ...

(died 1853) * December 21 –

Joseph Whitworth Sir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet (21 December 1803 – 22 January 1887) was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for scr ...

, English mechanical engineer (died 1887) *

Choe Han-gi Choe Han-gi (; 1803 – 1877) was a Korean Confucian scholar and philosopher. He is known for integrating Eastern philosophy with Western science in pre-industrial Korea. Names His pen name was Hyegang (), and according to some sources, it ...

, Korean philosopher of science (died 1877)

Deaths

* May 8 – John Joseph Merlin, English inventor (born 1735) * October 14 – Ami Argand,

Genevan Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

physicist and chemist (born 1750)

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em 19th century in science 1800s in science