1891 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1891 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.
Biology
- The New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
government sets aside Resolution IslandResolution Island, New ZealandResolution Island is the largest island in Fiordland region of southwest New Zealand, covering a total of . It is the country's seventh largest island...
in FiordlandFiordlandFiordland is a geographic region of New Zealand that is situated on the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the western-most third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lakes and its ocean-flooded, steep western valleys...
as a nature reserveNature reserveA nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
. - The New York Botanical GardenNew York Botanical Garden- See also :* Education in New York City* List of botanical gardens in the United States* List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City- External links :* official website** blog*...
is founded in The BronxThe BronxThe Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
largely due to the efforts of Nathaniel Lord BrittonNathaniel Lord BrittonNathaniel Lord Britton was an American botanist and taxonomist who founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York. Britton was born in New Dorp in Staten Island, New York...
. - Jane Willis Kirkaldy and Catherine Pollard become the first women to sit final examinations in biology at the University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
(and achieve first class honours).
Chemistry
- Agnes PockelsAgnes PockelsAgnes Luise Wilhelmine Pockels , was a German pioneer in chemistry.-Biography:In 1862, she was born in Venice, Italy. Her father served in the Austrian army. When he fell sick with malaria, the family moved to Brunswick, Lower Saxony in 1871. Already as a child, Agnes was interested in science and...
first publishes the results of her researches into surface tensionSurface tensionSurface tension is a property of the surface of a liquid that allows it to resist an external force. It is revealed, for example, in floating of some objects on the surface of water, even though they are denser than water, and in the ability of some insects to run on the water surface...
.
Mathematics
- Fyodorov–Schoenflies theorem concluded by Yevgraf FyodorovYevgraf FyodorovYevgraf Stepanovich Fyodorov, sometimes spelled Evgraf Stepanovich Fedorov , was a Russian mathematician, crystallographer, and mineralogist....
and Arthur Schoenflies from their work on crystallographic groups.
Medicine
- Julius Ludwig August Koch begins publication of Die psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten in RavensburgRavensburgRavensburg is a town in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg.Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and an important trading centre...
, introducing the concept of psychopathologyPsychopathologyPsychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
. - Arnold PickArnold PickArnold Pick was a Czech neurologist and psychiatrist. He is known for identifying the clinical syndrome of Pick's Disease and the Pick bodies that are characteristic of the disorder. He was the first to name reduplicative paramnesia. He was also to use the term dementia praecox .- External links...
first uses the term dementia praecoxDementia praecoxDementia praecox refers to a chronic, deteriorating psychotic disorder characterized by rapid cognitive disintegration, usually beginning in the late teens or early adulthood. It is a term first used in 1891 in this Latin form by Arnold Pick , a professor of psychiatry at the German branch of...
in this form.
Paleontology
- October - Eugène DuboisEugène DuboisMarie Eugène François Thomas Dubois was a Dutch paleoanthropologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus , or 'Java Man'...
finds the first fragmentary bones of Pithecanthropus erectus (later redesignated Homo erectus)Homo erectusHomo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
, or 'Java Man', at TrinilTrinilTrinil is a palaeoanthropological site on the banks of the Bengawan Solo River in Ngawi Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. It was at this site in 1891 that the Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois discovered the first early hominid remains to be found outside of Europe: the famous "Java Man" specimen....
on the Solo River.
Technology
- May 20 - First public demonstration of the Kinetograph moving picture system developed by W. K. L. Dickson under the direction of Thomas Alva Edison, a showing of the film known as Dickson GreetingDickson GreetingDickson Greeting is credited as one of the world's first films. Directed, produced by and starring motion-picture pioneer William Dickson, it displays a 3 second clip of him passing a hat in front of himself, and reaching for it with his other hand...
. Edison files 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....
s on the camera and peephole viewer on August 24. - MichelinMichelinMichelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...
patent the removable pneumatic bicycle tireBicycle tireA bicycle tire is a tire that fits on the wheel of a bicycle, unicycle, tricycle, quadracycle, bicycle trailer, or trailer bike. They may also be used on wheelchairs and handcycles, especially for racing...
. - Panhard et Levassor produce the first Système Panhard automobile layoutAutomobile layoutIn automotive design, the automobile layout describes where on the vehicle the engine and drive wheels are found. Many different combinations of engine location and driven wheels are found in practice, and the location of each is dependent on the application the vehicle will be used for...
, consisting of four wheels with front-engine, rear-wheel driveFront-engine, rear-wheel drive layoutIn automotive design, an FR, or Front-engine, Rear-wheel drive layout is one where the engine is located at the front of the vehicle and driven wheels are located at the rear. This was the traditional automobile layout for most of the 20th century....
and a sliding-gear transmissionTransmission (mechanics)A machine consists of a power source and a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Merriam-Webster defines transmission as: an assembly of parts including the speed-changing gears and the propeller shaft by which the power is transmitted from an engine to a...
, designed by Émile LevassorEmile LevassorÉmile Levassor was a French engineer and a pioneer of the automobile industry and car racing in France.- Biography :...
.
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"...
: Stanislao CannizzaroStanislao CannizzaroStanislao Cannizzaro, FRS was an Italian chemist. He is remembered today largely for the Cannizzaro reaction and for his influential role in the atomic-weight deliberations of the Karlsruhe Congress in 1860.-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: John Wesley JuddJohn Wesley JuddJohn Wesley Judd was a British geologist.He was born in Portsmouth the son of George and Jannette Judd and educated at the Royal School of Mines, where he later became Professor of Geology....
Births
- September 14 - Ivan Matveyevich VinogradovIvan Matveyevich VinogradovIvan Matveevich Vinogradov was a Soviet mathematician, who was one of the creators of modern analytic number theory, and also a dominant figure in mathematics in the USSR. He was born in the Velikiye Luki district, Pskov Oblast. He graduated from the University of St...
(d. 19831983 in scienceThe year 1983 in science and technology involved many significant events, as listed below.-Biology:* April – Kary Mullis discovers polymerase chain reaction.* May – First report of the virus that causes AIDS....
), mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
. - September 24 - W. F. FriedmanWilliam F. FriedmanWilliam Frederick Friedman was a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signals Intelligence Service in the 1930s, and parts of its follow-on services into the 1950s...
(d. 19691969 in scienceThe year 1969 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* January 15 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.* March 3 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module....
), cryptanalyst.
Deaths
- February 10 - Sofia KovalevskayaSofia KovalevskayaSofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya , was the first major Russian female mathematician, responsible for important original contributions to analysis, differential equations and mechanics, and the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe.She was also one of the first females to...
(b. 18501850 in scienceThe year 1850 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* October 17 - James Young patents a method of distilling paraffin from coal.-Mathematics:* Thomas Kirkman proposes Kirkman's schoolgirl problem.* J. J...
), mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
. - May 11 - Alexandre-Edmond BecquerelA. E. BecquerelAlexandre-Edmond Becquerel , known as Edmond Becquerel, was a French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity, and optics. He is known for his work in luminescence and phosphorescence. He is credited with the discovery of the photovoltaic effect, the operating principle of...
(b. 18201820 in scienceThe year 1820 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Christian Friedrich Nasse formulates Nasse's law: hemophilia occurs only in males and is transmitted by asymptomatic females.-Chemistry:...
), 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...
. - June 9 - Henry EdwardsHenry Edwards (entomologist)Henry Edwards , known as "Harry", was an English-born stage actor, writer and entomologist who gained fame in Australia, San Francisco and New York City for his theater work....
(b. 18271827 in scienceThe year 1827 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Aluminium isolated by Friedrich Wöhler.* William Prout classifies the components of food into the three main divisions of carbohydrates, fats and proteins....
), entomologist and actor. - June 23 - Wilhelm Eduard WeberWilhelm Eduard WeberWilhelm Eduard Weber was a German physicist and, together with Carl Friedrich Gauss, inventor of the first electromagnetic telegraph.-Early years:...
(b. 18041804 in scienceThe year 1804 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space science:* April 5 - High Possil meteorite falls in Scotland.* September 1 - Karl Ludwig Harding discovers the asteroid Juno.-Botany:...
), 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...
. - November 18 - Joseph WolstenholmeJoseph WolstenholmeJoseph Wolstenholme was an English mathematician.Wolstenholme was born in Eccles near Salford, Lancashire, England. He graduated from St John's College, Cambridge as Third Wrangler in 1850 and was elected a fellow of Christ's College in 1852...
(b. 18291829 in scienceThe year 1829 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Isaac Holden produces a form of friction match.-Mathematics:...
), mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
.