1811 in science
The year 1811 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
Biology
- Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger publishes Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium, an updating of Linnean taxonomy and a major influence on the concept of the 'Family' in biology. He first defines the infraclass Marsupialia.
- Peter Simon Pallas begins publication of Zoographia rosso-Asiatica, sistens omnium animalium in extenso Imperio rossico, et adjacentibus maribus observatorum recensionem, domicilia, mores et descriptiones, anatomen atque icones plurimorum in Saint Petersburg.
Chemistry
- Bernard Courtois discovers iodine.
- Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard publish Recherches Physico-Chimiques, faites sur la pile; sur la préparation chimique et les propriétés du potassium et du sodium; sur la décomposition de l'acide boracique; sur les acides fluorique, muriatique et muriatique oxigéné; sur l'action chimique de la lumière; sur l'analyse végétale et animale, etc. in Paris.
- Amedeo Avogadro proposes Avogadro's law, that equal volumes of gases under constant temperature and pressure contain equal number of molecules.
Earth sciences
- June 10 - A volcanic eruption, observed from British sloop, briefly creates Sabrina Island (Azores).
Mathematics
- Carl Friedrich Gauss works with functions of complex number variables.
- S. D. Poisson publishes Traité de mécanique.
Medicine
- Charles Bell publishes An Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain, starting to distinguish between sensory and motor nerves.
- Abraham Colles publishes A Treatise on Surgical Anatomy in Dublin.
- Francis Place publishes Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population, including an examination of the proposed remedies of Mr. Malthus, and a reply to the objections of Mr. Godwin and others in London, the first significant text in English to advocate contraception.
Paleontology
- Mary Anning discovers the fossilised remains of an Ichthyosaur at Lyme Regis.
Physics
- Amedeo Avogadro proposes his hypothesis relating volumes and numbers of molecules of gases.
Technology
- Friedrich Koenig, with the assistance of Andreas Friedrich Bauer, produces the first steam rotary printing press, in London.
Awards
Births
- March 2 – Hugh Edwin Strickland, English geologist and ornithologist
- March 11
- * Lady Katherine Sophia Kane née Baily, Irish botanist
- * Urbain Le Verrier, French astronomer
- March 30 – Robert Bunsen, German chemist
- July 13 – James Young, Scottish chemist
- September 14 – William Budd, English physician and epidemiologist
- October 25 – Évariste Galois, French mathematician
- John Waterston, Scottish physicist and civil engineer
Deaths
- February 9 – Nevil Maskelyne, English Astronomer Royal
- August 31 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French explorer
- September 8 – Peter Simon Pallas, German-born naturalist