Editing 1857 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1857|science}}
{{Science year nav|1857}}

The year '''1857 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy==
* [[Peter Andreas Hansen]]'s ''Tables of the Moon'' are published in London.<ref>{{cite journal|author=W. T. L.|title=Peter Andreas Hansen|journal=[[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]]|volume=35|year=1875|issue=4 |url=http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0035//0000170.000.html|pages=168–170|accessdate=2011-08-26|doi=10.1093/mnras/35.4.168|bibcode=1875MNRAS..35..168.|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Biology==
* [[Miles Joseph Berkeley|Rev. M. J. Berkeley]] publishes ''Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany''.

==Chemistry==
* [[Robert Bunsen]] invents apparatus for measuring [[effusion]].
* [[August Kekulé]] proposes that [[carbon]] is tetravalent, or forms exactly four [[chemical bond]]s.<ref name="Profile">{{cite web|title=August Kekulé and Archibald Scott Couper|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/august-kekul%C3%A9-and-archibald-scott-couper|website=Science History Institute|accessdate=21 March 2018|archive-date=21 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180321132315/https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/august-kekul%C3%A9-and-archibald-scott-couper|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bowden|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences|url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd|url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|location=Philadelphia, PA|isbn=9780941901123|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/91 91–93]}}</ref>
* [[Carl Wilhelm Siemens]] patents the [[Siemens cycle]].

==Earth sciences==
* January 9 – The 7.9 {{M|w}} [[1857 Fort Tejon earthquake|Fort Tejon earthquake]] shakes [[Central California|Central]] and [[Southern California]] with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of IX (''Violent''). The event, which involves slip on the southern segment of the [[San Andreas Fault]], leaves two people dead.
* [[Friedrich Albert Fallou]] publishes ''Anfangsgründe der Bodenkunde'' [First Principles of Soil Science], laying the foundations for the modern study of [[soil science]].

==Exploration==
* May 16 – The [[Palliser expedition|British North American Exploring Expedition]], led by Irish geographer Capt. [[John Palliser]], sets off for a three-year exploration of [[Western Canada]].
* [[Galen Clark]] becomes the first European American to see the [[Mariposa Grove]] of [[giant sequoia]]s in [[California]].

==History of science and technology==
* The [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]]'s [[Locomotion No. 1|''Locomotion'' No. 1]] of 1825 is set aside for preservation in England.

==Mathematics==
* [[William Rowan Hamilton]] invents the [[Icosian game]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Norman L.|last1=Biggs|first2=E. Keith|last2=Lloyd|first3=Robin J.|last3=Wilson|title=Graph Theory 1736–1936|title-link=Graph Theory, 1736–1936|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1976|isbn=0198539010}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* March 12 – [[Elizabeth Blackwell]] opens the [[New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children]].
* French surgeon Jean-Louis-Paul Denucé gives the first description of a [[Incubator (neonatal)|neonatal incubator]].
* French psychiatrist [[Bénédict Morel]] publishes ''Traité des dégénérescences physiques, intellectuelles et morales de l'espèce humaine et des causes qui produisent ces variétés maladives''.

==Technology==
* March 23 – [[Elisha Otis]]' first [[elevator]] is installed (at 488 [[Broadway (Manhattan)]]).
* The first [[Track (rail transport)|rails]] made from [[steel]] are made by [[Robert Forester Mushet]] early in the year and laid experimentally at [[Derby railway station]] on the [[Midland Railway]] in [[England]]. They prove far more durable than the iron rails they replace and remain in use until 1873.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Guinness Book of Rail Facts & Feats|authorlink=John Marshall (railway historian)|last=Marshall|first=John|year=1979|publisher=Guinness Superlatives |isbn=0-900424-56-7}}</ref>

==Publications==
* [[Naturalist]] [[Philip Henry Gosse|P. H. Gosse]]'s [[Creationism|creationist]] text ''[[Omphalos (book)|Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot]]'' is published in England.

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[Michel Eugène Chevreul]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=23 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Wollaston Medal]] for geology: [[Joachim Barrande]]

==Births==
* January 20 – [[Vladimir Bekhterev]] (died [[1927 in science|1927]]), Russian [[psychologist]].
* February 3 – [[Wilhelm Johannsen]] (died 1927), Danish [[plant physiologist]] and [[geneticist]].
* February 22 – [[Heinrich Hertz]] (died [[1894 in science|1894]]), German physicist
* March 27 – [[Karl Pearson|Carl Pearson]] (died [[1936 in science|1936]]), English [[mathematician]].
* April 30 – [[Eugen Bleuler]] (died [[1939 in science|1939]]), Swiss [[psychiatrist]].
* May 13 – [[Ronald Ross]] (died [[1932 in science|1932]]), Indian-born British [[physiologist]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] 1902.
* May 15 – [[Williamina Fleming]] (died [[1911 in science|1911]]), Scottish-born American astronomer.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Deborah|last1=Todd|first2=Joseph|last2=Angelo|title=A to Z of Scientists in Space and Astronomy|location=New York|publisher=Facts of File|year=2003|page=117|isbn=978-0-81604-639-3}}</ref>
* June 28 – [[Sir Robert Jones, 1st Baronet|Robert Jones]] (died [[1933 in science|1933]]), Welsh [[orthopaedic surgeon]].
* July 11 – [[Joseph Larmor]] (died [[1942 in science|1942]]), Irish physicist.
* August 8 – [[Henry Fairfield Osborn]] (died [[1935 in science|1935]]), American [[paleontologist]].
* October 2 – [[John Macintyre]] (died [[1928 in science|1928]]), Scottish [[laryngologist]] and pioneer [[radiographer]].
* November 1 – [[John Joly]] (died [[1933 in science|1933]]), Anglo-Irish [[physicist]].
* November 27 – [[Charles Scott Sherrington|Charles Sherrington]] (died [[1952 in science|1952]]), English [[neurophysiologist]] and [[bacteriologist]], winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1932.
* November 29 – [[Theodor Escherich]] (died [[1911 in science|1911]]), German-born pediatric bacteriologist.

==Deaths==
* January 2 – [[Andrew Ure]] (born [[1778 in science|1778]]), Scottish [[Industrial chemistry|industrial chemist]] and [[encyclopaedist]].
* May 23 – [[Augustin-Louis Cauchy]] (born [[1789 in science|1789]]), French [[mathematician]].
* June 21 – [[Louis Jacques Thénard]] (born [[1777 in science|1777]]), French [[chemist]].
* July 13 – [[Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner]] (born [[1783 in science|1783]]), German chemist.
* July 29 – [[Charles Lucien Bonaparte]] (born [[1803 in science|1803]]), French [[Natural history|naturalist]].
* August 12 – [[William Conybeare (geologist)|William Conybeare]] (born [[1787 in science|1787]]), English [[geologist]].
* November 30 – [[Mary Buckland]] (born [[1797 in science|1797]]), English [[paleontologist]] and marine biologist.
* December 15 – [[George Cayley]] (born [[1773 in science|1773]]), English aviation pioneer.
* December 17 – [[Francis Beaufort]] (born [[1774 in science|1774]]), British [[hydrographer]].
* ''date unknown'' – [[Elizabeth Philpot]] (born [[1780 in science|1780]]), English paleontologist.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1857 in science| ]]
[[Category:19th century in science]]
[[Category:1850s in science]]