1797 in science
The year 1797 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Chemistry
- Smithson Tennant demonstrates that diamond is a pure form of carbon.
- Louis Nicolas Vauquelin discovers chromium.
- Joseph Proust proposes the law of definite proportions, which states that elements always combine in small, whole number ratios to form compounds.
Mathematics
- Lagrange publishes his Théorie des fonctions analytiques.
Physics
- Giovanni Battista Venturi describes the Venturi effect.
Technology
- October 22 – André-Jacques Garnerin carries out the first descent using a frameless parachute, a drop from a balloon in Paris.
- English naval engineer Samuel Bentham applies for patents covering several machines to produce wood veneers; in his patent applications, he describes the concept of laminating several layers of veneer with glue to form a thicker piece – the first description of what in modern times becomes known as plywood.
Zoology
- Thomas Bewick publishes the first volume, Land Birds, of his History of British Birds.
Awards
- Copley Medal: Not awarded
Births
- January 3 – Frederick William Hope, British zoologist
- January 4 – Wilhelm Beer, Prussian astronomer
- February – Joseph-Alphonse Adhémar, French mathematician
- February 2 – Joseph Guislain, Flemish psychiatrist
- February 5 – Jean-Marie Duhamel, French mathematician and physicist
- March 10 – George Poulett Scrope, British geologist and economist
- March 21 – Johann Andreas Wagner, German paleontologist, zoologist and archeologist
- April 29 – George Don, Scottish botanist
- May 2 – Abraham Gesner, Canadian inventor of kerosene
- May 30 – Karl Friedrich Naumann, German geologist and mineralogist
- July 14 – James Scott Bowerbank, British naturalist, geologist and paleontologist
- July 26 – William Hutton, British geologist and paleontologist
- August 23 – Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant, French mechanician and mathematician
- August 31 – James Ferguson, Scottish-born American astronomer
- September 1 – Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut, French chemist
- September 10 – Carl Gustaf Mosander, Swedish chemist
- September 17 – Heinrich Kuhl, German zoologist
- October 4 – Félix Savary, French astronomer
- October 5 – John Gardner Wilkinson, British egyptologist
- November 14 – Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist
- November 20 - Mary Buckland, British paleontologist and marine biologist
- December 3
- * Margaretta Morris, American entomologist
- * Andrew Smith, Scottish military surgeon, explorer, ethnologist and zoologist
- December 17 – Joseph Henry, American scientist
- December 23 – Adrien-Henri de Jussieu, French botanist
Deaths
- March 16 – Cristina Roccati, Italian scholar in physics
- March 26 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist
- June 13 – Samuel-Auguste Tissot, Swiss physician
- August 29 – Joseph Wright, English painter of scientific subjects date unknown – Wang Zhenyi, Chinese Qing dynasty female astronomer and poet