1808 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1808 in science
and technology
involved some significant events, listed below.
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
involved some significant events, listed below.
Chemistry
- BariumBariumBarium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in Group 2, a soft silvery metallic alkaline earth metal. Barium is never found in nature in its pure form due to its reactivity with air. Its oxide is historically known as baryta but it reacts with...
, calciumCalciumCalcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft gray alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust...
, magnesiumMagnesiumMagnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
, and strontiumStrontiumStrontium is a chemical element with the symbol Sr and the atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element that is highly reactive chemically. The metal turns yellow when exposed to air. It occurs naturally in the minerals celestine and...
isolated by Sir Humphry DavyHumphry DavySir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine...
. - Joseph Louis Gay-LussacJoseph Louis Gay-Lussac- External links :* from the American Chemical Society* from the Encyclopædia Britannica, 10th Edition * , Paris...
formulates the law of combining volumes for gases. - John DaltonJohn DaltonJohn Dalton FRS was an English chemist, meteorologist and physicist. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of modern atomic theory, and his research into colour blindness .-Early life:John Dalton was born into a Quaker family at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, Cumberland,...
begins publication of A New System of Chemical Philosophy, explaining his atomic theory of chemistry and including a list of atomic weightAtomic weightAtomic weight is a dimensionless physical quantity, the ratio of the average mass of atoms of an element to 1/12 of the mass of an atom of carbon-12...
s.
Mathematics
- Carl Friedrich GaussCarl Friedrich GaussJohann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...
publishes Theorematis arithmetici demonstratio nova, introducing Gauss's lemmaGauss's lemma (number theory)Gauss's lemma in number theory gives a condition for an integer to be a quadratic residue. Although it is not useful computationally, it has theoretical significance, being involved in some proofs of quadratic reciprocity....
in the third proof of quadratic reciprocityQuadratic reciprocityIn number theory, the law of quadratic reciprocity is a theorem about modular arithmetic which gives conditions for the solvability of quadratic equations modulo prime numbers...
.
Births
- July 8 - George Robert GrayGeorge Robert GrayGeorge Robert Gray FRS was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years...
, EnglishEnglish peopleThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
zoologist (d. 18721872 in scienceThe year 1872 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Conservation:* March 1 - Yellowstone National Park is established in the United States, the world's first national park.-Mathematics:...
). - July 25 - Johann Benedict ListingJohann Benedict ListingJohann Benedict Listing was a German mathematician.J. B. Listing was born in Frankfurt and died in Göttingen. He first introduced the term "topology", in a famous article published in 1847, although he had used the term in correspondence some years earlier...
, German mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
(d. 18821882 in scienceThe year 1882 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Robert Koch isolates the Tuberculosis bacillus.* Élie Metchnikoff discovers phagocytosis.-Chemistry:...
). - August 4 - Johann Ritter von OppolzerJohann Ritter von OppolzerJohann Ritter von Oppolzer was an Austrian physician born in Nové Hrady, Bohemia. He was the father of the astronomer Theodor von Oppolzer ....
, AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
(d. 18711871 in scienceThe year 1871 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Medicine and physiology:* Porphyria is first explained biochemically by Felix Hoppe-Seyler....
). - November 6 - Friedrich Julius RichelotFriedrich Julius RichelotFriedrich Julius Richelot was a German mathematician, born in Königsberg. He was a student of Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi....
, German mathematician (d. 18751875 in scienceThe year 1875 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Gallium is discovered spectroscopically by French chemist Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Later this year he obtains the free metal by electrolysis of its hydroxide and names it...
).
Deaths
- March 3 - Johan Christian FabriciusJohan Christian FabriciusJohan Christian Fabricius was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others...
, DanishDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
entomologist (b. 17451745 in scienceThe year 1745 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:*The Omega Nebula, Messier 25, Messier 35, and IC 4665 are discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux.-Biology:...
). - May 18 - Rev. Elijah CraigElijah CraigRev. Elijah Craig was a Baptist preacher in Virginia, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the area of Virginia that later became the state of Kentucky...
, AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
inventor of bourbon whiskeyBourbon whiskeyBourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...
(b. uncertain). - December 24 - Thomas BeddoesThomas BeddoesThomas Beddoes , English physician and scientific writer, was born at Shifnal in Shropshire. He was a reforming practitioner and teacher of medicine, and an associate of leading scientific figures. Beddoes was a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and, according to E. S...
, reforming English physician (b. 17601760 in scienceThe year 1760 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Chemistry:* Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt investigates inks based on cobalt salts and isolates cacodyl from cobalt mineral containing arsenic, pioneering work in organometallic chemistry.-Geology:* John Michell suggests...
).