1808 in science

The year 1808 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

AstronomyEdit

Barium, calcium, magnesium, and strontium isolated by Humphry Davy.
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac formulates the law of combining volumes for gases.<ref name=JLGL>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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John Dalton begins publication of A New System of Chemical Philosophy, explaining his atomic theory of chemistry and including a list of atomic weights.<ref name="CHF">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Jöns Jakob Berzelius publishes Lärbok i Kemien in which he proposes modern chemical symbols and notation, and of the concept of relative atomic weight.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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French mathematician Christian Kramp introduces the notation n! in factorials.<ref>Elements d'arithmétique universelle. Template:Citation</ref>
German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss publishes Theorematis arithmetici demonstratio nova, introducing Gauss's lemma in the third proof of quadratic reciprocity.
Irish American mathematician Robert Adrain produces a formulation of the method of least squares.<ref>Published in his own journal, The Analyst, or, Mathematical Museum 1(4), probably issued in 1809. Template:Cite ODNB</ref>

The term "psychiatry" is first coined (as psychiatrie) by German physician Johann Christian Reil.<ref>In his journal Beytrage zur Beforderung einer Curmethode auf psychischem Wege p. 169.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The early medical journal Bibliotek for Læger begins publication in Denmark.

January 12 – Organizational meeting leading to creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held in Edinburgh.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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February 11 – Anthracite coal is first burned as fuel by Jesse Fell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; the discovery leads to the use of coal as a key fuel source of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
August 24 – William Congreve patents the Congreve clock with a rolling ball regulator.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Bryan Donkin patents a steel nib pen in England.
John Heathcoat is granted his first patent for a bobbinet lace machine in England.

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February 29 – Hugh Falconer, Scottish-born geologist, botanist, paleontologist and paleoanthropologist (died 1865).
April 13 – Antonio Meucci, Italian-born inventor (died 1899).
May 9 – John Scott Russell, Scottish-born naval architect and shipbuilder (died 1882).
July 8 – George Robert Gray, English zoologist (died 1872).
July 25 – Johann Benedict Listing, German mathematician (died 1882).
August 4 – Johann Ritter von Oppolzer, Austrian physician (died 1871).
October 29 – Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer (died 1873).
November 6 – Friedrich Julius Richelot, German mathematician (died 1875).
Anne Elizabeth Ball, Irish|Irish phycologist (died 1872).

March 3 – Johan Christian Fabricius, Danish entomologist (born 1745).
May 18 – Rev. Elijah Craig, American inventor of bourbon whiskey (birth date uncertain).
October 8 – John Sheldon, English anatomist (born 1752).
October 21 – Maria Christina Bruhn, Swedish inventor (born 1732).
December 24 – Thomas Beddoes, reforming English physician (born 1760).