1799 in science

The year 1799 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below.

Events

Archeology

* July 15 - In the Egyptian port city of Rosetta (Rashid), French Captain Pierre Bouchard finds the Rosetta Stone, which will become the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
* July 25 - At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte gains French control of Egyptian artifacts by defeating 10,000 Ottoman Mamluk troops under Mustafa Pasha.

Technology

* The American System of manufacturing is invented.

Minerology

* A 12-year-old Conrad John Reed finds what he described as a "heavy yellow rock" along Little Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County, North Carolina and makes it a doorstop in his home. Conrad's father John Reed learns that the rock is actually gold in 1802, initiating the first gold rush in the United States.

Metrology

* An all-platinum kilogram prototype was fabricated with the objective that it would equal, as close as was scientifically feasible for the day, the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at 4 °C. The prototype was presented to the "Archives of the Republic" of France in June and on 10 December the prototype was formally ratified as the "Kilogramme des Archives" (Kilogram of the Archives) and the kilogram was defined as being equal to its mass. This standard stood for the next ninety years.

Awards

* Copley Medal: John Hellins

Births

* May 21 - Mary Anning, paleontologist (died 1847)
* June 18 - Prosper Meniere, French physician (died 1862)
* September 8 - James Bowman Lindsay, Scottish inventor (died 1862)
* December 30 - David Douglas, Scottish botanist (died 1834)

Deaths

* January 17 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (born 1718)
* February 19 - Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician and physicist (born 1733)
* August 2 - Jacques Étienne Montgolfier, French inventor (born 1745)
* October 6 - William Withering, British physician, discoverer of digitalis (born 1741)
* December 6 - Joseph Black, Scottish chemist and physicist (born 1728)