1890 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1890 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.
Biology
- Francis GaltonFrancis GaltonSir Francis Galton /ˈfrɑːnsɪs ˈgɔːltn̩/ FRS , cousin of Douglas Strutt Galton, half-cousin of Charles Darwin, was an English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician...
announces a statistical demonstration of the uniqueness and classifiability of individual human fingerprintFingerprintA fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s. - Jacques LoebJacques LoebJacques Loeb was a German-born American physiologist and biologist.-Biography:...
publishes his first major work on tropismTropismA tropism is a biological phenomenon, indicating growth or turning movement of a biological organism, usually a plant, in response to an environmental stimulus. In tropisms, this response is dependent on the direction of the stimulus...
, Der Heliotropismus der Thiere und seine Uebereinstimmung mit dem Heliotropismus der Pflanzen. - Henry Luke BolleyHenry Luke BolleyHenry Luke Bolley was an American botanist and plant pathologist known for his work that led to the control or eradication of several major crop diseases. He was also a pioneering college football player and coach....
at the new North Dakota Agricultural CollegeNorth Dakota State UniversityNorth Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, more commonly known as North Dakota State University , is a public university in Fargo, North Dakota. NDSU has about 14,000 students and it is the largest university in North Dakota based on full time students and land size...
isolates the organism responsible for potato scab and develops an effective treatment.
Chemistry
- Nikolai MenshutkinNikolai MenshutkinNikolai Aleksandrovich Menshutkin was a Russian chemist who discovered the process of converting a tertiary amine to a quaternary ammonium salt via the reaction with an alkyl halide, now known as the Menshutkin reaction.-Biography:...
discovers that a tertiary amine can be converted into a quaternary ammonium salt by reaction with an alkyl halide – the Menshutkin reactionMenshutkin reactionThe Menshutkin reaction in organic chemistry converts a tertiary amine to a quaternary ammonium salt by reaction with an alkyl halide:The reaction has been named after its discoverer, the Russian chemist Nikolai Menshutkin, who described the procedure in 1890...
.
Mathematics
- P. J. HeawoodPercy John HeawoodPercy John Heawood was a British mathematician educated at Queen Elizabeth's School, Ipswich, and Exeter College, Oxford....
proves the five colour theorem. - Giuseppe PeanoGiuseppe PeanoGiuseppe Peano was an Italian mathematician, whose work was of philosophical value. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation. The standard axiomatization of the natural numbers is named the Peano axioms in...
is the first to demonstrate a space-filling curveSpace-filling curveIn mathematical analysis, a space-filling curve is a curve whose range contains the entire 2-dimensional unit square...
.
Medicine
- Discovery by Emil von Behring and Kitasato ShibasaburōKitasato ShibasaburōBaron was a Japanese physician and bacteriologist. He is remembered as the co-discoverer of the infectious agent of bubonic plague in Hong Kong in 1894, almost simultaneously with Alexandre Yersin.-Biography:...
that an anti-toxin for immunizing people against diphtheriaDiphtheriaDiphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
can be prepared by injecting diphtheria toxin into animals. - Santiago Ramón y CajalSantiago Ramón y CajalSantiago Ramón y Cajal ForMemRS was a Spanish pathologist, histologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel laureate. His pioneering investigations of the microscopic structure of the brain were original: he is considered by many to be the father of modern neuroscience...
publishes the first edition of Manual de Anatomia Pathologica General. - Robert KochRobert KochHeinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Tuberculosis bacillus and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....
publishes his postulatesKoch's postulatesKoch's postulates are four criteria designed to establish a causal relationship between a causative microbe and a disease. The postulates were formulated by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler in 1884 and refined and published by Koch in 1890...
on the causal relationship between microbes and diseaseDiseaseA disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
s. - William JamesWilliam JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
publishes Principles of PsychologyPrinciples of PsychologyThe Principles of Psychology is a monumental text in the history of psychology, written by William James and published in 1890.There were four methods in James' psychology: analysis , introspection , experiment The Principles of Psychology is a monumental text in the history of psychology, written...
.
Technology
- May - Herbert Akroyd StuartHerbert Akroyd StuartHerbert Akroyd-Stuart was an English inventor who is noted for his invention of the hot bulb engine, or heavy oil engine.-Life:...
, in collaboration with Charles Richard Binney and Richard Hornsby & SonsRichard Hornsby & SonsRichard Hornsby & Sons was an engine and machinery manufacturer in Lincolnshire, England from 1828 until 1918. The company was a pioneer in the manufacture of the oil engine developed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart and marketed under the Hornsby-Akroyd name. The company developed an early track system...
, files a BritishUnited 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...
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....
for Improvements in Engines Operated by the Explosion of Mixtures of Combustible Vapour or Gas and Air, the first successful design of hot bulb engineHot bulb engineThe hot bulb engine, or hotbulb or heavy oil engine is a type of internal combustion engine. It is an engine in which fuel is ignited by being brought into contact with a red-hot metal surface inside a bulb....
, which will be produced as the heavy-oil Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine.
Awards
- Copley MedalCopley MedalThe Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society of London for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science, and alternates between the physical sciences and the biological sciences"...
: Simon NewcombSimon NewcombSimon Newcomb was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. Though he had little conventional schooling, he made important contributions to timekeeping as well as writing on economics and statistics and authoring a science fiction novel.-Early life:Simon Newcomb was born in the town of... - Wollaston MedalWollaston MedalThe Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...
for Geology: William Crawford WilliamsonWilliam Crawford WilliamsonWilliam Crawford Williamson was an English naturalist and palaeobotanist.-Life:Williamson was born at Scarborough, North Yorkshire. His father, John Williamson, after beginning life as a gardener, became a well-known local naturalist, who, in conjunction with William Bean, first explored the rich...
Births
- December 20 - Jaroslav HeyrovskýJaroslav HeyrovskýJaroslav Heyrovský was a Czech chemist and inventor. Heyrovský was the inventor of the polarographic method, father of the electroanalytical method, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1959...
(d. 19671967 in scienceThe year 1967 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:*January 27 - Apollo 1 destroyed in a fire on the launch pad.*January 27 - The USA, Soviet Union and UK sign the Outer Space Treaty....
), chemistChemistA chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms... - December 21 - Hermann Joseph MullerHermann Joseph MullerHermann Joseph Muller was an American geneticist, educator, and Nobel laureate best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects of radiation as well as his outspoken political beliefs...
(d. 19671967 in scienceThe year 1967 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:*January 27 - Apollo 1 destroyed in a fire on the launch pad.*January 27 - The USA, Soviet Union and UK sign the Outer Space Treaty....
), geneticistGeneticistA geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
.
Deaths
- February 3 - Christoph Heinrich Buys-Ballot (b. 18171817 in scienceThe year 1817 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Discovery of cadmium by Friedrich Strohmeyer.* Discovery of lithium by Johann Arfvedson.* Discovery of selenium by Jöns Jakob Berzelius....
), meteorologist. - August 30 - Marianne NorthMarianne NorthMarianne North was an English naturalist and botanical artist-Life with her parents:Marianne North was born at Hastings, the eldest daughter of a prosperous land-owning family descended from the Hon. Roger North, younger son of Dudley North, 4th Baron North...
(b. 18301830 in scienceThe year 1830 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* March 16 - Great Comet of 1830 first observed in Mauritius....
), 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...
botanist. - December 26 - Heinrich SchliemannHeinrich SchliemannHeinrich Schliemann was a German businessman and amateur archaeologist, and an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of Homer. Schliemann was an archaeological excavator of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns...
(b. 18221822 in scienceThe year 1822 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Geology:* Friedrich Mohs introduces his system of classifying minerals and his scale of mineral hardness....
), GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
archaeologist.