1838 in science

The year 1838 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

* Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star, 61 Cygni, using parallax. Thomas Henderson ( Alpha Centauri) and Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (Vega) announce their measurements using parallax shortly afterwards.
* Claude Servais Mathias Pouillet makes the first quantitative measurements of the heat emitted by the Sun.
* Peter Andreas Hansen publishes a revision of the lunar theory, ''Fundamenta nova investigationis orbitae verae quam luna perlustrat''.

Biology

* May 9 – Royal Agricultural Society of England established.
* Proteins discovered by Gerardus Johannes Mulder and named by Jöns Jakob Berzelius.
* Matthias Schleiden discovers that all living plant tissue is composed of cells.
* Andrew Smith begins publication of ''Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa''.

Chemistry

* Bulat steel alloy developed by Pavel Petrovich Anosov.
* Electrotyping is invented by Moritz von Jacobi in Russia.

Exploration

* August 18 – The United States Exploring Expedition under U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes sets sail for a four-year circumnavigation westabout.
* In Australia, Charles Sturt proves that the Hume and Murray River, Murray are the same river.

Mathematics

* Augustus De Morgan introduces the term 'mathematical induction'.
* Siméon Denis Poisson, S. D. Poisson publishes ''Recherches sur la probabilité des jugements en matière criminelle et en matière civile'', containing his work on probability theory and introducing Poisson distribution.

Medicine

* Jean Esquirol publishes ''Des maladies mentales considerées sous le rapport médicale, hygiènique et médico-legal'' in Paris. This includes the first description of what will later become known as Down syndrome.
* John Gorrie experiments with cooling the hospital wards of malarial patients in Apalachicola, Florida.

Technology

* January 6 – Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrates the electrical telegraph.
* April 4–22 – The paddle steamer SS Sirius (1837), SS ''Sirius'' (1837) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York City, New York from Cork (city), Cork, Ireland, in eighteen days, though not using steam continuously.
* April 8–23 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's paddle steamer (1838) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Avonmouth, England, in fifteen days, inaugurating a regular steamship service.
* Liverpool-built barque ''Ironsides'' becomes the first large ocean-going iron ship.
* William Barnett (engineer), William Barnett obtains a United Kingdom patent for an History of the internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine, the first with compression of the gas/air mixture in the cylinder.
* David Bruce (inventor), David Bruce, Jr., invents the Pivotal Typecaster, which replaces hand typecasting in printing.
* The first screw-pile lighthouse is built by Alexander Mitchell (engineer), Alexander Mitchell on Maplin Sands in the Thames Estuary.
* Charles Wheatstone originates the stereoscope.

Events

* A statue of English chemist and physicist John Dalton (in marble by Francis Leggatt Chantrey, Sir Francis Chantrey) is erected in Manchester during the scientist's lifetime.

Awards

* Copley Medal: Carl Friedrich Gauss; Michael Faraday
* Wollaston Medal: Richard Owen

Births

* January 5 – Camille Jordan (died 1922 in science, 1922), French people, French mathematician.
* January 29 – Edward W. Morley (died 1923 in science, 1923), Americans, American chemist.
* February 18 – Ernst Mach (died 1916 in science, 1916), Austrians, Austrian physicist.
* March 3 – George William Hill (died 1914 in science, 1914), American astronomer.
* March 12 – William Henry Perkin, William H. Perkin (died 1907 in science, 1907), English people, English chemist.
* March 15 – Alice Cunningham Fletcher (died 1923 in science, 1923), Cuban-born American ethnologist, anthropologist and social scientist.
* April 8 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin (died 1917 in science, 1917), Germans, German founder of the Zeppelin airship company.
* April 16 – Ernest Solvay (died 1922 in science, 1922), Belgians, Belgian chemist.
* April 18 – Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (died 1912 in science, 1912), French chemist.
* April 21 – John Muir (died 1914 in science, 1914), Scottish-born American Natural history, naturalist.
* May 6 – Alexandra Smirnoff (died 1913 in science, 1913), Finns, Finnish pomologist.
* June 4 – John Grigg (astronomer), John Grigg (died 1920 in science, 1920), New Zealand astronomer.
* July 19 – Joel Asaph Allen (died 1921 in science, 1921), American zoologist.
* August 6 – George James Symons (died 1900 in science, 1900), English meteorologist.
* December 12 – Sherburne Wesley Burnham (died 1921 in science, 1921), American astronomer.

Deaths

* March 16 – Nathaniel Bowditch (born 1773 in science, 1773), American mathematician.
* April 6 – José Bonifácio de Andrada (born 1763 in science, 1763), Brazilians, Brazilian statesman and mineralogist.
* July 5 – Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (born 1774 in science, 1774), French otorhinolaryngologist.
* August 21 – Adelbert von Chamisso (born 1781 in science, 1781), German botanist.
* September 1 – William Clark (born 1770 in science, 1770), American explorer.
* September 27 – Bernard Courtois (born 1777 in science, 1777), French chemist.
* October 1 – Charles Tennant (born 1768 in science, 1768), Scottish chemist and industrialist.

References

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1838 in science,
19th century in science
1830s in science