Login
Login

1804 in science

{{Short description|none}}

{{Year nav topic5|1804|science}}

{{Science year nav|1804}}

The year 1804 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space science

Botany

Chemistry

  • June 21 – Smithson Tennant announces the discovery of the elements iridium and osmium; three days later, William Hyde Wollaston reveals to the Royal Society that he is the formerly anonymous discoverer of palladium.{{cite journal|title=The Eighth Group of the Periodic System and Some of its Problems|first=James Lewis|last=Howe|journal=The Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science|date=1900-07-20|page=31}}
  • German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner first isolates morphine from opium,Serturner, F. W. A. (1806) J. Pharm. f. Arzte. Apoth. Chem. 14 47–93.{{cite web|first=Klaus|last=Meyer|year=2004 |title=Dem Morphin auf der Spur|language=German|url=http://www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de/index.php?id=26551|accessdate=2012-06-12|work=Pharmazeutischen Zeitung|publisher=GOVI-Verlag}} probably the first ever isolation of a natural plant alkaloid.

Exploration

Geology

Medicine

  • October 13 – In Japan, Hanaoka Seishū (華岡 青洲) performs a partial mastectomy for breast cancer on a 60-year-old woman named Kan Aiya, using tsūsensan as a general anesthetic, generally regarded as the first reliably documented operation performed under general anesthesia.{{cite journal|last=Izuo|first=M.|title=Medical history: Seishū Hanaoka and his success in breast cancer surgery under general anesthesia two hundred years ago|journal=Breast Cancer|volume=11|issue=4|pages=319–24|year=2004|doi=10.1007/BF02968037|pmid=15604985|s2cid=43428862}}{{cite book|title=The Pain Clinic IV: proceedings of the fourth international symposium|chapter=Doctor S. Hanaoka, the world's-first success in providing general anesthesia|pages=3–12|author=Hyodo, M.|editor1=Hyodo, M. |editor2=Oyama, T. |editor3=Swerdlow, M. |publisher=VSP|location=Utrecht|year=1992|isbn=90-6764-147-2|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ljBTn8HBBjcC&q=%22Doctor%20S.%20Hanaoka%2C%20the%20World's-First%20Success%20in%20Providing%20General%20Anesthesia%22&pg=PA3|accessdate=2010-09-13}}{{cite book|title=Giving up the gun: Japan's reversion to the sword, 1543-1879|last=Perrin|first=Noel|authorlink=Noel Perrin|publisher=David R. Godine|location=Boston|year=1979|page=[https://archive.org/details/givingupgun00noel/page/86 86]|isbn=0-87923-773-2|url=https://archive.org/details/givingupgun00noel|url-access=registration|quote=Giving up the gun Noel Perrin.|accessdate=2010-09-13}}{{cite journal|author=Matsuki, A.|title=New studies on the history of anesthesiology – a new study on Seishū Hanaoka's "Nyugan chiken roku" (a surgical experience with breast cancer)|journal=Masui: The Japanese Journal of Anesthesiology|volume=49|issue=9|pages=1038–43|year=2000|issn=0021-4892|pmid=11025965|url=http://www.biomedsearch.com/nih/New-studies-history-anesthesiology-new/11025965.html|accessdate=2010-09-13|archive-date=2016-04-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423215313/http://www.biomedsearch.com/nih/New-studies-history-anesthesiology-new/11025965.html|url-status=dead}}
  • Publication of The Anatomy of the Human Body, vol. 3, Nervous System by Charles Bell.{{cite ODNB|first=L. S.|last=Jacyna|title=Bell, Sir Charles (1774–1842)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1999|accessdate=2011-04-06|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/1999}}
  • English physician Joseph Mason Cox publishes Practical Observations on Insanity; in which some suggestions are offered towards and improved mode of treating diseases of the mind, and some rules proposed which it is hoped may lead to a more humane and successful method of cure.{{cite book|first=Joseph Mason|last=Cox|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/w7gdnmef|title=Practical Observations on Insanity|edition=2nd|year=1806|location=London|publisher=Baldwin|via=Wellcome Collection|accessdate=2023-07-30}}.
  • Antonio Scarpa publishes Riflessioni ed Osservazione anatomico-chirugiche sull' Aneurisma, a classic text on aneurysms.{{cite journal|first=Benjamin Ward|last=Richardson|title=Antonio Scarpa, F.R.S., and Surgical Anatomy|journal=The Asclepiad|year=1886|volume=4|issue=16|pages=128–157|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-xVCQGjm3ZEC|accessdate=2008-06-10|publisher=Longmans, Green and Co.|location=London}}

Meteorology

Paleontology

  • James Parkinson publishes the first volume of Organic Remains of a Former World, supporting belief in catastrophism.{{cite ODNB|first=Michael|last=Bevan|title=Parkinson, James (1755–1824)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21371|accessdate=2010-04-11|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/21371}}

Technology

  • February 21 – The Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly built "Penydarren" steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad between Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.{{cite book|last=Rattenbury|first=Gordon|author2=Lewis, M. J. T.|title=Merthyr Tydfil Tramroads and their Locomotives|year=2004|publisher=Railway and Canal Historical Society|location=Oxford|isbn=0-901461-52-0}}
  • The first Burr Truss bridge is built by Theodore Burr across the Hudson River in Waterford, New York.{{cite web|title=The Burr Truss |work=Truss Styles of Covered Bridges |publisher=New York State Covered Bridge Society |url=http://www.nycoveredbridges.org/page44.html |accessdate=2011-12-13 |date=January 2006 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908112144/http://www.nycoveredbridges.org/page44.html |archivedate=2006-09-08 }}
  • Joseph Marie Jacquard patents the Jacquard machine to automate the loom.{{Cite web|title=Programming patterns: the story of the Jacquard loom|url=https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/jacquard-loom|date=2019-06-15|access-date=2024-11-01|publisher=Science + Industry Museum}}
  • William Congreve begins development of the solid-fuel Congreve rocket as an artillery weapon.
  • The British Army first uses shrapnel shells ("spherical case shot"), invented by Major Henry Shrapnel, in action, against the Dutch in Suriname.{{cite book|last=Hogg|first=O. F. G.|year=1970|title=Artillery: its origin, heyday and decline|location=London|publisher=Hurst|isbn=0-900966-43-2|page=180}}

Awards

  • Copley Medal: Smithson Tennant{{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}}

Births

Deaths

References

{{reflist}}

Category:19th century in science

Category:1800s in science