Editing 1873 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1873|science}}
{{Science year nav|1873}}

The year '''1873 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Chemistry==
* [[Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff]] and [[Joseph Achille Le Bel]], working independently, develop a model of [[chemical bonds|chemical bonding]] that explains the chirality experiments of Pasteur and provides a physical cause for [[optical activity]] in chiral compounds<ref name="Profile">{{cite web|title=Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/jacobus-henricus-van%E2%80%99t-hoff|website=Science History Institute |accessdate=21 March 2018|date=June 2016}}</ref><ref name=Bowden>{{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|chapter=Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/94 94–95]}}</ref>

==Exploration==

* The [[Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition]] discovers [[Franz-Josef Land]]

==Mathematics==
* [[Charles Hermite]] proves that the [[mathematical constant]] ''[[e (mathematical constant)|e]]'' is a [[transcendental number]]<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>
* [[Henri Brocard]] introduces the [[Brocard points]], [[Brocard triangle]] and [[Brocard circle]]<ref name=Crilly/><ref>"Etudes d'un nouveau cercle du plan du triangle". Paper to l'Association française pour l'avancement des sciences.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Laura|last=Guggenbuhl|authorlink= Laura Guggenbühl |title=Henri Brocard and the Geometry of the Triangle|journal=The Mathematical Gazette|location=London|publisher=[[Mathematical Association]]|volume=37|issue=322 |pages=241–243|jstor=3610034 |date=December 1953|doi=10.1017/S0025557200027558}}</ref>

==Meteorology==
* September 15 – agreement for establishment of the [[International Meteorological Organization]].{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

==Physics==
* February 20 – English electrical engineer [[Willoughby Smith]] publishes his discovery of the [[photoconductivity]] of the element [[selenium]]<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/007303e0|title=Effect of Light on Selenium During the Passage of an Electric Current|year=1873|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=7|issue=173|page=303|bibcode = 1873Natur...7R.303. |doi-access=free}}</ref>
* June 14 – [[Johannes Diderik van der Waals]] defends his thesis, ''[http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/exhibit/vanderwaals.htm Over de Continuiteit van den Gas en Vloeistoftoestand]'' (On the continuity of the gaseous and liquid state) at [[Leiden University]]; in this, he introduces the concepts of molecular volume and molecular attraction; gives a semi-quantitative description of the phenomena of [[condensation]] and critical temperatures; and derives the [[van der Waals equation]]<ref>{{cite journal|authorlink=James Clerk Maxwell|last=Clerk-Maxwell|first=J.|year=1874|title=Van der Waals on the Continuity of the Gaseous and Liquid States|journal=Nature|volume=10|pages=477–480|doi=10.1038/010477a0|bibcode=1874Natur..10..477C|issue=259|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429215/files/article.pdf}}</ref>
* September 22 – [[James Clerk Maxwell]] delivers a discourse on [[molecule]]s to the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]] meeting in Bradford<ref>{{cite journal|first=J.|last=Clerk-Maxwell|title=Molecules|journal=Nature|doi=10.1038/008437a0|volume=8|issue=204|date=25 September 1873|pages=437–41|bibcode=1873Natur...8..437.|doi-access=free}} Also digitised at [http://www.victorianweb.org/science/maxwell/molecules.html ''The Victorian Web'']. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510161223/http://www.victorianweb.org/science/maxwell/molecules.html Archived] 2012-02-23.</ref>
* December – [[J. Willard Gibbs]] describes the principle of [[Gibbs free energy]]<ref>{{cite journal|first=J. W.|last=Gibbs|title=A Method of Geometrical Representation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Substances by Means of Surfaces|journal=Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences|volume=2|year=1873|pages=382–404}}</ref>
* James Clerk Maxwell's ''[[A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism]]'' first presents the [[partial differential equations]] known as ''[[Maxwell's equations]]'' which form the foundation of [[classical electrodynamics]], [[optics]] and [[electric circuit]]s
* [[Frederick Guthrie (scientist)|Frederick Guthrie]] is the first to report observing [[thermionic emission]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrbOIoMnxnwC&pg=PA196|title=The emission of positive ions by hot metals|first=Owen|last=Richardson|year=1921|accessdate=2009-07-11|isbn=978-1-929148-10-3}}</ref>

==Physiology and medicine==
* June 18 – [[Alice Vickery]] passes the [[Royal Pharmaceutical Society]]'s examination, becoming the first qualified female pharmacist in the United Kingdom<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rpharms.com/women-pharmacists-before-the-20th-century/alice-vickery.asp|title=Alice Vickery|publisher=Royal Pharmaceutical Society|website=www.rpharms.com|accessdate=2013-07-25|archive-date=2016-03-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307083353/http://rpharms.com/women-pharmacists-before-the-20th-century/alice-vickery.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''[[Mycobacterium leprae]]'', the causative agent of [[leprosy]], is discovered by Norwegian [[physician]] [[Gerhard Armauer Hansen]]. It is the first [[bacterium]] to be identified as [[Pathogenic bacteria|pathogenic]] in humans<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hansen|first=G. H. A.|title=Undersøgelser Angående Spedalskhedens Årsager|trans-title=Investigations concerning the etiology of leprosy|journal=Norsk Mag. Laegervidenskaben|year=1874|volume=4|pages=1–88|language=Norwegian}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Irgens|first=L.|title=The discovery of the leprosy bacillus|journal=Tidsskr. Nor. Laegeforen.|volume=122|issue=7|pages=708–9|year=2002|pmid=11998735}}</ref>
* English [[allergist]] [[Charles Harrison Blackley]] publishes ''Experimental Researches on the Causes and Nature of Catarrhus aestivus''
* [[Camillo Golgi]] first publishes a demonstration of [[Golgi's method]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Origins of Neuroscience: a history of explorations into brain function|last=Finger|first=Stanley|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1994|isbn=9780195146943|page=45|oclc=27151391|quote=In 1873, Golgi published the first brief but "adequate" picture of ''la reazione nera'' (the black reaction), which showed the whole nerve cell, including its cell body, axon, and branching dendrites.}}</ref>

==Technology==
* May 20 – [[Jacob W. Davis]] and [[Levi Strauss]] receive United States [[patent#139121]] for using [[copper]] [[rivets]] to strengthen the pockets of denim [[jeans]]
* [[Carl von Linde]] installs his first commercial refrigeration system, built by [[MAN SE|Maschinenfabrik Augsburg]] for the [[Spaten]] Brewery and using [[dimethyl ether]] as the refrigerant
* [[Christopher Miner Spencer]] introduces the [[Automatic lathe|fully automatic turret lathe]]<ref>{{cite book|authorlink=L. T. C. Rolt|first=L. T. C.|last=Rolt|title=A Short History of Machine Tools|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|year=1965|page=169}}</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[Hermann Helmholtz]]<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: [[Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton]]

==Births==
* February 11 – [[Louis Charles Christopher Krieger]] (died [[1940 in science|1940]]), American [[mycologist]]
* February 12 – [[Barnum Brown]] (died [[1963 in science|1963]]), American [[paleontologist]]
* March 5 – [[Thomas Harrison Montgomery, Jr.]] (died [[1912 in science|1912]]), American [[zoologist]] and [[cell biologist]]
* April 25 – [[Félix d'Herelle]] (died [[1949 in science|1949]]), French-Canadian [[microbiologist]], a co-discoverer of [[bacteriophage]]s
* June 28 – [[Alexis Carrel]] (died [[1942 in science|1942]]), French surgeon, [[biologist]] and winner of a [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]]
* June 30 – [[Friedrich Karl Georg Fedde]] (died 1942), German [[botanist]]
* July 7 – [[Sándor Ferenczi]] (died [[1933 in science|1933]]), Hungarian [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]]
* October 4 – [[Dimitrie Pompeiu]] (died [[1954 in science|1954]]), Romanian [[mathematician]]
* October 9 – [[Karl Schwarzschild]] (died [[1916 in science|1916]]), German [[astronomer]] and [[physicist]]

==Deaths==
* January 27 – [[Adam Sedgwick]] (born [[1785 in science|1785]]), English [[geologist]]
* February 1 – [[Matthew Fontaine Maury]] (born [[1806 in science|1806]]), American [[oceanographer]]
* April 18 – [[Justus von Liebig]] (born [[1803 in science|1803]]), German [[chemist]]
* March 10 – [[John Torrey]] (born [[1796 in science|1796]]), American botanist
* March 30 – [[Bénédict Morel]] (born [[1809 in science|1809]]), French [[psychiatrist]]
* September 15 – [[Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko]] (born [[1844 in science|1844]]), Russian [[naturalist]]
* September 24 – [[John Thurnam]] (born [[1810 in science|1810]]), English [[psychiatrist]] and [[ethnologist]]
* October 17 – [[Robert McClure]] (born 1807), British Arctic explorer
* December 14 – [[Louis Agassiz]] (born [[1807 in science|1807]]), Swiss-American [[zoologist]] and geologist

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1873 in science| ]]
[[Category:19th century in science]]
[[Category:1870s in science]]