Editing 1890 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1890|science}}
{{Science year nav|1890}}

The year '''1890 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Biology==
* September 25 – [[Sequoia National Park]] created in the [[United States]].
* October 1 – [[Yosemite National Park]] created in the United States.
* [[Walter Heape]] successfully breeds rabbits from fertilised [[ovum|ova]] transferred from the biological mother to the [[uterus]] of an animal of a different breed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heape |first=Walter |year=1891 |title=Preliminary Note on the Transplantation and Growth of Mammalian Ova within a Uterine Foster-Mother |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/18403272 |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |volume=48 |pages=457–8 |jstor=115017 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}</ref>
* [[Francis Galton]] announces a statistical demonstration of the uniqueness and classifiability of individual human [[fingerprint]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Patterns in Thumb and Finger Marks – On Their Arrangement into Naturally Distinct Classes, the Permanence of the Papillary Ridges that Make Them, and the Resemblance of Their Classes to Ordinary Genera|pages=1–23|first=Francis|last=Galton|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B]] |volume=182|year=1891|jstor=91733|doi=10.1098/rstb.1891.0001|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Jacques Loeb]] publishes his first major work on [[tropism]], ''Der Heliotropismus der Thiere und seine Uebereinstimmung mit dem Heliotropismus der Pflanzen''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Loeb |first=Jacques |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/1663 |title=Der Heliotropismus der Thiere und seine Uebereinstimmung mit dem Heliotropismus der Pflanzen |date=1890 |publisher=Hertz |location=Würzburg |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.1663}}</ref>
* [[Henry Luke Bolley]] at the new [[North Dakota State University|North Dakota Agricultural College]] isolates the organism responsible for [[List of potato diseases|potato scab]] and develops an effective treatment.

==Chemistry==
* [[Nikolai Menshutkin]] discovers that a [[tertiary amine]] can be converted into a [[quaternary ammonium salt]] by reaction with an [[alkyl halide]] – the [[Menshutkin reaction]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=N.|last=Menschutkin|title=Beiträgen zur Kenntnis der Affinitätskoeffizienten der Alkylhaloide und der organischen Amine|journal=[[Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie]]|volume=5|year=1890|page=589}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=N.|last=Menschutkin|title=Über die Affinitätskoeffizienten der Alkylhaloide und der Amine|journal=Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie|volume=6|year=1890|page=41|doi=10.1515/zpch-1890-0107}}</ref>
* [[Emil Fischer]] establishes the [[stereochemistry]] and [[isomer]]ic nature of the [[sugar]]s by [[epimer]]ization between [[gluconic acid|gluconic]] and [[mannonic]] acids and synthesizes [[glucose]], [[fructose]] and [[mannose]] from [[glycerol]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Synthese des Traubenzuckers|pages=799–805|first=Emil|last=Fischer|doi=10.1002/cber.189002301126|journal=Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft|year=1890|volume=23|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1425567}}</ref>

==Computer science==
* June 1 – The [[United States Census Bureau]] begins using [[Herman Hollerith]]'s [[tabulating machine]] to record [[census]] returns using [[punched card]] input, a landmark in the [[history of computing hardware]]. Hollerith's company eventually becomes [[IBM]].

==Earth sciences==
* The United States city of [[Boise, Idaho]], drills the first [[Geothermal energy|geothermal]] well.
* The [[phosphate mineral]] [[messelite]] (from [[Messel]] in [[Germany]]) is first described.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Muthmann|first=W.|title=Kürzere Originalmittheilungen und Notizen: Messlit, ein neues Mineral|journal=Zeitschrift für Kristallographie, Kristallgeometrie, Kristallphysik, Kristallchemie|year=1890|volume=17|pages=93–94|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlQPAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA93|publisher=Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft.|language=German}}</ref>

==Mathematics==
* [[Philippa Fawcett]] is placed above the [[Senior Wrangler (University of Cambridge)|Senior Wrangler]] in the [[Cambridge Mathematical Tripos|Mathematical Tripos]] at the [[University of Cambridge]] in England.
* [[Percy John Heawood|P. J. Heawood]] proves the [[five colour theorem]].<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>
* [[Giuseppe Peano]] is the first to demonstrate a [[space-filling curve]].<ref name=Crilly/>

==Medicine==
* Discovery by [[Emil von Behring]] and [[Kitasato Shibasaburō]] that an anti-toxin for immunizing people against [[diphtheria]] can be prepared by injecting diphtheria toxin into animals.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Waldman|first=Thomas A.|year=2003|title=Immunotherapy: past, present and future|journal=[[Nature Medicine]]|volume=9|pages=269–277|doi=10.1038/nm0303-269|pmid=12612576|issue=3|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1233435/files/article.pdf}}</ref>
* [[Curt Schimmelbusch]] invents the [[Schimmelbusch mask]] for the safe delivery of [[anesthetic]]s to surgical patients.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://woodlibrarymuseum.org/museum/item/58/schimmelbusch-mask|title=Schimmelbusch Mask|publisher=Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology|location=Park Ridge, Illinois|year=2011|accessdate=2013-03-19}}</ref>
* [[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]] publishes the first edition of ''Manual de Anatomia Pathologica General''.
* [[Robert Koch]] publishes [[Koch's postulates|his postulates]] on the causal relationship between [[microbe]]s and [[disease]]s.
* [[William James]] publishes ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]''.

==Technology==
* May – [[Herbert Akroyd Stuart]], in collaboration with Charles Richard Binney and [[Richard Hornsby & Sons]], files a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[patent]] for ''Improvements in Engines Operated by the Explosion of Mixtures of Combustible Vapour or Gas and Air'', the first successful design of [[hot bulb engine]], which will be produced as the heavy-oil [[Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine]].<ref>British Patent 7146. {{cite web|title=The Akroyd Oil Engine |work=Ray Hooley's – Ruston-Hornsby – Engine Pages |url=http://www.oldengine.org/members/ruston/History6.htm |accessdate=2011-05-31 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524213717/http://www.oldengine.org/members/ruston/History6.htm |archivedate=24 May 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* August 6 – At [[Auburn Correctional Facility|Auburn Prison]] in [[New York (state)|New York]], [[William Kemmler]] becomes the first person to be [[capital punishment|executed]] in the [[Alternating current|AC]] [[electric chair]].
* October 9 – The first brief flight of [[Clément Ader]]'s steam-powered [[fixed-wing aircraft]] ''Eole'' takes place in [[Satory]], [[France]]. It flies uncontrolled approximately {{convert|50|m|ft|abbr=on}} at a height of 20&nbsp;cm, the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.<ref>{{cite web|first=Tom D|last=Crouch|title=Clément Ader|work=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/5780/Clement-Ader|accessdate=2011-03-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flyingmachines.org/ader.html|first=Carroll|last=Gray|title=Clement Ader 1841–1925|work=Flying Machines|date=1998–2003|accessdate=2011-03-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Charles H.|last=Gibbs-Smith|authorlink=Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith|title=Hops and Flights: A Roll Call of Early Powered Take-offs|journal=[[Flight International|Flight]]|volume=75|page=468|year=1959|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1959/1959%20-%200937.html|accessdate=2011-03-03}}</ref>
* Approximate date – British civil engineer [[Ernest William Moir]] invents the [[airlock]] while working in New York.
* Scottish American chemist [[William Morrison (chemist)|William Morrison]] produces the first successful practical [[History of the electric vehicle|electric road vehicle]] in the United States.
* The precut [[paperboard]] box is invented by [[Robert Gair]], a [[Brooklyn]] printer and packaging producer.
* The [[Hurter and Driffield]] [[film speed]] measurement system is described.

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[Simon Newcomb]]<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: [[William Crawford Williamson]]

==Births==
* January 14 – [[Arthur Holmes]] (died [[1965 in science|1965]]), [[English people|English]] [[geologist]].
* January 19 – [[Ștefan Procopiu]] (died [[1972 in science|1972]]), [[Romanians|Romanian]] [[physicist]].
* January 26 – [[Grantly Dick-Read]] (died [[1959 in science|1959]]), English [[obstetrician]].
* February 17 – [[Ronald Fisher]] (died [[1962 in science|1962]]), English [[statistician]] and [[geneticist]].
* March 11 – [[Vannevar Bush]] (died [[1974 in science|1974]]), [[Americans|American]] science administrator.
* March 20 – [[Elizabeth Rona]] (died [[1981 in science|1981]]), [[Hungarians|Hungarian]]-born [[nuclear chemist]].
* March 26 – [[Abner Doble]] (died [[1961 in science|1961]]), American steam engineer.
* May 4 – [[Carl Brigham]] (died [[1943 in science|1943]]), American pioneer of [[psychometrics]].
* June 1 – [[Edward Hutchinson Synge]] (died [[1957 in science|1957]]), [[Irish people|Irish]] [[theoretical physicist]].
* December 20 – [[Jaroslav Heyrovský]] (died [[1967 in science|1967]]), [[Czechs|Czech]] [[chemist]].
* December 21 – [[Hermann Joseph Muller]] (died 1967), American geneticist.

==Deaths==
* January 27 – [[Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal]] (born [[1833 in science|1833]]), [[Germans|German]] [[psychiatrist]].
* February 3 – [[C. H. D. Buys Ballot]] (born [[1817 in science|1817]]), [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[meteorologist]].
* April 1 – [[Alexander Mozhaysky]] (born [[1825 in science|1825]]), [[Russians|Russian]] aeronautical pioneer.
* August 30 – [[Marianne North]] (born [[1830 in science|1830]]), [[English people|English]] [[botanist]].
* December 26 – [[Heinrich Schliemann]] (born [[1822 in science|1822]]), German [[archaeologist]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1890 in science| ]]
[[Category:19th century in science]]
[[Category:1890s in science]]