1866 in science
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The year 1866 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Contents |
[edit] Astronomy
- May - William Huggins studies the emission spectrum of a nova and discovers that it is surrounded by a cloud of hydrogen.[1]
- June 5 - Pluto (not known at this time) reaches its only aphelion between 1618 and 2113.
- Giovanni Schiaparelli realizes that meteor streams occur when the Earth passes through the orbit of a comet that has left debris along its path.
[edit] Biology
- Gregor Mendel publishes his laws of inheritance.[2]
- Ernst Haeckel challenges the plant/animal division of life, observing that single celled organisms, the protists, do not fit into either category.
- Élie Metchnikoff describes the early separation of "polecells" (progenital cells) in parthenogenetic Diptera.[3]
- Frederick Smith first discovers Formica candida in the Bournemouth district of England, describing it as Formica gagates.
- Nikolai Kaufman publishes his Moscow Flora.[4]
[edit] Chemistry
- Dynamite invented by Alfred Nobel.[5]
- August von Hofmann proposes the now standard system of hydrocarbon nomenclature and invents the Hofmann voltameter.[6]
- Emil Erlenmeyer proposes that naphthalene has a structure of two fused benzene rings.[7]
[edit] Medicine
- Max Schultze discovers two sorts of 'receptors' in the retina.[8]
- Dr John Langdon Down publishes his theory that different types of mental condition can be classified by ethnic characteristics, notably "Mongolism", the genetic developmental disability now known as Down syndrome.[9][10]
- Invention of a clinical thermometer by Thomas Clifford Allbutt.[10]
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson opens the St Mary's Dispensary in London where women could seek medical advice from exclusively female practitioners.[10]
- A cholera epidemic in London causes over 5,000 deaths.[10]
- Patrick Manson starts a school of tropical medicine in Hong Kong.[citation needed]
[edit] Technology
- January 12 - Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.
- July 27 - The Transatlantic telegraph cable is successfully completed, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time.[11]
- August 23 - Ralph H. Twedell patents the hydraulic riveter in the United Kingdom.[12]
[edit] Awards
[edit] Births
- April 17 - Ernest Starling (d. 1927), physiologist
- September 13 - Arthur Pollen (d. 1937), inventor
- September 21 - H. G. Wells (d. 1946), scientific populariser
- September 25 - Thomas Hunt Morgan (d. 1945), biologist, Nobel laureate in Physiology
- October 8 - Reginald Fessenden (d. 1932), pioneer of radio broadcasting
- November 30 - Robert Broom (d. 1951), paleontologist
[edit] Deaths
- March 6 - William Whewell (b. 1794), scientist, philosopher, and historian of science
- April 5 - Thomas Hodgkin (b. 1798), physician
- July 20 - Bernhard Riemann (b. 1826), mathematician.
- December 1 - George Everest (b. 1790), surveyor and geographer.
[edit] References
- ^ Becker, Barbara J. (2004). "Huggins, Sir William (1824–1910)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34039. Retrieved 2011-03-04. subscription or UK public library membership required
- ^ Mendel, J. G. (1866 for 1865). "Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden". Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn IV: 3–47 (Abhandlungen). For the English translation, see Druery, C. T.; Bateson, William (1901). "Experiments in plant hybridization". Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 26: 1–32. http://www.esp.org/foundations/genetics/classical/gm-65.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
- ^ Petrunkevitch, Alexander (1920). "Russia’s Contribution to Science". Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 23: 239.
- ^ Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979).
- ^ Schück, H.; Sohlman, R. (1929). The Life of Alfred Nobel. London: Heinemann.
- ^ von Hofmann, A. W. (1866). Introduction to Modern Chemistry: Experimental and Theoretic; Embodying Twelve Lectures Delivered in the Royal College of Chemistry, London. London: Walton and Maberly. http://books.google.com/books/pdf/Introduction_to_Modern_Chemistry.pdf?id=KT8JAAAAIAAJ&output=pdf&sig=Vooloj2sSW4b5XKRsWBcoqAYpZ4.
- ^ Erlenmeyer, Emil (1866). "Studien über die s. g. aromatischen Säuren". Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie 137: 327–359. doi:10.1002/jlac.18661370309.
- ^ Zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Retina.
- ^ Down, J. Langdon H. (1866). "Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots". Clinical lectures and reports by the medical and surgical staff of the London Hospital 3: 259–62.
- ^ a b c d Everett, Jason M., ed. (2006). "1866". The People's Chronology. Thomson Gale.
- ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ McNeill, Ian (1972). Hydraulic Power. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-12797-1.
