1842 in science

The year 1842 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biochemistry

October 5 â Josef Groll brews the first pilsner light lager beer in the city of Pilsen, Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic).

Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward publishes On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases in London, promoting his concept of the Wardian case.^[1]

Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross charts the eastern side of James Ross Island and on January 23 reaches a Farthest South of 78Â°09'30"S.^[2]

January â American medical student William E. Clarke of Berkshire Medical College becomes the first person to administer an inhaled anesthetic to facilitate a surgical procedure. After Clarke uses a towel and ether to anesthetize a patient identified as "Miss Hobbie", Dr. Elijah Pope carries out a dental extraction.^[3]
March 30 â American physician and pharmacist Crawford Long administers an inhaled anesthetic (diethyl ether) to facilitate a surgical procedure (removal of a neck tumor).^[4]^[5]
English surgeon William Bowman publishes On the Structure and Use of the Malpighian Bodies of the Kidney,^[6] identifying Bowman's capsule, a key component of the nephron.
Edwin Chadwick's critical Report on an inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain is published by the Poor Law Commission.^[7]

British palaeontologist Richard Owen coins the name Dinosauria, hence the Anglicized dinosaur.^[8]

January 8 â Delft University of Technology established by William II of the Netherlands as a 'Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers'.^[11]
February 21 â John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.^[12]
June â James Nasmyth patents his design of steam hammer in England and introduces an improved planing machine.^[13]
John Herschel discovers the cyanotype (blueprint) photographic process in England.^[14]
The Lancashire Loom, a semi-automatic power loom for weaving cotton fabric, is invented by James Bullough and William Kenworthy in Blackburn (England).^[15]

September 14â17 â English naturalist Charles Darwin and his family settle at Down House in Kent.

February 2 â Julian Sochocki (died 1927), Polish mathematician.
February 10 â Agnes Mary Clerke (died 1907) Irish astronomer and author.^[17]
February 22 â Camille Flammarion (died 1925), French astronomer.
March 17 â Rosina Heikel (died 1929), Finnish physician.^[18]
March 23 â Susan Jane Cunningham (died 1921), American mathematician.
April 4 â Ãdouard Lucas (died 1891, French mathematician.
May 7 â Isala Van Diest (died 1916), Belgian physician.
May 8 â Emil Christian Hansen (died 1909), Danish fermentation physiologist.
June 11 â Carl von Linde (died 1934), German refrigeration engineer.
August 23 â Osborne Reynolds (died 1912), Irish-born physicist.
September 9 â Elliott Coues (died 1899), American ornithologist.
September 20
- James Dewar (died 1923), Scottish-born chemist.
- Charles Lapworth (died 1920), English geologist.
October 17 â Gustaf Retzius (died 1919), Swedish anatomist.
October 24 (O.S. October 12) â Nikolai Menshutkin (died 1907), Russian chemist.
November 12 â John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (died 1919), English Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
December 3 â Ellen Swallow Richards (d. 1911), American chemist.
December 17 â Sophus Lie (died 1899), Norwegian mathematician.