1807 in science
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The year 1807 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
- March 29 â H. W. Olbers discovers the asteroid which Carl Friedrich Gauss names Vesta.[1]
Chemistry
- Potassium and sodium are isolated by Sir Humphry Davy.
- The use of fulminate in firearms is patented by Scottish clergyman Alexander John Forsyth.[2]
Geology
- The Geological Society is founded in London; among the more prominent founders are William Babington, James Parkinson, Humphry Davy and George Bellas Greenough.
Mathematics
- William Wallace proves that any two simple polygons of equal area are equidecomposable, later known as the WallaceâBolyaiâGerwien theorem.[3]
Medicine
- Samuel Hahnemann first introduces the term 'homeopathy' in an essay, "Indications of the Homeopathic Employment of Medicines in Ordinary Practice", published in Versammlung der Hufelandische medicinisch-chirurgischen Gesellschaft.[4]
- British Army surgeon John Vetch describes the keratoconjunctivitis ("Egyptian ophthalmia") suffered by troops returned from service overseas;[5] he identifies it as epidemic.[6]
Technology
- July 20 â French brothers Claude and Nicéphore Niépce receive a patent for their Pyréolophore, an early internal combustion engine, having demonstrated it powering a boat on the Saône.
- August 17 â Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat makes her first trip from New York City to Albany.
- November 19 â English inventor Lionel Lukin launches the world's first sailing self-righting rescue life-boat, the Frances Anne, at Lowestoft.[7]
- William Cubitt patents self-regulating sails for windmills.[8]
- Henry Maudslay patents an improved table engine.
- William Hyde Wollaston patents the camera lucida.[9]
Zoology
- April 21 â The Tasmanian devil is first described, by George Prideaux Robert Harris.[10]
Publications
- Alexander von Humboldt's Le Voyage aux Régions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799â1804, par Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bonpland begins publication.
- Thomas Young's A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts published.
Awards
Births
- January 28 â Robert McClure, Irish-born Arctic explorer (died 1873)
- May 28 â Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born American zoologist and geologist (died 1873)
- November 14 â Auguste Laurent, French chemist (died 1853)
- November 30 â William Farr, English epidemiologist (died 1883)
Deaths
- February 27 â Louise du Pierry, French astronomer (born 1746)
- April 4 â Jérôme Lalande, French astronomer (born 1732)
- December 5 â Francis Willis, English physician specialising in mental disorders (born 1718)