1843 in science explained

The year 1843 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

• March 11–14 – Eta Carinae flares to become the second brightest star.
• February 5–April 19 – "Great March Comet" observed.
• December 21 – The first total solar eclipse of Saros 139 occurs over southern Asia.
• Heinrich Schwabe reports a periodic change in the number of sunspots: they wax and wane in number according to a ten-year cycle.

Chemistry

• Jean-Baptiste Dumas names lactose.^[1]
• Carl Mosander discovers the chemical elements Terbium and Erbium.^[2]
• John J. Waterston produces an account of the kinetic theory of gases.^[3]
• Alfred Bird produces single-acting baking powder.^[4]

Mathematics

• September – Ada Lovelace translates and expands Menabrea’s notes on Charles Babbage's analytical engine, including an algorithm for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers, regarded as the world's first computer program.^{[5] [6] [7]}
• October 16 – William Rowan Hamilton discovers the calculus of quaternions and deduces that they are non-commutative.^[8]
• Arthur Cayley and James Joseph Sylvester found the algebraic invariant theory.
• John T. Graves discovers the octonions.
• Pierre-Alphonse Laurent discovers and presents the Laurent expansion theorem.

Physics

• James Prescott Joule experimentally finds the mechanical equivalent of heat.^[9]
• Ohm's acoustic law is proposed by German physicist Georg Ohm.

Physiology and medicine

• April–May – English surgeon Benjamin Brodie extracts a coin lodged in the bronchus of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel using novel methods.^[10]
• British surgeon James Braid publishes Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, a key text in the history of hypnotism.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., argues that puerperal fever is spread by lack of hygiene in physicians.^[11]

Technology

• March 25 – Completion of the Thames Tunnel, the first bored underwater tunnel in the world (engineer: Marc Isambard Brunel).^[12]
• July 19 – Launch of, the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean (designer: Isambard Kingdom Brunel).^[13]
• November 21 – Thomas Hancock patents the vulcanisation of rubber using sulphur in the United Kingdom
• The steam powered rotary printing press is invented by Richard March Hoe in the United States.^[14]
• Robert Stirling and his brother James convert a steam engine at a Dundee factory to operate as a Stirling engine.
• The first public telegraph line in the United Kingdom is laid between Paddington and Slough.
• Approximate date – Euphonium invented.

Publications

• October – Anna Atkins begins publication of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, a collection of contact printed cyanotype photograms of algae which forms the first book illustrated with photographic images.^{[15] [16] [17] [18]}

Awards

• Copley Medal: Jean-Baptiste Dumas^[19]
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Jean-Baptiste Elie de Beaumont; Pierre Armand Dufrenoy

Births

• January 13 – David Ferrier (died 1928), Scottish neurologist.^[20]
• May 6 – G. K. Gilbert (died 1918), American geologist.
• June 12 – David Gill (died 1914), Scottish astronomer.
• June 23 – Paul Heinrich von Groth (died 1927), German mineralogist.
• July 24 – William de Wiveleslie Abney (died 1920), English astronomer.
• August 17 – Alexandre Lacassagne (died 1924), French forensic scientist.
• November 30  - Martha Ripley (died 1912), American physician.^[21]
• December 11 – Robert Koch (died 1910), German physician, famous for the discovery of the tubercle bacillus (1882) and the cholera bacillus (1883) and for his development of Koch's postulates; awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905
• Adelaida Lukanina (died 1908), Russian chemist.

Deaths

• July 25 – Charles Macintosh (born 1766), Scottish inventor of a waterproof fabric.^[22]
• August 10 – Robert Adrain (born 1775), Irish American mathematician.
• September 11 – Joseph Nicollet (born 1786), French geographer, explorer, mathematician and astronomer.
• September 19 – Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis (born 1792), French mathematician and discoverer of the Coriolis effect.
• September 30 – Richard Harlan (born 1796), American zoologist.
• November 16 – Abraham Colles (born 1773), Anglo-Irish surgeon.

Notes and References

1. Dumas (1843). Traité de Chimie, Appliquée aux Arts. 6 Paris: Bechet Jeune. p. 293.
2. Web site: Carl Gustav Mosander - Oxford Reference . www.oxfordreference.com . 16 February 2020 . en .
3. Book: Thoughts on the Mental Functions; being an attempt to treat metaphysics as a branch of the physiology of the nervous system. Edinburgh. Oliver & Boyd. 1843.
4. News: Matthew. Cannon. Alfred Bird: Egg-free custard inventor and chemist. Birmingham Mail. 2014-11-03. 2018-02-25.
5. John. Fuegi. Jo. Francis. 40077111. Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes'. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 25. 4. 16–26. 10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887. October–December 2003.
6. Web site: Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace. 2010-07-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20100721013509/http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/ada-bio.html. 21 July 2010. live.
7. Menabrea. L. F.. Luigi Federico Menabrea. 1843. Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage. Scientific Memoirs. 3. 2010-10-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20100913042032/http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html. 13 September 2010. live.
8. Web site: William Rowan Hamilton Plaque. Geograph. 2007. 2011-03-08.
9. On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat. Joule. J. P.. Abstracts of the Papers Communicated to the Royal Society of London. 1843. 5. 839. 10.1098/rspl.1843.0196. free.
10. Brodie, Benjamin. "An account of a case in which a foreign body was lodged in the right bronchus." Paper to Royal Medical & Chirurgical Society 27 June 1843.
11. "The Contagiousness of puerperal fever". New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery.
12. Book: Smith, Denis. London and the Thames Valley. 17. London. Thomas Telford. 2001. 978-0-7277-2876-0.
13. News: Royal Visit. The Bristol Mirror. 1–2. 20 July 1843.
14. Book: Meggs, Philip B.. Philip B. Meggs. A History of Graphic Design. Wiley. 1998. 3rd. 147. 978-0-471-29198-5. It receives in 1847 and is placed in commercial use the same year.
15. Book: Parr. Martin. Gerry. Badger. The Photobook: a history, Volume I. Phaidon. 2004. London. 978-0-7148-4285-1.
16. Book: James, Christopher. The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes. 2nd. Delmar Cengage Learning. 2009. Clifton Park, NY. 978-1-4180-7372-5. 2009-08-11. registration.
17. Web site: New York Public Library. Seeing is Believing: 700 years of scientific and medical illustration. Photography. Cyanotype photograph. Anna Atkins (1799-1871). 2001. 1843. 2009-08-11.
18. Book: Peres, Michael R.. The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography: Digital Imaging, Theory and Applications, History, and Science. 4th. Elsevier/Focal Press. 2007. Amsterdam; Boston. 978-0-240-80740-9.
19. Web site: Copley Medal British scientific award . Encyclopedia Britannica . 16 February 2020 . en.
20. 33117. Ferrier, Sir David (1843–1928), neurologist . Sherrington, C. S. . Bevan, Michael. 16 February 2020 .
21. Book: Ogilvie . Marilyn Bailey . Harvey . Joy Dorothy . Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie . Joy Harvey . The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z . 2000 . Taylor & Francis . 978-0-415-92040-7 . 1102 . en.
22. Book: Day . Lance . McNeil . Ian . Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology . 11 September 2002 . Routledge . 978-1-134-65019-4 . 786 . en.