1840 in science

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{{Science year nav|1840}}

The year 1840 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Events

  • William Whewell publishes The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, introducing the terms scientist (for the second time) and physicist.{{cite book|first=William|last=Whewell|chapter=Introduction|title=The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon their history|location=London|publisher=J. W. Parker|year=1840|volume=1|pages=113, 71}}{{cite web|title=scientist, n.|work=Oxford English Dictionary online version|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/172698|accessdate=2011-12-02|date=September 2011}} {{OEDsub}}{{cite web|title=physicist, n.|work=Oxford English Dictionary online version|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/143131?redirectedFrom=Physicist#eid|accessdate=2011-12-02|date=September 2011}}
  • Justus von Liebig publishes Die Organische Chemie in ihre Anwendung auf Agricultur und Physiologie in Braunschweig, emphasising the importance of agricultural chemistry in crop production; it will go through at least eight editions.{{cite journal|title=Justus Liebig's Contribution to Agricultural Chemistry|first=George W.|last=Black|journal=Journal of Chemical Education|year=1978|volume=55|issue=1|page=33|doi=10.1021/ed055p33.1|bibcode=1978JChEd..55...33B}}
  • The first known photograph of Niagara Falls, a daguerreotype, is taken by English chemist Hugh Lee Pattinson.

Astronomy

Biology

Chemistry

  • Germain Hess proposes Hess's law, an early statement of the law of conservation of energy, which establishes that energy changes in a chemical process depend only on the states of the starting and product materials and not on the specific pathway taken between the two states.{{cite web|title=Hess, Germain Henri |url=http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/H/Hess/1.html |accessdate=2007-03-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070209062053/http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/H/Hess/1.html |archivedate=2007-02-09 }}
  • George Richards Elkington patents the electroplating process invented by surgeon John Wright of Birmingham in England.

Earth sciences

  • Louis Agassiz publishes his Etudes sur les glaciers, the first major scientific work to propose that the Earth has seen an ice age.
  • Roderick Murchison identifies Devonian stratigraphy in Russia, ending the Great Devonian Controversy.{{cite book|authorlink=Martin J. S. Rudwick|last=Rudwick|first=Martin J. S.|title=The Great Devonian Controversy: The Shaping of Scientific Knowledge among Gentlemanly Specialists|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1985}}

Exploration

  • January 19 – Captain Charles Wilkes' United States Exploring Expedition sights Wilkes Land, providing evidence that Antarctica is a complete continent.{{cite web|url=http://www.quarkexpeditions.com/antarctica/exploration.shtml|title=Antarctic Exploration — Chronology|accessdate=2006-10-20|publisher=Quark Expeditions|year=2004|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908120017/http://www.quarkexpeditions.com/antarctica/exploration.shtml|archivedate=2006-09-08}}
  • January 21 – Adélie Land first visited by Jules Dumont d'Urville in the French ship Astrolabe.{{cite book|last=Guillon|first=Jacques|title=Dumont d'Urville|publisher=France-Empire|year=1986|location=Paris|isbn=978-2-7048-0472-6}}
  • The Nemesis (1839) becomes the first iron ship to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, aided by techniques to adjust the compass for the effect of an iron hull developed the year before by George Biddell Airy, the Astronomer Royal.{{cite book|last=Headrick|first=Daniel R.|year=1981|title=The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-502832-4}}

History of science

Medicine

Metrology

Physics

  • Carl Friedrich Gauss publishes his Dioptrische Untersuchungen,{{cite book|title=Gauss: a biographical study|url=https://archive.org/details/gaussbiographica0000bhle|url-access=registration|first=Walter Kaufmann|last=Bühler|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=1987|isbn=978-0-387-10662-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gaussbiographica0000bhle/page/144 144]–145}} in which he gives the first systematic analysis of the formation of images under a paraxial approximation (Gaussian optics).{{cite book|title=Optics|first=Eugene|last=Hecht|publisher=Addison Wesley|year=1987|isbn=978-0-201-11609-0|page=134}}

Technology

Awards

Births

Deaths

References