1792 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1792 in science
and technology
involved some significant events.
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach publishes The Tables of the Sun, an essential work for navigation.
- The first Royal Astronomer of Ireland is appointed: the post is combined with the position of Director of the Dunsink ObservatoryDunsink ObservatoryThe Dunsink Observatory is an astronomical observatory established in 1785 in the townland of Dunsink near the city of Dublin, Ireland.Its most famous director was William Rowan Hamilton, who, amongst other things, discovered quaternions, the first non-commutative algebra, while strolling from the...
in Dublin.
Biology
- ScottishScottish peopleThe Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
surgeonSurgeonIn medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
Robert KerrRobert Kerr (writer)Robert Kerr FRS was a scientific writer and translator from Scotland.Kerr was born in Roxburghshire as the son of a jeweller. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and practised at the Edinburgh Foundling Hospital as a surgeon...
publishes The Animal Kingdom, the first two volumes of an EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
translation of LinnaeusCarolus LinnaeusCarl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
' Systema NaturaeSystema NaturaeThe book was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. The first edition was published in 1735...
.
Exploration and survey
- George VancouverGeorge VancouverCaptain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
explores Puget SoundPuget SoundPuget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
and becomes the first EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an to see Mount RainierMount RainierMount Rainier is a massive stratovolcano located southeast of Seattle in the state of Washington, United States. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc, with a summit elevation of . Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most...
. - Ramsden theodoliteRamsden theodoliteThe Ramsden theodolite is a large theodolite that was specially constructed for use in the first Ordnance Survey of Southern Britain. It was also known as the Great or 36 inch theodolite....
constructed by Jesse RamsdenJesse RamsdenJesse Ramsden FRSE was an English astronomical and scientific instrument maker.Ramsden was born at Salterhebble, Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. After serving his apprenticeship with a cloth-worker in Halifax, he went in 1755 to London, where in 1758 he was apprenticed to a...
for the Ordnance SurveyOrdnance SurveyOrdnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
of Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
.
History of science
- Kurt SprengelKurt Polycarp Joachim SprengelKurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel was a German botanist and physician.-Biography:Sprengel was born at Boldekow in Pomerania....
publishes Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneikunde in HalleHalle, Saxony-AnhaltHalle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
, the first chronologically complete work on the history of medicineHistory of medicineAll human societies have medical beliefs that provide explanations for birth, death, and disease. Throughout history, illness has been attributed to witchcraft, demons, astral influence, or the will of the gods...
.
Medicine
- Benjamin RushBenjamin RushBenjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania....
campaigns for more humane treatment of psychiatric patients in PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. - François ChopartFrançois ChopartFrançois Chopart was a French surgeon born in Paris.He was trained in medicine at the Hôtel-Dieu, Pitié and the Bicêtre hospitals...
performs plastic surgeryPlastic surgeryPlastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
on a lip using a flap from the neck.
Technology
- Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and LilleLilleLille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, constituting an optical telegraph. - William MurdochWilliam MurdochWilliam Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor.Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.He was the inventor of the oscillating steam...
invents gas lighting. - George Anschutz constructs the first blast furnaceBlast furnaceA blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
in Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. - James RumseyJames RumseyJames Rumsey was an American mechanical engineer chiefly known for exhibiting a boat propelled by machinery in 1787 on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown, now West Virginia, before a crowd of local notables, including Horatio Gates...
is granted a patentPatentA patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
for a water turbineWater turbineA water turbine is a rotary engine that takes energy from moving water.Water turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now they are mostly used for electric power generation. They harness a clean and renewable energy...
, in EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Births
- January 12 - Johann Arfvedson, chemist (died 18411841 in scienceThe year 1841 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Rev. Miles Joseph Berkeley demonstrates that Phytophthora infestans is a fungal infection....
) - February 17 - Karl Ernst von BaerKarl Ernst von BaerKarl Ernst Ritter von Baer, Edler von Huthorn also known in Russia as Karl Maksimovich Baer was an Estonian naturalist, biologist, geologist, meteorologist, geographer, a founding father of embryology, explorer of European Russia and Scandinavia, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a...
, naturalist (died 18761876 in scienceThe year 1876 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Robert Koch demonstrates that Bacillus anthracis is the source of of anthrax, the first bacterium conclusively shown to cause disease.-Medicine:...
) - March 7 - John HerschelJohn HerschelSir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS ,was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work...
, mathematician and astronomer (died 18711871 in scienceThe year 1871 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Medicine and physiology:* Porphyria is first explained biochemically by Felix Hoppe-Seyler....
) - May 21 - Gaspard-Gustave CoriolisGaspard-Gustave CoriolisGaspard-Gustave de Coriolis or Gustave Coriolis was a French mathematician, mechanical engineer and scientist. He is best known for his work on the supplementary forces that are detected in a rotating frame of reference. See the Coriolis Effect...
, mathematician, discoverer of the Coriolis effectCoriolis effectIn physics, the Coriolis effect is a deflection of moving objects when they are viewed in a rotating reference frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the left of the motion of the object; in one with counter-clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the right...
(died 18431843 in scienceThe year 1843 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* February 5–April 19 - "Great March Comet" observed....
)
Deaths
- October 28 - John SmeatonJohn SmeatonJohn Smeaton, FRS, was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist...
, civil engineer (born 17241724 in scienceThe year 1724 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Events:* January 28 - The Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences is founded by Peter I of Russia.-Mathematics:...
) - October 28 - Paul MöhringPaul MöhringPaul Heinrich Gerhard Möhring , aka Paul Mohr, was a German physician, botanist and zoologist.Möhring was physician to the Prince of Anhalt. In 1752 he published Avium Genera, an early attempt to classify bird species, which divided birds into four classes and shows the beginnings of the modern...
, German physician and scientist (born 17101710 in scienceThe year 1710 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Events:* The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala is founded in Uppsala, Sweden, as the Collegium curiosorum .-Physiology and medicine:...
)