1891 in science

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The year 1891 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

• March 3 – Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, predecessor of Shoshone National Forest, in Wyoming is established as the first United States National Forest.
• The New Zealand government sets aside Resolution Island in Fiordland as a nature reserve. ^[1]
• The New York Botanical Garden is founded in The Bronx largely due to the efforts of Nathaniel Lord Britton.
• Jane Willis Kirkaldy and Catherine Pollard become the first women to sit final examinations in biology at the University of Oxford (and achieve first class honours). ^[2]

Chemistry

• Agnes Pockels first publishes the results of her researches into surface tension. ^{[3] [4]}
• The Fischer projection is devised by German chemist Hermann Emil Fischer,

Geology

• Hans Reusch describes what comes to be known as Reusch's Moraine in northern Norway; tillite from a Precambrian glaciation. ^[5]

Environment

• The Japan Meteorological Agency begins taking records of the global average temperature. ^[6]

Mathematics

• Fyodorov–Schoenflies theorem concluded by Yevgraf Fyodorov and Arthur Schoenflies from their work on crystallographic groups. ^{[7] [8]}
• Édouard Lucas first formulates the ménage problem.

Paleontology

• October – Eugène Dubois finds the first fragmentary bones of Pithecanthropus erectus (later redesignated Homo erectus), or 'Java Man', at Trinil on the Solo River. ^[9]

Physiology and medicine

• Julius Ludwig August Koch begins publication of Die psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten in Ravensburg, introducing the concept of psychopathology. ^[10]
• Arnold Pick first uses the term dementia praecox in this form. ^[11]
• Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz names the neuron. ^[12]
• Myxedema is first treated successfully, by George Redmayne Murray using thyroid extract.
• The earliest recorded attempt at hip replacement is carried out by Themistocles Gluck in Berlin, using ivory to replace the femoral head. ^[13]
• Viennese pathologist Hans Chiari describes a form of Chiari malformation.

Technology

• March 10 – Almon B. Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, is granted a patent in the United States ^[14] for an automatic telephone exchange using the Strowger switch. ^[15]
• May 20 – First public demonstration of the Kinetograph moving picture system developed by W. K. L. Dickson under the direction of Thomas Alva Edison, a showing of the film known as Dickson Greeting . Edison files patents on the camera and peephole viewer on August 24. ^[16]
• Crompton & Co. introduce the electric kettle, in the United Kingdom.
• Michelin patent the removable pneumatic bicycle tire. ^[17]
• Panhard et Levassor produce the first Système Panhard automobile layout, consisting of four wheels with front-engine, rear-wheel drive and a sliding-gear transmission, designed by Émile Levassor. ^[18]
• William Le Baron Jenney develops the construction of steel frame skyscrapers in Chicago with the Ludington, Manhattan and Second Leiter Buildings.
• The modern taximeter is invented by Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn in Germany.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Stanislao Cannizzaro ^[19]
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: John Wesley Judd

Births

• January 8 – Walther Bothe (died 1957), German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1954).
• January 26 – Wilder Penfield (died 1976), American-born neurosurgeon.
• April 22 – Harold Jeffreys (died 1989), English mathematician.
• May 15 – Fritz Feigl, (died 1971), Austrian-born Brazilian chemist
• July 5 – John Howard Northrop (suicide 1987), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1946)
• July 27 – Jacob van der Hoeden, Dutch-Israeli veterinary scientist (died 1968)
• August 17 – Aly Tewfik Shousha (died 1964), Egyptian bacteriologist.
• September 14 – Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov (died 1983), Russian mathematician.
• September 24 – W. F. Friedman (died 1969), Bessarabian-born cryptanalyst.
• October 24 – Ernest Melville DuPorte (died 1981), Caribbean-born Canadian insect morphologist.
• November 14 – Frederick Banting (died 1941), Canadian discoverer of insulin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1923).

Deaths

• January 6 – Hugh Owen Thomas (born 1834), British orthopaedic surgeon.
• February 10 – Sofia Kovalevskaya (born 1850), Russian mathematician.
• March 9 – Amalie Dietrich (born 1821), German naturalist.
• May 11 – Edmond Becquerel (born 1820), French physicist.
• June 9 – Henry Edwards (born 1827), English-born American entomologist and actor.
• June 23
  • Sir Norman Pogson (born 1829), English-born astronomer.
  • Wilhelm Eduard Weber (born 1804), German physicist.
• August 30 – Emanoil Bacaloglu (born 1830), Romanian polymath.
• September 18 – William Ferrel (born 1817), American meteorologist.
• October 3 – Édouard Lucas (born 1842), French mathematician.
• November 18 – Joseph Wolstenholme (born 1829), English mathematician.
• December 21 – William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire (born 1808), English landowner and promoter of science.

References

1. Hill, Susanne; John (1987). Richard Henry of Resolution Island. Dunedin: John McIndoe. ISBN   0-86868-094-X.
2. "The female firsts". Oxford Today . 22 (1). 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
3. Pockels, Agnes (1891). "Surface tension". Nature . 43 (1115): 437–439. Bibcode:1891Natur..43R.437R. doi:10.1038/043437c0.
4. Giles, C. H.; Forrester, S. D. (9 January 1971). "The origins of the surface film balance: Studies in the early history of surface chemistry, part 3". Chemistry & Industry : 43–53.
5. Hoffman, Paul F. (2011). "A history of Neoproterozoic glacial geology, 1871– 1997". In Arnaud, E.; Halverson, G.P.; Shields-Zhou, G. (eds.). The Geological Record of Neoproterozoic Glaciations. Geological Society, London, Memoirs. Geological Society of London. pp. 17–37.
6. "Annual Anomalies of Global Average Surface Temperature (1891 - 2013)". JMA. 14 November 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
7. Senechal, Marjorie (1990). "A brief history of geometrical crystallography". In Lima-de-Faria, J. (ed.). Historical Atlas of Crystallography. Kluwer. pp. 43–59. ISBN   0-7923-0649-X.
8. Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 153. ISBN   978-1-84724-008-8.
9. Carroll, Sean B. (2009). Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species. London: Quercus. pp. 90–91. ISBN   978-1-84916-072-8.
10. Ronson, Jon (2011-05-21). "How to spot a psychopath". Guardian Weekend : 31.
11. "Ueber primäre chronische Demenz (so. Dementia praecox) im jugendlichen Alter". Prager medicinische Wochenschrift. 16: 312–15. 1891.
12. von Waldeyer-Hartz, H. W. G. (1891). "Ueber einige neuere Forschungen im Gebiete der Anatomie des Centralnervensystems". Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift. 17. Berlin: 1213–1356.
13. Gomez, Pablo F.; Morcuende, Jose A. (2005). "Early attempts at hip arthroplasty, 1700s to 1950s". Iowa Orthopaedic Journal. 25: 25–9. PMC   1888777 . PMID   16089067.
14. US 447918,Strowger, Almon B.,"Automatic telephone-exchange",published 1891-03-10 
15. Hill, Roger B. (March 1953). "The Early Years of the Strowger System". Bell Laboratories Record. 31 (3): 95–103. Archived from the original on 2011-10-25. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
16. Mannoni, Laurent; Campagnoni, Donata Pesenti; Robinson, David (1996). Light and Movement: Incunabula of the Motion Picture, 1420–1896. London: BFI. ISBN   88-86155-05-0.
17. Lloyd, John; Mitchinson, John (2010). The Second Book of General Ignorance. London: Faber. p. 163. ISBN   978-0-571-26965-5.
18. Georgano, G. N., ed. (1982). Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars. London: Ebury Press. ISBN   0-85223-234-9.
19. "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.