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1872 in science
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{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] --> {{Year nav topic5|1872|science}} {{Science year nav|1872}} The year '''1872 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below. ==Chemistry== * [[Robert Chesebrough]] [[patent]]s [[Vaseline]] in the [[United States]]<ref>U.S. Patent 127,568.</ref> * [[Eugen Baumann]] rediscovers [[polyvinyl chloride]] * [[Charles-Adolphe Wurtz]] discovers the [[aldol reaction]] ==Conservation== * March 1 – [[Yellowstone National Park]] is established in the United States, the world's first [[national park]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Yellowstone, the First National Park |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/yehtml/yeabout.html |accessdate=16 June 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629122651/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/yehtml/yeabout.html |archivedate=29 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/consrvbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(amrvl+vl002)) U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 17, Chap. 24, pp. 32-33. "An Act to set apart a certain Tract of Land lying near the Head-waters of the Yellowstone River as a public Park."] From The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 collection, [[Library of Congress]].</ref> ==Exploration== * December 21 – [[Challenger expedition|''Challenger'' expedition]]: {{HMS|Challenger|1858}} sails from [[Portsmouth]] in England on the 4-year scientific expedition that lays the foundation for the science of [[oceanography]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Rice|first=A. L.|title=Understanding the Oceans: Marine Science in the Wake of HMS Challenger|location=London|publisher=Routledge|year=1999|pages=27–48|chapter=The ''Challenger'' Expedition|isbn=978-1-85728-705-9|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F5agn3NSzEoC&pg=PA27| accessdate= 8 May 2011 <!--DASHBot-->}}</ref> ==Mathematics== * [[Richard Dedekind]] publishes ''Stetigkeit und irrationale Zahlen'', a theory of [[irrational number]]s<ref name=Crilly>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8}}</ref> * [[Felix Klein]] produces the [[Erlangen program]] on [[Geometry|geometries]]<ref name=Crilly/> ==Medicine== * February 15 – [[George Huntington]] makes the first detailed description of [[Huntington's disease]], in Middleport, Ohio<ref>{{cite journal|last=Huntington|first= G.|title=On Chorea|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Chorea|journal=Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadelphia|volume=26|issue=15|date=1872-04-13|pages=317–321}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Lanska|first=D. J.|title=George Huntington (1850–1916) and hereditary chorea|journal=[[Journal of the History of the Neurosciences]]|volume=9|issue=1|pages=76–89|year=2000|pmid=11232352|doi=10.1076/0964-704X(200004)9:1;1-2;FT076|s2cid=22659368}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Vale|first1=Thiago Cardoso|last2=Cardoso|first2=Francisco|title=Chorea: A journey through history|journal=Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements|year=2015|volume=5|page=1–6|pmid=26056609|doi=10.7916/D8WM1C98|pmc=4454991}}</ref> * [[Moritz Kaposi]] describes [[Kaposi's sarcoma]]<ref>{{cite journal|first=Moriz|last=Kaposi|title=Idiopathisches multiples Pigmentsarkom der Haut|year=1872|journal=Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis|volume=4|issue=2|pages=265–73|doi=10.1007/bf01830024|s2cid=31438763|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1428352}} Translated as: {{cite journal|title=Idiopathic Multiple Pigmented Sarcoma of the Skin|journal=CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians|volume=32|year=1982|pages=342–7|doi=10.3322/canjclin.32.6.342|issue=6|last1=Kaposi|first1=M.|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/621.html|title=Moriz Kohn Kaposi|work=[[Who Named It?|Whonamedit?]]|accessdate=2011-03-25}}</ref> and the manifestations of [[systemic lupus erythematosus]] * Ferdinand Monoyer proposes the [[dioptre]] as a unit for measuring the [[optical power]] of a lens<ref>{{cite journal|last=Monoyer|first=F.|title=Sur l'introduction du système métrique dans le numérotage des verres de lunettes et sur le choix d'une unité de réfraction|journal=Annales d'Oculistiques|volume=68|page=101|year=1872}}</ref> ==Physics== * [[Ludwig Boltzmann]] states the [[Boltzmann equation]] for the temporal development of [[Distribution function (physics)|distribution functions]] in [[phase space]], and publishes his [[H-theorem]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopaedia of Physics|edition=2nd|year=1991}}</ref> ==Technology== * April 2 – [[George Brayton]] obtains a United States [[patent]] for a constant pressure internal combustion [[engine]], initially using vaporized gas, and marketed as 'Brayton's Ready Motor'.<ref>Improvement in Gas-Engines (Patent no. 125166).</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Borth|first=Christy|title=Masters of Mass Production|page=152|publisher=Bobbs-Merrill|location=Indianapolis|year=1945}}</ref> * [[John Hopkinson]] proposes the group flash system for distinguishing [[lighthouse]]s<ref>{{cite ODNB|first=T. H.|last=Beare|title=Hopkinson, John (1849–1898)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13758|accessdate=2011-06-02|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/13758}} </ref> * Reverend C. M. Ramus of Sussex, England, devises the single-step [[Hydroplane (boat)|hydroplane]] hull<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Evolution of the Hydroplane|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1914/1914%20-%200796.html|journal=[[Flight (magazine)|Flight]]|volume=6|page=796|date=1914-07-24|accessdate=2012-01-09}}</ref> ==Institutions== * October 1 – the [[Virginia Tech|Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College]] begins its first academic session * The [[Polytechnic Museum]] in Moscow is founded<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Polytechnic Museum|url=http://eng.polymus.ru/?s=18&lvl=1|title=History}}</ref> ==Publications== * May – the magazine ''[[Popular Science]]'' is first published in the United States * [[Charles Darwin]] publishes ''[[The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals]]'' ==Awards== * [[Copley Medal]]: [[Friedrich Woehler]]<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|Wollaston Medal for geology]]: [[James Dwight Dana]] ==Births== * April 5 – [[Samuel Cate Prescott]] (died [[1962 in science|1962]]), [[Americans|American]] [[Food science|food scientist]] and [[microbiologist]] * April 21 - [[Charles Gandy]] (died [[1943 in science|1943]]), French [[physician]]. * May 6 – [[Willem de Sitter]] (died [[1934 in science|1934]]), [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[mathematician]], [[physicist]] and [[astronomer]] * May 21 – [[Henry E. Warren]] (died [[1957 in science|1957]]), American inventor * May 31 – [[Charles Greeley Abbot]] (died [[1973 in science|1973]]), American [[astrophysicist]] * August 1 – [[Solomon Carter Fuller]] (died [[1953 in science|1953]]), [[Liberia]]n-born [[psychiatrist]] * September 23 – [[Marie Depage]] (died in [[Sinking of the RMS Lusitania|sinking of the RMS ''Lusitania'']] [[1915 in science|1915]]), [[Belgians|Belgian]] nurse * October 4 – [[Ernest Fourneau]] (died [[1949 in science|1949]]), [[French people|French]] [[Medicinal chemistry|medicinal chemist]] ==Deaths== * March 8 – [[Priscilla Susan Bury]] (born [[1799 in science|1799]]), English botanist<ref>{{cite book|first=Bernard|last=Lightman|title=Dictionary Of Nineteenth-Century of British Scientists Vol.1|location=Bristol|publisher=Thoemmes|date=2004|page=356|isbn=978-1-85506-999-2}}</ref> * April 2 – [[Samuel Morse]] (born [[1791 in science|1791]]), American [[inventor]] * May 6 – [[George Robert Gray]] (born [[1808 in science|1808]]), English [[zoologist]] * August 11 – [[Andrew Smith (zoologist)|Sir Andrew Smith]] (born [[1797 in science|1797]]), Scottish-born military surgeon, explorer, ethnologist and zoologist * August 22 – [[Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis]] (born [[1787 in science|1787]]), French [[physician]] * November 7 – [[Alfred Clebsch]] (born [[1833 in science|1833]]), [[Germans|German]] [[mathematician]] * December 6 – [[Félix Archimède Pouchet]] (born [[1800 in science|1800]]), French scientist * December 24 – [[William John Macquorn Rankine]] (born [[1820 in science|1820]]), Scottish physicist * [[Anne Elizabeth Ball]] (born 1808), Irish [[psychologist]] ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:1872 in science| ]] [[Category:19th century in science]] [[Category:1870s in science]]
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