1842 in science

The year 1842 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Physics

* Christian Doppler proposes the Doppler effect. ["Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einige andere Gestirne des Himmels - Versuch einer das Bradleysche Theorem als integrirenden Theil in sich schliessenden allgemeineren Theorie" ("On the coloured light of the binary refracted stars and other celestial bodies - Attempt of a more general theory including Bradley's theorem as an integral part")]
* Julius Robert von Mayer proposes that work and heat are equivalent. [von Mayer, J.R. (1842) "Remarks on the forces of inorganic nature" in "Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie", 43, 233] This is also independently discovered by James Prescott Joule, who named it "mechanical equivalent of heat" (see 1843 in science).

Paleontology

* Palaeontologist Richard Owen coins the name "Dinosauria", hence the Anglicized "dinosaur". [Owen, R. (1842). "Report on British Fossil Reptiles." Part II. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Plymouth, England.]

Technology

* February 21 - John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine. [cite web |url=http://www.vdta.com/hof-list.html |title=Vacuum & Sewing Hall of Fame |accessdate=2007-12-29 See section "Contributors to the invention of the sewing machine".]
* March 30 - Crawford Long performs the first surgical operation using anesthesia (diethyl ether). [cite web |url=http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/03/dayintech_0330 |title=March 30, 1842: It's Lights Out, Thanks to Ether |publisher=Wired |author=Long, Tony |date=2007-03-30]

Awards

* Copley Medal: James MacCullagh
* Wollaston Medal: Leopold von Buch

Births

* February 2 - Yulian Vasilievich Sokhotski (d. 1927), mathematician.
* February 22 - Camille Flammarion (d. 1925), astronomer.
* May 8 - Emil Christian Hansen (d. 1909), fermentation physiologist.
* August 23 - Osborne Reynolds (d. 1912), physicist.
* September 9 - Elliott Coues (d. 1899), ornithologist.
* September 20 - James Dewar (d. 1923), chemist.
* October 17 - Gustaf Retzius (d. 1919), anatomist.
* November 12 - John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (d. 1919), Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
* December 17 - Sophus Lie (d. 1899), mathematician.

Deaths

* February 15 - Archibald Menzies (b. 1754), botanist.
* April 28 - Charles Bell (b. 1774), anatomist.
* May 8 - Jules Dumont d'Urville (b. 1790), explorer.
* July 19 - Pierre Joseph Pelletier (b. 1788), chemist.
* August 18 - Louis de Freycinet (b. 1779), explored coastal regions of Western Australia.

References