1854 in science explained

The year 1854 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

• July 22 – Discovery of the asteroid 30 Urania by John Russell Hind.
• October c. – George Airy calculates the mean density of the Earth by measuring the gravity in a coal mine in South Shields.

Chemistry

• Benjamin Silliman of Yale University is the first person to fractionate petroleum into its individual components by distillation.

Exploration

• January 4 – First definite sighting of McDonald Islands in the Antarctic.

Mathematics

• March 26 – Playfair cipher first demonstrated, by Charles Wheatstone.
• George Boole's work on algebraic logic, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought on Which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities, published in London.^[1]
• Arthur Cayley states the original version of Cayley's theorem and produces the first Cayley table.^[2]
• Bernhard Riemann, a German mathematician, submits his habilitation thesis ("About the representability of a function by a trigonometric series"), in which he describes the Riemann integral. It is published by Richard Dedekind in 1867.^[3]

Medicine

• April–May – Dr John Snow traces the source of one outbreak of cholera in London (which kills 500) to a single water pump, validating his theory that cholera is water-borne, and forming the starting point for epidemiology.
• November – Florence Nightingale and her team of trained volunteer nurses arrive at Selimiye Barracks in Scutari in the Ottoman Empire to care for British Army troops invalided from the Crimean War.^[4]
• Spanish-born vocal pedagogist Manuel García observes his own functioning glottis using a form of laryngoscope incorporating mirrors.^{[5] [6]}
• Claude Bernard introduces the term Milieu intérieur in physiology.

Microbiology

• Filippo Pacini, an Italian anatomist, discovers Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera.^[7]
• Louis Pasteur begins studying fermentation at the request of brewers.

Technology

• May 9 – Albert Fink patents the Fink truss in the United States.^[8]
• May 17 – Deck of Wheeling Suspension Bridge in the United States destroyed through torsional movement and vertical undulations in a severe windstorm.
• June 13 – Anthony Faas patents improvements to the accordion in the United States.^[9]
• July – First voyage by a seagoing steamship fitted with a compound steam engine, the screw steamer Brandon, built on the River Clyde in Scotland by John Elder.^[10]
• September 19 – Thaddeus Hyatt patents a practical pavement light.^[11]
• November 27 – André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri patents a method of producing carte de visite photographs in France.
• December 20 – In the case of Talbot v. Laroche, pioneer of photography Henry Fox Talbot fails in asserting that the collodion process infringes his calotype patent.^[12]
• James Ambrose Cutting takes out three United States patents for improvements to the wet plate collodion process (Ambrotype photography).
• Elisha Otis completes work on the safety elevator.

Events

• 10 June – The Crystal Palace reopens in Sydenham, South London^[13] with life-size dinosaur models in the grounds.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Johannes Peter Müller^[14]
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Richard John Griffith

Births

• January 27 – George Alexander Gibson (died 1913), Scottish physician and geologist.
• January 29 – Fred Baker (died 1938), American physician and naturalist.
• February 9 – Aletta Jacobs (died 1929), Dutch physician and women's suffrage activist.
• March 4 – Napier Shaw (died 1945), English meteorologist.
• March 15 – Emil Adolf von Behring (died 1917), German physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901.
• March 31 – Dugald Clerk (died 1932), Scottish mechanical engineer.
• April 28 – Phoebe Marks, later Hertha Ayrton (died 1923), English electrical engineer.^[15]
• April 29 – Henri Poincaré (died 1912), French mathematician.
• May 11 – Ottmar Mergenthaler (died 1899), German-born inventor.
• June 13 – Charles Algernon Parsons (died 1931), British inventor of the steam turbine.
• July 12 – George Eastman (suicide 1932), American photographic inventor.
• July 23 – Birt Acres (died 1918), American-born cinematographic inventor.
• July 28 – Victor Babeș (died 1926), Austrian-born Romanian physician and bacteriologist.
• October 3 – Hermann Struve (died 1920), Russian-born astronomer.

Deaths

• January 16 – Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré (born 1789), French botanist.
• April 15 – Arthur Aikin (born 1773), English chemist and mineralogist.
• July 6 – Georg Ohm (born 1789), German physicist.
• September 28 – George Field (born c.1777), English colour chemist.
• November 18 – Edward Forbes (born 1815), Manx naturalist.

Notes and References

1. Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8.
2. Book: Crilly, Tony. 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London. Quercus. 2007. 978-1-84724-008-8. 152.
3. Web site: Riemann's Habilitationsschrift. 2008-05-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20080520085248/http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Riemann/Trig/. 2008-05-20. live.
4. Web site: Baly. Monica E.. Monica Baly. H. C. G.. Matthew. Colin Matthew. Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 2004. 2011-06-20.
5. Garcia. Manuel. Observations on the Human Voice. 399–410. 7. 1855. 111815. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 10.1098/rspl.1854.0094. 5180321.
6. Teresa. Radomski. Manuel García (1805–1906): a bicentenary reflection. Australian Voice. 11. 25–41. 2005. PDF. 2012-02-07.
7. Web site: Who first discovered Vibrio cholera? . Frerichs, Ralph R. . 2001-08-05 . UCLA School of Public Health . 30 December 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080119141216/http://www.ph.ucla.edu/EPI/snow/firstdiscoveredcholera.html . 19 January 2008 . live . Pacini's 1854 publication was titled "Osservazioni microscopiche e deduzioni patologiche sul cholera asiático" ("Microscopical observations and pathological deductions on cholera").
8. Frank. Griggs. The Inspirations of a German Immigrant: Albert Fink. Structure. National Council of Structural Engineers Associations . 52–4. 2011-08-16. May 2006.
9. Patent no. 11062.
10. Book: Memoirs and portraits of one hundred Glasgow men. 118. 2011-06-16. John Elder, 1824-1869. 1886. Glasgow. James MacLehose & Sons.
11. Hyatt. Thaddeus. 1854-09-19.. Vault cover]. US. 11695.
12. Book: The Calotype Patent Lawsuit of Talbot v. Laroche 1854. Wood, R. D.. privately published. Bromley, Kent. 1975. 0-9504377-0-0. 2010-10-18. 2008-01-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20080102053045/http://www.midleykent.fsnet.co.uk/laroche/TalbotvLaroche.htm. dead.
13. Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
14. Web site: Copley Medal British scientific award . Encyclopedia Britannica . 23 July 2020 . en.
15. Book: Haines, Catharine M. C.. International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. Santa Barbara. ABC-CLIO. 2001. 978-1-57607-090-1. 12.