1836 in science
The year 1836 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
- May 15 – Francis Baily, during an eclipse of the Sun, observes the phenomenon named after him as Baily's beads.
Biology
- October 2 – Naturalist Charles Darwin returns to Falmouth, England, aboard after a 5-year journey collecting biological data he will later use to develop his theory of evolution.
- Writer Georg Büchner's dissertation on the common barbel (fish), Barbus barbus, "Mémoire sur le Système Nerveux du Barbeaux " is published in Paris and Strasbourg. In October, after receiving his doctorate, he is appointed by the University of Zurich as a lecturer in anatomy.
- Theodor Schwann discovers pepsin in extracts from the stomach lining, the first isolation of an animal enzyme.
Chemistry
- French chemist Auguste Laurent discovers o-phthalic acid by oxidizing naphthalene tetrachloride.
- The chemical compound acetylene, also called ethyne, is discovered by Edmund Davy.
- James Marsh publishes the Marsh test for the presence of arsenic.
- Hungarian chemistry student János Irinyi invents a noiseless match.
- October 24 – The earliest United States patent for a phosphorus friction match is granted to Alonzo Dwight Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Medicine
- October 13 – Theodor Fliedner, a Lutheran minister, and Friederike, his wife, open the Deaconess Home and Hospital at Kaiserswerth, Germany, as an institute to train women in nursing.
Physics
- Nicholas Callan invents the first induction coil.
- Andrew Crosse's electrical experiment seems to produce strange insects, acarus calvanicus.
Technology
- February 25 – Samuel Colt receives a United States patent for the Colt revolver, the first revolving barrel multishot firearm.
- December – Victoria Bridge, Bath, England, opened, the first to use James Dredge's patent 'taper principle' of stays.
- Edward Sang publishes a logarithmic method for constructing a skew arch.
- James Nasmyth invents the shaper.
Awards
Births
- February 5 – Alexander Stewart Herschel, South African-born British astronomer.
- April 3 – Maurice Krishaber, naturalised French Hungarian otorhinolaryngologist.
- May 17 – Norman Lockyer, English astronomer.
- May 28 – Alexander Mitscherlich, German chemist.
- June 9 – Elizabeth Garrett, English physician.
- July 20 – Clifford Allbutt, English physician.
- September 26 – Thomas Crapper, English plumber and inventor.
- October 6 – Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz, German neuroanatomist.
- October 27 – Thomas Gwyn Elger, English astronomer.
Deaths
- February 10 – Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, French chemist.
- June 10 – André-Marie Ampère, French physicist.
- September 9 – William Henry, English chemist.
- September 17 – Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist.