1800 in science

• January 13 – Royal Institution of Great Britain granted a royal charter.{{cite book|chapter=1800|title=The People's Chronology|editor=Everett, Jason M.|publisher=Thomson Gale|year=2006|url=http://www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology|accessdate=2007-06-01|archive-date=2007-08-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822205439/http://www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/|url-status=dead}}

• The central star of the Ring Nebula is discovered by Friedrich von Hahn: the central star is a white dwarf star with a temperature of between 100,000 and 120,000 K.

• Beryllium is discovered by Johann Bartholomäus Trommsdorff in beryl from Saxony, a new earth; he calls it Agusterde ("August Earth").
• Fulminates are discovered by Edward Howard.{{cite journal|title=On a New Fulminating Mercury|first=Edward|last=Howard|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|year=1800|volume=90|issue=1|pages=204–238|doi=10.1098/rstl.1800.0012|doi-access=}}{{cite journal|title=The Life and Work of Edward Charles Howard|first=F.|last=Kurzer|journal=Annals of Science|year=1999|volume=56|pages=113–141|doi=10.1080/000337999296445}}{{cite web|title=Edward Charles Howard (1774-1816), Scientist and sugar refiner|publisher=National Portrait Gallery, London|date=2005-01-05|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp02292|accessdate=2006-08-30|archive-date=2006-09-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925001812/http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp02292|url-status=dead}}
• Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, begins publication in Paris of the comprehensive chemistry textbook Système des connaissances chimiques et de leurs applications aux phénomènes de la nature et de l'art.

• October – Volcanic eruption of Mount Guntur in West Java.

• The Antipodes Islands, at this time the home of large herds of fur seals, are discovered by the crew of the British ship HMS Reliance.
• Jacques Labillardière publishes Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse in Paris.

• March 22 – Company of Surgeons granted a royal charter to become the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
• September – Philippe Pinel publishes Traité médico-philosophique sur l'aliénation mentale ou la manie (Medical and philosophical Treatise on insanity or mania) which marks the beginning of an in-depth change in the approaches and methods of work with "lunatics".{{cite book |last=Pinel |first=Philippe |title=Traité médico-philosophique sur l'aliénation mentale|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJdTGDYyqSoC&pg=PA333|year=1809|publisher=Chez J. Ant. Brosson}}
• Xavier Bichat publishes Traité sur les membranes and Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort, pioneering texts in histology and pathology.{{cite journal|last=Elaut|first=L.|title=The theory of membranes of F. X. Bichat and his predecessors|journal=Sudhoffs Archiv|volume=53|issue=1|pages=68–76|location=West Germany|issn=0039-4564|pmid=4241888|date=July 1969}}
• Andrea Vaccà Berlinghieri publishes Traité des maladies vénériennes (Treatise on venereal diseases).{{cite book|author1=Andrea Vacca Berlinghieri|author2=Pierre Philippe Alyon|title=Traité des maladies vénériennes|url=https://archive.org/details/b22281575|year=1800|publisher=Moutardier}}
• Georges Cuvier begins publishing his Leçons d'anatomie comparée (5 volumes, 1800-1805).[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/6850 Georges Cuvier, Leçons d'anatomie comparée]

• Cuvier publishes a brief description of the pterodactyl.{{Cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2004.02.002|last1=Taquet|first1=P.|last2=Padian|first2=K.|year=2004|title=The earliest known restoration of a pterosaur and the philosophical origins of Cuvier's Ossemens Fossiles|journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol|volume=3|issue=2|pages=157–175}}

• Alessandro Volta devises the first chemical battery, thereby founding the discipline of electrochemistry.{{cite web |title=Inventor Alessandro Volta Biography |work=The Great Idea Finder |publisher=The Great Idea Finder |year=2005 |url=http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/volta.htm |accessdate=2007-02-23}}
• Infrared rays are discovered by William Herschel, an English astronomer of German origin.

• Yeast is discovered as a new way to make beer ferment (beer made before 1800 was lambic).
• Robert Fulton builds a practical experimental manually-propelled naval submarine Nautilus in France (first test dive July 29 at Rouen).
• Henry Maudslay develops the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe, allowing standardisation of screw thread sizes for the first time, in London.{{cite book|authorlink=L. T. C. Rolt|first=L. T. C.|last=Rolt|title=Great Engineers|year=1962|location=London|publisher=Bell}}{{cite book|authorlink=James Burke (science historian)|first=James|last=Burke|title=Connections|url=https://archive.org/details/connections00burk_351|url-access=limited|location=London|publisher=Macmillan|year=1978|pages=[https://archive.org/details/connections00burk_351/page/n150 145]–6|isbn=0-333-24827-9}}
• The first design for a cast iron twin leaf swing bridge is produced by Ralph Walker for London Docks.{{cite web|first=Mike|last=Clarke|title=A Brief History of Movable Bridges|url=http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/Movable%20Bridges.html|date=2009-01-05|accessdate=2012-02-09}}

• November 4 – Major-General Thomas Davies first describes the superb lyrebird.{{cite book|last=Davies|first=Thomas|chapter=Description of Menura superba, a Bird of New South Wales|title=Transactions of the Linnean Society of London|publication-date=1802|date=1800-11-04|pages=207–10|volume=6}}{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Lyre-Bird}}

• Copley Medal: Edward Charles Howard{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=21 July 2020 |language=en}}

• January 14 – Ludwig von Köchel, Austrian musicologist and botanist (died 1877)
• February 11 – H. Fox Talbot, English pioneer of photography (died 1877)
• February 12 – John Edward Gray, English taxonomist (died 1875)
• February 23 – William Jardine, Scottish naturalist (died 1874)
• February 27 – Robert Willis, English mechanical engineer, phonetician and architectural historian (died 1875)
• March 3 – Heinrich Georg Bronn, German geologist, paleontologist (died 1862)
• March 14 – James Bogardus, American inventor (died 1874)
• April 15 – James Clark Ross, English explorer of the Polar regions (died 1862)
• May 25 – Leonard Jenyns, English natural historian (died 1893)
• July 31 – Friedrich Woehler, German chemist (died 1882)
• August 26 – Félix Archimède Pouchet, French natural scientist (died 1872)
• August 20 – Bernhard Heine, German physician, bone specialist and inventor (died 1846)
• September 22 – George Bentham, English botanist (died 1884)
• October 23 – Henri Milne-Edwards, French zoologist (died 1885)
• December 25 – John Phillips, English geologist (died 1874)
• December 29 – Charles Goodyear, American inventor of the vulcanization process (died 1860)
• Anna Volkova, Russian chemist (died 1876)

• January 1 – Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, French naturalist (born 1716)
• January 16 – Johann Christian Wiegleb, German chemist (born 1732)
• March 14 – Daines Barrington, English naturalist (born 1727)
• March 29 – Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French military engineer (born 1714)
• May 23 – Henry Cort, English ironmaster (born 1740)
• June 20 – Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician (born 1719)
• July 14 – Lorenzo Mascheroni, Italian mathematician (born 1750)
• September 10 – Johann David Schoepff, German naturalist and physician (born 1752)
• October 4 – Johann Hermann, German physician, naturalist (born 1738)
• November 5 – Jesse Ramsden, English scientific instrument maker (born 1735)
• December – Jean-Baptiste Audebert, French natural history painter (born 1752)
• December 30 – Thomas Dimsdale, English physician, banker and politician, pioneer of variolation (born 1712)

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Category:18th century in science

Category:1800s in science