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HISTORY

1800

• German scientist Karl Friedrich Burdach introduces the word 'biology' for the study of the morphology, physiology, and psychology of humans. In 1882 a broader definition is proposed by Gottfried Treviranus and Jean-Baptistes de Lamarck to include the study of life in general.

• German physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter invents electroplating when he passes a current through a copper sulphate solution. He also discovers that water consists of two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen.

• British chemist Humphry Davy discovers laughing gas (nitrous oxide). It will become the first chemical anesthetic.

• French and English chemists learn to purify water by chlorination.

• Studying the spectrum of sunlight, William Herschel discovers infrared radiation, the first known form of radiation other than visible light.

• Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invents the voltaic cell, or electric battery, consisting of alternating disks of copper and zinc and of cardboard soaked in a salt solution.

1801

• Italian astronomer Giuseppi Piazzi discovers Ceres, the first known asteroid. Gauss soon calculates its orbit.
• Lamarck begins to classify invertebrates, constructing such divisions as crustaceans and echinoderms.
• Gauss publishes work on the law of quadratic reciprocity and the theory of congruences.
• Gauss's "Disquisitiones arithmeticae" represents the beginning of modern number theory. It contains the theory of quadratic congruences, forms, and residues.
• English physician Thomas Young gives the first description of visual astigmatism, or eye surface discrepancy.
• English physicists Thomas Young argues that light is wavelike rather than particlelike. He speculates that the waves are longitudinal, like sound, rather than transverse, like water. 17 years later he will be proven wrong by Fresnel (1818).
• German physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter discovers ultraviolet radiation.
• British chemist and physicist William Henry discovers Henry's Law, that the mass of gas dissolved in a liquid at equilibrium and constant temperature is proportional to the pressure of the gas.
• French physician and humanitarian Phillipe Pinel strives to make the treatment of the mentally ill more humane. The usual treatment for the mentally ill in asylums includes bloodletting, bathing and purging.

1802

• Scottish physician Sir Charles Bell diagnoses Bell's palsy, a one-sided facial weakness or paralysis caused by compression of the facial nerve.
• French scientist Joseph Louis Gay Lussac demonstrates that the volume of a fixed mass of gas at constant pressure changes by a constant fraction for each degree of temperature change. First noted by Guillaume Amontons in 1699, this is now known as
  Charles's law or Gay-Lussac Law.
• Italian scientist Gian Domenico Romagnosi discovers that electricity passing through a wire will cause a magnetic needle to orient itself perpendicular to the wire.
• The first photograph is produced by British physician Thomas Wedgwood but fades quickly. He treats paper with silver nitrate to hold the photographic impression.
• The first icebox, the progenitor of refrigerator is developed by US farmer Thomas Moore. It consists of two wooden boxes, one within the other, with the space between them insulated by charcoal or ashes. A third box, made of tin, sits atop the smaller box.

1803

• British meteorologist Luke Howard coins names for types of clouds, including cumulus, cirrus, nimbus, and stratus.
• French mathematician Lazare Carnot publishes "Geometrie de position", a work establishing him as a cofounder (with Gaspard Monge) of modern pure geometry.
• English chemist John Dalton draws on existing evidence to argue that matter is made up of tiny particles called atoms, a word coined by Democritus in 460 BC. He establishes the concept of atomic weight- different masses for the atoms of different elements - though this preliminary table of atomic weights contains many errors.
• US engineer Robert Fulton builds his first steam-powered ship.
  
  1804:
  + Italian physician Antonio Scarpa describes arteriosclerosis as
  lesions coating the lining of arteries.
  + The first steam locomotive to operate on a railroad, construct-
  ed by British inventor Richard Trevitchik, travels nearly ten
  miles and achieves speeds of almost 5 miles per hour.
  + The first foods to be vacuum packed are packaged by Nicolas
  Appert at his factory in France.
  
  1805:
  + After 20 years of analyzing the proper motion of stars, William
  Herschel shows that the sun, together with its planets, is moving
  through the galaxy.
  + German mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet is born. He
  will show the value of applying analysis to number theory and
  introduce Dirichlet's theorem and the Dirichlet's series. He will
  also contribute the Dirichlet principle to the calculus of variat-
  ions.
  + German pharmacist Friedriech Serturner extracts morphine from
  opium and uses it to relieve pain.
  + Laplace proposes his theory of capillary forces.
  + The first covered bridge in America opens, over the Schuylkill
  river in Pennsylvania.
  
  1806:
  + French chemist Louis-Nicholas Vauquelin discovers the compound
  asparagine, which will turn out to be the first known amino acid.
  + Scotsman Patrick Clark develops a cotton thread that rivals silk
  thread in strength.
  
  1807:
  + Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius distinguishes organic from
  inorganic compounds, defining organic compounds as those obtained
  from living or dead organisms or related to such compounds and
  inorganic compounds as all others.
  + Humphry Davy develops the science of electrochemistry.
  + French mathematician Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier, demonstrated
  Fourier's theorem, that any periodic oscillation can be expressed
  as a series of trigonometric functions known as Fourier series.
  + English physicist Thomas Young introduces the physical concept
  of energy. He also develops the coefficients of elasticity of
  materials.
  
  1808:
  + Studying sunlight that has passed through a crystal of Icelandic
  feldspar, French physicist Etienne Louis Malus discovers the pol-
  arization of light.
  + John Dalton publishes his "New system of chemical philosophy",
  formalizing arguments for atomic theory he advanced as early as 1803.
  
  1809:
  + Lamarck introduces the first scientific theory on how evolution
  occurs, now known as Lamarckism. According to him, offspring can
  inherit characteristics or traits that their parents have acquired
  during the parents' lifetime. This concept will be discredited by
  Darwin and August Weissman.
  + English naturalist Charles Darwin is born. In his 1859 book "On
  the origin of species" he will explain the theory of evolution by
  natural selection, which will revolutionize the life sciences and
  humanity's understanding of its own origins.
  + American physician Ephraim McDowell successfully, without anesthe-
  sia, removes a 22 pound ovarian tumor. He will be considered the
  father of ovariotomy.
  
  1810:
  + French mathematician Sophie Germain formulates Germain's theorem.
  A step toward proving Fermat's last theorem, it shows the impossib-
  ility of positive integral solutions to x^n + y^n = z^n if x, y,
  and z are prime to each other and to n, where n is any prime less
  than 100.
  + Between now and 1819, Austrian physician Franz Joseph Gall and his
  student Johann Spurzheim publish a 5-volume work on phrenology,
  which attempts to develop a perfect knowledge of human nature
  based on measurements of multiple species' skulls and brains. They
  theorize that brain functions are localized in the cerebral cortex
  and that the brain is a bundle of individual organs governing the
  moral, sexual, and intellectual traits of human behaviour.
  
  1811:
  + Italian physicist Amedeo Avogadro formulates Avogadro's hypothesis
  or Avogadro's law, that equal volumes of all gases contain equal
  numbers of particles at the same temperature and pressure.
  + Scottish physician Charles Bell discovers spinal nerve functions,
  which convey impulses to and from the spinal cord.
  + Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster discovers Brewster's law,
  which states that the extent of the polarization of light reflected
  from a transparent surface is greatest when the reflected ray is at
  right angles to the refracted ray.
  
  1812:
  + Chemist Gottlieb Kirchoff discovers glucose. He notes that starch
  is made up of glucose units and that the sulfuric acid was not cons-
  umed in the chemical reaction but made the reaction possible.
  + Laplace publishes significant work on analytic probability theory.
  + French mathematician Simeon denis Poisson discovers
  the Poisson equation in potential theory.
  + French mathematician Jean Victor Poncelet formulates the principle
  of continuity, or the principle of permanence of mathematical relat-
  ions, although it is not published until 1862-1864.
  + Laplace posits a mechanistic model of the universe - one in which
  the entire history of the universe could theoretically be derived
  by knowing the mass, position, and velocity of every particle. This
  idea will prevail until Heisenberg's uncertainty principle articul-
  ates the limits of human knowledge of the physical universe.
  
  1813:
  Jons Jakob Berzelius proposes a system of chemical symbols that will
  be widely adopted: capital letters for atoms - with lowercase letters
  to distinguish elements such as Ca (Calcium) from Cl (Chlorine) -
  and, for compounds, combinations of these symbols with appropriate
  lowercase numerals representing the number of atoms in molecules.
  
  1814:
  + While observing sunlight that has passed through a slit and then a
  prism, German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer discovers spectral
  lines. He maps many of the lines produced by sunlight (now called
  the Fraunhofer lines).
  + The first steam locomotive, developed by George Stephenson, to
  transport coal through England, inaugurates the mass use of railroad
  transportation.
  + The first commercially tinned food is produced, at the DonkinHall
  factory in England.
  
  1815:
  + Between now and 1822, French naturalist de Lamarck becomes the first
  to use the terms 'vertebrate' and 'invertebrate'.
  + Gay-Lussac discovers the poisonous gas cyanogen (C2N2).
  + English chemist William Prout advances Prout's hypothesis, that
  hydrogen is the fundamental atom out of which all other atoms are
  made. This hypothesis will appear to be disproven by the subsequent
  discovery of atomic weights that are not exact multiples of hydrogen's
  though the later discovery of thermonuclear fusion will show that
  Prout was partly right.
  + Macadam, a moisture-resistant road covering made of bits of stone,
  is developed by Scottish surveyor John McAdam.
  
  1816:
  + French physician Rene Laennec invents the modern stethoscope.
  + The celeripede, a 2-wheeled forerunner of the modern bicycle, is
  developed by French physicist Joseph Niepce.
  
  1817:
  + British physician James Parkinson describes the shaking palsy now
  called Parkinson's disease that is characterized by a slowly spread-
  ing fine muscle tremor.
  + Between now and 1818, American dentist ANthony Plantson introduces
  the dental plate.
  
  1818:
  + Berzelius publishes a table of atomic and molecular weights based
  on some 2000 analyses of chemicals performed over 10 years. His
  tables are considerably more accurate than those of John Dalton (1803).
  + American geologist Benjamin Silliman establishes the "American
  Journal of science", through which he will gain an international
  reputation.
  + French chemist Louis Jacques Thenard discovers hydrogen peroxide,
  a mild antiseptic and germicide.
  + Scottish physician John Cheyne and Irish physician William Stokes
  describe a breathing pattern often associated with impending death:
  periods of no breathing (apnea), followed by increased respiration.
  + French physicist Jean Fresnel argues that light is a transverse,
  not longitudinal, wave, as Thomas Young (1801) had thought.
  
  1819:
  + French chemists Pierre Louis Dulong and Alexis Therese Petit
  show that the specific heat of an element, the amount of heat required
  to raise its temperature 1 degree C, is inversely proportional to its
  atomic weight.
  + In workds published now and in 1832 French mathematician Adrien
  Marie Legendre develops several important tools of analysis, includ-
  ing the Legendre functions, which are solutions of the Legendre
  differential equation.
  
  1820:
  + French mathematician Augustin Louis Cauchy develops the foundation
  of the calculus as it is now generally known. Using d'Alembert's
  limit concept to define the derivative of a function, he takes
  significant steps toward the arithmetization of analysis.
  + 20 year old American sealer Nathaniel Brown Palmer is the first
  to explore the Antarctic peninsula.
  + Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted shows that electricity
  and magnetism are related, noting that a magnetic needle moves
  when electricity flows through a nearby wire.
  + Fraunhofer invents the diffraction grating, a device composed of
  fine, closely spaced wires used in producing light spectra.
  + Ampere shows that a wire helix or solenoid acts like a bar magnet
  when electric current flows through it. He also states the right-
  hand rule for the action of an electric current on a magnet.
  + German physicist Johann Salomo Schweigger invents the galvanometer,
  an instrument for measuring electric current.
  
  1821:
  + Michael Faraday is the first to speak about electromagnetism as a
  field in which particles generate lines of force. In an experiment
  with magnets and electrified wires he shows that electricity can
  produce motion.
  + Russian German physicist Thomas Seebeck notes the Seebeck effect,
  which states that 2 different metals will generate electricity if
  their points of juncture are maintained at different temperatures.
  This is the first known example of thermoelectricity.
  
  1822:
  + French linguist Champollion found modern egyptology when he deciphers
  the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics inscribed on the Rosetta stone.
  + After 2 centuries the Roman Catholic church lifts its ban on the
  works of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler.
  + Fourier applies his Fourier theorem (1807) to the study of heat flow.
  This is discussed in his book "Analytical theory of heat".
  This work also introduces the mathematical technique of dimensional
  analysis, in which an equation or solution is checked by analyzing
  the consistency of the dimensions in which it is expressed.
  + German philologist and floklorist Jakob Grimm formulates Grimm's law
  a principle of relationships in Indo-European languages dealing with
  shifts in consonants in the development of English and the other
  Germanic languages.
  + British engineer George Stephenson builds the first iron railroad
  bridge in the world.
  + In England, American inventor William Church patents the first
  typesetting machine, which combines automatic composition with manual
  acitivity to set words and line length.
  
  1823:
  + British physicist William Sturgeon invents the electromagnet, a
  magnet powered by an electric current.
  
  1824:
  + Berzelius discovers the element silicon.
  + Norwegian mathematician Niels Abel shows that a general algebraic
  solution for equations of the fifth degree (quintic equations,
  those involving x^5) is impossible.
  + French physicist Sadi Carnot publishes "Reflections on the motive
  power of fire", the first scientific analysis of steam engine eff-
  iciency. Carnot will be considered the founder of thermodynamics,
  the study of the laws governing the conversion of energy from one
  form to another.
  
  1825:
  + French mathematician Cauchy develops complex function theory and
  introduces Cauchy's integral theorem with residues.
  + H C Oersted discovers the element aluminum.
  
  1826:
  + German astronomer Wilhelm Olbers poses Olbers's paradox: if the
  stars are distributed uniformly through infinite unchanging universe,
  why is the sky dark at night? Everywhere one looks there should be
  a star. The big bang theory in the 20th century will explain this
  paradox by showing that the universe is lumpy, finite, and changing.
  + Russian mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky publishes the first
  non-Euclidean geometry, which includes this axiom: "Through a given
  point not on a given line, any number of lines can be drawn parallel
  to a given line." Hungarian mathematician Janos Bolyai will indepent-
  ly publish the same geometry in 1832.
  + Between now and 1837 cholera is pandemic - that is, epidemic at
  the same time in many different parts of the world.
  
  1827:
  + German mathematicians Mobius, Julius Plucker, and Karl Feuerbach
  develop homogeneous coordinates.
  + German physicist Georg Ohm defines Ohm's law, that the flow of
  current through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential
  to the resistance.
  + Public transportation begins in New York city with the inaugur-
  ation of a 12-seat horsedrawn bus.
  + British physician Richard Bright describes nephritis, a kidney
  disease which will be named for him.
  + Irish physicians Robert Adams and William Stokes discover a form
  of altered consciousness (now called the Stokes-Adams syndrome) caused
  by decreased blood flow to the brain as the result of a heart block.
  + Scottish botanist Robert Brown discovers the phenomenon called Brown-
  ian motion, the continuous random movement of microscopic solid part-
  icles when suspended in a fluid.
  + Irish physicist and mathematician William Hamilton unifies the study
  of optics and correctly predicts conical refraction in his "Theory of
  Systems of Rays".
  
  1828:
  + German chemist Friedriech Wohler is the first to synthesize an
  organic compound from inorganic chemicals in the laboratory when
  he synthesize urea, the principal waste product found in urine.
  This experiment shows that organic compounds do not occur only in
  living things.
  + English mathematician George Green publishes the first attempt
  at a mathematical theory of electromagnetism in his "Essay on the
  application of mathematical analysis to theories of electricity
  and magnetism".
  + An inexpensive process for makin chocolate candy is patented by
  Dutch chocolatier Conrad van Houten. The solid form of chocolate
  is made possible by an extraction process that yields the cocoa
  butter needed to bind the dry ingredients (sugar and cocoa powder)
  together.
  
  1829:
  + French geologist Alexandre Brongniart gives the name 'Jurassic'
  to the period lasting from 190 to 139 million years ago, following
  the 'Triassic'. This second period of the Mesozoic era was named
  for the Jura mountains of France and Switzerland.
  + Searching for Noah's ark in eastern Turkey, German Johann Jacob
  vo Parrot scales Mount Ararat.
  + Scottish physicist William Nicol invents the Nicol prism, a
  device for producing plane-polarized light that makes possible the
  technique of polarimetry.
  + French physicist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis coins the term 'kin-
  etic energy'.
  + Scottish philosopher James Mill publishes his "Analysis of the
  Phenomena of the Human mind", adding muscle sensation (kinesthesis),
  disorganized sensation (itching or tickling), and gastrointestinal
  tract sensations to Aristotle's classic five senses. Mill argues
  that the sensations from these eight senses are the basic elements
  of consciousness and ideas.
  + American physicist Joseph Henry improves upon the electromagnet
  invented by William Sturgeon (1823). By 1831 Henry's electromagnet
  can lift a ton of iron.
  + 'The Tremont House', the first modern hotel, with private sleep-
  ing quarters, open in Boston.
  
  1830:
  + British scholar William Whewell coins the word 'scientist'.
  + British geologist Charles Lyell dismisses the idea of the comp-
  arative stability of the earth when he shows that a given fauna may
  be older than the land it inhabits. His evidence will be important
  in the development of biogeography, the study of the distribution
  of organisms through space and time.
  + Lyell begins the publication of his "Principles of geology" (3
  volumes), which establishes the principle of uniformitarianism in
  place of the popular theory of catatrophism. This work lays the
  foundations of modern dynamic geology but also has a broad public
  appeal and helps to make geology a popular science.
  + French mathematician Evariste Galois invents group theory and
  shows that no equation of any degree higher than the fourth can
  be solkved by algebraic methods. His work goes unpublished until
  1846.
  + French tailor Barthelemy Thimmonier invents the first single-
  thread sewing machine.
  + The world's first platform scale, the Fairbanks scale, is devel-
  oped by American inventor Thaddeus Fairbanks. It operates through
  a system of levers and sliding weights as counterbalances.
  
  1831:
  + American meteorologist William Redfield publishes a chart of
  the hurricane of 1821, establishing the rotary motion of trop-
  ical storms and identifying their region of origin and paths.
  + English physicist Michael Faraday and American physicist Jos-
  eph Henry independently discover that a changing magnetic force
  can generate electricity, a process called electromagnetic ind-
  uction.
  + Faraday invents the dynamoc, or electric generator, capable
  of producing electricity indefinitely by the turning of a copper
  wheel across magnetic lines of force.
  + Joseph Henry invents the electric motor, in which electric
  current is used to turn a wheel.
  + Cast iron that can be molded into a variety of shapes is pat-
  ented by US inventor Seth Boyden.
  
  1832:
  + Faraday studies electrolysis, the production of a chemical
  reaction by passing electric current through a liquid or
  solution (an electrolyte) and describes the basic laws of
  electrolysis.
  + British physician Thomas Hodgkin describes a disease that
  enlarges the lymph issue, spleen and liver. Now known as
  Hodgkin's disease, it comes to be classified under genera;
  lymphomas.
  + The first cholera outbreak in the US is initially consid-
  ered to be the plight of the sinful, from its concentration
  among immigrants and in impoverished big cities.
  
  1833:
  + German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel completes a
  catalog of 50,000 stars begun in 1821.
  + British mathematician Charles Babbage publishes "On the
  Economy of machinery and manufactures", which presents an
  early form of operations research.
  + Charles Lyell identifies new epochs to earth's history:
  the Recent, Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene.
  + Faraday and William Whewell coin a number of terms rel-
  ated to electricity, including 'electrode, cathode,
  anode, ion, cation, anion, electrolyte, and electrolysis'.
  
  1834:
  + Danish scholar Christian Jorgensen Thomsen divides the
  history of humanity into the Stone age, the Bronze age,
  and the Iron age.
  + French chemist Anselme Payen discovers cellulose, the
  main constituent of the cell walls of higher plants.
  + W. H. Bensted and Gideon Mantell discover a partial skel-
  eton of 'Iguanodon' in Maidstone, England. During this
  decade five other dinosaur genera are discovered: Hylaeo-
  saurus, Macrodontophion, Thecodontosaurus, Paleosaurus,
  and Plateosaurus.
  + German geologist Friedrich von Alberti introduces the
  Triassic (threefold) system of dating fossils. The oldest
  and lowest rocks are the Buntsandstein, with Muschelkalk
  rocks intermediate and Keuper rocks the highest and
  youngest.
  + French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier discovers
  the so-called Peltier effect, the change in temperature
  produced when an electric current passes through a juncture
  between 2 different metals or semiconductors.
  + German scholar J. F. Herbert describes 'psychology', a
  term originally introduced in 1734 by Christian von Wolff,
  as a science based on experience, mathematics, metaphysics,
  and possible experimentation.
  + English mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage begins
  work on an "analytical engine" to perform arithmetic oper-
  ations in the basis of instructions from punched cards.
  Now regarded as the forerunner of the modern digital comp-
  uter, this engine was never completed.
  + Braille, a system of raised print for the blind, is dev-
  eloped by French teacher Louis Braille, a blind man himself.
  + A compression machine that cools water through a process
  of heat absorption is introduced by American inventor Jacob
  Perkins. His invention promotes further study of gas refrig-
  eration.
  
  1835:
  + This year's edition of the Roman Catholic church's "Index
  of prohibited books" is the first since the 17th century not
  to include the heliocentric works of Copernicus, Galileo,
  and Kepler. The decision to lift the ban was actually made
  in 1822.
  + English naturalist Charles Darwin visits the Galapagos
  islands of Equador. This island chain's distinctive life
  forms, particularly its finches, provide hime with evidence
  for the evolution of species.
  + French chemist C Thilorier creates dry ice when he succeeds
  in freezing carbon dioxide into a solid form. During his
  experiments he induces temperatures as low as -110 degrees
  C, the lowest temperature yet reached on the earth's surface.
  + Irish physician Robert Graves describes the thyroid cond-
  ition called Grave's disease.
  + English geologist Adam Sedgwick names the Cambrian period.
  + Physicist Heinrich Lenz formulates Lenz's law, that an
  induced electric current always flows in such a direction as
  to oppose the change producing it.
  + Zinc-coated galvanized iron is developed in France.
  
  1836:
  + By use of a microscope, yeast is found to be a living organism.
  + British chemist John Daniell invents the Daniell cell, a
  battery that uses copper and zinc electrodes, and is more
  reliable than the voltaic cell of 1800.
  + US inventor Samuel Colt develops the Colt six-shooter rev-
  olver which in many incarnations over the years becomes a
  popular firearm.
  + French mathematician Simeon Poisson discovers Poisson's
  Law, part of the the theory of probability.
  + In England an electric telegraph is patented by scientists
  Charles Wheatstone and William Cooke. In the US a magnetic
  telegraph is patented by Samuel Morse. A Morse code to trans-
  late the English alphabet and Arabic numerals into dots and
  dashes is developed by Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail.
  
  1838:
  + Dutch chemist Gerardus Mulder coins the word 'protein' (from
  the Greek for "first") to describe the molecule that is the
  basic building block of albuminous substances and, as is later
  found, of all living things.
  + Faraday discovers a phosphorescent glow produced by electric
  discharges in low-pressure gases.
  + French philosopher Auguste Comte coins the term "sociology".
  He is considered the founder of this discipline as well as the
  philosophical school known as 'positivism', which holds that
  only real ("positive") knowledge is that which is gained by
  observation and experiment.
  
  1839:
  + British astronomer Thomas Henderson makes a nearly correct
  estimate of the distance of the star Alpha Centauri at 4.3
  light-years away.
  + British physicist William Grove invents the fuel cell, an
  electric cell that runs on hydrogen and oxygen fuel, but the
  device is never made economical enough for general use.
  + US inventor Isaac Babbitt invents the group of alloys known
  as Babbitt metals in making bearings.
  + The first full-fledged bicycle is built in Scotland by
  Kirkpatrick MacMillan.
  + American hardware buyer Charles Goodyear discovers a process
  to "vulcanize" rubber by which it retains its elasticity in
  all weather. Previously, rubber became sticky in warm weather
  and brittle in cold.
  
  1840:
  + German-Swiss chemist Christian Schonbein discovers ozone,
  later identified as a form of oxygen by Irish physical chemist
  Thomas Andrews.
  + Swiss zoologist and geologist Louis Agassiz advances his
  theory of ice ages in his "Etudes sur les glaciers", using
  evidence of glaciation in Switzerland and other parts of Europe.
  + British physicist James Joule formulates the first of Joule's
  laws, describing the heat produced when an electric current
  flows through resistance for a given time. Joule's second law
  states that for ideal gases, the internal energy of a given
  mass of gas is a function of temperature alone, not of volume
  or pressure.
  + The term 'negative' referring to the reverse image created
  during the photographic process, is coined by astronomer Sir
  F. W. Herschel.
  
  1841:
  + Scottish missionary David Livingstone reaches Cape Town,
  then moves northward, attempting to convert Africans, bec-
  oming the first westener to explore the Kalahari desert.
  + English anatomist and paleontologist Richard Owen describes
  two genera of dinosaurs: Cladeidon and Cetiosaurus.
  + Richard Owen coins the name 'dinosauria' (Terrible lizard)
  for the group of reptiles that includes 'Megalosaurus' and
  'Iguanodon'.
  + The first professional psychiatric association in the world,
  the Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals
  for the insane, is founded in England. In 1971 it will become
  known as the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
  + In Paris, arc lights for streets are demonstrated.
  
  1842:
  + Austrian physicist Christian Doppler discovers the Doppler
  effect: an apparent shift in wavelengths toward higher freq-
  uency as a source of light or sound approaches, and toward
  lower frequency as it recedes.
  + American psychologist and philosopher William James is born
  in Massachusetts. Known as the dean of American psychologists,
  he will develop the school of functionalism, which seeks to
  understand the conscious aspects of mental life. James will
  advocate a pragmatic viewpoint on life and theology and
  struggle with the issues of mental end emotional freedom.
  
  1843:
  + Heinrich Schwabe discovers the sunspot cycle, a semiregular
  fluctuation in sunspot activity, later found to occur in'
  periods of 11 years.
  + Irish mathematician William Hamilton invents a self-consist-
  ent algebra of hypercomplex numbers, which he calls quaternions.
  + British mathematician Arthur Cayley works out the analytic
  geometry of 3 or more dimensions, which will be called n-dimen-
  sional analytic geometry.
  + American physician Oliver Holems reports that childbed fever
  is contagious, but his peers scoff at the idea.
  + British physicist James Joule formulates the mechanical
  equivalent of heat, the ratio of a unit of mechanical energy
  to the equivalent unit of thermal energy. Symbolizes as J, it
  has an approximate value of 4.18 joules per calorie. This disc-
  overy shows a fixed quantity of work results in a fixed amount
  of heat.
  + In England, the House of Lords decides that an individual
  is not responsible for a crime he has committed if the person
  is "laboring under a defect of reason" and has a diseased mind.
  The M'Naghten rule, as it will be called, will not have a US
  counterpart until the issuance of the Durham rule in 1954.
  + French physiologist Marie-Jean Flourens refutes phrenologists'
  claims by proving that the skull's contours do not correspond
  to those of the brain, thus disproving the basic assumption
  of phrenology. Despite this evidence, phrenology long persists
  as a fad.
  + British inventor Charles Wheatstone popularizes, though he
  does not invent, the Wheatstone bridge, an electrical circuit
  that precisely measure the value of a resistance.
  
  1844:
  + British write Robert Chambers anonymously publishes "Vestiges
  of the natural history of creation", a controversial work that
  promotes the idea of biological evolution, influencing Charles
  Darwin and Alfred Wallace.
  + Amyl nitrite, a drug later used to dilate blood vessels, is
  discovered.
  + US entrepreneurs Henry Wells begins an express delivery service
  between Buffalo and Detroit, beginning a company called Wells
  & Co., which eventually develops into Wells, Fargo, & Co.
  + German engineer Gottlob Keller pioneers the wood-pulp paper
  process, which creates an inexpensive paper for periodicals.
  + The first telegraph message from Washington DC to Baltimore
  is transmitted. Sent by Morse to his assistant Vail, it reads,
  "What hath God wrought!".
  
  1845:
  + German chemist Christian Schonbein discovers the explosive
  nitrocellulose, or gun cotton.
  + American gynecologist James Marion Sims is the first to
  surgically relieve a woman suffering from vesicovaginal fistula,
  an opening from the bladder into the vagina. Sims will later
  invent the vaginal speculum.
  + American dentist Claudius Ash originates the single porcelain
  tooth, which can be set individually into plates for false teeth.
  This technique eventually replaces older methods like jamming
  teeth gathered from the dead into a socket prepared in the
  recipient's gums and wearing dentures made of celluloid, cloth
  and ivory.
  + Faraday discovers paramagnetism and diamagnetism, and suggests
  that light is a form of electromagnetism, from his observations
  of the effects of a magnetic field on light polarization in
  crystals.
  + The hydraulic crane is patented by British inventor William
  Amstrong.
  + German psychiatrist Wilhelm Griesinger publishes his textbook
  "Mental pathology and therapeutics", a turning point in psychiatry
  that shifts the center of science from France to Germany.
  
  1846:
  + British archaeologist Henry Rawlinson deciphers cuneiform, an
  ancient Mesopotamian script, from an inscription in 3 languages
  carved into a cliff in Persia during the reign of Darius the
  Great (521-486 BC). He works without knowing the studies of
  German Georg Grotefend, whose 1802 translation of cuneiform
  went unnoticed.
  + German astronomer Johann Galle and his assistant Heinrich
  d'Arrest are the first to sight Neptune, the 8th planet from the
  sun, corroborating predictions by French mathematician Urbain-
  Jean-Joseph Leverrier and British mathematician John Adams, who
  are credited with the discovery.
  + American explorer and scientist James Dana publishes "Zoophytes",
  in which he classifies and describes the physiology and ecology
  of hundreds of these invertebrate animals. Zoophytes include
  sea anemones and sponges.
  + The Smithsonian institution is founded in Washington DC, with
  a bequest from British chemist and mineralogist James Smithson.
  + American dentist William Morton introduces ether anaesthesia.
  + German philosopher Theodor Waitz writes a fundamental psychol-
  ogy book "Foundations of psychology".
  + Boston machinist Elias Howe patents the first modern sewing
  machine. Powered by a hand-driven wheel, it has a double-thread
  lockstitch system.
  
  1847:
  + German botanist Matthias Schleiden and German zoologist Theodor
  Schwann publish in "Beitroge zur phytogenesis" what will become
  the basis for modern cell theory. These scientists argue that
  cells are the fundamental organic units common to all living
  beings and develop by "free formation" out of formless cyto-
  blastemic substances in the same basic way German zoologist Robert
  Remak and pathologist Rudolf Virchow will further develop the
  Schleiden-Schwann cell theory.
  + Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero first produces the explosive
  nitroglycerin.
  + English mathematician George Boole publishes "The mathematical
  analysis of logic", the founding work of Boolean algebra or
  symbolic logic. In it Boole develops a set of symbols and alg-
  ebraic manipulations that express logical arguments.
  + Charles Babbage designs the first ophthalmoscope with which to
  study the retina, but his invention is neglected and Hermann von
  Helmholtz later receives the credit (1851).
  + The American Medical Association is established.
  + Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis discovers that childbed
  fever occurs when medical students fail to wash their hands
  before delivering babies. After he requires students to wash
  their hands with soap and chlorinated lime, the death rate in
  that maternity ward drops significantly. Semmelweiss and Oliver
  Holmes will be ridiculed for their views on childbed fever but
  eventually will be proven correct.
  + German physicist von Helmholtz states the law of conservation
  of energy, the first law of thermodynamics: In an isolated system,
  the total amount of energy does not change.
  + The first adhesive postage stamps are used in the US

1848

• British physicist William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, theorizes that there is an absolute temperature, absolute zero, below which no further energy loss is possible, and that this temperature should be the starting point of a new absolute scale of temperature.

1849

• William Thomson introduces the term 'thermodynamics'.
• A safety pin is patented by American inventor Walter Hunt.
  
  1850:
  + Between now, British mathematician James Joseph Sylvester
  coins numerous mathematical terms that will become accepted,
  such as 'syzygy, congredient, invariant, covariant, contra-
  variant'.
  + A generation of social theorists who will be known as leg-
  alists, including Leon Duguit, Maurice Hauriou, and Georg
  Jellinek, is born. Near the end of the century they will
  help establish political science as a separate academic
  discipline.
  + The first photographic plates are used to record images
  of stars and the moon, foreshadowing the later importance
  of photography as a tool of astronomy.
  + Irish engineer Robert Mallet coins the term 'seismology'
  to refer to the study of earthquakes and the earth's mech-
  anical properties.
  + British sanitarian Sir Edwin Chadwick establishes that pov-
  erty and sickness are linked.
  + Epidemiology, the study of causes, distribution, and control
  of disease, becomes a branch of medical science as physicians
  seeking to prevent disease form the London epidemiological
  society.
  + Building on experiments the previous year by French phys-
  icist Armand Fizeau, his assistant, Jean Bernard Leon Foucault
  determines the speed of light to within less than 1 percent
  of its actual value.
  + German physicist Rudolf Clausius formulates the second law
  of thermodynamics, which states that the disorder of a closed
  system increases with time, or that some energy is always lost
  as heat in any energy conversion. Clausius later coins the
  word 'entropy' for the ratio of a system's heat content to its
  absolute temperature, which serves as a measure of its disorder.
  + Boston machinist Isaac Singer patents a foot-operated sweing
  machine that becomes a commercial success. Elias Howe later
  sues him, successfully, for patent infringement.

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