1878 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1878 in science
and technology
involved many 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 many significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
- British astronomer Richard Proctor describes the Zone of AvoidanceZone of AvoidanceThe Zone of Avoidance is the area of the night sky that is obscured by our own galaxy, the Milky Way.-Term:The ZOA was originally called the "Zone of Few Nebulae" in an 1878 paper by English astronomer Richard Proctor that referred to the distribution of "nebulae" in Sir John Herschel's General...
, the area of the night sky that is obscured by our own galaxy, for the first time.
Conservation
- An Act of Parliament in the United KingdomActs of Parliament in the United KingdomAn Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is a type of legislation called primary legislation. These Acts are passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, or by the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh....
places Epping ForestEpping ForestEpping Forest is an area of ancient woodland in south-east England, straddling the border between north-east Greater London and Essex. It is a former royal forest, and is managed by the City of London Corporation....
in the care of the City of London Corporation to remain unenclosed.
Exploration
- Adolf Erik NordenskiöldAdolf Erik NordenskiöldFreiherr Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , also known as A. E. Nordenskioeld was a Finnish baron, geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer of Finnish-Swedish origin. He was a member of the prominent Finland-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists...
is the first to navigate the Northern Sea RouteNorthern Sea RouteThe Northern Sea Route is a shipping lane officially defined by Russian legislation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East. The entire route lies in Arctic...
, a shipping lane from the Atlantic OceanAtlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
to the Pacific OceanPacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
along the Siberian coast.
Geology
- Clarence KingClarence KingClarence R. King was an American geologist, mountaineer, and art critic. First director of the United States Geological Survey, from 1879 to 1881, King was noted for his exploration of the Sierra Nevada. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island.-Career:...
publishes Systematic Geology. - Charles LapworthCharles LapworthCharles Lapworth was an English geologist.-Biography:He was born at Faringdon in Berkshire and educated as a teacher at the Culham Diocesan Training College near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. He moved to the Scottish border region, where he investigated the previously little-known fossil fauna of the area...
publishes his analysis of the change in graptoliteGraptoliteGraptolithina is a class in the animal phylum Hemichordata, the members of which are known as Graptolites. Graptolites are fossil colonial animals known chiefly from the Upper Cambrian through the Lower Carboniferous...
fossils through sequences of exposed shaleShaleShale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
s in southern ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, establishing the importance of using graptolites to understand stratigraphic sequences.
Medicine
- Ádám PolitzerÁdám PolitzerAdam Politzer was a Hungarian and Austrian physician and one of the pioneers and founders of otology.- Life :Adam Politzer was born in Alberti , near the city of Budapest, to a well-to-do Jewish family....
publishes Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde, a major otologyOtologyOtology is a branch of biomedicine which studies normal and pathological anatomy and physiology of the ear as well as its diseases, diagnosis and treatment....
textbook.
Paleontology
- 31 IguanodonIguanodonIguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs...
skeletons are discovered in a coal mine at BernissartBernissartBernissart is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Bernissart had a total population of 11,458. The total area is 43.42 km², which gives a population density of 264 inhabitants per km²....
, BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
Technology
- February 19 - The phonographPhonographThe phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
is patented by Thomas EdisonThomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
. - October 14 - The world's first recorded floodlit football fixture is played at Bramall LaneBramall Lane-Cricket at the Lane:Bramall Lane opened as a cricket ground in 1855, having been leased by Michael Ellison from the Duke of Norfolk at an annual rent of £70. The site was then away from the town's industrial area, and relatively free from smoke. It was built to host the matches of local cricket...
in SheffieldSheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
. - December 31 - Karl BenzKarl BenzKarl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and car engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered car, and together with Bertha Benz pioneering founder of the automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz...
produces a two-stroke gas engineGas engineA gas engine means an engine running on a gas, such as coal gas, producer gas biogas, landfill gas, or natural gas. In the UK, the term is unambiguous...
. - Lester Allan PeltonLester Allan PeltonLester Allan Pelton was an American inventor who contibuted significantly to the development of hydropower and hydroelectric power in the old West and world-wide. In the late 1870's he invented the Pelton water wheel, then the most efficient design of the impulse water turbine...
produces the first operational Pelton wheelPelton wheelThe Pelton wheel is an impulse turbine which is among the most efficient types of water turbines. It was invented by Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to its weight like traditional overshot water wheel...
.
Awards
- Copley MedalCopley MedalThe Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society of London for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science, and alternates between the physical sciences and the biological sciences"...
: Jean Baptiste BoussingaultJean Baptiste BoussingaultJean-Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault was a French chemist who made significant contributions to agricultural science, petroleum science and metallurgy.-Biography:... - Wollaston MedalWollaston MedalThe Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...
for Geology: Thomas WrightThomas Wright (geologist)Thomas Wright was a Scottish surgeon and palaeontologist.Wright published a number of papers on the fossils which he had collected in the Cotswolds, including Lias Ammonites of the British Isles....
Births
- January 1 - A. K. ErlangAgner Krarup ErlangAgner Krarup Erlang was a Danish mathematician, statistician and engineer, who invented the fields of traffic engineering and queueing theory....
, mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
(d. 19291929 in scienceThe year 1929 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* July 17 - Robert H...
) - January 25 - Ernst AlexandersonErnst AlexandersonErnst Frederick Werner Alexanderson was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who was a pioneer in radio and television development.-Background:...
, Swedish-born television pioneer (d. 1975) - February 5 - André CitroënAndré CitroënAndré-Gustave Citroën was a French industrialist. He is remembered chiefly for the make of car named after him, but also for his application of double helical gears.- Life and career :...
, French automobile manufacturer (d. 1935) - February 8 - Martin BuberMartin BuberMartin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
, Austrian philosopher (d. 1965) - February 28 - Pierre FatouPierre FatouPierre Joseph Louis Fatou was a French mathematician working in the field of complex analytic dynamics. He entered the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1898 to study mathematics and graduated in 1901 when he was appointed an astronomy post in the Paris Observatory...
, FrenchFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
(d. 1929) - March 4 - Peter D. Ouspensky, Russian philosopher (d. 1947)
- May 3 - Cruz HernandezCruz HernándezCruz Hernández Rivas of San Agustín, Usulután in El Salvador is a claimant to the title of world's oldest person...
, Oldest Living Person (disputed) (d. 2007) - June 3 - Barney OldfieldBarney OldfieldBerna Eli "Barney" Oldfield was an automobile racer and pioneer. He was born on a farm on the outskirts of Wauseon, Ohio. He was the first man to drive a car at 60 miles per hour on an oval...
, American automobile racer and pioneer (d. 1946) - August 28 - George WhippleGeorge WhippleGeorge Hoyt Whipple was an American physician, pathologist, biomedical researcher, and medical school educator and administrator...
, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineNobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
(d. 1976) - September 5 - Robert von LiebenRobert von LiebenRobert von Lieben was a notable Austrian physicist.Robert von Lieben was born to Leopold von Lieben and Anna von Lieben.-Education:...
, Austrian physicist (d. 1913) - September 13 - Matilde MoisantMatilde MoisantMatilde E. Moisant was an American pioneer aviator. She was the second woman in the country to get a pilot's license.- Early life :...
, American pilot (d. 1964) - November 26 - Marshall "Major" TaylorMarshall TaylorMarshall Walter "Major" Taylor was an American cyclist who won the world track cycling championship in 1899 after setting numerous world records and overcoming racial discrimination...
, American cyclist (d. 1932) - December 25 - Louis ChevroletLouis ChevroletLouis-Joseph Chevrolet was a Swiss-born American race car driver of French descent, co-founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911 and later, the Frontenac Motor Corporation in 1916 which made racing parts for Ford's Model T.-Early life:Born in 1878 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a center of...
, Swiss-born race driver and automobile builder (d. 1941) - December 25 - Joseph SchenckJoseph SchenckJoseph Michael Schenck was a pioneer executive who played a key role in the development of the United States film industry.Born in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia to a Jewish household, he and his family-including younger brother Nicholas- emigrated to New York City in 1893, he and Nicholas...
, Russian-born film executive (d. 1961)
- See also :Category: 1878 births.
Deaths
- January 18 - Antoine César BecquerelAntoine César BecquerelAntoine César Becquerel was a French scientist and a pioneer in the study of electric and luminescent phenomena.He was born at Châtillon sur LoCrea...
, 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...
scientist (b. 1788) - January 19 - Henri Victor RegnaultHenri Victor RegnaultHenri Victor Regnault was a French chemist and physicist best known for his careful measurements of the thermal properties of gases. He was an early thermodynamicist and was mentor to William Thomson in the late 1840s....
, physical chemist (b. 18101810 in scienceThe year 1810 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.-Medicine:* John Haslam, resident apothecary at Bethlem Hospital in London, produces the book Illustrations of Madness: Exhibiting a Singular Case of Insanity, And a No Less Remarkable Difference in Medical...
) - February 8 - Elias Magnus FriesElias Magnus Fries-External links:*, Authors of fungal names, Mushroom, the Journal of Wild Mushrooming.*...
, botanist (b. 17941794 in scienceThe year 1794 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Anatomy:* Antonio Scarpa publishes Tabulae neurologicae ad illustrandam historiam cardiacorum nervorum, noni nervorum cerebri, glossopharingei et pharingei, the first work to give an accurate depiction of cardiac innervation,...
) - February 10 - Claude BernardClaude BernardClaude Bernard was a French physiologist. He was the first to define the term milieu intérieur . Historian of science I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science"...
, French physiologist (b. 18131813 in scienceThe year 1813 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Charles Waterton begins the process of turning his estate at Walton Hall, West Yorkshire, England, into what is, in effect, the world's first nature reserve....
) - February 26 - Angelo SecchiAngelo Secchi-External links:...
, Italian astronomer (b. 1818) - June 6 - Robert StirlingRobert StirlingThe Reverend Dr Robert Stirling was a Scottish clergyman, and inventor of the stirling engine.- Biography :Stirling was born at Cloag Farm near Methven, Perthshire, the third of eight children...
, Scottish clergyman and inventor (b. 1790)
- See also :Category: 1878 deaths.