1854 in science

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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]^[3]
Bernhard Riemann, a German mathematician, submits his habilitation thesis Ueber die Darstellbarkeit einer Function durch eine trigonometrische Reihe ("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.^[4]

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.^[5]
Spanish-born vocal pedagogist Manuel García observes his own functioning glottis using a form of laryngoscope incorporating mirrors.^[6]^[7]
Claude Bernard introduces the term Milieu intérieur in physiology.

Microbiology

Filippo Pacini, an Italian anatomist, discovers Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera.^[8]
Louis Pasteur begins studying fermentation at the request of brewers.

Technology

Fink truss

May 9 – Albert Fink patents the Fink truss in the United States.^[9]
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.^[10]
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.^[11]
September 19 – Thaddeus Hyatt patents a practical pavement light.^[12]
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.^[13]
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^[14] with life-size dinosaur models in the grounds.

Awards

Copley Medal: Johannes Peter Müller^[15]
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.^[16]
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.

References

^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
^ Cayley, Arthur (1854), "On the theory of groups as depending on the symbolic equation θⁿ=1", Philosophical Magazine, 7 (4): 40–47
^ Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
^ "Riemann's Habilitationsschrift". Archived from the original on 2008-05-20. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
^ Baly, Monica E.; Matthew, H. C. G. (2004). "Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2011-06-20. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
^ Garcia, Manuel (1855). "Observations on the Human Voice". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 7: 399–410. doi:10.1098/rspl.1854.0094. JSTOR 111815. PMC 5180321.
^ Radomski, Teresa (2005). "Manuel García (1805–1906): a bicentenary reflection" (PDF). Australian Voice. 11: 25–41. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
^ Frerichs, Ralph R. (2001-08-05). "Who first discovered Vibrio cholera?". UCLA School of Public Health. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2007. Pacini's 1854 publication was titled "Osservazioni microscopiche e deduzioni patologiche sul cholera asiático" ("Microscopical observations and pathological deductions on cholera").
^ Griggs, Frank (May 2006). "The Inspirations of a German Immigrant: Albert Fink" (PDF). Structure. National Council of Structural Engineers Associations: 52–4. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
^ Patent no. 11062.
^ "John Elder, 1824-1869". Memoirs and portraits of one hundred Glasgow men. Glasgow: James MacLehose & Sons. 1886. p. 118. Retrieved 2011-06-16.
^ US 11695, Hyatt, Thaddeus, "Vault cover", issued 1854-09-19.
^ Wood, R. D. (1975). The Calotype Patent Lawsuit of Talbot v. Laroche 1854. Bromley, Kent: privately published. ISBN 0-9504377-0-0. Archived from the original on 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
^ Haines, Catharine M. C. (2001). International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-57607-090-1.

[1] Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.

[2] Cayley, Arthur (1854), "On the theory of groups as depending on the symbolic equation θⁿ=1", Philosophical Magazine, 7 (4): 40–47

[3] Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.

[4] "Riemann's Habilitationsschrift". Archived from the original on 2008-05-20. Retrieved 2008-05-19.

[5] Baly, Monica E.; Matthew, H. C. G. (2004). "Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2011-06-20. (subscription or UK public library membership required)

[6] Garcia, Manuel (1855). "Observations on the Human Voice". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 7: 399–410. doi:10.1098/rspl.1854.0094. JSTOR 111815. PMC 5180321.

[7] Radomski, Teresa (2005). "Manuel García (1805–1906): a bicentenary reflection" (PDF). Australian Voice. 11: 25–41. Retrieved 2012-02-07.

[8] Frerichs, Ralph R. (2001-08-05). "Who first discovered Vibrio cholera?". UCLA School of Public Health. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2007. Pacini's 1854 publication was titled "Osservazioni microscopiche e deduzioni patologiche sul cholera asiático" ("Microscopical observations and pathological deductions on cholera").

[9] Griggs, Frank (May 2006). "The Inspirations of a German Immigrant: Albert Fink" (PDF). Structure. National Council of Structural Engineers Associations: 52–4. Retrieved 2011-08-16.

[10] Patent no. 11062.

[11] "John Elder, 1824-1869". Memoirs and portraits of one hundred Glasgow men. Glasgow: James MacLehose & Sons. 1886. p. 118. Retrieved 2011-06-16.

[12] US 11695, Hyatt, Thaddeus, "Vault cover", issued 1854-09-19.

[13] Wood, R. D. (1975). The Calotype Patent Lawsuit of Talbot v. Laroche 1854. Bromley, Kent: privately published. ISBN 0-9504377-0-0. Archived from the original on 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2010-10-18.

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

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

[16] Haines, Catharine M. C. (2001). International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-57607-090-1.

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