1864 in science

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The year 1864 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.

Astronomy[edit]

May 14 – The Orgueil meteorite, composed of carbonaceous chondrite, falls in southwestern France.
August 29 – William Huggins is the first to take the spectrum of a planetary nebula when he analyzes NGC 6543.^[1]

Botany[edit]

English botanist Richard Spruce completes a 15-year expedition to the Andes and Amazon Basin during which he has collected more than 30,000 plant specimens.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Chemistry[edit]

August 20 – John Alexander Reina Newlands produces the first periodic table of the elements.^[5]
November 27 – Barbituric acid is first synthesized, by German chemist Adolf von Baeyer.
Lothar Meyer develops an early version of the periodic table, with 28 elements organized by valence.^[6]^[7]
Cato Maximilian Guldberg and Peter Waage, building on Claude Louis Berthollet's ideas, propose the law of mass action.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Conservation[edit]

June 30 – The Yosemite Grant is created in the United States.^[11]

Mathematics[edit]

Alfred Enneper publishes his parametrization of the Enneper surface in connection with minimal surface theory.^[12]

Physics[edit]

December 8 – James Clerk Maxwell presents his paper A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field to the Royal Society in London, treating light as an electromagnetic wave and presenting Maxwell's equations.^[13]

Technology[edit]

February 17 – In the American Civil War, the tiny Confederate hand-propelled submarine H. L. Hunley sinks the USS Housatonic using a spar torpedo in Charleston Harbor, becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship (although the submarine and her crew of eight are also lost).^[14]
December 8 – The Clifton Suspension Bridge across the Bristol Avon in England, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and completed as a memorial to him, opens to traffic.^[15]
Oriel Chambers, Liverpool, England, the world's first metal-framed glass curtain walled building, designed by Peter Ellis (architect), is built.^[16]
Nicolaus Otto and Eugen Langen produce a free piston gas atmospheric engine.
Henry Roscoe and Robert Bunsen carry out what is reputed to be the first flashlight photography, using magnesium as a light source.^[17]
Possible date – Siegfried Marcus builds the first motorized cart, in Vienna.

Zoology[edit]

The species Homo neanderthalensis is formally described by William King.
The Central Park Zoo opens in New York City as a menagerie.

Awards[edit]

Copley Medal: Charles Darwin^[18]
Wollaston Medal for Geology: Roderick Murchison

Births[edit]

January (prob. date) – George Washington Carver (died 1943), African American agricultural botanist.
January 13 – Wilhelm Wien (died 1928), German physicist.
March 12 – W. H. R. Rivers (died 1922), English psychiatrist.
March 15 – Carl Edvard Johansson (died 1943), Swedish metrologist.
April 21 – Max Weber (died 1920), German sociologist.
June 14 – Alois Alzheimer (died 1915), German neuroscientist.
June 25 – Walther Nernst (died 1941), German chemist.
June 22 – Hermann Minkowski (died 1909), Lithuanian-German mathematician.
September 8 (O.S. August 27) – Jakob Johann von Uexküll (died 1944), Baltic German pioneer of biosemiotics.^[19]
December 1 – Carsten Borchgrevink (died 1934), Norwegian Antarctic explorer.

Deaths[edit]

January 14 – Father Nicholas Callan (born 1799), Irish physicist.
March 21 – Luke Howard (born 1772), English meteorologist and manufacturing chemist.
May 3 – William Lobb (born 1809), English plant collector.
May 5 – Elizabeth Andrew Warren (born 1786), Cornish botanist and marine algolologist.
May 29 – Johann Georg Bodmer (born 1786), Swiss mechanical engineer and inventor.
November 23 – Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (born 1793), Baltic German-born astronomer.
December 8 – George Boole (born 1815), English-born mathematician.
December 12 – John Fowler (born 1826), English agricultural engineer.

References[edit]

^ Kwok, Sun (2000). "History and overview". The Origin and Evolution of planetary Nebulae. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–7. ISBN 0-521-62313-8. Retrieved 13 January 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Spruce, Richard (1884). "Hepaticae of the Amazon and the Andes of Peru and Ecuador". Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society. 15 (1–2). Edinburgh.
^ Spruce, Richard (1908). Wallace, Alfred Russel (ed.). Notes of a botanist on the Amazon and the Andes... during the years 1849–1864. London: Macmillan.
^ Pearson, Michael (2004). Richard Spruce: naturalist and explorer. Settle, Yorkshire: Hudson History. ISBN 1-903783-28-3.
^ Newlands, John A. R. (1864-08-20). "On Relations Among the Equivalents". Chemical News. 10: 94–95. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
^ "Julius Lothar Meyer and Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev". Science History Institute. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
^ Bowden, Mary Ellen (1997). "Julius Lothar Meyer and Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev". Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences. Philadelphia, PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation. pp. 59-63. ISBN 9780941901123.
^ Guldberg, C. M.; Waage, P. (1864). "Studies Concerning Affinity". Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiana: 35.
^ Waage, P. (1864). "Experiments for Determining the Affinity Law". Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiania: 92.
^ Guldberg, C. M. (1864). "Concerning the Laws of Chemical Affinity". Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiania: 111.
^ Schaffer, Jeffrey P. Yosemite National Park (4th ed.). p. 48.
^ Enneper, A. (1864). "Analytisch-geometrische Untersuchungen". Zeitschrift für mathematische Physik. 9: 96–125.
^ Maxwell, J. Clerk (1865). "A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 155: 459–512. doi:10.1098/rstl.1865.0008. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
^ Chaffin, Tom (2008). The H. L. Hunley: the Secret Hope of the Confederacy. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 978-0-8090-9512-4.
^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^ "History". Oriel Chambers. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
^ "Henry Roscoe (1833-1915): flashlight photography". Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester). 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
^ Brentari, Carlo (2015). Jakob von Uexküll: The Discovery of the Umwelt between Biosemiotics and Theoretical Biology. Springer.

[1] Kwok, Sun (2000). "History and overview". The Origin and Evolution of planetary Nebulae. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–7. ISBN 0-521-62313-8. Retrieved 13 January 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}

[2] Spruce, Richard (1884). "Hepaticae of the Amazon and the Andes of Peru and Ecuador". Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society. 15 (1–2). Edinburgh.

[3] Spruce, Richard (1908). Wallace, Alfred Russel (ed.). Notes of a botanist on the Amazon and the Andes... during the years 1849–1864. London: Macmillan.

[4] Pearson, Michael (2004). Richard Spruce: naturalist and explorer. Settle, Yorkshire: Hudson History. ISBN 1-903783-28-3.

[5] Newlands, John A. R. (1864-08-20). "On Relations Among the Equivalents". Chemical News. 10: 94–95. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-30.

[Profile-6] "Julius Lothar Meyer and Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev". Science History Institute. Retrieved 21 March 2018.

[Bowden-7] Bowden, Mary Ellen (1997). "Julius Lothar Meyer and Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev". Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences. Philadelphia, PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation. pp. 59-63. ISBN 9780941901123.

[GW1-8] Guldberg, C. M.; Waage, P. (1864). "Studies Concerning Affinity". Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiana: 35.

[GW2-9] Waage, P. (1864). "Experiments for Determining the Affinity Law". Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiania: 92.

[GW3-10] Guldberg, C. M. (1864). "Concerning the Laws of Chemical Affinity". Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiania: 111.

[11] Schaffer, Jeffrey P. Yosemite National Park (4th ed.). p. 48.

[12] Enneper, A. (1864). "Analytisch-geometrische Untersuchungen". Zeitschrift für mathematische Physik. 9: 96–125.

[13] Maxwell, J. Clerk (1865). "A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 155: 459–512. doi:10.1098/rstl.1865.0008. Retrieved 2011-08-30.

[14] Chaffin, Tom (2008). The H. L. Hunley: the Secret Hope of the Confederacy. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 978-0-8090-9512-4.

[15] Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.

[16] "History". Oriel Chambers. Retrieved 2009-07-27.

[17] "Henry Roscoe (1833-1915): flashlight photography". Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester). 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2011-11-17.

[18] "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.

[19] Brentari, Carlo (2015). Jakob von Uexküll: The Discovery of the Umwelt between Biosemiotics and Theoretical Biology. Springer.

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