1872 in science

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The year 1872 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Chemistry[edit]

Robert Chesebrough patents Vaseline in the United States^[1]
Eugen Baumann rediscovers polyvinyl chloride
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz discovers the aldol reaction

Conservation[edit]

March 1 – Yellowstone National Park is established in the United States, the world's first national park^[2]^[3]

Exploration[edit]

December 21 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger (1858) sails from Portsmouth in England on the 4-year scientific expedition that lays the foundation for the science of oceanography^[4]

Mathematics[edit]

Richard Dedekind publishes Stetigkeit und irrationale Zahlen, a theory of irrational numbers^[5]
Felix Klein produces the Erlangen program on geometries^[5]

Medicine[edit]

February 15 – George Huntington makes the first detailed description of Huntington's disease, in Middleport, Ohio^[6]^[7]^[8]
Moritz Kaposi describes Kaposi's sarcoma^[9]^[10] and the manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus
Ferdinand Monoyer proposes the dioptre as a unit for measuring the optical power of a lens^[11]

Physics[edit]

Ludwig Boltzmann states the Boltzmann equation for the temporal development of distribution functions in phase space, and publishes his H-theorem^[12]

Technology[edit]

April 2 – George Brayton obtains a United States patent for a constant pressure internal combustion engine, initially using vaporized gas, and marketed as 'Brayton's Ready Motor'.^[13]^[14]
John Hopkinson proposes the group flash system for distinguishing lighthouses^[15]
Reverend C. M. Ramus of Sussex, England, devises the single-step hydroplane hull^[16]

Institutions[edit]

October 1 – the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College begins its first academic session
The Polytechnic Museum in Moscow is founded^[17]

Publications[edit]

May – the magazine Popular Science is first published in the United States
Charles Darwin publishes The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Awards[edit]

Births[edit]

April 5 – Samuel Cate Prescott (died 1962), American food scientist and microbiologist
April 21 - Charles Gandy (died 1943), French physician.
May 6 – Willem de Sitter (died 1934), Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer
May 21 – Henry E. Warren (died 1957), American inventor
May 31 – Charles Greeley Abbot (died 1973), American astrophysicist
August 1 – Solomon Carter Fuller (died 1953), Liberian-born psychiatrist
September 23 – Marie Depage (died in sinking of the RMS Lusitania 1915), Belgian nurse
October 4 – Ernest Fourneau (died 1949), French medicinal chemist

Deaths[edit]

March 8 – Priscilla Susan Bury (born 1799), English botanist^[19]
April 2 – Samuel Morse (born 1791), American inventor
May 6 – George Robert Gray (born 1808), English zoologist
August 11 – Sir Andrew Smith (born 1797), Scottish-born military surgeon, explorer, ethnologist and zoologist
August 22 – Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis (born 1787), French physician
November 7 – Alfred Clebsch (born 1833), German mathematician
December 6 – Félix Archimède Pouchet (born 1800), French scientist
December 24 – William John Macquorn Rankine (born 1820), Scottish physicist
Anne Elizabeth Ball (born 1808), Irish psychologist

References[edit]

^ U.S. Patent 127,568.
^ "Yellowstone, the First National Park". Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
^ U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 17, Chap. 24, pp. 32-33. "An Act to set apart a certain Tract of Land lying near the Head-waters of the Yellowstone River as a public Park." From The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 collection, Library of Congress.
^ Rice, A. L. (1999). "The Challenger Expedition". Understanding the Oceans: Marine Science in the Wake of HMS Challenger. London: Routledge. pp. 27–48. ISBN 978-1-85728-705-9. Retrieved 8 May 2011.
^ ^a ^b Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
^ Huntington, G. (1872-04-13). "On Chorea". Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadelphia. 26 (15): 317–321.
^ Lanska, D. J. (2000). "George Huntington (1850–1916) and hereditary chorea". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. 9 (1): 76–89. doi:10.1076/0964-704X(200004)9:1;1-2;FT076. PMID 11232352. S2CID 22659368.
^ Vale, Thiago Cardoso; Cardoso, Francisco (2015). "Chorea: A journey through history". Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements. 5: 1–6. doi:10.7916/D8WM1C98. PMC 4454991. PMID 26056609.
^ Kaposi, Moriz (1872). "Idiopathisches multiples Pigmentsarkom der Haut". Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis. 4 (2): 265–73. doi:10.1007/bf01830024. S2CID 31438763. Translated as: Kaposi, M. (1982). "Idiopathic Multiple Pigmented Sarcoma of the Skin". CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 32 (6): 342–7. doi:10.3322/canjclin.32.6.342.
^ "Moriz Kohn Kaposi". Whonamedit?. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
^ Monoyer, F. (1872). "Sur l'introduction du système métrique dans le numérotage des verres de lunettes et sur le choix d'une unité de réfraction". Annales d'Oculistiques. 68: 101.
^ Encyclopaedia of Physics (2nd ed.). 1991.
^ Improvement in Gas-Engines (Patent no. 125166).
^ Borth, Christy (1945). Masters of Mass Production. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. p. 152.
^ Beare, T. H. (2004). "Hopkinson, John (1849–1898)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13758. Retrieved 2011-06-02. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ "The Evolution of the Hydroplane". Flight. 6: 796. 1914-07-24. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
^ "History". Polytechnic Museum.
^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
^ Lightman, Bernard (2004). Dictionary Of Nineteenth-Century of British Scientists Vol.1. Bristol: Thoemmes. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-85506-999-2.

[1] U.S. Patent 127,568.

[2] "Yellowstone, the First National Park". Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2011.

[3] U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 17, Chap. 24, pp. 32-33. "An Act to set apart a certain Tract of Land lying near the Head-waters of the Yellowstone River as a public Park." From The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 collection, Library of Congress.

[4] Rice, A. L. (1999). "The Challenger Expedition". Understanding the Oceans: Marine Science in the Wake of HMS Challenger. London: Routledge. pp. 27–48. ISBN 978-1-85728-705-9. Retrieved 8 May 2011.

[Crilly-5] Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.

[6] Huntington, G. (1872-04-13). "On Chorea". Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadelphia. 26 (15): 317–321.

[7] Lanska, D. J. (2000). "George Huntington (1850–1916) and hereditary chorea". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. 9 (1): 76–89. doi:10.1076/0964-704X(200004)9:1;1-2;FT076. PMID 11232352. S2CID 22659368.

[8] Vale, Thiago Cardoso; Cardoso, Francisco (2015). "Chorea: A journey through history". Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements. 5: 1–6. doi:10.7916/D8WM1C98. PMC 4454991. PMID 26056609.

[9] Kaposi, Moriz (1872). "Idiopathisches multiples Pigmentsarkom der Haut". Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis. 4 (2): 265–73. doi:10.1007/bf01830024. S2CID 31438763. Translated as: Kaposi, M. (1982). "Idiopathic Multiple Pigmented Sarcoma of the Skin". CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 32 (6): 342–7. doi:10.3322/canjclin.32.6.342.

[10] "Moriz Kohn Kaposi". Whonamedit?. Retrieved 2011-03-25.

[11] Monoyer, F. (1872). "Sur l'introduction du système métrique dans le numérotage des verres de lunettes et sur le choix d'une unité de réfraction". Annales d'Oculistiques. 68: 101.

[12] Encyclopaedia of Physics (2nd ed.). 1991.

[13] Improvement in Gas-Engines (Patent no. 125166).

[14] Borth, Christy (1945). Masters of Mass Production. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. p. 152.

[15] Beare, T. H. (2004). "Hopkinson, John (1849–1898)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13758. Retrieved 2011-06-02. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[16] "The Evolution of the Hydroplane". Flight. 6: 796. 1914-07-24. Retrieved 2012-01-09.

[17] "History". Polytechnic Museum.

[18] "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.

[19] Lightman, Bernard (2004). Dictionary Of Nineteenth-Century of British Scientists Vol.1. Bristol: Thoemmes. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-85506-999-2.

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