1806 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1806 in science
and technology
involved some significant events, listed below.
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, listed below.
Botany
- Publication begins in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
of the Flora GraecaFlora GraecaFlora Graeca was a publication of the plants of Greece in the late 18th century, resulting from a survey by John Sibthorp and Ferdinand Bauer...
collected by John SibthorpJohn SibthorpJohn Sibthorp was an English botanist.He was born in Oxford, the youngest son of Dr Humphry Sibthorp , who from 1747 to 1784 was Sherardian professor of botany at the University of Oxford....
.
Mathematics
- Jean-Robert ArgandJean-Robert ArgandJean-Robert Argand was a gifted amateur mathematician. In 1806, while managing a bookstore in Paris, he published the idea of geometrical interpretation of complex numbers known as the Argand diagram.-Life:...
introduces the Argand diagram. - Adrien-Marie LegendreAdrien-Marie LegendreAdrien-Marie Legendre was a French mathematician.The Moon crater Legendre is named after him.- Life :...
fits data by least squaresLeast squaresThe method of least squares is a standard approach to the approximate solution of overdetermined systems, i.e., sets of equations in which there are more equations than unknowns. "Least squares" means that the overall solution minimizes the sum of the squares of the errors made in solving every...
.
Medicine
- John BellJohn Bell- Law and politics :* John Bell , English barrister* John Bell , professor of law and Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge* John Bell , Member of Parliament from Thirsk...
concludes publication of The Principles of Surgery in two volumes (1801–06). Its treatment of arterial surgery in particular ranks him as a founder of vascular surgeryVascular surgeryVascular surgery is a specialty of surgery in which diseases of the vascular system, or arteries and veins, are managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures, and surgical reconstruction. The specialty evolved from general and cardiac surgery...
. His brother Charles BellCharles BellSir Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, neurologist and philosophical theologian.His three older brothers included John Bell , also a noted surgeon and writer; and the advocate George Joseph Bell .-Life:...
publishes Essays on The Anatomy of Expression in Painting.
Technology
- The Camera LucidaCamera LucidaCamera Lucida is a short book published in 1980 by the French literary theorist and philosopher Roland Barthes. It is simultaneously an inquiry into the nature and essence of photography and a eulogy to Barthes' late mother...
(Latin: lighted room) is invented and used as an aid for drawing perspective accurately.
Births
- February 14 - Joseph-François MalgaigneJoseph-François MalgaigneJoseph-François Malgaigne was a French surgeon and medical historian born in Charmes-sur-Moselle, Vosges....
, French surgeon (d. 18651865 in scienceThe year 1865 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Friedrich Kekulé proposes a ring structure for benzene.-Life sciences:* Louis Pasteur shows that the air is full of bacteria....
) - April 9 - Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
, British civil engineer (d. 18591859 in scienceThe year 1859 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* August 28–September 2 - The solar storm of 1859, the largest geomagnetic solar storm on record, causes the Northern lights aurora to be visible as far south as Cuba and knocks out telegraph...
) - June 12 - John A. RoeblingJohn A. RoeblingJohn Augustus Roebling was a German-born American civil engineer. He is famous for his wire rope suspension bridge designs, in particular, the design of the Brooklyn Bridge.-Early life:...
, German American bridge engineer (d. 18691869 in scienceThe year 1869 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* November 4 - The first issue of scientific journal Nature is published in London, edited by Norman Lockyer.-Chemistry:...
) - June 27 - Augustus De MorganAugustus De MorganAugustus De Morgan was a British mathematician and logician. He formulated De Morgan's laws and introduced the term mathematical induction, making its idea rigorous. The crater De Morgan on the Moon is named after him....
, British logician (d. 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....
) - November 21 - Alexander Henry HalidayAlexander Henry HalidayAlexander Henry Haliday, also known as Enrico Alessandro Haliday and Alexis Heinrich Haliday sometimes Halliday , was an Irish entomologist. He is primarily known for his work on Hymenoptera, Diptera and Thysanoptera, but Haliday worked on all insect orders and on many aspects of entomology.Haliday...
, Irish entomologist (d. 18701870 in scienceThe year 1870 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* January 18 - Gerhardt Krefft first describes the Queensland lungfish, in The Sydney Morning Herald....
) - December 11 - Otto Wilhelm Hermann von AbichOtto Wilhelm Hermann von AbichOtto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich was a German mineralogist and geologist.He was born at Berlin and educated at the local university. His earliest scientific work is related to spinels and other minerals. Later he made special studies of fumaroles, of the mineral deposits around volcanic vents, and...
, German geologist (d. 18861886 in scienceThe year 1886 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Medicine:* The classic descriptions of Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease are published by Jean-Martin Charcot and his pupil Pierre Marie in Paris and by Howard H...
)
Deaths
- June 23 - Mathurin Jacques BrissonMathurin Jacques BrissonMathurin Jacques Brisson was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history, his published works in this department including Le Règne animal and Ornithologie...
, FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
zoologist (b. 17231723 in scienceThe year 1723 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Geophysics:* George Graham discovers diurnal variation in Earth's magnetic field....
) - August 3 - Michel AdansonMichel AdansonMichel Adanson was a French naturalist of Scottish descent.Adanson was born at Aix-en-Provence. His family moved to Paris on 1730. After leaving the College Sainte Barbe he was employed in the cabinets of R. A. F. Reaumur and Bernard de Jussieu, as well as in the Jardin des Plantes. At the end of...
, French botanist (b. 17271727 in scienceThe year 1727 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* Maharaja Jai Singh II begins construction of the Jantar Mantar observatory at Jaipur.-Biology:* Rev...
) - August 23 - Charles-Augustin de CoulombCharles-Augustin de CoulombCharles-Augustin de Coulomb was a French physicist. He is best known for developing Coulomb's law, the definition of the electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion. The [SI unit] of charge, the coulomb, was named after him....
, French physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
(b. 17361736 in scienceThe year 1736 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Botany:* Charles Marie de La Condamine, with François Fresneau Gataudière, makes the first scientific observations of rubber, in Ecuador.-Earth sciences:...
) - October 9 - Benjamin BannekerBenjamin BannekerBenjamin Banneker was a free African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac author and farmer.-Family history and early life:It is difficult to verify much of Benjamin Banneker's family history...
, African-American astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
and surveyor (b. 17311731 in scienceThe year 1731 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Agriculture:* Jethro Tull publishes The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry; or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation in England.-Astronomy:...
)