1845 in science

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The year 1845 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Events

• January 14 – Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin established and begins publishing Fortschritte der Physik and Verhandlungen.
• August 28 – The journal Scientific American begins publication.
• Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos: Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung begins publication.

Astronomy

• April – Lord Rosse discovers that the nebula M51 has a spiral structure.
• September–October – Cornish mathematician John Couch Adams communicates to James Challis and George Biddell Airy his calculations demonstrating that a body (Neptune) is perturbing the orbit of Uranus.^[1]
• November 10 – Urbain Le Verrier presents to the Académie des sciences in Paris a memoir showing that existing theories fail to account for the motion of Uranus.^[2]
• Construction begins in Ireland of the "Leviathan of Parsonstown", a telescope built by Lord Rosse.

Biology

• August–September – Previously unknown Potato blight strikes the potato crop in Ireland: start of the Irish Potato Famine.^[3][4]

Chemistry

• March 17 – Stephen Perry patents the rubber band in England.^[5]
• Edmond Frémy discovers the oxidizing agent Frémy's salt.

Exploration

• August – John Franklin's expedition with HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to find the Northwest Passage is last seen entering Baffin Bay prior to its mysterious disappearance.^[6]

Medicine

• December 27 – Anesthesia is used in childbirth for the first time, by Dr Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.

Physics

• September 13 – Michael Faraday discovers that an intense magnetic field can rotate the plane of polarized light.
• C. H. D. Buys Ballot confirms the Doppler effect for sound waves.^[7]

Transport

• July 26–August 10 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s iron steamship Great Britain makes the Transatlantic Crossing from Liverpool to New York, the first screw propelled vessel to make the passage.^[8][9]

Awards

• Copley Medal: Theodor Schwann
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: John Phillips

Births

• March 1 – Vasily Dokuchaev (died 1902), Russian geologist.
• March 3 – Georg Cantor (died 1918), Russian-born German mathematician.
• March 27 – Wilhelm Röntgen (died 1923), German physicist, discoverer of X-rays, Nobel laureate.
• April 21 – William Healey Dall (died 1927), American malacologist and explorer.
• May 4 – William Kingdon Clifford (died 1879), English geometer.
• May 16 – Élie Metchnikoff (died 1916), Russian-born microbiologist, Nobel laureate.
• June 16 – Heinrich Dressel (died 1920), German archaeologist.
• July 4 – Thomas Barnardo (died 1905), Irish-born physician and philanthropist.
• September 11 – Émile Baudot (died 1903), telegraph engineer.
• November 14 – Ulisse Dini (died 1918), Italian mathematician.

Deaths

• January 11 – Etheldred Benett (born 1776), British geologist.
• March 13 – John Frederic Daniell (born 1790), English chemist and physicist.
• March 18 – 'Johnny Appleseed' (John Chapman) (born 1774), American nurseryman.^[10]
• April 10 – Thomas Sewall (born 1786), American anatomist.
• October 18 – Dominique, comte de Cassini (born 1748), French astronomer.
• Jean Henri Jaume Saint-Hilaire (born 1772), French botanist.

References

1. Sheehan, William; Kollerstrom, Nicholas; Waff, Craig B. (2004-11-22). "The Case of the Pilfered Planet - Did the British steal Neptune?". Scientific American.
2.  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Adams, John Couch". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
3. "BBC Short History of Ireland".
4. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 267–268. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
5. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
6. The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. p. 549. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
7. Buys Ballot, C. H. D. (1845). "Akustische Versuche auf der Niederländischen Eisenbahn, nebst gelegentlichen Bemerkungen zur Theorie des Hrn. Prof. Doppler". Annalen der Physik und Chemie (in German). 11: 321–351.
8. Fox, Stephen (2003). Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019595-3.
9. "Great Britain". The Ships List. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
10. "Obituaries". The Fort Wayne Sentinel. 67 (81). 22 March 1845.