1813 in science
The year 1813 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Biology
- April – William Charles Wells reads a paper to the Royal Society of London making the first clear statement about natural selection.
- Charles Waterton begins the process of turning his estate at Walton Hall, West Yorkshire, England, into what is, in effect, the world's first nature reserve.
Chemistry
- Mathieu Orfila publishes his groundbreaking Traité des poisons, formalizing the field of toxicology.
- Louis Jacques Thénard commences publication of his textbook Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique in Paris.
- Edward Howard invents the enclosed vacuum pan for refining sugar.
Exploration
- May 11 – Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth leave on an expedition to cross the Blue Mountains (New South Wales).
Mathematics
- S. D. Poisson publishes Poisson's equation, his correction of Laplace's second order partial differential equation for potential.
Medicine
- English physician Thomas Tutton publishes in London, providing case studies of delirium tremens.
Physics
- British engineer Peter Ewart supports the idea of the conservation of energy in his paper "On the measure of moving force".
Sociology
- Henri de Saint-Simon publishes Physiologie sociale.
Technology
Probable date – George E. Clymer invents the Columbian press.Institutions
- March 1 – Sir Humphry Davy employs Michael Faraday as "chemical assistant" at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London.
Awards
Births
- January 19 – Henry Bessemer, English inventor
- February 18 – Karl Weltzien, Russian-born German inorganic chemist, an organizer of the Karlsruhe Congress
- March 19 – David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer
- April 16 - Justin Benoît, French surgeon and anatomist
- July 12 – Claude Bernard, French physiologist
- October 17 – Georg Büchner, Hessian-born writer and anatomist
- December 19 – Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist
- December 29 – Alexander Parkes, English chemist
- William Bullock, American inventor
Deaths
- April 10 – Joseph Louis Lagrange, Piedmont-born mathematician
- April 19 – Benjamin Rush, Founding Father of the United States, chemist and physician
- April 27 – General Zebulon Pike, American explorer
- May – Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger, German zoologist
- July 22 – George Shaw, English naturalist
- August 23 – Alexander Wilson, Scottish American ornithologist