1881 in science
The year 1881 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
- 22 May – John Tebbutt discover the long-period comet, C/1881 K1 (also known as the Great Comet of 1881, Comet Tebbutt, 1881 III, 1881b).
Biology
Chemistry
History of science and technology
Mathematics
Medicine
Technology
- March 1 – The Cunard Line's SS Servia, the first steel transatlantic liner, is launched at J. & G. Thomson's yard at Clydebank in Scotland.
- May 16 – The Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, the world's first electric tramway, is opened in Berlin by Siemens & Halske.
- June – The positive-buoyancy powered submarine "Fenian Ram" (Holland Boat No. II), designed by John Philip Holland, is first submersion-tested in New York City.
- September 26 – Godalming in England becomes the first town to have its streets illuminated by electric light (hydroelectrically generated).
- October 10 – Richard D'Oyly Carte's Savoy Theatre opens in London, the world's first public building to be fully lit by electricity, using Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulbs. The stage is first lit electrically on December 28.
- December 21 – SS Aberdeen, the first oceangoing ship successfully powered by a triple expansion steam engine, designed by Alexander Carnegie Kirk, is launched at Robert Napier and Sons' yard at Govan in Scotland.
- Peter Herdic patents the Herdic horse-drawn cab in the United States.
Awards
Births
- January 29 – Alice Catherine Evans (died 1975), American microbiologist.
- January 31 – Irving Langmuir (died 1957), American chemist.
- March 17 – Walter Rudolf Hess (died 1973), Swiss physiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- April 28 – Edith A. Roberts (died 1977), American plant ecologist.
- May 1 – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (died 1955), French paleontologist and philosopher.
- August 6 – Alexander Fleming (died 1955), British bacteriologist.
- September 18 – Vera Lebedeva (died 1968), Soviet Russian pediatrician.
- October 4 – George Constantinescu (died 1965), Romanian engineer.
- October 11 – Lewis Fry Richardson (died 1953), British mathematical physicist.
- October 22 – Clinton Davisson (died 1958), American physicist.
- November 9 – Margaret Reed Lewis (died 1970), American cell biologist.
- November 13 – Ludwig Koch (died 1974), German Jewish animal sound recordist.
Deaths
- February 3 – John Gould (born 1804), English zoologist.
- March 26 – Lovisa Åhrberg (born 1801), Swedish surgeon.
- May 14 – Mary Seacole (born 1805), Jamaican-born nurse.
- May 19 – Joseph Barnard Davis (born 1801), English craniologist, physician and anthropologist.
- May 26 – Jakob Bernays (born 1824), German philologist.
- June 16 – George Rolleston (born 1829), English physician and zoologist.
- June 23 – Matthias Jakob Schleiden (born 1804), German biologist.
- June 29 – Maurice Raynaud (born 1834), French physician.
- July 27 – Hewett Watson (born 1804), English biologist.
- October 31 – George W. DeLong (born 1844), American Arctic explorer.
- November 30 – Jean-Alfred Gautier (born 1793), Swiss astronomer
References
- ^ "THE GREAT COMET OF 1881". The South Australian Advertiser ( Adelaide, South Australia). 8 June 1881. letter from C. Todd
- ^ "Przewalski's horse". TAKH. 2009. Archived from the original on 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- ^ Hellemans, Alexander; Bunch, Bryan (1988). The Timetables of Science. Simon & Schuster. p. 304. ISBN 0671621300.
- ^ with; Moritz Brauer, Friedrich (1882). "Beiträge zur Gräberfauna" ". Verh. k. & k. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien. 31: 207–210.
- ^ Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Archaeological Society 5:5–21.
- ^ Newcomb, Simon (1881). "Note on the frequency of use of the different digits in natural numbers". American Journal of Mathematics. 4: 39–40. doi:10.2307/2369148. JSTOR 2369148.
- ^ Chaves, Carballo E. (2005). "Carlos Finlay and yellow fever: triumph over adversity". Military Medicine. 170: 881–5. doi:10.7205/milmed.170.10.881. PMID 16435764.
- ^ Dunn, P. M. (2002). "Stéphane Tarnier (1828–1897), the architect of perinatology in France". Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition. 86 (2): F137–9. doi:10.1136/fn.86.2.f137. PMC 1721389. PMID 11882561.
- ^ Tay, Waren (1881). "Symmetrical changes in the region of the yellow spot in each eye of an infant". Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society. 1: 55–57.
- ^ Booth, Jeremy (1977). "A short history of blood pressure measurement". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 70 (11): 793–9. doi:10.1177/003591577707001112. PMC 1543468. PMID 341169.
- ^ a b Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 434–435. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ "The Siemens tram from past to present" (PDF). Siemens. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2011-06-16.
- ^ "Godalming Power Station". Engineering Timelines. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^ "The Savoy Theatre". The Times. London. 1881-10-03. p. 7.
- ^ Burgess, Michael (January 1975). "Richard D'Oyly Carte". The Savoyard: 7–11.
- ^ "Savoy Theatre". The Times. 1881-12-29. p. 4. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- ^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
- ^ Marcel Golay: Alfred Gautier in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.