1812 in science

• Humphry Davy publishes [https://archive.org/details/elementschemica00davygoog/page/n17 Elements of Chemical Philosophy] in London.
• John Davy first describes the synthesis of phosgene.{{cite journal|title=On a gaseous Compound of carbonic Oxide and Chlorine|first=John|last=Davy|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|location=London|volume=102|date=6 February 1812|pages=144–151|doi=10.1098/rstl.1812.0008|jstor=107310|doi-access=free}}
• Friedrich Mohs introduces his system of classifying minerals and his scale of mineral hardness.
• Heinrich Vogel (1778–1867) recognizes that glucose is a product of hydrolyzing lactose.Vogel (1812). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433062722768;view=1up;seq=492 "Sur le sucre liquide d'amidon, et sur la transmutation des matières douces en sucre fermentescible"] (On the liquid sugar of starch, and on the transformation of sweet materials into fermentable sugars). Annales de chemie et de physique series 1 82: 148–164, especially pp. 156–158; [https://books.google.com/books?id=yKuZAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA125 "Ueber die Verwandlung der Stärke und andrer Körper in Zucker"] (On the conversion of starches and other substances into sugar). Annalen der Physik new series 42:123–134, especially pp. 129–131.

• February 7 – The last New Madrid earthquake strikes New Madrid, Missouri, with an estimated moment magnitude of over 8.
• March 26 – An earthquake destroys Caracas, Venezuela.

• February 11 – Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry invents gerrymandering.
• February 12 – Napoleon authorises the usage of Mesures usuelles, the basis of the Metric System.
• Pierre-Simon Laplace publishes Théorie analytique des probabilités in which he lays down many fundamental results in statistics.

• January – The New England Journal of Medicine is founded in Boston, by Dr John Collins Warren as the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the Collateral Branches of Medical Science.{{cite journal|author =Campion, E.|title=The Journal from 1812 to 1989|journal=The New England Journal of Medicine|year=2010|volume=363|issue=12|pages=1175–1176|doi=10.1056/nejme1009367|display-authors=etal|pmid=20843253|doi-access=free}}
• January 21 – John Parkinson and his father James first describe appendicitis and resultant peritonitis in English.{{cite journal|author=Parkinson, J. |title=Case of diseased appendix vermiformis|journal=Medico-Chirurgical Transactions|year=1812|volume=3|pages=57–58|doi=10.1177/095952871200300105|pmid=20895178|pmc=2128895}}
• Benjamin Rush publishes Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind in Philadelphia, the first textbook on psychiatry issued in the United States.{{The Timetables of Science|pages=261}}
• James Barry qualifies as a medical doctor at the University of Edinburgh; born Margaret Ann Bulkley, this makes her the first British woman with such a qualification.{{cite journal|url=http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj/article/viewFile/130/425 |title=Dr James Barry: The early years revealed |accessdate=2008-04-03 |first=Hercules Michael |last=du Preez |date=2008-01-14 |journal=South African Medical Journal |volume=98 |issue=4 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220134024/http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj/article/viewFile/130/425 |archivedate=2012-02-20 |url-status=live }}
• Cholera in Jessore, India.
• Coffee is banned in Sweden.

• Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring publishes his description of Pterodactylus which he names Ornithocephalus antiquus.{{cite journal|last=von Sömmerring|first=S. T.|year=1812|title=Über einen Ornithocephalus oder über das unbekannten Thier der Vorwelt, dessen Fossiles Gerippe Collini im 5. Bande der Actorum Academiae Theodoro-Palatinae nebst einer Abbildung in natürlicher Grösse im Jahre 1784 beschrieb, und welches Gerippe sich gegenwärtig in der Naturalien-Sammlung der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München befindet|journal=Denkschriften der Königlichen Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-physikalische Classe|location=München|volume=3|pages=89–158}}
• Georges Cuvier publishes Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupèdes in Paris.

• February 27 – British poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
• March 15 – Luddites attack the wool factory of Frank Vickerman in West Yorkshire, England.
• May 25 – Felling mine disaster: Coal mine explosion at Felling colliery near Jarrow, England – 96 dead. In the aftermath, physician William Reid Clanny invents a miners' safety lamp.{{cite DNB|last=Bettany|first=George Thomas|wstitle=Clanny, William Reid}}{{Cite journal|last=Clanny|first=William Reid|title=An account of the trial of Dr Reid Clanny's lamp in some Newcastle coal mines|journal=Annals of Philosophy|volume=VII|year=1816|pages=368–373|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15907865}}
• August – Henry Bell's {{PS|Comet}} begins a passenger service on the River Clyde in Scotland, the first commercially successful steamboat service in Europe.{{cite book|title=Clyde Pleasure Steamers|first=Ian|last=McCrorie|publisher=Orr, Pollock & Co. Ltd|location=Greenock|isbn=1-869850-00-9|year=1986}}
• August 12 – The Middleton Railway, serving coal pits at Leeds in England, becomes the first to use steam locomotives successfully in regular service. The first locomotive, Salamanca, is also the first to use two cylinders and has a rack railway mechanism devised by John Blenkinsop and built by Matthew Murray.{{cite book|author =Bushell, J.|title=The World's Oldest Railway: a history of the Middleton Railway|year=1975|publisher=Turntable Publications|location=Sheffield|isbn=0-902844-27-X}}
• August 19 – War of 1812: {{USS|Constitution}} defeats the British frigate Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia. British shot is said to have bounced off Constitution's sides, earning her the nickname "Old Ironsides".
• Philippe Girard invents a flax-spinning machine.{{cite book|chapter=1812|first=Bernard|last=Grun|title=The Timetables of History|edition=3rd|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1991|isbn=0-671-74919-6|page=381|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/timetablesofhist1991grun}}
• The Old Oscar Pepper Distillery (the modern-day Labrot & Graham Distillery), the oldest Kentucky Bourbon whiskey distillery, is established along Glenn's Creek in Woodford County, Kentucky.

• Copley Medal: Not awarded{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |accessdate=21 July 2020 }}
• Humphry Davy receives a knighthood

• March 12 – Joseph Prestwich, English geologist (died 1896)
• March 20 – Charles Vincent Walker, English telegraph engineer (died 1882)
• March 24 – Robert Gordon Latham, English ethnologist and philologist (died 1888)
• May 10 – William Henry Barlow, English railway civil engineer (died 1902)
• June 9 – Johann Gottfried Galle, German astronomer (died 1910)
• September 12 – Richard March Hoe, American inventor (died 1886)
• October 27 – Abraham Dee Bartlett, English zoologist (died 1897)

• February 24 – Étienne-Louis Malus, French physicist (born 1775)
• April 7 – Robert Willan, English dermatologist (born 1757)
• May 9 – Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt, French naturalist (born 1751)
• June 22 – Richard Kirwan, Irish scientist (born 1733)
• July 10 – Carl Ludwig Willdenow, German botanist (born 1765)

{{reflist}}

Category:19th century in science

Category:1810s in science