1806 in science

The year 1806 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

List of years in science (table)
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Biology

• Publication begins in London of the Flora Graeca collected by John Sibthorp.[1][2]
• Pierre André Latreille begins publication in France of Genera crustaceorum et insectorum, secundum ordinem naturalem ut familias disposita.

Chemistry

• November 20 – Humphry Davy presents the results of his researches in the electrolysis of water to the Royal Society of London.
• Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet isolate asparagine in crystalline form from asparagus juice in France, the first amino acid identified.

Exploration

• August – English seal hunter Abraham Bristow discovers the Auckland Islands.[3][4]

Mathematics

• Jean-Robert Argand introduces the Argand diagram.[5]
• Adrien-Marie Legendre gives the first published application of the method of least squares, in a supplement to his Nouvelles méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes.[5][6]

Medicine

• John Bell concludes publication of The Principles of Surgery in two volumes (1801–06). Its treatment of arterial surgery in particular ranks him as a founder of vascular surgery.[7] His brother Charles Bell publishes Essays on The Anatomy of Expression in Painting.

Technology

• October 7 – Carbon paper patented by Ralph Wedgwood in the United Kingdom.[8]

Awards

• Copley Medal: Thomas Andrew Knight[9]

Births

• January 14 – Matthew Fontaine Maury, American oceanographer (died 1873)
• February 14 – Joseph-François Malgaigne, French surgeon (died 1865)
• February 18 – Eduard Heis, German mathematician and astronomer (died 1877)
• April 9 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British civil engineer (died 1859)
• June 12 – John A. Roebling, German American bridge engineer (died 1869)
• June 27 – Augustus De Morgan, British logician (died 1871)
• November 21 – Alexander Henry Haliday, Irish entomologist (died 1870)
• December 11 – Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich, German geologist (died 1886)
• Luther V. Bell, American psychiatric physician (died 1862)

Deaths

• c. January?? – Mungo Park, Scottish explorer of West Africa (born 1771)
• April 5 – Benjamin Bell, Scottish surgeon (born 1749)
• June 23 – Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French zoologist (born 1723)
• August 3 – Michel Adanson, French botanist (born 1727)
• August 23 – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (born 1736)
• October 9 – Benjamin Banneker, African-American astronomer and surveyor (born 1731)

References

1. Harris, Stephen (2007). The Magnificent Flora Graeca: How the Mediterranean Came to the English Garden. Oxford: Bodleian Library. ISBN 978-1-85124-306-8.
2. Lack, H. Walter; Mabberley, David (1998). The Flora Graeca Story: Sibthorp, Bauer, and Hawkins in the Levant. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-854897-4.
3. Mawar, Granville (1999). Ahab's Trade: The Saga of South Seas Whaling. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-22809-0.
4. Jones, A. G. E. (1970). "Captain Abraham Bristow and the Auckland Islands" (PDF). Notes and Queries. 17 (10): 369–371. doi:10.1093/nq/17-10-369. Retrieved 2011-12-14.
5. Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
6. Itard, Jean (2008). "Legendre, Adrien-Marie". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
7. Baston, K. Grudzien (2004). "Bell, John (1763–1820)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2013. Retrieved 2011-04-06. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
8. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
9. "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 21 July 2020.