1868 in science explained

The year 1868 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

• January 30 – Publication of Charles Darwin's The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (by John Murray in London), including his theory of heredity, which he calls pangenesis.
• Jules-Emile Planchon and colleagues propose Phylloxera as the cause of the Great French Wine Blight.^[1]
• Roland Trimen reads a paper to the Linnaean Society explaining Batesian mimicry in African butterflies.^{[2] [3]}
• T. H. Huxley discovers what he thinks is primordial matter and names it Bathybius haeckelii. He admits his mistake in 1871.^[4]
• The Granny Smith apple cultivar originates in Eastwood, New South Wales, Australia, from a chance seedling propagated by Maria Ann Smith (née Sherwood, 1799–1870).^[5]

Chemistry

• August 18 – The element later named as helium is first detected in the spectrum of the Sun's chromosphere by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total eclipse in Guntur, India, but assumed to be sodium.^[6]
• October 20 – English astronomer Norman Lockyer observes and names the D₃ Fraunhofer line in the solar spectrum and concludes that it is caused by a hitherto unidentified element which he later names helium.^[7]
• Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron patents methods of color photography.^[8]

Medicine

• Jean-Martin Charcot describes and names multiple sclerosis.^{[9] [10]}
• Adolph Kussmaul performs the first esophagogastroduodenoscopy on a living human.^{[11] [12] [13] [14]}

Paleontology

• March – French geologist Louis Lartet discovers the first identified skeletons of Cro-Magnon, the first anatomically modern humans (early Homo sapiens sapiens), at Abri de Crô-Magnon, a rock shelter at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France.

Technology

• June 23 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter is patented in the United States.^[15]
• October 28 – American inventor Thomas Edison applies for his first patent, for a form of electronic voting machine.
• Ernest and Auguste Bollée first patent the Éolienne Bollée wind turbine in France.^[16]
• Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell's paper on governors^[17] is a landmark in the mathematics of feedback and in control theory.
• Pendulum-and-hydrostat control for the Whitehead torpedo developed by Robert Whitehead.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Charles Wheatstone^[18]
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Carl Friedrich Naumann

Births

• January 9 – S. P. L. Sørensen (died 1939), Danish chemist.
• January 31 – Theodore William Richards (died 1928), American chemist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• February 7 – Aleen Cust (died 1937), Anglo-Irish veterinary surgeon.
• March 15 – Grace Chisholm Young (died 1944), English mathematician.
• March 22 – Robert Andrews Millikan (died 1953), American physicist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physics.^[19]
• April 4
  • Philippa Fawcett (died 1948), English mathematician.
  • Henrietta Swan Leavitt (died 1921), American astronomer^[20]
• April 5 – Percy Furnivall (died 1938), English surgeon.
• April 8 – Herbert Spencer Jennings (died 1947), American zoologist.
• April 14 – Annie S. D. Maunder, née Russell (died 1947), Irish astronomer.
• April 28 – Georgy Voronoy (died 1908), Ukrainian mathematician.
• April 30 – J. B. Christopherson (died 1955), English physician.
• May 2 – Robert W. Wood (died 1955), American optical physicist.
• June 6 – Robert Falcon Scott (died 1912), English explorer.
• June 7 – John Sealy Townsend (died 1957), Irish mathematical physicist.^[21]
• June 14 – Karl Landsteiner (died 1943), Austrian physiologist.
• July 4 – Henrietta Swan Leavitt (died 1921), American astronomer.^[22]
• October 23 – Frederick W. Lanchester (died 1946), English automotive engineer.
• November 8 – Felix Hausdorff (died 1942), German mathematician.
• November 14 – Karl Landsteiner (died 1943), Austrian-born physiologist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.^[23]
• November 15 – Emil Racoviță (died 1947), Romanian biologist, speleologist and explorer.
• November 17 – Korbinian Brodmann (died 1918), German neurologist.
• December 5 – Arnold Sommerfeld (died 1951), German theoretical physicist.^[24]
• December 9 – Fritz Haber (died 1934), German chemist.^[25]

Deaths

• February 10 – Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist (born 1781)^[26]
• February 11 – Léon Foucault (born 1819), French physicist.^[27]
• February 24 – John Herapath (born 1790), English physicist.
• May 22 – Julius Plücker (born 1801), German mathematician and physicist.
• June 25 – Alexander Mitchell (born 1780), Irish engineer and inventor of the screw-pile lighthouse.
• June 29 – Sir John Lillie, British army officer, entrepreneur and inventor (born 1790)
• July 15 – William T. G. Morton (born 1819), American dentist.
• August 29 – Christian Friedrich Schönbein, German chemist and inventor of the fuel cell (born 1799)^[28]
• September 26 – August Ferdinand Möbius (born 1790), German mathematician and astronomer^[29]
• December 25 – Linus Yale, Jr. (born 1821), American engineer and inventor.^[30]
• December 31 – James David Forbes (born 1809), Scottish-born physicist, glaciologist and seismologist.

Notes and References

1. The Great French Wine Blight. Wine Tidings. 96 . 2011-08-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20110717235415/http://www.wampumkeeper.com/wineblight.html. 17 July 2011 . dead . July–August 1986.
2. Published in Transactions 26(3) (1870): 497.
3. Roland Trimen, 1840-1916. 80995. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 91. 641. 1920. xviii–xxvii. 10.1098/rspb.1920.0020. free.
4. Book: Ley, Willy. Willy Ley

   . Willy Ley. 1959. Exotic Zoology. New York. Viking Press. Exotic Zoology (book).

5. Web site: Smith, Maria Ann (1799–1870). Megan. Martin. Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Canberra. 2005. 2012-01-27.
6. French astronomers in India during the 17th –19th centuries. Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 101. 2. 95–100. 1991JBAA..101...95K. Kochhar. R. K.. 1991.
7. Book: Hampel, Clifford A.. The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements. 256–268. New York. 0-442-15598-0. 1968. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
8. Book: Coe, Brian. Colour Photography: the first hundred years 1840-1940. 1978. London. Ash & Grant. 0-904069-24-9.
9. Web site: Jean-Martin Charcot. Whonamedit?. Enerson. Ole Daniel. 2011-04-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20110514000108/http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/19.html. 14 May 2011 . live.
10. Charcot, J.-M.. Histologie de la sclerose en plaques. Gazette des Hopitaux. Paris. 1868. 41. 554–55.
11. Killian. Gustvan. The history of bronchoscopy and esophagoscopy. The Laryngoscope. 21. 891–7. 1911. 10.1288/00005537-191109000-00001. 9. 73388145.
12. Modlin. Irvin M.. Kidd. Mark. Lye. Kevin D.. From the Lumen to the Laparoscope. Archives of Surgery. 139. 10. 1110–26. 2004. 15492154. 10.1001/archsurg.139.10.1110. 2011-10-17.
13. Book: Elewaut. A.. Cremer. M.. The History of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy — The European Perspective. Classen. Meinhard. Tytgat. Guido N.J.. Lightdale. Charles J.. Gastroenterological endoscopy. Thieme. Stuttgart. 2002. 17. 978-1-58890-013-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=4X5c7NVo-gkC&q=%22The%20History%20of%20Gastrointestinal%20Endoscopy%E2%80%94The%20European%20Perspective%22.&pg=PA17. 2010-09-06.
14. Book: Vilardell, F.. Digestive endoscopy in the second millennium: from the Lichtleiter to echoendoscopy. Rigid gastroscopes. Thieme. Stuttgart. 2006. 32–5. 978-3-13-139671-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=bu1l1yS156oC&dq=%22Rigid+gastroscopes%22.+Digestive+endoscopy+in+the+second+millenium:+from+the+lichtleiter+to+echoendoscopy.&pg=PT71. 2010-09-06.
15. .
16. No 79985.
17. Maxwell. James Clerk. On Governors. Proceedings of the Royal Society. London. 16. 100. 1868. 270–283. 10.1098/rspl.1867.0055. 112510.
18. Web site: Copley Medal British scientific award . Encyclopedia Britannica . 23 July 2020 . en.
19. Web site: Robert A. Millikan - Biographical . www.nobelprize.org.
20. News: Before computers, there were these humans... . Christian Science Monitor . Gregory M. . Lamb . July 5, 2005 . January 1, 2020.
21. Von Engel . A. . 10.1098/rsbm.1957.0018 . John Sealy Edward Townsend. 1868-1957 . . 3 . 256–272. 1957 .
22. Book: Deborah. Todd. Joseph. Angelo. A to Z of Scientists in Space and Astronomy. New York. Facts of File. 2003. 200. 978-0-81604-639-3.
23. Rous . P.. Karl Landsteiner. 1868–1943 . 10.1098/rsbm.1947.0002 . Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society . 5 . 15 . 294–324. 1947 . 769085. 161789667.
24. Born, Max, Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld, 1868–1951, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society Volume 8, Number 21, pp. 274–296 (1952)
25. Book: Goran, Morris . The Story of Fritz Haber . University of Oklahoma Press . 1967 . 978-0-8061-0756-1 . 30 April 2021 . 38.
26. Book: Gordon, Margaret Maria . The home life of sir David Brewster. 18 September 2011. 1881. D. Douglas. 231–236.
27. Book: John Guy Porter. Patrick Moore. Yearbook of Astronomy. 1967. W. W. Norton. 47.
28. Book: Partington, J. R. . History of Chemistry . Macmillan Education, Limited . London . 1964 . 9781349005543 . 190.
29. Book: Franceschetti, Donald . Biographical encyclopedia of mathematicians . Marshall Cavendish . New York . 1999 . 9780761470717 . 377.
30. Book: Day, Lance . Biographical dictionary of the history of technology . Routledge . London New York . 1996 . 9781134650194 . 1345.