1897 in science
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The year 1897 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Contents
Chemistry[edit]
- April 30 – J. J. Thomson first describes his discovery of the electron.[1][2]
History of science and technology[edit]
- Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld publishes Periplus: An Essay on the Early History of Charts and Sailing Directions in Stockholm.
- The Boulton and Watt Smethwick Engine of 1779 is dismantled for preservation by the Birmingham Canal Navigations company in England.
Mathematics[edit]
- David Hilbert unifies the field of algebraic number theory with his treatise Zahlbericht.
- John Edward Campbell originates the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula for multiplication of exponentials in Lie algebras.[3]
- Raoul Bricard investigates and classifies flexible polyhedra, defining the Bricard octahedron.[4]
- Henri Brocard begins publication of his source book on geometric curves, Notes de Bibliographie des Courbes Géométriques, in Bar-le-Duc.[5][6]
Medicine and Pharmacology[edit]
- August 10 – History of aspirin: At the German Bayer chemical and dyestuffs company, pharmacist Felix Hoffmann successfully synthesizes acetylsalicylic acid, a synthetically altered version of salicin, as a less-irritating replacement for standard common salicylate medicines, after isolating a compound from a plant of the Spiraea family; the company markets it under the brand name 'Aspirin'.[7]
- August 20 – Ronald Ross discovers the malaria Plasmodium in an Anopheles mosquito, demonstrating the transmission mechanism for the disease.[8]
- Danish veterinarian Bernhard Bang isolates Brucella abortus as the agent of Brucellosis.
- Epinephrine discovered by John Jacob Abel.
- L. Emmett Holt publishes the standard textbook The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood in New York.
Psychology[edit]
- Émile Durkheim publishes his classic study Le Suicide.
Technology[edit]
- May 13 – Guglielmo Marconi sends the first ever wireless communication over open sea when the message "Are you ready" is transmitted across the Bristol Channel from Lavernock Point in South Wales to Flat Holm Island, a distance of 6 kilometres (3.7 mi).[9]
- May 17 – Launch of the Holland VI (later USS Holland (SS-1)), designed by John Philip Holland, at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard in Elizabeth, New Jersey; this is the first submarine having power to run submerged for any considerable distance, and the first to combine electric motors for submerged travel and gasoline (Otto) engines for use on the surface.
- June 26 – At the British Fleet Review, Charles Parsons gives a spectacular display of the unprecedented speed attainable by his steam turbine-powered Turbinia.[10]
- August 10 – Rudolf Diesel builds his first working prototype Diesel engine in Augsburg.
- August 31 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor of the movie projector.
- The Dahlander pole changing motor is patented.
- Hiram P. Maxim develops the muffler in conjunction with the firearm silencer (suppressor).
- Undated - The Daimler Victoria—the world's first meter-equipped (and gasoline-powered) taxicab—was built by Gottlieb Daimler in 1897.
Awards[edit]
Births[edit]
- March 24 – Wilhelm Reich (died 1957), Austrian psychoanalyst.
- July 20 – Tadeusz Reichstein (died 1996), Polish-born Nobel Prize-winning chemist.[11]
- August 12 – Otto Struve (died 1963), Ukrainian-born astronomer.
- September 12 – Irène Joliot-Curie (died 1956), French chemist.
- November 4 – C. B. van Niel (died 1985), Dutch-born microbiologist.
- November 13 – Tilly Edinger (died 1967), German-born paleoneurologist.
- December 22 – Vojtěch Jarník (died 1970), Czech mathematician.
Deaths[edit]
- January 25 – David Kirkaldy (born 1820), Scottish-born engineer, pioneer of materials testing.
- February 19 – Karl Weierstrass (born 1815), German mathematician.
- March 3 – John Peirce (born 1836), American inventor.
- March 15 – James Joseph Sylvester (born 1814), English mathematician.
- May 6
- Edward James Stone (born 1831), English astronomer.
- Alfred Des Cloizeaux (born 1817), French mineralogist.
- May 7 – Abraham Dee Bartlett (born 1812), English zoologist.
- August 27 – Eduard von Hofmann (born 1837), Austrian forensic pathologist.
- October 19 – George Pullman (born 1831), American inventor.
- October 31 – Samuel Haughton (born 1821), Irish scientific polymath.
References[edit]
- ^ "Joseph John "J. J." Thomson". Science History Institute. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ Bowden, Mary Ellen (1997). "Joseph John Thomson". Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences. Philadelphia, PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation. pp. 67–69. ISBN 9780941901123.
- ^ Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 28 (1897) 381–390, 29 (1898) 14–32.
- ^ Bricard, R. (1897). "Mémoire sur la théorie de l'octaèdre articulé" (PDF). Journal de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées. 3: 113–150. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17.
- ^ Guggenbuhl, Laura (December 1953). "Henri Brocard and the Geometry of the Triangle". The Mathematical Gazette. London: Mathematical Association. 37 (322): 241–243. JSTOR 3610034.
- ^ Silva, Maria do Céu; Duarte, António Leal; de Sá, Carlos Correia (June 2004). "Gallery: Francisco Gomes Teixeira". CIM Bulletin. Centro Internacional de Matemática. 16. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ Jeffreys, Diarmuid (2005). Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug. London: Bloomsbury. p. 70.
- ^ "Ross and the Discovery that Mosquitoes Transmit Malaria Parasites". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2010. Retrieved 2011-06-14.
- ^ "Marconi's Waves". BBC Wales. Archived from the original on 2007-01-20.
- ^ Russell, Phil (1999). "Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (1854-1931)". Navies in Transition. Archived from the original on 2010-01-18. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
- ^ "Tadeus Reichstein - Biographical". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 21 February 2018.