1902 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1902 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.
Aeronautics
- May 15 - Lyman GilmoreLyman GilmoreLyman Wiswell Gilmore, Jr. was an aviation pioneer. In Grass Valley, California, USA, he built a steam-powered airplane and claimed that he flew it on May 15, 1902. Due to the requirement of a heavy boiler and the dependency on coal as a power source, the flights would have been short...
claims to have flown his steam-poweredSteam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
fixed-wing aircraftFixed-wing aircraftA fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
, although his proof was supposedly destroyed in a 1935 fire.
Chemistry
- Auguste Verneuil develops the Verneuil processVerneuil processThe Verneuil process, also called flame fusion, was the first commercially successful method of manufacturing synthetic gemstones, developed in 1902 by the French chemist Auguste Verneuil. It is primarily used to produce the ruby and sapphire varieties of corundum, as well as the diamond simulants...
for making synthetic rubiesRubyA ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum . The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires...
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Exploration
- December 30 - Discovery ExpeditionDiscovery ExpeditionThe British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier...
: ScottRobert Falcon ScottCaptain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
, ShackletonErnest ShackletonSir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...
and WilsonEdward Adrian WilsonEdward Adrian Wilson was a notable English polar explorer, physician, naturalist, painter and ornithologist.-Early life:...
reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.
History of science
- May 17 - Archaeologist Valerios StaisValerios StaisValerios Stais was a Greek archaeologist. He was born in Kythera. He studied medicine and later archaeology. He became the director of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in 1887 and held that post until his death. During that period he organized or participated in excavations in...
identifies the Antikythera mechanismAntikythera mechanismThe Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was recovered in 1900–1901 from the Antikythera wreck. Its significance and complexity were not understood until decades later. Its time of construction is now estimated between 150 and 100...
, now considered to be the oldest known analog computerAnalog computerAn analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously-changeable aspects of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved...
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Medicine
- January 1 - Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in 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...
, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen DoughertyEllen DoughertyEllen Dougherty , a New Zealand nurse, was the first Registered Nurse in the world. She trained at Wellington Hospital from 1885 and completed a certificate in nursing in 1887...
becomes the world's first registered nurse.
Paleontology
- Remains of the second Tyrannosaurus rexTyrannosaurusTyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
specimen, the first recognized as such, are excavated by Barnum BrownBarnum BrownBarnum Brown , a paleontologist born in Carbondale, Kansas, and named after the circus showman P.T. Barnum, discovered the second fossil of Tyrannosaurus rex during a career that made him one of the most famous fossil hunters working from the late Victorian era into the early 20th century.Sponsored...
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Photography
- Arthur KornArthur KornArthur Korn was a German-born physicist, mathematician and inventor, who was of Jewish ancestry...
devises practical phototelegraphy technology (reduction of photographic images to data bits which can transmitted by wire to other locations)
Physics
- Oliver HeavisideOliver HeavisideOliver Heaviside was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician, and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, invented mathematical techniques to the solution of differential equations , reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and...
and Arthur E. Kennelly independently predict the existence of what will become known as the Kennelly-Heaviside LayerKennelly-Heaviside layerThe Kennelly–Heaviside layer, named after Arthur Edwin Kennelly and Oliver Heaviside, also known as the E region or simply the Heaviside layer, is a layer of ionised gas occurring between roughly 90–150 km above the ground — one of several layers in the Earth's ionosphere...
of the ionosphereIonosphereThe ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...
. - James Jeans finds the length scale required for gravitational perturbations to grow in a static nearly homogeneous medium.
- Philipp LenardPhilipp LenardPhilipp Eduard Anton von Lenard , known in Hungarian as Lénárd Fülöp Eduárd Antal, was a Hungarian - German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties...
observes that maximum photoelectronPhotoelectric effectIn the photoelectric effect, electrons are emitted from matter as a consequence of their absorption of energy from electromagnetic radiation of very short wavelength, such as visible or ultraviolet light. Electrons emitted in this manner may be referred to as photoelectrons...
energies are independent of illuminating intensity but depend on frequency - Gilbert N. LewisGilbert N. LewisGilbert Newton Lewis was an American physical chemist known for the discovery of the covalent bond , his purification of heavy water, his reformulation of chemical thermodynamics in a mathematically rigorous manner accessible to ordinary chemists, his theory of Lewis acids and...
develops the cubical atomCubical atomThe cubical atom was an early atomic model in which electrons were positioned at the eight corners of a cube in a non-polar atom or molecule. This theory was developed in 1902 by Gilbert N. Lewis and published in 1916 in the famous article "The Atom and the Molecule" and used to account for the...
atomic model. - Theodor SvedbergTheodor SvedbergTheodor H. E. Svedberg was a Swedish chemist and Nobel laureate, active at Uppsala University. His work with colloids supported the theories of Brownian motion put forward by Einstein and the Polish geophysicist Marian Smoluchowski...
suggests that fluctuations in molecular bombardment cause the Brownian motionBrownian motionBrownian motion or pedesis is the presumably random drifting of particles suspended in a fluid or the mathematical model used to describe such random movements, which is often called a particle theory.The mathematical model of Brownian motion has several real-world applications...
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Physiology
- William BaylissWilliam BaylissSir William Maddock Bayliss was an English physiologist.He was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and gained a B.Sc from London University. He graduated MA and DSc in physiology from Wadham College, Oxford....
and Ernest Starling make the first discovery of a hormone, secretinSecretinSecretin is a hormone that controls the secretions into the duodenum, and also separately, water homeostasis throughout the body. It is produced in the S cells of the duodenum in the crypts of Lieberkühn...
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Technology
- First Vierendeel bridgeVierendeel bridgeA Vierendeel bridge is a bridge employing a Vierendeel truss.Such trusses do not have the usual triangular voids seen in a pin–joint truss bridge, rather employing rectangular openings and rigid connections in the elements, which must also resist substantial bending forces...
built, across the ScheldtScheldtThe Scheldt is a 350 km long river in northern France, western Belgium and the southwestern part of the Netherlands...
at AvelgemAvelgemAvelgem is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Avelgem proper, Bossuit, Kerkhove, Outrijve and Waarmaarde. On January 1, 2006 Avelgem had a total population of 9,457. The total area is 21.75 km² which gives a population density of...
in 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...
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Awards
- Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s- PhysicsNobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
- Hendrik LorentzHendrik LorentzHendrik Antoon Lorentz was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect...
, Pieter ZeemanPieter ZeemanPieter Zeeman was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for his discovery of the Zeeman effect.-Childhood and youth:... - ChemistryNobel Prize in ChemistryThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
- Hermann Emil FischerHermann Emil FischerHermann Emil Fischer, Emil Fischer was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of drawing asymmetric carbon atoms.-Early years:Fischer was born in Euskirchen, near Cologne,... - 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...
- Ronald RossRonald RossSir Ronald Ross KCB FRS was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. He was the first Indian-born person to win a Nobel Prize...
- Physics
Births
- February 10 - Walter Houser BrattainWalter Houser BrattainWalter Houser Brattain was an American physicist at Bell Labs who, along with John Bardeen and William Shockley, invented the transistor. They shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention. He devoted much of his life to research on surface states.- Early life and education :He was...
(d. 19871987 in scienceThe year 1987 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.-Astronomy:* February 23 – Supernova 1987a is observed, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604.* Asteroid 7816 Hanoi is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa....
), AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
. - February 16 - Zhang YuzheZhang YuzheZhang Yuzhe or Yu-che Chang was a Chinese astronomer who is widely regarded as the father of modern Chinese astronomy....
(d. 19861986 in scienceThe year 1986 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* January 24 – Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus....
), ChineseChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
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...
. - August 8 - Paul DiracPaul DiracPaul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM, FRS was an English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics...
(d. 19841984 in scienceThe year 1984 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy and space exploration:* February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L...
), EnglishEnglish peopleThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
physicist.
Deaths
- March 6 - Moritz Kaposi (b. 18371837 in scienceThe year 1837 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* August 9 - Edward C. Herrick, in New Haven, Connecticut, identifies the Perseids as an annual phenomenon....
), dermatologist. - April 12 - Alfred Cornu (b. 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....
), physicist. - May 26 - Almon Strowger (b. 18391839 in scienceThe year 1839 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* January - The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.-Biology:...
), telecommunications engineerTelecommunications EngineerTelecommunications engineering, or telecom engineering, is a major field within electronic engineering. The work ranges from basic circuit design to strategic mass developments...
. - September 5 - Rudolf VirchowRudolf VirchowRudolph Carl Virchow was a German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician, known for his advancement of public health...
(b. 18211821 in scienceThe year 1821 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Johann Franz Encke calculates that Comet Encke has a periodic orbit, the second comet after Comet Halley for which this has been discovered....
), pathologist and biologistBiologistA biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
. - November 12 - William Henry BarlowWilliam Henry BarlowOn 28 December 1879, the central section of the North British Railway's bridge across the River Tay near Dundee collapsed in the Tay Bridge disaster as an express train crossed it in a heavy storm. All 75 passengers and crew on the train were killed...
(b. 18121812 in scienceThe year 1812 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Humphry Davy publishes in London.-Geophysics:...
), railway civil engineerCivil engineerA civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
. - December 22 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing (b. 18401840 in scienceThe year 1840 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* William Whewell publishes the term scientist....
), sexologist. - Vasily Dokuchaev (b. 18451845 in scienceThe year 1845 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* January 14 – Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin established and begins publishing Fortschritte der Physik and Verhandlungen....
), geologistGeologistA geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
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