1863 in science

The year 1863 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Chemistry

• August 1 – Friedrich Bayer founds the chemical manufacturing company of Bayer at Barmen in Germany.
• Teerfarbenfabrik Meister, Lucius & Co. of Höchst (Frankfurt) in Germany produce a green dye from coal tar.^[1]

Cryptography

• German military officer Friedrich Kasiski publishes Die Geheimschriften und die Dechiffrir-Kunst ("Secret writing and the Art of Deciphering"), the first published general method for cryptanalysis of polyalphabetic ciphers, especially the Vigenère cipher.

Life sciences

• Max Schultze advances cell theory with the observation that animal and vegetable protoplasm are identical.^[2]
• The first outbreak of phylloxera on the European mainland is observed, in the vineyards of the southern Rhône region of France.
• Henry Walter Bates publishes The Naturalist on the River Amazons.

Medicine

• February 17 – First meeting of what will become the International Committee of the Red Cross is held in Geneva, Switzerland, following the lead of humanitarian Henry Dunant.^[3]
• William Banting publishes Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public in London, the first popular low-carbohydrate diet.^[4]
• Ivan Sechenov publishes Refleksy golovnogo mozga ("Reflexes of the brain").^[5]

Meteorology

• The Paris Observatory begins to publish weather maps.

Paleontology

• Richard Owen publishes the first description of a fossilised bird, Archaeopteryx.^[6]

Physics

• January – John Tyndall first explains the workings of the greenhouse effect.^[7]

Technology

• February 10 – Alanson Crane patents a fire extinguisher.
• Spring – John Jonathon Pratt builds a practical form of typewriter in the United States.^[8]
• July – The tiny Confederate States of America hand-propelled submarine H. L. Hunley is first tested successfully (although thirteen crew – including her inventor Horace Lawson Hunley – are lost in two sinkings later in the year).^[9]
• October 23 – The Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales introduces steam locomotives into general service, the first time this has been done anywhere in the world on a public railway of such a narrow gauge (2 ft (60 cm)).^[10]
• December 19 – Linoleum patented in the United Kingdom.^[6]

Events and institutions

• March 3 – National Academy of Sciences incorporated in the United States.
• Summer – The Chōshū Five leave Japan secretly to study Western science and technology in Britain, at University College London, part of the ending of sakoku.
• November 29 – Polytechnic University of Milan founded as the Istituto Tecnico Superiore.

Publications

• January 31 – The first of Jules Verne's scientifically inspired Voyages Extraordinaires, the novel Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon), is published in Paris.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Adam Sedgwick^[11]
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Gustav Bischof

Births

• March 25 – Simon Flexner (d. 1946), American pathologist and bacteriologist.
• April 29 – Signe Häggman (d. 1911), Finnish pioneer of physical education of the disabled.
• May 14 – John Charles Fields (d. 1932), Canadian mathematician.
• July 12 – Paul Drude (d. 1906), German physicist.
• October 16 – Beverly Thomas Galloway (d. 1938), American plant pathologist.
• November 25 – Ioan Cantacuzino (d. 1934), Romanian microbiologist.
• Undated – Cuthbert Christy (d. 1932), English medical investigator, zoologist and explorer.

Deaths

• March 7 – Charles Wilkins Short (b. 1794), American botanist.
• June 25 – Thomas Evans Blackwell (b. 1819), English civil and hydraulic engineer.
• July 21 – Josephine Kablick (b. 1787), Czech botanist and paleontologist.
• December 8 – Jacques Etienne Chevalley de Rivaz (b. 1801), Swiss-born physician

References