1816 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1816 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.
Medicine
- René LaennecRené LaennecRené-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec was a French physician. He invented the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker and pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions....
invents the stethoscopeStethoscopeThe stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal body. It is often used to listen to lung and heart sounds. It is also used to listen to intestines and blood flow in arteries and veins...
. - Caleb Parry publishes An Experimental Inquiry into the Nature, Cause and Varieties of the Arterial Pulse, describing the mechanisms for the pulsePulseIn medicine, one's pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck , at the wrist , behind the knee , on the inside of the elbow , and near the...
.
Mineralogy
- Johann Fischer von WaldheimJohann Fischer von WaldheimJohann Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim was a German anatomist, entomologist and paleontologist....
publishes Essai sur la Turquoise et sur la Calaite in MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, the first scientific treatise on the mineral turquoiseTurquoiseTurquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl648·4. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue...
.
Physics
- Sir David BrewsterDavid BrewsterSir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA FSSA MICE was a Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university principal.-Early life:...
(17811781 in scienceThe year 1781 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* William Herschel discovers Uranus.* Charles Messier publishes final catalogue of Messier objects.* March 20 - Pierre Méchain discovers dwarf galaxy NGC 5195.-Biology:...
-18681868 in scienceThe year 1868 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Jules-Emile Planchon and colleagues propose Phylloxera as the cause of the Great French Wine Blight....
) discovers stress birefringenceBirefringenceBirefringence, or double refraction, is the decomposition of a ray of light into two rays when it passes through certain anisotropic materials, such as crystals of calcite or boron nitride. The effect was first described by the Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in 1669, who saw it in calcite...
.
Technology
- The Spider Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill, a temporary iron-wire footbridge erected across the Schuylkill RiverSchuylkill RiverThe Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...
, north of Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, is the first wire-cable suspension bridgeSuspension bridgeA suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
in history. - Johann Nepomuk Maelzel begins production of the metronomeMetronomeA metronome is any device that produces regular, metrical ticks — settable in beats per minute. These ticks represent a fixed, regular aural pulse; some metronomes also include synchronized visual motion...
with a scale. - Rev. Robert StirlingRobert StirlingThe Reverend Dr Robert Stirling was a Scottish clergyman, and inventor of the stirling engine.- Biography :Stirling was born at Cloag Farm near Methven, Perthshire, the third of eight children...
obtains a patentPatentA patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
in the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
for the StirlingStirling engineA Stirling engine is a heat engine operating by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas, the working fluid, at different temperature levels such that there is a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work....
hot air engineHot air engineA hot air engine is any heat engine which uses the expansion and contraction of air under the influence of a temperature change to convert thermal energy into mechanical work...
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Births
- July 7 - Rudolf WolfRudolf WolfJohann Rudolf Wolf was a Swiss astronomer and mathematician best known for his research on sunspots.Wolf was born in Fällanden, near Zurich. He studied at the universities of Zurich, Vienna, and Berlin. Encke was one of his teachers. Wolf became professor of astronomy at the University of Bern in...
, astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
(died 18931893 in scienceThe year 1893 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Henry Luke Bolley discovers a method of treating smut with formaldehyde.-Exploration:...
) - December 13 - Werner Siemens, electrical engineer (died 18921892 in scienceThe year 1892 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* William Ramsay discovers argon.* approx...
)
Deaths
- January 2 - Louis Guyton de Morveau, chemist (born 17371737 in scienceThe year 1737 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* May 28 - The planet Venus passes in front of Mercury. The event is witnessed during the evening by amateur astronomer John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England...
) - April 7 - Christian Konrad SprengelChristian Konrad SprengelChristian Konrad Sprengel was a German theologist, teacher and, most importantly, a naturalist. He is most famously known for his research into plant sexuality....
, botanist (born 17501750 in scienceThe year 1750 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* Thomas Wright suggests that the Milky Way Galaxy is a disk-shaped system of stars with the solar system near the centre.-Exploration:...
) - September 28 - Edward HowardEdward Charles HowardEdward Charles Howard FRS the youngest son of Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk, was a British chemist who has been described as the first chemical engineer of any eminence....
, chemist (born 17741774 in scienceThe year 1774 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Chemistry:* August 1 - Joseph Priestley, working at Bowood House, Wiltshire, England, isolates oxygen in the form of a gas, which he calls "dephlogisticated air"....
) - December 15 - Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl StanhopeCharles Stanhope, 3rd Earl StanhopeCharles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope aka Charles Mahon, 3rd Earl Stanhope FRS was a British statesman and scientist. He was the father of the great traveller and Arabist Lady Hester Stanhope and brother-in-law of William Pitt the Younger. He is sometimes confused with an exact contemporary of his,...
, engineer (born 17531753 in scienceThe year 1753 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* Ruđer Bošković's De lunae atmosphaera demonstrates the lack of atmosphere on the Moon.-Botany:...
)