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Overview of the events of 1839 in science
List of years in science
(
table
)
…
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
…
Art
Archaeology
Architecture
Literature
Music
Philosophy
Science
+...
1839 in science
1838
1840
Fields
Archaeology
Technology
Sustainable energy research
Transportation technology
Social sciences
Psychology
Governance and policy studies
Paleontology
Dinosaurs' extinction
Extraterrestrial environment
Terrestrial environment
Tornado research
Other/related
Birding/ornithology
Literature
Timeline of cosmological theories
List of open letters by academics
History of technology by type
List of science timelines
v
t
e
The year
1839 in
science
and
technology
involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
[
edit
]
January – The first
parallax
measurement of the distance to
Alpha Centauri
is published by
Thomas Henderson
.
[1]
January 2 – The first photograph of the
Moon
is taken by
Louis Daguerre
.
[2]
Biology
[
edit
]
January 29 – English naturalist
Charles Darwin
marries his cousin
Emma Wedgwood
.
Theodor Schwann
proposes that all living matter is made up of
cells
.
The
beetle
subfamily
Oxyporinae
is discovered by
Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson
.
Chemistry
[
edit
]
Carl Mosander
discovers
lanthanum
.
Exploration
[
edit
]
May 1 – Start of
Eyre's expeditions
to the interior of
South Australia
.
September 19 –
James Clark Ross
sets off on the first scientific expedition to survey
Antarctica
.
Publication of
Charles Darwin
's
Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle under the Command of Captain FitzRoy, R.N., from 1832 to 1839
.
Geology
[
edit
]
Roderick Murchison
publishes
The Silurian System
.
December 24 – An enormous
landslide
occurs at
Axmouth
in the English county of
Devon
, creating the
Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliff
. A report by geologists
William Daniel Conybeare
and
William Buckland
is one of the earliest scientific descriptions of such an event.
[3]
Medicine
[
edit
]
June–September – Dr
John Conolly
abolishes the physical restraint of the insane at
Middlesex County Asylum
(
at
Hanwell
near London).
Technology
[
edit
]
January 9 – The
French Academy of Sciences
announces the
Daguerreotype
photography
process.
January 25 –
H. Fox Talbot
shows his "photogenic drawings" at the
Royal Institution
.
February 24 –
William Otis
receives a
patent
for the
steam shovel
.
April 9 – The world's first commercial electric
telegraph
line comes into operation alongside the
Great Western Railway
in
England
.
May 29 –
Mungo Ponton
presents his discovery of the light-sensitive quality of
sodium dichromate
as a method of permanent
photography
.
[4]
Michael Faraday
publishes
Experimental Researches in Electricity
[5]
clarifying the true nature of
electricity
.
Invention of the
Grove
fuel cell by
William Grove
.
[6]
Development of vulcanized rubber by
Charles Goodyear
.
Development of
Babbitt metal
by
Isaac Babbitt
.
Invention of the Polonceau
truss
for roof construction by
Camille Polonceau
.
[7]
Claimed invention of the rear-wheel driven bicycle by
Kirkpatrick Macmillan
in
Scotland
.
[8]
Awards
[
edit
]
Copley Medal
:
Robert Brown
[9]
Wollaston Medal
:
Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg
Births
[
edit
]
January 26 –
Rachel Lloyd
(d.
1900
), American chemist.
January 27 –
Marie-Adolphe Carnot
(died
1920
),
French
chemist
and mining engineer.
February 11
Josiah Willard Gibbs
(died
1903
),
American
theoretical physicist
and chemist.
Almon Strowger
(died
1902
), American
telecommunications engineer
.
February 15 –
Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen
(died 1920),
Danish
mathematician
.
March 8 –
Josephine Cochrane
(died
1913
), American inventor of the first commercially successful dishwasher.
March 16 –
Sully Prudhomme
(died
1907
), French engineer and poet, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Literature
.
April 4 –
James Blyth
(died
1906
),
Scottish
electrical engineer.
April 12 –
Nikolai Przhevalsky
(died
1888
),
Russian
-born
Polish
explorer
.
May 8 –
George Miller Beard
(died
1883
), American
neurologist
.
July 17 –
Ephraim Shay
(died
1916
), American steam locomotive engineer.
September 10 –
Charles Sanders Peirce
(died
1914
), American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist.
Deaths
[
edit
]
January 22 –
Christian Ramsay
, Lady Dalhousie (born
1786
),
Scottish
botanist
.
April 8 –
Pierre Prévost
(born
1751
),
Swiss
physicist
.
June 27 –
Allan Cunningham
(born
1791
),
English
botanist and
explorer
.
August 28 –
William Smith
(born
1769
), English
geologist
.
August 10 –
Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet
(born
1758
), English fossil collector.
September 29 –
Friedrich Mohs
(born
1773
),
German
mineralogist
.
October 24 – Sir
William Charles Ellis
(born
1780
), English psychiatric physician.
November 15 –
William Murdoch
(born
1754
), Scottish-born
inventor
and
technician
.
December 24 –
Davies Gilbert
(born
1767
), English promoter of science.
References
[
edit
]
^
Gavine, David (2004).
"Henderson, Thomas (1798–1844)"
.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(Online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/12915
. Retrieved
2014-04-25
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
^
"January 2, 1839: First Daguerreotype of the Moon"
.
This Month in Physics History
.
American Physical Society
. Retrieved
2016-07-30
.
^
"Axmouth to Lyme Regis: The Undercliff, The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-09-27
. Retrieved
2007-09-12
.
^
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal
.
^
"Experimental Researches in Electricity"
. Retrieved
2007-09-12
.
^
"Note sur une pile voltaïque d'une grande énergie, construite par M. Grove; communication de M. Becquerel"
.
Comptes Rendus
.
8
: 497. 1839.
^
Holzer, Stefan M. (2010). "The Polonceau Roof and Its Analysis".
International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology
.
80
. Newcomen Society: 22–54.
doi
:
10.1179/175812109X12547331530066
.
S2CID
110387074
.
^
"Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1812-1878)"
.
Historic Figures
.
BBC
. Retrieved
2011-02-12
.
^
"Copley Medal | British scientific award"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. Retrieved
22 July
2020
.
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