1845 in science
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The year 1845 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy[edit]
- April – Lord Rosse discovers that the nebula M51 has a spiral structure.
- September–October – Cornish mathematician John Couch Adams communicates to James Challis and George Biddell Airy his calculations demonstrating that a body (Neptune) is perturbing the orbit of Uranus.[1]
- November 10 – Urbain Le Verrier presents to the Académie des sciences in Paris a memoir showing that existing theories fail to account for the motion of Uranus.[2]
- Construction begins in Ireland of the "Leviathan of Parsonstown", a telescope built by Lord Rosse.
Biology[edit]
- August–September – Previously unknown Potato blight strikes the potato crop in Ireland: start of the Great Famine.[3][4]
Chemistry[edit]
- March 17 – Stephen Perry patents the rubber band in England.[5]
- Edmond Frémy discovers the oxidizing agent Frémy's salt.
Exploration[edit]
- August – John Franklin's expedition with HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to find the Northwest Passage is last seen entering Baffin Bay prior to its mysterious disappearance.[6]
Medicine[edit]
- December 27 – Anesthesia is used in childbirth for the first time, by Dr Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
Physics[edit]
- September 13 – Michael Faraday discovers that an intense magnetic field can rotate the plane of polarized light, the Faraday effect.
- C. H. D. Buys Ballot confirms the Doppler effect for sound waves.[7]
- Kirchhoff's circuit laws are first described by German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff.
Technology[edit]
- July 26–August 10 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s iron steamship Great Britain makes the Transatlantic Crossing from Liverpool to New York, the first screw propelled vessel to make the passage.[8][9]
- The saxhorn family of valved brass instruments is patented by Adolphe Sax in France.
Publications[edit]
- January 14 – Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin established and begins publishing Fortschritte der Physik and Verhandlungen.
- August 28 – The journal Scientific American begins publication.
- Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos: Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung begins publication.
Awards[edit]
- Copley Medal: Theodor Schwann[10]
- Wollaston Medal for Geology: John Phillips
Births[edit]
- February 17 (Old Style March 1) – Fyodor Pirotsky (died 1898), Ukrainian-born Russian military and electrical engineer and inventor.
- March 3 – Georg Cantor (died 1918), Russian-born German mathematician.
- March 27 – Wilhelm Röntgen (died 1923), German physicist, discoverer of X-rays, Nobel laureate.
- April 21 – William Healey Dall (died 1927), American malacologist and explorer.
- May 4 – William Kingdon Clifford (died 1879), English geometer.
- May 16 – Élie Metchnikoff (died 1916), Russian-born microbiologist, Nobel laureate.
- June 16 – Heinrich Dressel (died 1920), German archaeologist.
- July 4 – Thomas Barnardo (died 1905), Irish-born physician and philanthropist.
- September 11 – Émile Baudot (died 1903), French telegraph engineer.
- November 14 – Ulisse Dini (died 1918), Italian mathematician.
Deaths[edit]
- January 11 – Etheldred Benett (born 1776), British geologist.
- March 13 – John Frederic Daniell (born 1790), English chemist and physicist.
- March 18 – 'Johnny Appleseed' (John Chapman) (born 1774), American nurseryman.[11]
- April 10 – Thomas Sewall (born 1786), American anatomist.
- October 18 – Dominique, comte de Cassini (born 1748), French astronomer.
- Jean Henri Jaume Saint-Hilaire (born 1772), French botanist.
References[edit]
- ^ Sheehan, William; Kollerstrom, Nicholas; Waff, Craig B. (2004-11-22). "The Case of the Pilfered Planet - Did the British steal Neptune?". Scientific American. 291 (6): 92–99. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1204-92. PMID 15597985.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ "BBC Short History of Ireland".
- ^ Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 267–268. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. p. 549. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
- ^ Buys Ballot, C. H. D. (1845). "Akustische Versuche auf der Niederländischen Eisenbahn, nebst gelegentlichen Bemerkungen zur Theorie des Hrn. Prof. Doppler". Annalen der Physik und Chemie (in German). 142 (11): 321–351. Bibcode:1845AnP...142..321B. doi:10.1002/andp.18451421102.
- ^ Fox, Stephen (2003). Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019595-3.
- ^ "Great Britain". The Ships List. Archived from the original on 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
- ^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
- ^ "Obituaries". The Fort Wayne Sentinel. Vol. 67, no. 81. 22 March 1845.