1845 in science
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The year 1845 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
- April â Lord Rosse discovers that the nebula M51 has a spiral structure.
- SeptemberâOctober â 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 â 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
- AugustâSeptember â Previously unknown Potato blight strikes the potato crop in Ireland: start of the Great Famine.[3][4]
Chemistry
- March 17 â Stephen Perry patents the rubber band in England.[5]
- Edmond Frémy discovers the oxidizing agent Frémy's salt.
Exploration
- August â 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
- December 27 â Anesthesia is used in childbirth for the first time, by Dr Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
Physics
- September 13 â 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
- July 26âAugust 10 â Isambard Kingdom Brunelâs 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
- January 14 â Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin established and begins publishing Fortschritte der Physik and Verhandlungen.
- August 28 â The journal Scientific American begins publication.
- Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos: Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung begins publication.
Awards
- Copley Medal: Theodor Schwann[10]
- Wollaston Medal for Geology: John Phillips
Births
- February 17 (Old Style March 1) â Fyodor Pirotsky (died 1898), Ukrainian-born Russian military and electrical engineer and inventor.
- March 3 â Georg Cantor (died 1918), Russian-born German mathematician.
- March 27 â Wilhelm Röntgen (died 1923), German physicist, discoverer of X-rays, Nobel laureate.
- April 21 â William Healey Dall (died 1927), American malacologist and explorer.
- May 4 â William Kingdon Clifford (died 1879), English geometer.
- May 16 â Ãlie Metchnikoff (died 1916), Russian-born microbiologist, Nobel laureate.
- June 16 â Heinrich Dressel (died 1920), German archaeologist.
- July 4 â Thomas Barnardo (died 1905), Irish-born physician and philanthropist.
- September 11 â Ãmile Baudot (died 1903), French telegraph engineer.
- November 14 â Ulisse Dini (died 1918), Italian mathematician.
Deaths
- January 11 â Etheldred Benett (born 1776), British geologist.
- March 13 â John Frederic Daniell (born 1790), English chemist and physicist.
- March 18 â 'Johnny Appleseed' (John Chapman) (born 1774), American nurseryman.[11]
- April 10 â Thomas Sewall (born 1786), American anatomist.
- October 18 â Dominique, comte de Cassini (born 1748), French astronomer.
- Jean Henri Jaume Saint-Hilaire (born 1772), French botanist.