1842 in science

The year 1842 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

BiochemistryEdit

October 5 – Josef Groll brews the first pilsner light lager beer in the city of Pilsen, Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic).

Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward publishes On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases in London, promoting his concept of the Wardian case.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross charts the eastern side of James Ross Island and on January 23 reaches a Farthest South of 78°09'30"S.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

January – American medical student William E. Clarke of Berkshire Medical College becomes the first person to administer an inhaled anesthetic to facilitate a surgical procedure. After Clarke uses a towel and ether to anesthetize a patient identified as "Miss Hobbie", Dr. Elijah Pope carries out a dental extraction.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
March 30 – American physician and pharmacist Crawford Long administers an inhaled anesthetic (diethyl ether) to facilitate a surgical procedure (removal of a neck tumor).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
English surgeon William Bowman publishes On the Structure and Use of the Malpighian Bodies of the Kidney,<ref>Presented to the Royal Society of London.</ref> identifying Bowman's capsule, a key component of the nephron.
Edwin Chadwick's critical Report on an inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain is published by the Poor Law Commission.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

British palaeontologist Richard Owen coins the name Dinosauria, hence the Anglicized dinosaur.<ref>Owen, R. (1842). "Report on British Fossil Reptiles." Part II. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Plymouth, England.</ref>

Christian Doppler proposes the Doppler effect.<ref>"Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels – Versuch einer das Bradley'sche Theorem als integrirenden Theil in sich schliessenden allgemeineren Theorie" ("On the coloured light of the binary refracted stars and other celestial bodies – Attempt of a more general theory including Bradley's theorem as an integral part"). Abhandlungen der kaiserlichen bõhm. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Prag (Prague) V Folge 2. 25 May 1842.</ref>
Julius Robert von Mayer proposes that work and heat are equivalent.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This is independently discovered in 1843 by James Prescott Joule, who names it "mechanical equivalent of heat".

January 8 – Delft University of Technology established by William II of the Netherlands as a 'Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers'.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

February 21 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} See section: "Contributors to the invention of the sewing machine".</ref>

June – James Nasmyth patents his design of steam hammer in England and introduces an improved planing machine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
John Herschel discovers the cyanotype (blueprint) photographic process in England.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

September 14–17 – English naturalist Charles Darwin and his family settle at Down House in Kent.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

February 2 – Julian Sochocki (died 1927), Polish mathematician.
February 10 – Agnes Mary Clerke (died 1907) Irish astronomer and author.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
February 22 – Camille Flammarion (died 1925), French astronomer.
March 17 – Rosina Heikel (died 1929), Finnish physician.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
March 23 – Susan Jane Cunningham (died 1921), American mathematician.
April 4 – Édouard Lucas (died 1891, French mathematician.
May 7 – Isala Van Diest (died 1916), Belgian physician.
May 8 – Emil Christian Hansen (died 1909), Danish fermentation physiologist.
June 11 – Carl von Linde (died 1934), German refrigeration engineer.
August 23 – Osborne Reynolds (died 1912), Irish-born physicist.
September 9 – Elliott Coues (died 1899), American ornithologist.
September 20
- James Dewar (died 1923), Scottish-born chemist.
- Charles Lapworth (died 1920), English geologist.
October 17 – Gustaf Retzius (died 1919), Swedish anatomist.
October 24 (O.S. October 12) – Nikolai Menshutkin (died 1907), Russian chemist.
November 12 – John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (died 1919), English Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
December 3 – Ellen Swallow Richards (d. 1911), American chemist.
December 17 – Sophus Lie (died 1899), Norwegian mathematician.