1844 in science

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The year 1844 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

• August 10 – German astronomer Friedrich Bessel deduces from the motion of the bright stars Sirius and Procyon that they have dark companions. ^[1]

Biology

• June 3 – The last definitely recorded pair of great auks (Pinguinus impennis) are killed on the Icelandic island of Eldey. ^[2]
• August 1 – Opening of Berlin Zoological Garden. ^[3]
• Gabriel Gustav Valentin notes the digestive activity of pancreatic juice.
• George Robert Gray begins publication in London of The Genera of Birds.
• Joseph Dalton Hooker begins publication of The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror ... 1839–1843 in London. ^[4]

Chemistry

• Karl Klaus discovers ruthenium.
• Professor Gustaf Erik Pasch of Stockholm is granted the privilege of manufacturing a safety match.
• French chemist Adolphe Wurtz reports the first synthesis of copper hydride, a well-known reducing agent and catalyst in organic chemistry.

Earth sciences

• Robert Chambers' anonymous Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation , which paves the way for acceptance of Darwin's The Origin of Species , is published in Britain.

Mathematics

• Joseph Liouville finds the first transcendental number.
• Hermann Grassmann studies vectors with more than three dimensions.

Medicine

• Irish physician Francis Rynd utilises a hollow hypodermic needle to make the first recorded subcutaneous injections, specifically of a sedative to treat neuralgia.

Metrology

• Joseph Whitworth introduces the thou. ^[5]

Physics

• William Robert Grove publishes The Correlation of Physical Forces, the first comprehensive account of the conservation of energy.

Technology

• January 30 – Charles Goodyear patents the vulcanisation of rubber in the United States.
• May 11 – Samuel Morse sends the first message using Morse code.
• June – Henry Fox Talbot commences publication of the first book illustrated with photographs from a camera, The Pencil of Nature .
• Uriah A. Boyden develops an improved outward-flow water turbine.
• Robert Bunsen invents the grease-spot photometer.
• Thomas and Caleb Pratt design the Pratt truss bridge.
• Dublin iron-founder Richard Turner begins assembling components for the Palm house at Kew Gardens in London, the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron.
• Egide Walschaerts of the Belgian State Railways originates Walschaerts valve gear for the steam locomotive.

Events

• July 27 – Death of English chemist and physicist John Dalton in Manchester where his body lies in honour in the Town Hall and more than 40,000 people file past his coffin.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Carlo Matteucci ^[6]
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: William Conybeare

Births

• February 1 – G. Stanley Hall (died 1924), American psychologist.
• February 7 – Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko (died 1873), Russian naturalist.
• February 20 – Ludwig Boltzmann (died 1906), Austrian physicist famous for the invention of statistical mechanics.
• March 25 – Adolf Engler (died 1930), German botanist.
• June 10 – Carl Hagenbeck (died 1913), German zoologist.
• July 1 – H. Newell Martin (died 1896), British physiologist.
• August 6 – James Henry Greathead (died 1896), South African-born English civil engineer.
• August 13 – Friedrich Miescher (died 1895), Swiss biochemist.
• August 22 – George W. DeLong (died 1881), American Arctic explorer.
• September 11 – Henry Alleyne Nicholson (died 1899), English paleontologist and zoologist.
• October 3 – Patrick Manson (died 1922), Scottish parasitologist, the "father of tropical medicine" .
• October 28 – Mary Katharine Brandegee née Layne (died 1920), American botanist.
• November 25 – Karl Benz (died 1929), German automotive engineer.
• Varvara Rudneva (d. 1899), Russian physician.

Deaths

• June 19 – Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (born 1772), French naturalist.
• July 27 – John Dalton (born 1766), English chemist and physicist.
• August 30 – Francis Baily (born 1774), English astronomer.
• December 28 – Thomas Henderson (born 1798), Scottish astronomer.

References

1. Bessel, F. W. (December 1844). "On the Variations of the Proper Motions of Procyon and Sirius". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 6 (11): 136–141. Bibcode:1844MNRAS...6R.136B. doi: 10.1093/mnras/6.11.136a .
2. "The Great Auks Become Extinct". National Geographic Education. July 3, 1844. Retrieved 2024-10-27. On July 3, 1844, the last confirmed pair of great auks (Pinguinus impennis) were killed on Eldey Island, Iceland.
3. "Zoologischer Garten Berlin". zoo-infos.de. Zoo-Infos.de. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
4. Sampson, F. Bruce (1985). "Botany of the Antarctic Voyage". Early New Zealand Botanical Art. Auckland: Reed Methuen. p. 76. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
5. Edkins, Jo. "Small units". Imperial Measures of Length. Jo Edkins. Archived from the original on 10 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
6. "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 July 2020.