Editing 1877 in science

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{{Science year nav|1877}}

The year '''1877 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Events==
* June 19 – [[Eadweard Muybridge]] successfully produces a fast-motion sequence of photographs showing a horse in movement, ''[[Sallie Gardner at a Gallop]]'', using multiple cameras at [[Palo Alto, California]], demonstrating that a running horse has all four legs lifted off the ground at once. The sequence could be run on a [[Zoopraxiscope]].<ref>{{cite book|authorlink=Brian Clegg (writer)|last=Clegg|first=Brian|title=The Man Who Stopped Time|location=Washington, DC|publisher=Joseph Henry Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-309-10112-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780309101127}}</ref>

==Astronomy==
* August 12 – [[Americans|American]] astronomer [[Asaph Hall]] discovers [[Deimos (moon)|Deimos]], the smaller of the two [[moons of Mars]]. On August 18, he discovers the larger, [[Phobos (moon)|Phobos]].

==Cartography==
* [[Peirce quincuncial projection]] devised by [[Charles Sanders Peirce]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Peirce|first=C. S.|year=1877|chapter=Appendix No. 15. A Quincuncial Projection of the Sphere|title=Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey Showing the Progress of the Survey for Fiscal Year Ending with June 1877|pages=191–194}}</ref>

==Chemistry==
* [[Ludwig Boltzmann]] establishes statistical derivations of many important physical and chemical concepts, including [[entropy]], and distributions of molecular velocities in the gas phase.<ref>{{cite web |last=Weisstein |first=Eric W. |title=Boltzmann, Ludwig (1844–1906) |work=Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography |publisher=Wolfram Research Products |year=1996 |url=http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Boltzmann.html |accessdate=2007-03-24}}</ref>

==Earth sciences==
* June 26 – [[Volcanic eruption]] of [[Cotopaxi]] in [[Ecuador]].

==History of science==
* Dr. [[August Eisenlohr]] publishes the first translation and study of the [[Rhind Mathematical Papyrus]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/einmathematische00eise#page/n7/mode/2up|first=August|last=Eisenlohr|title=Ein mathematisches Handbuch der alten Aegypter (Papyrus Rhind des British Museum)|publisher=J. C. Hinrichs|location=Leipzig|year=1877|accessdate=2011-10-13}}</ref>
* [[United States|American]] [[railroad]] [[lawyer]] and [[ethnologist]] [[Lewis H. Morgan]] publishes ''[[Ancient Society]]'', linking [[social progress]] with [[technological change]].

==Mathematics==
* [[Georg Cantor]] advances the [[continuum hypothesis]].

==Medicine==
* October 2 – [[Berlin]] [[Urology|urologist]] [[Maximilian Nitze]] and [[Vienna|Viennese]] instrument-maker Josef Leiter introduce the first practical [[Cystoscopy|cystourethroscope]] with an electric light source.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mouton|first1=Wolfgang G.|last2=Bessell|first2=Justin R.|last3=Maddern|first3=Guy J.|title=Looking Back to the Advent of Modern Endoscopy: 150th Birthday of Maximilian Nitze|journal=World Journal of Surgery|volume=22|issue=12|pages=1256–8|year=1998|pmid=9841754|doi=10.1007/s002689900555}}</ref>
* [[Adolph Kussmaul]] first describes [[dyslexia]] as "word-blindness".
* [[William Macewen]] at the [[Glasgow Royal Infirmary]] develops the first [[Bone grafting|bone grafts]], and also performs [[knee]] surgery using a special instrument (Macewen's [[osteotomy|osteotome]]), for the treatment of [[rickets]].
* [[Patrick Manson]] studies animal carriers of infectious diseases.

==Physics==
* [[Ludwig Boltzmann]] states the relationship between [[entropy]] and [[probability]].

==Technology==
* March 28 – [[Frederick Wolseley]] is granted his first [[patent]] for a sheep shearing machine.
* April 30 – French poet [[Charles Cros]] describes a method of recording sound, the [[Phonograph#Paleophone|Paleophone]].
* June – Emile Berliner files a patent for a "combined telegraph and telephone" incorporating a [[microphone]].<ref>{{US patent|463569}}.</ref> 
* June 20 – [[Alexander Graham Bell]] installs the world's first commercial telephone service in [[Hamilton, Ontario]].
* September 4 – [[Louis Brennan]] patents the [[Brennan torpedo]].
* October – Emile Berliner files a patent for a telephone with [[induction coil]]s.<ref>{{US patent|199141}}.</ref>
* November 4 – Opening of [[Gustave Eiffel]]'s [[Maria Pia Bridge]] carrying the railway across the [[Douro]] into [[Porto]], [[Portugal]].
* November 29 – [[Thomas Edison]] first demonstrates his [[phonograph]] sound recording machine.
* December 13 – Thomas Edison files a patent for "telephones or speaking-telegraphs" incorporating a microphone.<ref>{{US patent|203018}}.</ref>
* Surveyor and inventor [[George R. Carey]] of [[Boston]], Massachusetts, creates a [[selenium]] [[telectroscope]] — a camera that can project a moving image to a distant point, an ancestor of [[television]]. [[Constantin Senlecq]] of [[Ardres]], France, develops the same idea independently at about the same time.<ref>''[[Scientific American]]'' 17 May 1878.</ref>

==Publications==
* ''[[Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie]]'' is founded by [[Felix Hoppe-Seyler]].

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[James Dwight Dana]]<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]]: [[Robert Mallet]]

==Births==
* February 2 – [[Margarete Zuelzer]] (died [[1944 in science|1944]]), [[Germans|German]] [[microbiologist]].
* February 7 – [[G. H. Hardy]] (died [[1947 in science|1947]]), [[English people|English]] [[mathematician]].
* March 16 – [[Thomas Wyatt Turner]] (died [[1978 in science|1978]]), [[Americans|American]] civil rights activist, [[biologist]] and educator; first black person ever to receive a doctorate from [[Cornell University]].
* April 5 – [[Walter Sutton]] (died [[1916 in science|1916]]), American [[geneticist]] and [[surgeon]].
* April 24 – [[José Ingenieros]] (died [[1925 in science|1925]]), [[Argentine]] [[polymath]].
* June 14 – [[Ida Maclean]], born Ida Smedley (died [[1944 in science|1944]]), English [[biochemist]].
* September 1 – [[Francis William Aston]] (died [[1945 in science|1945]]), English chemist, [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize]] laureate.
* September 2 – [[Frederick Soddy]] (died [[1956 in science|1956]]), English [[physical chemist]].
* September 11 – [[James Hopwood Jeans]] (died [[1946 in science|1946]]), English mathematician.
* September 13 – [[Wilhelm Filchner]] (died [[1957 in science|1957]]), German [[List of explorers|explorer]].
* October 21 – [[Oswald Avery]] (died [[1955 in science|1955]]), [[Canadian American]] [[bacteriologist]].
* October 25 – [[Henry Norris Russell]] (died [[1957 in science|1957]]), American [[astronomer]].
* November 3 – [[Rosalie Edge]] (died [[1962 in science|1962]]), American [[Conservation movement|conservationist]].

==Deaths==
* January 2 – [[Alexander Bain (inventor)|Alexander Bain]] (born [[1810 in science|1810]]), [[Scottish people|Scottish]] inventor.
* January 12 – [[Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt Hofmeister]] (born [[1824 in science|1824]]), [[German people|German]] [[botanist]].
* February 8 – [[Charles Wilkes]] (born [[1798 in science|1798]]), [[Americans|American]] navigator.
* April 9 – [[Pierre Louis Alphée Cazenave]] (born [[1795 in science|1795]]), [[French people|French]] [[dermatologist]].
* May 5 – [[Joseph Bienaimé Caventou]] (born 1795), French [[pharmacist]].
* June 3 – [[Ludwig von Köchel]] (born [[1800 in science|1800]]), [[Austria]]n [[musicologist]] and botanist.
* September 17 – [[Henry Fox Talbot|H. Fox Talbot]] (born 1800), [[English people|English]] pioneer of [[photography]].
* September 23 – [[Urbain Le Verrier]] (born [[1811 in science|1811]]), [[French people|French]] [[astronomer]].
* September 26 – [[Hermann Günther Grassmann]] (born [[1809 in science|1809]]), German mathematician.
* [[Choe Han-gi]] (born [[1803 in science|1803]]), Korean philosopher of science.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1877 in science| ]]
[[Category:19th century in science]]
[[Category:1870s in science]]