Editing 1802 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Year nav topic5|1802|science}}
{{Science year nav|1802}}

The year '''1802 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy==
* March 28 – [[H. W. Olbers]] discovers the [[asteroid]] [[2 Pallas|Pallas]], the second known.
* May 6 – [[William Herschel]] coins the term ''asteroid''<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=107120 |first=William |last=Herschel |title=Observations on the two lately discovered celestial Bodies |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |volume=92 |pages=213–232 |date=6 May 1802 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1802.0010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/minorplanets.php |first=James L. |last=Hilton |title=When Did the Asteroids Become Minor Planets? |date=2001-09-17 |access-date=2006-08-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090825024347/http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/minorplanets.php |archive-date=2009-08-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and on July 1 first uses the term [[binary star]] to refer to a star which revolves around another.<ref>{{cite journal | date = 1802 | title =  Catalogue of 500 New Nebulae, Nebulous Stars, Planetary Nebulae, and Clusters of Stars; With Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens| first= William |last=Herschel | jstor=107131| url =https://zenodo.org/record/1432308/files/article.pdf | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London | volume = 92 | pages = 477–528 [481] |bibcode = 1802RSPT...92..477H | doi = 10.1098/rstl.1802.0021 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

==Biology==
* [[Pierre André Latreille]] begins publication of his ''Histoire naturelle générale et particulière des crustacés et insectes''.
* [[George Montagu (naturalist)|George Montagu]] publishes his ''[[Ornithological Dictionary; or Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds]]''.
* In the [[history of evolutionary thought]]
** [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]] publishes ''Recherches sur l'Organisation des Corps Vivants'', proposing that all life is organized in a vertical chain of progressive complexity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Osborn|first=Henry Fairfield|author-link=Henry Fairfield Osborn|title=From the Greeks to Darwin: an outline of the development of the evolution idea|url=https://archive.org/details/fromgreekstodar00osbogoog|year=1905|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York|edition=2nd|page=[https://archive.org/details/fromgreekstodar00osbogoog/page/n175 160]}}</ref>
** [[Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus]] begins publication of ''Biologie; oder die Philosophie der lebenden Natur'', proposing a theory of the transmutation of species.

==Chemistry==
* June – The first account of [[Thomas Wedgwood (photographer)|Thomas Wedgwood]]'s experiments in [[photography]] using [[silver nitrate]] is published by [[Humphry Davy]] in the ''Journal of the [[Royal Institution]]'' in London.<ref>"An Account of a method of copying Painting upon Glass and making profiles, by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver." Invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. with Observations by H. Davy.</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Hirsch|title=Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/354 354]}}</ref> Since a fixative for the image has not yet been devised, the early photographs quickly fade.
* July – [[William Hyde Wollaston]] notes the discovery of the [[Noble metals|noble metal]] [[palladium]].
* [[Charles's law]] (the "law of volumes"), describing how [[gas]]es tend to expand when heated, is first published in [[France]] by [[Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gay-Lussac|first=J. L.|title=Recherches sur la dilatation des gaz et des vapeurs|journal=Annales de chimie|volume=XLIII|page=137|url=http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/gaygas.html| access-date=29 September 2010 <!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref>

==Ecology==
* Civil engineer and geographer François Antoine Rauch publishes ''Harmonie hydro-végétale et météorologique: ou recherches sur les moyens de recréer avec nos forêts la force des températures et la régularité des saisons par des plantations raisonnées'' in [[Paris]], arguing against [[deforestation]].

==Geology==
* [[James Smithson]] proves that [[zinc carbonate]]s are true [[carbonate]] minerals and not [[zinc oxide]]s, as was previously thought.<ref>{{cite web|title=Who was James Smithson? – A Man of Science|url=http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/who_04.html|publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]]|access-date=2007-06-18| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612070808/http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/who_04.html| archive-date=12 June 2007 <!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Smithson|first=James|title=A Chemical Analysis of Some Calamines|url=http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/calamine.html|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London]]|volume=Pt. I|year=1803| access-date= 25 February 2011 <!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref>
* [[John Playfair]] publishes ''Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth'' in [[Edinburgh]], popularising [[James Hutton]]'s theory of geology.
* [[James Sowerby]] begins to issue his ''British Mineralogy, or, coloured figures intended to elucidate the mineralogy of Great Britain'' in London, the first comprehensive illustrated reference work on the subject.

==Medicine==
* June – The first [[pediatric hospital]], the [[Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital|Hôpital des Enfants Malades]], opens in Paris, on the site of a previous [[orphanage]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ballbriga|first=Angel|editor-last1=Nichols|editor-first1=Buford L.|editor-last2=Ballabriga|editor-first2=A.|editor-last3=Kretchmer|editor-first3=N.|title=History of Pediatrics 1850–1950|series=Nestlé Nutrition Workshop Series|volume=22|year=1991|publisher=Raven Press|location=New York|isbn=0-88167-695-0|pages=6–8|chapter=One century of pediatrics in Europe}}</ref>
* [[London Fever Hospital]] founded.
* [[Charles Bell]]  publishes ''The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings''.<ref>{{cite web|first=L. S.|last=Jacyna|title=Bell, Sir Charles (1774–1842)|work=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1999|access-date=2011-04-06|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/1999}} {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

==Meteorology==
* December – [[Luke Howard]] presents the basis of the modern classification and nomenclature of clouds, at a lecture in London.

==Physics==
* [[Johann Wilhelm Ritter]] builds the first [[electrochemical cell]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Hermann |last=Berg |year=2008 |title=Johann Wilhelm Ritter: the Founder of Scientific Electrochemistry |journal=Review of Polarography |volume=54 |number=2 |pages=99–103 |doi=10.5189/revpolarography.54.99 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Walter D.|last=Wetzels|year=1978|chapter=J. W. Ritter: the Beginnings of Electrochemistry in Germany|title=Selected Topics in the History of Electrochemistry|editor-last1=Dubpernell|editor-first1=G.|editor-last2=Westbrook|editor-first2=J. H.|location=Princeton|publisher=Electrochemical Society|pages=68–73}}</ref>

==Surveying==
* April 10 – [[Great Trigonometric Survey]] of [[India]] begins with the measurement of a baseline near [[Chennai|Madras]].

==Technology==
* November 5 – [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] begins installation of his [[Block (sailing)|blockmaking]] machinery at [[Portsmouth Block Mills]] in [[England]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bagust|first=Harold|title=The Greater Genius? – a biography of Marc Isambard Brunel|year=2006|publisher=Ian Allan|location=Hersham|isbn=978-0-7110-3175-3|page=31}}</ref>
* George Bodley of [[Exeter]] in England patents the first enclosed [[kitchen stove]].<ref>{{cite web|first1=David|last1=Cornforth|first2=Anne|last2=Speight|title=Bodley & Co.|url=http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/bodley.php|work=Exeter Memories|date=2009-05-03|access-date=2011-03-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Ranges|url=http://www.antiquefireplacesandranges.com/historyofranges.html|publisher=Antique Fireplaces & Ranges|location=Tarvin|access-date=2011-03-12}}</ref>

==Publications==
* January 2 – Rev. [[Abraham Rees]] begins publication in London of ''[[Rees's Cyclopædia|The New Cyclopædia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/science_library/~/media/EF4C87E781D6416E8CC65F252635C086.ashx|title=The subversive encyclopedia|first=John|last=Underwood|journal=Science Museum Library & Archives Newsletter|date=Spring–Summer 2010|publisher=[[Science Museum at Wroughton]]|access-date=2011-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117233801/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/science_library/~/media/EF4C87E781D6416E8CC65F252635C086.ashx|archive-date=2011-01-17|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[William Hyde Wollaston]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=21 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

==Births==
* February 6 – [[Charles Wheatstone]], English inventor (died [[1875 in science|1875]])
* April 4 – [[Dorothea Dix]], American mental health reformer (died [[1887 in science|1887]])
* July 9 – [[Thomas Davenport (inventor)|Thomas Davenport]], American inventor (died [[1851 in science|1851]])
* August 5 – [[Niels Henrik Abel]], Norwegian mathematician (died [[1829 in science|1829]])
* October 10 – [[Hugh Miller]], Scottish geologist (suicide [[1856 in science|1856]])
* December 15 – [[János Bolyai]], Hungarian mathematician (died [[1860 in science|1860]])

==Deaths==
* April 14 – [[John Mackay (botanist)|John Mackay]], Scottish botanist (born [[1772 in science|1772]])
* April 18 – [[Erasmus Darwin]], English author of ''[[Zoonomia]]'' (born [[1731 in science|1731]])
* November 16 – [[André Michaux]], French botanist (born [[1746 in science|1746]])

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1802 in science| ]]
[[Category:19th century in science]]
[[Category:1800s in science]]