1856 in science

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The year 1856 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Archaeology

• First remains of Neanderthal Man found in the Neandertal Valley of Germany.

Astronomy

• N. R. Pogson proposes that the ratio used in Hipparchus' stellar apparent magnitude system should be adopted as a standard.
• NGC 6539 is discovered by Theodor Brorsen.

Biology

• Paul Du Chaillu becomes the first European to observe gorillas in the wild.^[1]
• Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.
• Lev Tsenkovsky introduces the concept that the lower algae and other infusoria are unicellular organisms.^[2]

Chemistry

• March – William Perkin first discovers an aniline dye, mauveine.^[3]
• Alexander Parkes patents the first thermoplastic, Parkesine.^[4]
• Charles-Adolphe Wurtz discovers the glycols.

Exploration

• May 20 – Dr David Livingstone arrives at Quelimane on the Indian Ocean having completed a 2-year transcontinental journey across Africa from Luanda.^[5]
• Thomas Montgomerie of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India makes the first survey of the Karakoram Range, from Mount Haramukh, 210 km (130 miles) to the south, and designates the two most prominent peaks as K1 and K2.^[6]

Meteorology

• American meteorologist William Ferrel demonstrates the tendency of rising and rotating warm air to pull in air from more southerly, warmer regions and transport it poleward.^[7]

Physics

• Henry Darcy formulates Darcy's law on fluid flow.^[8]

Technology

• September 22 – British metallurgist Robert Mushet patents improvements to the Bessemer process for the production of steel.^[9]
• English agricultural engineer John Fowler first demonstrates his steam-driven agricultural ploughing system.^[10]
• English engineer John Ramsbottom invents a tamper-proof spring safety valve for steam locomotives.^[11]
• French chemist Alphonse Louis Poitevin invents the collotype photographic process.
• Tinsmith Ralph Collier of Baltimore, Maryland, patents the first egg beater with rotating parts.^[12]

Awards

• Copley Medal: Henri Milne-Edwards
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: William Edmond Logan

Births

• February 15 – Emil Kraepelin (died 1926), German psychiatrist.
• May 6
  • Sigmund Freud (died 1939), Austrian psychoanalyst.
  • Robert Peary (died 1920), American polar explorer.
• July 10 – Nikola Tesla (died 1943), Serb inventor.
• September 14 – Sergei Winogradsky (died 1953), Russian microbiologist.

Deaths

• February 24 (February 12 Old Style) – Nikolai Lobachevsky (born 1792), Russian mathematician and geometer.
• February 25 – George Don (born 1797), Scottish botanist.
• July 9 – Amedeo Avogadro (born 1776), Italian chemist.
• August 24 – William Buckland (born 1784), English geologist and paleontologist.
• November 20 – Farkas Bolyai (born 1775), Hungarian mathematician.
• November 21 – James Meadows Rendel (born 1799), English civil engineer.
• December 23/24 – Hugh Miller (born 1802), Scottish geologist (suicide).
• date unknown – Enriqueta Favez (born 1791), Swiss physician and surgeon.

References

1. Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the Chace of the Gorilla, Crocodile, and other Animals (1861).
2. Petrunkevitch, Alexander (1920). "Russia's Contribution to Science". Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Sciences. 23: 233.
3. Garfield, Simon (2000). Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour that Changed the World. London: Faber. ISBN 0-571-20197-0.
4. UK Patent office (1857). Patents for inventions. UK Patent office. p. 255.
5. "Central Africa, explored". Unimaps.com. 2005. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
6. Curran, Jim (1995). K2: the Story of the Savage Mountain. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-340-66007-2.
7. Ferrel, W. (1856). "An essay on the winds and the currents of the Oceans". Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery. 11: 287–301.
8. Darcy, H. (1856). Les Fontaines Publiques de la Ville de Dijon. Paris: Dalmont.
9. van Dulken, Stephen (2001). Inventing the 19th Century: the great age of Victorian inventions. London: British Library. p. 30. ISBN 0-7123-0881-4.
10. Bonnett, Harold (1972). Saga of the Steam Plough. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715357425.
11. "Safety Valve, Ramsbottom Valves". Henley's Encyclopedia of Practical Engineering. New York: The N. W. Henley Publishing Co. 1908. Retrieved 2009-06-13.
12. U.S. Patent 16,267.