Editing 1887 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1887|science}}
{{Science year nav|1887}}

The year '''1887 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved many significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy==
* April – [[Carte du Ciel]] project initiated by [[Paris Observatory]] director [[Amédée Mouchez]].
* [[Theodor von Oppolzer]]'s ''[[Canon of Eclipses|Canon der Finsternisse]]'', a compilation of the 8,000 solar and 5,200 lunar [[eclipse]]s from 1200 BC until 2161 AD, is published posthumously.<ref>von Oppolzer, Th. ''Canon der Finsternisse''. Vienna: Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei [= ''Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien'', Math.-naturw. Kl., Bd. 52]; repr. with preface by [[Donald Howard Menzel|Donald H. Menzel]] and English translation of the introduction by [[Owen Gingerich]], New York: Dover Publications, 1962.</ref>

==Biology==
* [[Jean Pierre Mégnin]] publishes ''Faune des Tombeaux'' ("Fauna of the Tombs"), the founding work of modern [[forensic entomology]].<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Klotzbach, H. |author2=Krettek, R. |title=The history of forensic entomology in German-speaking countries|journal=Forensic Science International|year=2004|volume=144|issue=2–3|pages=259–263|pmid=15364399|doi=10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.04.062|display-authors=etal|citeseerx=10.1.1.503.3269 }}</ref>
* [[Sergei Winogradsky]] discovers the first known form of [[lithotrophy]] during his research with ''[[Beggiatoa]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Winogradsky|first=S.|title=Über Schwefelbakterien|journal=Botanische Zeitung|issue=45|pages=489–610|year=1887}}</ref>
* The [[Petri dish]] is created by German bacteriologist [[Julius Richard Petri]].

==Chemistry==
* [[Amphetamine]] is first synthesized in Germany by Romanian chemist [[Lazăr Edeleanu]], who names it ''phenylisopropylamine''.
* [[Otto Schott]] produces 'Normalthermometerglas' (family of [[Borosilicate glass]]) for the first time. <!--- 1886/87 --->

==Cartography==
* [[Guyou hemisphere-in-a-square projection]] developed by Émile Guyou.<ref>{{cite book|authorlink=John P. Snyder|last=Snyder|first=John P.|title=Flattening the Earth|publisher=University of Chicago|year=1993|isbn=978-0-226-76746-8}}</ref>

==Climate==
* January 28 – In a [[snowstorm]] at [[Fort Keogh]], [[Montana]], in the [[United States]], the largest [[snow]]flakes on record are reported. They are 15&nbsp;inches (38&nbsp;cm) wide and 8&nbsp;inches (20&nbsp;cm) thick.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/73325-largest-snowflake |title=Largest snowflake |website=guinnessworldrecords.com |access-date=November 23, 2022}}</ref>
* September 28 – Start of the [[1887 Yellow River flood|Yellow River floods]] in [[China]]: 900,000 dead.

==Conservation==
* June 23 – The [[Rocky Mountains Park Act]] becomes law in [[Canada]], creating that nation's first [[national park]], [[Banff National Park]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Canada Creates National Park |url=http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/cseh-twih/archives2_E.asp?id=25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040318112228/http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/cseh-twih/archives2_E.asp?id=25 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2004-03-18 |work=This Week in History Archives |publisher=[[Parks Canada]] |accessdate=2011-04-10 }}</ref>

==Earth sciences==
* February 23 – The [[French Riviera]] is hit by a large [[earthquake]], killing around 2,000 along the coast of the [[Mediterranean Sea]].
* In [[Hawaii]], the [[Mauna Loa]] volcano eruptions subside, having begun in [[1843 in science|1843]]. During the 1887 eruption, about 2½ million tons (2.3 million metric tons) of lava per hour pours out, covering an area of 29&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>.

==Linguistics==
[[File:AnneSullivanMacy.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|[[Anne Sullivan]]]]
* March 3 – [[Anne Sullivan]] begins to teach language to the deaf and blind [[Helen Keller]].
* July 26 – [[L. L. Zamenhof]] publishes ''Lingvo internacia'' ("International language") under the [[pseudonym]] "Doktoro [[Esperanto]]".<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Brown, Keith |editor2=Ogilvie, Sarah |title=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World|location=Oxford|publisher=Elsevier|year=2009|isbn=978-0-08-087774-7|page=375}}</ref>

==Mathematics==
* [[Joseph Louis François Bertrand]] rediscovers [[Bertrand's ballot theorem]].<ref>{{cite book|title=An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications|volume=1|first=William|last=Feller|authorlink=William Feller|edition=3rd|publisher=Wiley|year=1968|page=69}}</ref>
* [[Henri Poincaré]] provides a solution to the [[three-body problem]].

==Medicine==
* January 11 – [[Louis Pasteur]]'s anti-[[rabies]] treatment is defended in the [[French Academy of Medicine]] by Dr. Joseph Grancher.
* August – The U.S. [[National Institutes of Health]] is founded at the Marine Hospital, [[Staten Island, NY]], as the Laboratory of Hygiene.
* October 1 – [[Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese]] founded by [[Patrick Manson]].<ref>{{cite web|title=History & Development |url=http://www.hku.hk/facmed/01us_history.htm |year=2006 |publisher=The University of Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine |accessdate=2011-04-05 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513055941/https://www0.hku.hk/facmed/01us_history.htm |archivedate=2011-05-13 }}</ref>
* [[Franz König (surgeon)|Franz König]] publishes "Über freie Körper in den Gelenken" in the journal ''Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie'', first describing (and naming) the disease ''[[Osteochondritis dissecans]]''.
* The [[NHS Confederation|Hospitals Association]] establishes the first (non-statutory and voluntary) register of [[Nursing in the United Kingdom|nurses in the United Kingdom]].

==Physics==
[[File:Heinrich Rudolf Hertz 2.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|[[Heinrich Hertz]]]]
* November – The [[Michelson–Morley experiment]] is performed, indicating that the speed of light is independent of motion.
* [[Heinrich Hertz]] discovers the [[photoelectric effect]] on the production and reception of [[Electromagnetism|electromagnetic waves]] in radio, an important step towards the understanding of the quantum nature of light.

==Psychology==
* November – [[G. Stanley Hall]] founds ''The [[American Journal of Psychology]]''.
* Richard Hodgson and S. J. Davey, in the course of investigations into popular belief in [[parapsychology]], publish one of the first descriptions of eyewitness unreliability.<ref>"The Possibilities of Malobservation and Lapse of Memory from a Practical Point of View". ''Proceedings of the [[Society for Psychical Research]]'' '''4''' ([https://archive.org/details/proceedingssoci02britgoog Internetversion]).</ref>

==Technology==
* March 8 – Everett Horton of [[Connecticut]] [[patent]]s a [[fishing rod]] of telescoping steel tubes.
* March 13 – [[Chester Greenwood]] patents [[earmuffs]].
* June 8 – [[Herman Hollerith]] receives a U.S. patent for his [[punched card]] [[calculator]].
* July – [[James Blyth (engineer)|James Blyth]] operates the first working [[wind turbine]] at [[Marykirk]] in [[Scotland]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Price|first=Trevor J.|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/100957|title=Blyth, James (1839–1906)|work=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]|publisher=Oxford University Press|edition=Online|year=2004|accessdate=2014-04-16}} {{ODNBsub}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Renewable energy and role of Marykirk's James Blyth|last=Hardy|first=Chris|date=2010-07-06|newspaper=[[The Courier (Dundee)]]|publisher=D. C. Thomson & Co}}</ref>
* July 19 – [[Dorr Eugene Felt]] receives the first U.S. patent for his [[comptometer]].<ref>[https://patents.google.com/patent/US366945 U.S. Patent No. 366,945], filed July 6, 1886; second patent granted October 11, 1887: [https://patents.google.com/patent/US371496 U.S. Patent No. 371,496], filed March 12, 1887.</ref>
* August – [[Anna Connelly]] patents a [[fire escape]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US368816A/en |title=Anna Connelly's 1887 patent for a fire escape (Patent No. 368,816) |id=US368816A |website=patents.google.com |access-date=November 23, 2022}}</ref>
* October 18 – Jacob Fitzgerald and William H. Silver are granted a U.S. patent for a "potato masher and fruit crusher", a form of [[potato ricer]].<ref>[https://patents.google.com/patent/US371882A/en US371882A].</ref>
* November 8 – [[Emile Berliner]] is granted a U.S. patent for his [[Phonograph|Gramophone]].<ref>{{US patent|372786}}</ref>
* [[Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick]] invents the [[contact lens]], made of a type of brown glass.<ref>{{cite web|first=Robert|last=Heitz|title=The ''Kontaktbrille'' of Adolf Eugen Fick (1887)|work=XVIIIth Convention of the Julius-Hirschberg-Gesellschaft Oktober 14th–16th 2004 Innsbruck|url=http://www.dog.org/jhg/abstract_2004/english.html|accessdate=2012-03-13|archive-date=2012-03-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305220553/http://www.dog.org/jhg/abstract_2004/english.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* English engineer [[James Atkinson (inventor)|James Atkinson]] invents his "[[Atkinson cycle#Atkinson "Cycle Engine"|Cycle Engine]]".
* [[Mexican people|Mexican]] [[general]] [[Manuel Mondragón]] patents the [[Mondragón rifle]], the world's first [[automatic rifle]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cruffler.com/historic-february01.html|title=Historic Firearm of the Month |work=Cruffler.com|accessdate=2013-07-05 |date=March 2001}}</ref>
* [[Alfred Yarrow]] completes the first practical high-pressure [[Water-tube boiler|water-tube]] [[Yarrow boiler]], for a [[torpedo boat]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Borthwick|first=Alastair|year=1965|title=Yarrows: the first hundred years|location=Glasgow|publisher=Yarrows|pages=36–37}}</ref>

==Organizations==
* March 7 – [[North Carolina State University]] is established as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
* October 3 – [[Florida A&M University]] opens its doors in [[Tallahassee, Florida]].

==Publications==
* Publication in [[Barcelona]] of [[Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau|Enrique Gaspar]]'s ''El anacronópete'', the first work of fiction to feature a [[Time travel|time machine]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Kathryn|last=Westcott|title=HG Wells or Enrique Gaspar: Whose time machine was first?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-europe-12900390|work=[[BBC News]]|date=2011-04-09|accessdate=2011-04-09}}</ref>

==Awards==
* June – [[William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong|William Armstrong]] created 1st Baron Armstrong of [[Cragside]], the first [[engineer]] to be raised to the [[Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[Joseph Dalton Hooker]]<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: [[John Whitaker Hulke]]

==Births==
* January 7 – [[Kurt Schneider]] (died [[1967 in science|1967]]), [[Germans|German]] [[psychiatrist]].
* January 15 – [[Henry Fairfield Osborn, Jr.]] (died [[1969 in science|1969]]), [[Americans|American]] [[conservation movement|conservationist]].
* January 28 – [[Edmund Jaeger]] (died [[1983 in science|1983]]), American [[naturalist]].
* April 20 – [[Margaret Newton]] (died [[1971 in science|1971]]), [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[plant pathologist]].
* June 22 – [[Julian Huxley]] (died [[1975 in science|1975]]), [[English people|English]] [[biologist]] and populariser of science.
* July 30 – [[Felix Andries Vening Meinesz]] (died [[1966 in science|1966]]), [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[geophysicist]].
* August 18 – [[Erwin Schrödinger]] (died [[1961 in science|1961]]), [[Austrians|Austrian]] [[physicist]].
* September 26 – [[Barnes Wallis]] (died [[1979 in science|1979]]), English [[aeronautical engineer]].
* October 11 – [[María Teresa Ferrari]] (died [[1956 in science|1956]]), [[Argentines|Argentine]] [[physician]].
* November 10 – [[Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu]] (died [[1973 in science|1973]]), [[Romanians|Romanian]] [[engineer]].
* November 19 – [[James B. Sumner]] (died [[1955 in science|1955]]), American winner of the 1946 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].
* November 23 – [[Henry Moseley]] (killed [[1915 in science|1915]]), English physicist.
* November 25 (November 13 [[Old Style]]) – [[Nikolai Vavilov]] (died [[1943 in science|1943]]), [[Russia]]n plant pathologist.
* December 13 – [[George Pólya]] (died [[1985 in science|1985]]), [[Hungarian people|Hungarian]] [[mathematician]].
* December 22 – [[Srinivasa Ramanujan]] (died [[1920 in science|1920]]), [[Indian people|Indian]] mathematician.
* December 27 – [[Edward Andrade]] (died [[1971 in science|1971]]), English physicist.

==Deaths==
* January 22 – [[Joseph Whitworth]] (born [[1803 in science|1803]]), English [[mechanical engineer]].
* February 26 – [[Anandi Gopal Joshi]] (born [[1865 in science|1865]]), [[Indian people|Indian]] [[physician]].
* July 17 – [[Henry William Ravenel]] (born [[1814 in science|1814]]), American [[botanist]].
* July 18 – [[Dorothea Dix]] (born [[1802 in science|1802]]), American mental health reformer.
* August 2 – [[Joseph-Louis Lambot]] (born 1814), [[French people|French]] inventor of [[ferrocement]].
* August 15 – [[Julius von Haast]] (born [[1824 in science|1824]]), German [[geologist]].
* August 19
** [[Spencer Fullerton Baird]] (born [[1823 in science|1823]]), American [[ornithologist]] and [[ichthyologist]].
** [[Alvan Clark]] (born [[1804 in science|1804]]), American telescope manufacturer.
* October 7 (O.S. September 25) – [[Lev Tsenkovsky]] (born [[1822 in science|1822]]), [[Russians|Russian]] [[biologist]].
* October 17 – [[Gustav Kirchhoff]] (born [[1824 in science|1824]]), German physicist.
* November 18 – [[Gustav Fechner]] (born [[1801 in science|1801]]), German [[psychologist]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1887 in science| ]]
[[Category:19th century in science]]
[[Category:1880s in science]]