The year 1850 in
science
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
and
technology
Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
involved some significant events, listed below.
Biology
* May 25 – The young
Hippopotamous Obaysch arrives at
London Zoo
London Zoo, previously known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens and sometimes called Regent's Park Zoo, is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828 and was originally intended to be used as a colle ...
from
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, the first seen in Europe since Roman times.
*
Rewilding
Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. It differs from other forms of ecological restoration in that rewilding aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems. It is also d ...
of
Ascension Island
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overs ...
begins.
Chemistry
* April 15 – Capt.
John William Reynolds presents his discovery of
propylene
Propylene, also known as propene, is an unsaturated organic compound with the chemical formula . It has one double bond, and is the second simplest member of the alkene class of hydrocarbons. It is a colorless gas with a faint petroleum-like o ...
.
* October 17 –
James Young patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
s a method of distilling
kerosene
Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...
from coal.
* Rev.
Levi Hill invents a
color photography
Color photography (also spelled as colour photography in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is photography that uses media capable of capturing and reproducing colors. By contrast, black-and-white or gray-monochrome ...
process, "helicromy", capable of basic rendering of reds and blues.
Mathematics
* July 2 –
William Thomson communicates
Stokes' theorem
Stokes' theorem, also known as the Kelvin–Stokes theorem after Lord Kelvin and George Stokes, the fundamental theorem for curls, or simply the curl theorem, is a theorem in vector calculus on \R^3. Given a vector field, the theorem relates th ...
to
George Stokes. Stokes presents a paper on the numerical calculation of a class of definite
integral
In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a Summation, sum, which is used to calculate area, areas, volume, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental oper ...
s and
infinite series
In mathematics, a series is, roughly speaking, an addition of infinitely many terms, one after the other. The study of series is a major part of calculus and its generalization, mathematical analysis. Series are used in most areas of mathemati ...
.
*
Thomas Kirkman
Thomas Penyngton Kirkman FRS (31 March 1806 – 3 February 1895) was a British mathematician and ordained minister of the Church of England. Despite being primarily a churchman, he maintained an active interest in research-level mathematics, a ...
proposes
Kirkman's schoolgirl problem
Kirkman's schoolgirl problem is a problem in combinatorics proposed by Thomas Penyngton Kirkman in 1850 as Query VI in '' The Lady's and Gentleman's Diary'' (pg.48). The problem states:
Fifteen young ladies in a school walk out three abreast f ...
.
*
Victor Puiseux distinguishes between poles and branch points and introduces the concept of
essential singular points.
*
J. J. Sylvester originates the term ''
matrix
Matrix (: matrices or matrixes) or MATRIX may refer to:
Science and mathematics
* Matrix (mathematics), a rectangular array of numbers, symbols or expressions
* Matrix (logic), part of a formula in prenex normal form
* Matrix (biology), the m ...
'' in mathematics.
Medicine
* March – Dr
Benjamin Guy Babington founds the London Epidemiological Society.
*
Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland opened in
Dundrum, Dublin
Dundrum (), originally a village in its own right, is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The area is located in the List of Dublin postal districts, postal districts of Dublin 14 and Dublin 16. Dundrum is home to the Dundrum Town Centre, the la ...
, the first secure hospital in Europe.
Meteorology
* April 3 –
British Meteorological Society founded.
Physics
* May –
John Tyndall
John Tyndall (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was an Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the physical properties of air ...
and
Hermann Knoblauch publish a report on "The magneto-optic properties of crystals, and the relation of magnetism and diamagnetism to molecular arrangement".
*
Rudolf Clausius
Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (; 2 January 1822 – 24 August 1888) was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founding fathers of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle ...
publishes his paper on the mechanical theory of heat, which first states the basic ideas of the
second law of thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on Universal (metaphysics), universal empirical observation concerning heat and Energy transformation, energy interconversions. A simple statement of the law is that heat always flows spont ...
.
*
Hippolyte Fizeau
Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (; 23 September 1819 – 18 September 1896) was a French physicist who, in 1849, measured the speed of light to within 5% accuracy. In 1851, he measured the speed of light in moving water in an experiment known as t ...
and E. Gounelle measure the speed of
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
.
*
Léon Foucault
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (, ; ; 18 September 1819 – 11 February 1868) was a French physicist best known for his demonstration of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of Earth's rotation. He also made an early measuremen ...
demonstrates the greater
speed of light
The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...
in air than in water, and establishes that the speed of light in different media is inverse to the
refractive indices
In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is the ratio of the apparent speed of light in the air or vacuum to the speed in the medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or refrac ...
of the media, using a
rotating mirror.
*
George Stokes publishes a paper on the effects of the internal friction of fluids on the motion of
pendulum
A pendulum is a device made of a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate i ...
s.
Technology
* April 15 –
Angers Bridge
Angers Bridge, also called the Basse-Chaîne Bridge, was a suspension bridge over the Maine River in Angers, France. It was designed by Joseph Chaley and Bordillon, and built between 1836 and 1839.Peters, Tom F., ''"Transitions in Engineering: ...
, a French suspension bridge, collapses in a storm with around 480 soldiers marching across it; about 226 are killed.
* July 14 –
John Gorrie
John B. Gorrie (October 3, 1803 – June 29, 1855) was a Nevisian-born American physician and scientist, credited as the inventor of mechanical refrigeration.
Born on the Island of Nevis in the Leeward Islands of the West Indies to Scottish ...
makes the first public demonstration of his
ice-making machine
An icemaker, ice generator, or ice machine may refer to either a consumer device for making ice
Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs natu ...
, in
Apalachicola, Florida
Apalachicola ( ) is a city and the county seat of Franklin County, Florida, United States, on the shore of Apalachicola Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico. The population was 2,341 at the 2020 census.
History
The Apalachicola Province, a ...
.
* Completion of the
Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève
A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...
in Paris to the design of
Henri Labrouste
Pierre-François-Henri Labrouste () (11 May 1801 – 24 June 1875) was a French architect from the famous school of architecture. After a six-year stay in Rome, Labrouste established an architectural training workshop, which soon became ...
, the first major public building with an exposed
cast-iron frame.
Institutions
* Astronomer
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell ( ; August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) that was later known as " Miss Mitchell's Comet ...
becomes the first woman member of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
.
* The
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
in England establishes an Honour School (i.e. an undergraduate course) in
Natural Science
Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...
.
Awards
*
Copley Medal
The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". The award alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the bio ...
:
Peter Andreas Hansen
Peter Andreas Hansen (born 8 December 1795, Tønder, Schleswig, Denmark; died 28 March 1874, Gotha, Thuringia, Germany) was a Danish-born German astronomer.
Biography
The son of a goldsmith, Hansen learned the trade of a watchmaker at Flensburg, ...
*
Wollaston Medal
The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology and the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London, the oldest geological society in the world. The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831. I ...
:
William Hopkins
William Hopkins Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (2 February 179313 October 1866) was an English mathematician and geologist. He is famous as a private tutor of aspiring undergraduate University of Cambridge, Cambridge mathematicians, earning h ...
Births
* January 5 –
Sidney Browne
Dame Sidney Jane Browne, (5 January 1850 – 13 August 1941) was the first appointed Matron-in-Chief of the newly formed Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS). After she retired from the QAIMNS she was appointed as Matro ...
(died
1941
The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...
), British military nurse.
* January 15 (January 3
O.S.) –
Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (; born Korvin-Krukovskaya; – 10 February 1891) was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer for women in mathematics a ...
(died
1891
Events January
* January 1
** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence.
**Germany takes formal possession of its new African territories.
* January 4 – The Earl of Zetland issues a ...
), Russian-born mathematician.
* January 24 –
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Hermann Ebbinghaus (24 January 1850 – 26 February 1909) was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory. Ebbinghaus discovered the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was the first person to describe the learnin ...
(died
1909
Events
January–February
* January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escapes death by fleeing across ice floes.
* January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
* Janu ...
), German psychologist.
* January 29 –
Edmond Nocard
Edmond Isidore Étienne Nocard (; 29 January 1850 – 2 August 1903), was a French veterinarian and microbiologist, born in Provins (Seine-et-Marne, France).
Nocard studied veterinary medicine from 1868 to 1871 and (after a brief service in ...
(died
1903
Events January
* January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.
* January 10 – The Aceh Sultanate was fully annexed by the Dutch forces, deposing the last sultan, marking the end of the Aceh War that have lasted for al ...
), French
veterinarian
A veterinarian (vet) or veterinary surgeon is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, veterinarians also play a role in animal r ...
and
microbiologist
A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of par ...
.
* February 15 –
Sophie Bryant
Sophie Willock Bryant (15 February 1850, Sandymount, Dublin, – 14 August 1922, Chamonix, France) was an Anglo-Irish mathematician, educator, feminist and activist. She was the first woman to receive a DSc in England; one of the first to serve ...
(died
1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...
), Irish-born mathematician and educationalist.
* March 31 –
Charles Walcott (died
1927
Events January
* January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the BBC, British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, John Reith becomes the first ...
), American paleontologist.
* April 10 –
Mary Emilie Holmes
Mary Emilie Holmes (April 10, 1850 – February 13, 1906) was a 19th-century American geologist and educator who became the first woman to be elected a fellow of the Geological Society of America.Schwarzer, Theresa F., and Maria L. Crawford. "Am ...
(died 1906), American geologist and educator.
* May 18 –
Oliver Heaviside
Oliver Heaviside ( ; 18 May 1850 – 3 February 1925) was an English mathematician and physicist who invented a new technique for solving differential equations (equivalent to the Laplace transform), independently developed vector calculus, an ...
(died
1925
Events January
* January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria.
* January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...
), English physicist.
* May 21 –
Giuseppe Mercalli
Giuseppe Mercalli (21 May 1850 – 19 March 1914) was an Italian volcanologist and Catholic priest. He is known best for the Mercalli intensity scale for measuring earthquake intensity.
Biography
Born in Milan, Mercalli was ordained a Roman ...
(died
1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...
), Italian
volcanologist
A volcanologist, or volcano scientist, is a geologist who focuses on understanding the formation and eruptive activity of volcanoes. Volcanologists frequently visit volcanoes, sometimes active ones, to observe and monitor volcanic eruptions, col ...
.
* May 23 –
George Claridge Druce
George Claridge Druce (23 May 1850 – 29 February 1932) was an English botanist and a Mayor of Oxford.
Personal life and education
G. Claridge Druce was born at Potterspury on Watling Street in Northamptonshire. He was the illegitimate s ...
(died
1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...
), English botanist.
* June 6 –
Karl Ferdinand Braun
Karl Ferdinand Braun (; ; 6 June 1850 – 20 April 1918) was a German physicist, electrical engineer, and inventor. Braun contributed significantly to the development of radio with his 2 circuit system, which made long range radio transmiss ...
(died
1918
The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...
), German-born physicist.
* August 30 –
Charles Richet
Charles Robert Richet (; 25 August 1850 – 4 December 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France and immunology pioneer. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis". Riche ...
(died
1935
Events
January
* January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims.
* January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...
), French physiologist, Nobel Prize winner.
Deaths
* March 27 –
Wilhelm Beer
Wilhelm Wolff Beer (4 January 1797 – 27 March 1850) was a banker and astronomer from Berlin, Prussia, and the brother of Giacomo Meyerbeer.
Astronomy
Beer's fame derives from his hobby, astronomy. He built a private observatory with a ...
(born
1797
Events
January–March
* January 3 – The Treaty of Tripoli, a peace treaty between the United States and Ottoman Tripolitania, is signed at Algiers (''see also'' 1796).
* January 7 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Repu ...
), German
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
.
* April 9 –
William Prout
William Prout Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (; 15 January 1785 – 9 April 1850) was an English chemist, physician, and natural theologian. He is remembered today mainly for what is called Prout's hypothesis.
Biography
Prout was born in H ...
(born
1785
Events
January–March
* January 1
** The Burmese Konbaung Dynasty annexes the Mrauk U Kingdom of Arakan.
** The first issue of the '' Daily Universal Register'', later known as ''The Times'', is published in London.
* January 7 &nd ...
), English
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...
.
* May 10 –
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac ( , ; ; 6 December 1778 – 9 May 1850) was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen by volume (with Alexander von Humboldt), f ...
(born
1778
Events
January–March
* January 18 – Third voyage of James Cook: Sea captain, Captain James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution (1771), HMS ''Resolution'' and HMS Discovery (1774), HMS ''Discovery'', first views Oahu, Oʻahu th ...
), French chemist and
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
.
* July 12 –
Robert Stevenson Robert, Rob, or Bob Stevenson may refer to:
* Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer
* Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Scottish writer ("Treasure Island"), grandson of lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenso ...
(born
1772
Events January–March
* January 10 – Shah Alam II, the Mughal Emperor of India, makes a triumphant return to Delhi 15 years after having been forced to flee.
* January 17 – Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroli ...
),
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Ligh ...
engineer.
* August 5 –
Mary Anne Whitby (born
1783
Events
January–March
* January 20 – At Versailles, Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain signs preliminary peace treaties with the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Spain.
* January 23 – The Confederation Congress ...
), English scientist.
* December 4 –
William Sturgeon
William Sturgeon (; 22 May 1783 – 4 December 1850) was an English electrical engineer and inventor who made the first electromagnet and the first practical electric motor.
Early life
Sturgeon was born on 22 May 1783 in Whittington, near ...
(born 1783), English inventor.
References
{{reflist
19th century in science
1850s in science