The year 1851 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.

Astronomy

* February – First public exhibition of a

Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. If a long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circu ...

, at the Meridian of the

Paris Observatory The Paris Observatory (, ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centres in the world. Its historic building is on the Left Ban ...

, demonstrating the

Earth's rotation Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own Rotation around a fixed axis, axis, as well as changes in the orientation (geometry), orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in progra ...

. A few weeks later

Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French historian of ideas and philosopher who was also an author, literary critic, political activist, and teacher. Foucault's theories primarily addressed the relationships be ...

installs one at the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...

* July 28 –

Solar eclipse of July 28, 1851 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Monday, July 28, 1851, with a magnitude of 1.0577. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of t ...

: Total

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

. The first correctly exposed photograph, a

daguerrotype Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839, t ...

, of the

solar corona In astronomy, a corona (: coronas or coronae) is the outermost layer of a star's Stellar atmosphere, atmosphere. It is a hot but relatively luminosity, dim region of Plasma (physics), plasma populated by intermittent coronal structures such as so ...

is made during the total phase of the eclipse by Berkowski at

Koenigsberg Observatory Koenigsberg Observatory (; obs. code: 058) was an astronomical observatory and research facility which was attached to the Albertina University in Königsberg, what is now Kaliningrad, Russia. The observatory was destroyed by Royal Air Force ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. Astronomers Robert Grant and William Swan (of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

) and

Karl Ludwig von Littrow Karl Ludwig Edler von Littrow (18 July 1811 – 16 November 1877) was an Austrian astronomer. Born in Kazan, Russian Empire, he was the son of astronomer Joseph Johann Littrow. He studied mathematics and astronomy at the universities of Universit ...

(of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

) observe this eclipse and determine that

solar prominence In solar physics, a prominence, sometimes referred to as a filament, is a large Plasma (physics), plasma and magnetic field structure extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface ...

s are part of the Sun because the Moon is seen to cover and uncover them as it moves in front. * October 24 –

Ariel Ariel may refer to: Film and television *Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award * ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki *, a Russian film directed by Yevgeni Kotov * ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', a 1989 and 1991 ...

and

Umbriel Umbriel () is the third-largest moon of Uranus. It was discovered on October 24, 1851, by William Lassell at the same time as neighboring moon Ariel. It was named after a character in Alexander Pope's 1712 poem '' The Rape of the Lock''. Umb ...

moons A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are colloquially referred to as moons, a deriva ...

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

, were discovered by

William Lassell William Lassell (18 June 1799 – 5 October 1880) was an English merchant and astronomer.William Brydone Jack Observatory The William Brydone Jack Observatory is a small astronomical observatory on the campus of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Constructed in 1851, it was the first astronomical observatory built in British North Amer ...

is completed at

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River, ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

Chemistry

* March –

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

sculptor

Frederick Scott Archer ] Frederick Scott Archer (1813 – 1 May 1857) was an English photographer and sculptor who is best known for having invented the photographic collodion process which preceded the modern photographic film, gelatin emulsion. He was born in either ...

makes public the Collodion#Wet plate collodion photography, wet plate collodion photographic process. *

Julius Pintsch Carl Friedrich Julius Pintsch (6 January 1815 – 20 January 1884) was a German tinsmith, manufacturer and inventor who is primarily known for the invention of Pintsch gas. The gas, distilled from naphtha or other petroleum products, was w ...

produces Pintsch gas. *

Charles-Adolphe Wurtz Charles Adolphe Wurtz (; 26 November 181710 May 1884) was an Alsatian French chemist. He is best remembered for his decades-long advocacy for the atomic theory and for ideas about the structures of chemical compounds, against the skeptical opinio ...

produces compound

urea Urea, also called carbamide (because it is a diamide of carbonic acid), is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two Amine, amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest am ...

History of science and technology

George Wilson George Wilson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George Balch Wilson (1927–2021), American composer, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan * George Washington Wilson (1823–1893), Scottish photographer * George Christopher (ac ...

publishes ''The Life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish''.

Mathematics

* Eugène Prouhet first applies the

Thue–Morse sequence In mathematics, the Thue–Morse or Prouhet–Thue–Morse sequence is the binary sequence (an infinite sequence of 0s and 1s) that can be obtained by starting with 0 and successively appending the Boolean complement of the sequence obtained thus ...

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

. *

Bernhard Riemann Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (; ; 17September 182620July 1866) was a German mathematician who made profound contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry. In the field of real analysis, he is mostly known for the f ...

provides a proof of

Green's theorem In vector calculus, Green's theorem relates a line integral around a simple closed curve to a double integral over the plane region (surface in \R^2) bounded by . It is the two-dimensional special case of Stokes' theorem (surface in \R^3) ...

in his inaugural dissertation.

Medicine

* The Royal Marsden is established as the Free Cancer Hospital by surgeon William Marsden in London, the world's first specialist

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

hospital. * The

Keratometer A keratometer, also known as an ophthalmometer, is a diagnostic instrument for measuring the curvature of the anterior surface of the cornea, particularly for assessing the extent and axis of astigmatism. It was invented by the German physiol ...

is invented by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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

Hermann von Helmholtz Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (; ; 31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894; "von" since 1883) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The ...

Physics

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 ...

carries out the

Fizeau experiment The Fizeau experiment was carried out by Hippolyte Fizeau in 1851 to measure the relative speeds of light in moving water. Fizeau used a special interferometer arrangement to measure the effect of movement of a medium upon the speed of light. A ...

to measure the relative speeds of light in moving water.

Technology

* November 13 – First protected

submarine telegraph cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...

laid, across the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. * William Armstrong introduces the weight-loaded

hydraulic accumulator A hydraulic accumulator is a pressure storage reservoir in which an Incompressible flow, incompressible hydraulic fluid is held under pressure that is applied by an external Prime mover (engine), source of mechanical energy. The external source can ...

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 ...

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkabl ...

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 ...

for geology:

Adam Sedgwick Adam Sedgwick FRS (; 22 March 1785 – 27 January 1873) was a British geologist and Anglican priest, one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Cambrian and Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did ...

Births

* January 19 –

Jacobus Kapteyn Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (19 January 1851 – 18 June 1922) was a Dutch astronomy, astronomer. He carried out extensive studies of the Milky Way. He found that the apparent movement of stars was not randomly distributed but had two preferentia ...

(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 ...

), Dutch

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 ...

. * February 15 –

Spiru Haret Spiru C. Haret (; 15 February 1851 – 17 December 1912) was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer, and politician. He made a fundamental contribution to the ''n''-body problem in celestial mechanics by proving that using a third degree approx ...

(died

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

), Romanian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, astronomer and politician. * March 16 –

Martinus Beijerinck Martinus Willem Beijerinck (, 16 March 1851 – 1 January 1931) was a Dutch microbiologist and botanist who was one of the founders of virology and environmental microbiology. He is credited with the co-discovery of viruses A virus i ...

(died

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

), Dutch

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 ...

and

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. * April 12 – E. Walter Maunder (died

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

), English astronomer. * July 8 –

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos on the List of islands of Greece, Gree ...

(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 ...

), English

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

. * July 20 –

Arnold Pick Arnold Pick (20 July 1851 – 4 April 1924) was a Czech- German psychiatrist. He is known for first describing clinical features of frontotemporal dementia between 1892 and 1906. The disorder he described was given the name ''Pick's disease'' in ...

(died

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

), Jewish Czech

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

. * August 3 – George FitzGerald (died

1901 December 13 of this year is the beginning of signed 32-bit Unix time, and is scheduled to end in January 19, 2038. Summary Political and military 1901 started with the unification of multiple British colonies in Australia on January ...

), Irish mathematician. * September 21 – Fanny Searls (died

1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...

), American doctor and botanist. * September 23 – Ellen Hayes (died

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...

), American mathematician and astronomer.

Deaths

* January 27 –

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin, April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was a French-American Autodidacticism, self-trained artist, natural history, naturalist, and ornithology, ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornitho ...

(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 ...

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

. * February 18 –

Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (; ; 10 December 1804 – 18 February 1851) was a German mathematician who made fundamental contributions to elliptic functions, dynamics, differential equations, determinants and number theory. Biography Jacobi was ...

(born

1804 Events January–March * January 1 – Haiti gains independence from France, and becomes the first black republic. * February 4 – The Sokoto Caliphate is founded in West Africa. * February 14 – The First Serbian uprising begins th ...

. * March 9 –

Hans Christian Ørsted Hans Christian Ørsted (; 14 August 1777 – 9 March 1851), sometimes Transliteration, transliterated as Oersted ( ), was a Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields. This phenomenon is known as ...

(born

1777 Events January–March * January 2 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of the Assunpink Creek: American general George Washington's army repulses a British attack by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, in a second ...

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 6 – Thomas Davenport (born

1802 Events January–March * January 5 – Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, claiming they are at risk of destruction during the Ott ...

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. * July 17 – John Farey (born

1791 Events January–March * January 1 – Austrian composer Joseph Haydn arrives in England, to perform a series of concerts. * January 2 – Northwest Indian War: Big Bottom Massacre – The war begins in the Ohio Count ...

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

and technical writer. * September 2 – William Nicol (born

1770 Events January– March * January 1 – The foundation of Fort George, Bombay is laid by Colonel Keating, principal engineer, on the site of the former Dongri Fort. * February 1 – Thomas Jefferson's home at Shadwell, Vi ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

References

{{reflist 19th century in science 1850s in science