1841 in science
The year 1841 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Biology
- Rev. Miles Joseph Berkeley demonstrates that Phytophthora infestans is a fungal infection.
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, first open to the public and William Hooker appointed director.
- John Gould begins publication of A Monograph of the Macropodidae, or Family of Kangaroos.
Chemistry
- Theobromine is first discovered in cacao beans by Russian chemist Alexander Woskresensky.
- Uranium is first isolated, by Eugène-Melchior Péligot.
- Chemical Society of London founded by Thomas Graham.
- Reinsch test for heavy metals discovered by Hugo Reinsch.
Exploration
- January 27 – The active volcano Mount Erebus in Antarctica is discovered and named by James Clark Ross.
- January 28 – Ross discovers the "Victoria Barrier", later known as the Ross Ice Shelf.
- Ross additionally discovers the Ross Sea, Victoria Land and Mount Terror.
Geology
- Hugh Miller publishes The Old Red Sandstone.
- The first comprehensive geological map of France is published by Dufrénoy and Élie de Beaumont, the result of thirteen years of investigations.
Human sciences
- November 13 – Scottish surgeon James Braid attends his first demonstration of animal magnetism which leads to Braid's study of the subject he eventually calls hypnotism.
Mathematics
- Prussian mathematician Karl Weierstrass discovers but does not publish the Laurent expansion theorem.
- English mathematician William Rutherford calculates an approximation of π to 208 decimal places of which the first 152 are correct.
Physiology and medicine
- Platelets are first described from microscopic observation by George Gulliver.
Technology
- February – H. Fox Talbot obtains a patent in the United Kingdom for the calotype process in photography.
- April 16 – Loring Coes patents the screw type wrench commonly known as the monkey wrench in the United States.
- April 24 – Squire Whipple patents the iron bowstring arch through truss bridge in the United States.
- Draughtsman William Howe and pattern-maker William Williams of Robert Stephenson and Company in Newcastle upon Tyne originate Stephenson valve gear for the steam locomotive.
- Joseph Whitworth introduces the British Standard Whitworth system of screw threads in his paper On a Uniform System of Screw Threads.
- American artist John G. Rand invents the collapsible zinc oil paint tube, marketed by Winsor & Newton of London.
Awards
Births
- January 29 – Henry Morton Stanley, explorer, journalist.
- February 2 – François-Alphonse Forel, pioneer in the study of lakes.
- February 4 – Clément Ader, engineer and inventor, airplane pioneer.
- February 24 – Carl Gräbe, chemist.
- March 6 – Alfred Cornu, physicist.
- August 4 – W. H. Hudson, naturalist.
- August 25 – Emil Theodor Kocher, 1909 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- October 12 – Joseph O'Dwyer, physician
- October 26 – Theodor von Oppolzer, astronomer.
- November 3 – Eugen Warming, botanist and founder of ecology.
- December 29 - Rosalie Fougelberg, Swedish dentist
Deaths
- April 22 – Charles Barbier, inventor of a method of writing for the blind that was the inspiration for Braille.
- May 16 – Marie Boivin, French midwife, inventor and obstetrics writer
- May 31 – George Green, English mathematician.
- August 18 – Louis de Freycinet, explored coastal regions of Western Australia.
- September 9 – Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Swiss botanist.
- October 28 – Johan August Arfwedson, Swedish chemist.