1837 in science

The year 1837 CE in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.

See also: 1836 in science, other events of 1837, 1838 in science and the list of years in science.

Table of contents

1 Astronomy 2 Geology 3 Mathematics 4 Technology 5 Awards 6 Births 7 Deaths

Astronomy

• Friedrich Argelander published the first major investigation of the Sun's motion through space
• Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve publishes Stellarum Duplicium Mensurae Micrometricae

Geology

• Louis Agassiz postulates his theory of glaciation

Mathematics

• Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet proposes the modern definition of a function
• Bernard Bolzano publishes Wissenschaftslehre
• Simeon Poisson's lectures on probability and decision theory were published

Technology

• Samuel Morse exhibits his telegraph to Congress
• Thomas Davenport patents the first practical electrical motor
• William Crompton patents the silk power loom
• William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patent their electromagnetic telegraph
• Isambard Kingdom Brunel's steamship, SS Great Western, is launched

Awards

• Copley Medal: Antoine C. Becquerel; John Frederic Daniell
• Wollaston Medal: Proby Thomas Cautley; Hugh Falconer

Births

• January 16 – Ellen Russell Emerson, ethnologist († 1907)
• January 17 – François Lenormant, assyriologist and numismatist († 1883)
• January 19 – William Williams Keen, physician († 1932)
• March 23 – Richard Anthony Proctor, astronomer († 1888)
• April 3 – John Burroughs, naturalist († 1921)
• May 26 – Washington Roebling, civil engineer († 1926)
• September 8 – Raphael Pumpelly, geologist († 1923)
• November 4 - James Douglas, metallurgist († 1918)
• November 14 – Lucas Barrett, naturalist († 1862)
• November 23 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, physicist († 1923)
• November 28 – John Wesley Hyatt, inventor († 1920)

Deaths

• February 16 - Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus, naturalist and advocate of transmutation (* 1776)