1891 in science

• March 3 – Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, predecessor of Shoshone National Forest, in Wyoming is established as the first United States National Forest.
• The New Zealand government sets aside Resolution Island in Fiordland as a nature reserve.{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Susanne|author2=John|year=1987|title=Richard Henry of Resolution Island|publisher=John McIndoe|location=Dunedin|isbn=0-86868-094-X}}
• The New York Botanical Garden is founded in The Bronx largely due to the efforts of Nathaniel Lord Britton.
• Jane Willis Kirkaldy and Catherine Pollard become the first women to sit final examinations in biology at the University of Oxford (and achieve first class honours).{{cite journal|title=The female firsts|url=https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=959|journal=Oxford Today|volume=22|issue=1|date=29 September 2009|access-date=2011-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927172840/https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=959|archive-date=2011-09-27}}

• Agnes Pockels first publishes the results of her researches into surface tension.{{cite journal|first=Agnes|last=Pockels|title=Surface tension|journal=Nature|volume=43|issue=1115|pages=437–439|year=1891|doi=10.1038/043437c0|bibcode=1891Natur..43R.437R|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429323}}{{cite journal|first1=C. H.|last1=Giles|first2=S. D.|last2=Forrester|title=The origins of the surface film balance: Studies in the early history of surface chemistry, part 3|journal=Chemistry & Industry|pages=43–53|date=9 January 1971}}
• The Fischer projection is devised by German chemist Hermann Emil Fischer,

• Hans Reusch describes what comes to be known as Reusch's Moraine in northern Norway; tillite from a Precambrian glaciation.{{cite book |last1=Hoffman |first1=Paul F.|author-link=Paul F. Hoffman|editor-last=Arnaud|editor-first=E. |editor-last2=Halverson|editor-first2=G.P.|editor-last3=Shields-Zhou|editor-first3=G. |date=2011 |title=The Geological Record of Neoproterozoic Glaciations |chapter=A history of Neoproterozoic glacial geology, 1871– 1997 |issue=36 |pages=17–37 |series=Geological Society, London, Memoirs|publisher=Geological Society of London}}

• The Japan Meteorological Agency begins taking records of the global average temperature.{{cite web |title=Annual Anomalies of Global Average Surface Temperature (1891 - 2013) |url=http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/gwp/temp/ann_wld.html |work=JMA |date=14 November 2014 |access-date=15 November 2014 }}

• Fyodorov–Schoenflies theorem concluded by Yevgraf Fyodorov and Arthur Schoenflies from their work on crystallographic groups.{{cite book|first=Marjorie|last=Senechal|author-link=Marjorie Senechal|editor-last=Lima-de-Faria|editor-first=J.|chapter=A brief history of geometrical crystallography|title=Historical Atlas of Crystallography|year=1990|pages=43–59|publisher=Kluwer|isbn=0-7923-0649-X}}{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8|page=153}}
• Édouard Lucas first formulates the ménage problem.

• October – Eugène Dubois finds the first fragmentary bones of Pithecanthropus erectus (later redesignated Homo erectus), or 'Java Man', at Trinil on the Solo River.{{cite book|first=Sean B.|last=Carroll|title=Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2009|isbn=978-1-84916-072-8|pages=90–91}}

• Julius Ludwig August Koch begins publication of [https://archive.org/details/diepsychopathis00kochgoog Die psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten] in Ravensburg, introducing the concept of psychopathology.{{cite journal|author-link=Jon Ronson|first=Jon|last=Ronson|title=How to spot a psychopath|journal=Guardian Weekend|date=2011-05-21|page=31}}
• Arnold Pick first uses the term dementia praecox in this form.{{cite journal|title=Ueber primäre chronische Demenz (so. Dementia praecox) im jugendlichen Alter|journal=Prager medicinische Wochenschrift|volume=16|pages=312–15|year=1891}}
• Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz names the neuron.{{cite journal|first=H. W. G.|last=von Waldeyer-Hartz|title=Ueber einige neuere Forschungen im Gebiete der Anatomie des Centralnervensystems|journal=Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift|location=Berlin|year=1891|volume=17|pages=1213–1356}}
• Myxedema is first treated successfully, by George Redmayne Murray using thyroid extract.
• The earliest recorded attempt at hip replacement is carried out by Themistocles Gluck in Berlin, using ivory to replace the femoral head.{{cite journal|last1=Gomez|first1=Pablo F.|last2=Morcuende|first2=Jose A.|title=Early attempts at hip arthroplasty, 1700s to 1950s|pmc=1888777 |journal=Iowa Orthopaedic Journal|volume=25|pages=25–9|year=2005|pmid=16089067}}
• Viennese pathologist Hans Chiari describes a form of Chiari malformation.

• March 10 – Almon B. Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, is granted a patent in the United States{{Cite patent|country=US|number=447918|pubdate=1891-03-10|title=Automatic telephone-exchange|inventor1-last=Strowger|inventor1-first=Almon B.}} for an automatic telephone exchange using the Strowger switch.{{cite journal|first=Roger B. |last=Hill |title=The Early Years of the Strowger System |url=http://www.privateline.com/Switching/EarlyYears.html |journal=Bell Laboratories Record |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=95–103 |access-date=2011-11-03 |date=March 1953 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025123622/http://www.privateline.com/Switching/EarlyYears.html |archive-date=2011-10-25 }}
• May 20 – First public demonstration of the Kinetograph moving picture system developed by W. K. L. Dickson under the direction of Thomas Alva Edison, a showing of the film known as Dickson Greeting. Edison files patents on the camera and peephole viewer on August 24.{{cite book|last=Mannoni|first=Laurent|author2=Campagnoni, Donata Pesenti|author3= Robinson, David|year=1996|title=Light and Movement: Incunabula of the Motion Picture, 1420–1896|location=London|publisher=BFI|isbn=88-86155-05-0}}
• Crompton & Co. introduce the electric kettle, in the United Kingdom.
• Michelin patent the removable pneumatic bicycle tire.{{cite book|first1=John|last1=Lloyd|author-link=John Lloyd (writer)|first2=John|last2=Mitchinson|title=The Second Book of General Ignorance|location=London|publisher=Faber|year=2010|isbn=978-0-571-26965-5|page=163}}
• Panhard et Levassor produce the first Système Panhard automobile layout, consisting of four wheels with front-engine, rear-wheel drive and a sliding-gear transmission, designed by Émile Levassor.{{cite book|editor=Georgano, G. N. |title=Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars|year=1982|publisher=Ebury Press|location=London|isbn=0-85223-234-9}}
• William Le Baron Jenney develops the construction of steel frame skyscrapers in Chicago with the Ludington, Manhattan and Second Leiter Buildings.
• The modern taximeter is invented by Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn in Germany.

• Copley Medal: Stanislao Cannizzaro{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=23 July 2020 |language=en}}
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: John Wesley Judd

• January 8 – Walther Bothe (died 1957), German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1954).
• January 26 – Wilder Penfield (died 1976), American-born neurosurgeon.
• April 22 – Harold Jeffreys (died 1989), English mathematician.
• May 15 – Fritz Feigl, (died 1971), Austrian-born Brazilian chemist
• July 5 – John Howard Northrop (suicide 1987), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1946)
• July 27 – Jacob van der Hoeden, Dutch-Israeli veterinary scientist (died 1968)
• August 17 – Aly Tewfik Shousha (died 1964), Egyptian bacteriologist.
• September 14 – Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov (died 1983), Russian mathematician.
• September 24 – W. F. Friedman (died 1969), Bessarabian-born cryptanalyst.
• October 24 – Ernest Melville DuPorte (died 1981), Caribbean-born Canadian insect morphologist.
• November 14 – Frederick Banting (died 1941), Canadian discoverer of insulin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1923).

• January 6 – Hugh Owen Thomas (born 1834), British orthopaedic surgeon.
• February 10 – Sofia Kovalevskaya (born 1850), Russian mathematician.
• March 9 – Amalie Dietrich (born 1821), German naturalist.
• May 11 – Edmond Becquerel (born 1820), French physicist.
• June 9 – Henry Edwards (born 1827), English-born American entomologist and actor.
• June 23
• Sir Norman Pogson (born 1829), English-born astronomer.
• Wilhelm Eduard Weber (born 1804), German physicist.
• August 30 – Emanoil Bacaloglu (born 1830), Romanian polymath.
• September 18 – William Ferrel (born 1817), American meteorologist.
• October 3 – Édouard Lucas (born 1842), French mathematician.
• November 18 – Joseph Wolstenholme (born 1829), English mathematician.
• December 21 – William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire (born 1808), English landowner and promoter of science.

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Category:19th century in science

Category:1890s in science