1817 in science

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The year 1817 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

• Georges Cuvier publishes Le Règne Animal.

Chemistry

• Discovery of cadmium by Friedrich Strohmeyer.
• Discovery of lithium by Johann Arfvedson.
• Discovery of selenium by Jöns Jakob Berzelius.
• Pierre-Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou isolate chlorophyll.^[1]
• Leopold Gmelin begins publication of his Handbuch der theoretischen Chemie.^[2]

Medicine

• First cholera pandemic (1817–24) originates in Bengal, reaching Calcutta by September.^[3]
• James Parkinson publishes An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, describing "paralysis agitans", the condition which will become known as Parkinson's disease.

Technology

• March – Ackermann steering geometry invented by Georg Lankensperger.
• June 12 – German inventor Karl Drais drives his dandy horse ("Draisine" or Laufmaschine), the earliest form of bicycle, in Mannheim.
• July 10 – David Brewster patents the kaleidoscope.^[4]

Institutions

• October 1 – Philomaths established secretly by Poles at the Imperial University of Vilnius.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Henry Kater

Births

• January 29 – William Ferrel (died 1891), American meteorologist.
• February 15 – Robert Angus Smith (died 1884), Scottish-born atmospheric chemist.
• June 30 – Joseph Dalton Hooker (died 1911), English botanist.
• July 5 – Karl Vogt (died 1895), German scientist who publishes notable works in zoology, geology and physiology.
• July 15 – John Fowler (died 1898), English civil engineer.
• September 10 – Richard Spruce (died 1893), English botanist
• October 10 – C. H. D. Buys Ballot (died 1890), Dutch meteorologist.
• October 17 – Alfred Des Cloizeaux (died 1897), French mineralogist.
• November 26 – Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (died 1884), Alsatian French chemist.
• Sophia Wilkens (died 1899), Swedish pioneer in the education of students with intellectual disability.

Deaths

• January 1 – Martin Heinrich Klaproth (born 1743), German chemist.
• April 12 – Charles Messier (born 1730), French astronomer.
• May 12 – William Goforth (born 1766), American physician and paleontologist.
• June 2 – Clotilde Tambroni, Italian philologist and linguist (born 1758)
• June 11 – William Gregor (born 1761), Cornish mineralogist.
• July 28 – Abraham Gottlob Werner (born 1749), German geologist.
• August 7 – Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (born 1739), French-born American industrialist.
• September 18 – William Charles Wells (born 1757), American physician.
• November 7 – Jean-André Deluc (born 1727), Swiss geologist.
• December 15 – Abate Giovanni Battista Guglielmini (born 1763), Bolognese physicist.

References

1. Delépine, Marcel (September 1951). "Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Caventou". Journal of Chemical Education. 28 (9): 454. doi:10.1021/ed028p454. ISSN 0021-9584.
2. "Leopold Gmelin". Whonamedit?. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
3. Hays, J. N. (2005). Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-658-2.
4. British patent no. 4136. "Brewster Patent" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-05-31.