1811 in science
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The year 1811 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
- March 25 – Great Comet discovered by Honoré Flaugergues.
Biology
- Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger publishes Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium, an updating of Linnean taxonomy and a major influence on the concept of the 'Family' in biology. He first defines the infraclass Marsupialia.
- Peter Simon Pallas begins publication of Zoographia rosso-Asiatica, sistens omnium animalium in extenso Imperio rossico, et adjacentibus maribus observatorum recensionem, domicilia, mores et descriptiones, anatomen atque icones plurimorum in Saint Petersburg.
Chemistry
- Bernard Courtois discovers iodine.[1]
- Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard publish Recherches Physico-Chimiques, faites sur la pile; sur la préparation chimique et les propriétés du potassium et du sodium; sur la décomposition de l'acide boracique; sur les acides fluorique, muriatique et muriatique oxigéné; sur l'action chimique de la lumière; sur l'analyse végétale et animale, etc. in Paris.
- Amedeo Avogadro proposes Avogadro's law, that equal volumes of gases under constant temperature and pressure contain equal number of molecules.[2]
Mathematics
- Carl Friedrich Gauss works with functions of complex number variables.[3]
- S. D. Poisson publishes Traité de mécanique (vol. 1).
Medicine
- Charles Bell publishes An Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain,[4] starting to distinguish between sensory and motor nerves.
- Abraham Colles publishes A Treatise on Surgical Anatomy in Dublin.
- Francis Place publishes Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population, including an examination of the proposed remedies of Mr. Malthus, and a reply to the objections of Mr. Godwin and others in London, the first significant text in English to advocate contraception.[5]
Paleontology
- Mary Anning discovers the fossilised remains of an Ichthyosaur at Lyme Regis.
Physics
- Amedeo Avogadro proposes his hypothesis relating volumes and numbers of molecules of gases.
Technology
- Friedrich Koenig, with the assistance of Andreas Friedrich Bauer, produces the first steam printing press, in London.[6]
Awards
Births
- March 2 – Hugh Edwin Strickland, English geologist and ornithologist (died 1853)
- March 11
- Lady Katherine Sophia Kane née Baily, Irish botanist (died 1886)
- Urbain Le Verrier, French astronomer (died 1877)
- March 30 – Robert Bunsen, German chemist (died 1899)
- July 13 – James Young, Scottish chemist (died 1883)
- September 14 – William Budd, English physician and epidemiologist (died 1880)
- October 25 – Évariste Galois, French mathematician (died 1832)
- John Waterston, Scottish physicist and civil engineer (died 1883)
Deaths
- February 9 – Nevil Maskelyne, English Astronomer Royal (born 1732)
- August 31 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French explorer (born 1729)
- September 8 – Peter Simon Pallas, German-born naturalist (born 1741)
References
- ^ Swain, Patricia A. (2005). "Bernard Courtois (1777–1838), famed for discovering iodine (1811), and his life in Paris from 1798" (PDF). Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. 30: 103–11. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2010. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
- ^ "Michael Faraday". Famous Physicists and Astronomers. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- ^ Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
- ^ Repr. of An Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain
- ^ "Francis Place". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2011-10-12.
- ^ Patented in 1810. Meggs, Philip B. (1998). A History of Graphic Design. Wiley. pp. 130–133. ISBN 0-471-29198-6.