{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see WP:SDNONE --> {{Year nav topic5|1802|science}} {{Science year nav|1802}}

The year '''1802 in science''' and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy== * March 28 – H. W. Olbers discovers the asteroid Pallas, the second known. * May 6 – William Herschel coins the term ''asteroid''<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=107120 |first=William |last=Herschel |title=Observations on the two lately discovered celestial Bodies |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |volume=92 |pages=213–232 |date=6 May 1802 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1802.0010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/minorplanets.php |first=James L. |last=Hilton |title=When Did the Asteroids Become Minor Planets? |date=2001-09-17 |access-date=2006-08-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090825024347/http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/minorplanets.php |archive-date=2009-08-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and on July 1 first uses the term binary star to refer to a star which revolves around another.<ref>{{cite journal | date = 1802 | title = Catalogue of 500 New Nebulae, Nebulous Stars, Planetary Nebulae, and Clusters of Stars; With Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens| first= William |last=Herschel | jstor=107131| url =https://zenodo.org/record/1432308/files/article.pdf | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London | volume = 92 | pages = 477–528 [481] |bibcode = 1802RSPT...92..477H | doi = 10.1098/rstl.1802.0021 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

==Biology== * Pierre André Latreille begins publication of his ''Histoire naturelle générale et particulière des crustacés et insectes''. * George Montagu publishes his ''Ornithological Dictionary; or Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds''. * In the history of evolutionary thought ** Jean-Baptiste Lamarck publishes ''Recherches sur l'Organisation des Corps Vivants'', proposing that all life is organized in a vertical chain of progressive complexity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Osborn|first=Henry Fairfield|author-link=Henry Fairfield Osborn|title=From the Greeks to Darwin: an outline of the development of the evolution idea|url=https://archive.org/details/fromgreekstodar00osbogoog|year=1905|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York|edition=2nd|page=[https://archive.org/details/fromgreekstodar00osbogoog/page/n175 160]}}</ref> ** Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus begins publication of ''Biologie; oder die Philosophie der lebenden Natur'', proposing a theory of the transmutation of species.

==Chemistry== * June – The first account of Thomas Wedgwood's experiments in photography using silver nitrate is published by Humphry Davy in the ''Journal of the Royal Institution'' in London.<ref>"An Account of a method of copying Painting upon Glass and making profiles, by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver." Invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. with Observations by H. Davy.</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Hirsch|title=Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/354 354]}}</ref> Since a fixative for the image has not yet been devised, the early photographs quickly fade. * July – William Hyde Wollaston notes the discovery of the noble metal palladium. * Charles's law (the "law of volumes"), describing how gases tend to expand when heated, is first published in France by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gay-Lussac|first=J. L.|title=Recherches sur la dilatation des gaz et des vapeurs|journal=Annales de chimie|volume=XLIII|page=137|url=http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/gaygas.html| access-date=29 September 2010 <!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref>

==Ecology== * Civil engineer and geographer François Antoine Rauch publishes ''Harmonie hydro-végétale et météorologique: ou recherches sur les moyens de recréer avec nos forêts la force des températures et la régularité des saisons par des plantations raisonnées'' in Paris, arguing against deforestation.

==Geology== * James Smithson proves that zinc carbonates are true carbonate minerals and not zinc oxides, as was previously thought.<ref>{{cite web|title=Who was James Smithson? – A Man of Science|url=http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/who_04.html|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=2007-06-18| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612070808/http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/who_04.html| archive-date=12 June 2007 <!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Smithson|first=James|title=A Chemical Analysis of Some Calamines|url=http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/calamine.html|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|volume=Pt. I|year=1803| access-date= 25 February 2011 <!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref> * John Playfair publishes ''Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth'' in Edinburgh, popularising James Hutton's theory of geology. * James Sowerby begins to issue his ''British Mineralogy, or, coloured figures intended to elucidate the mineralogy of Great Britain'' in London, the first comprehensive illustrated reference work on the subject.

==Medicine== * June – The first pediatric hospital, the Hôpital des Enfants Malades, opens in Paris, on the site of a previous orphanage.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ballbriga|first=Angel|editor-last1=Nichols|editor-first1=Buford L.|editor-last2=Ballabriga|editor-first2=A.|editor-last3=Kretchmer|editor-first3=N.|title=History of Pediatrics 1850–1950|series=Nestlé Nutrition Workshop Series|volume=22|year=1991|publisher=Raven Press|location=New York|isbn=0-88167-695-0|pages=6–8|chapter=One century of pediatrics in Europe}}</ref> * London Fever Hospital founded. * Charles Bell publishes ''The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings''.<ref>{{cite web|first=L. S.|last=Jacyna|title=Bell, Sir Charles (1774–1842)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1999|access-date=2011-04-06|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/1999}} {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

==Meteorology== * December – Luke Howard presents the basis of the modern classification and nomenclature of clouds, at a lecture in London.

==Physics== * Johann Wilhelm Ritter builds the first electrochemical cell.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Hermann |last=Berg |year=2008 |title=Johann Wilhelm Ritter: the Founder of Scientific Electrochemistry |journal=Review of Polarography |volume=54 |number=2 |pages=99–103 |doi=10.5189/revpolarography.54.99 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Walter D.|last=Wetzels|year=1978|chapter=J. W. Ritter: the Beginnings of Electrochemistry in Germany|title=Selected Topics in the History of Electrochemistry|editor-last1=Dubpernell|editor-first1=G.|editor-last2=Westbrook|editor-first2=J. H.|location=Princeton|publisher=Electrochemical Society|pages=68–73}}</ref>

==Surveying== * April 10 – Great Trigonometric Survey of India begins with the measurement of a baseline near Madras.

==Technology== * November 5 – Marc Isambard Brunel begins installation of his blockmaking machinery at Portsmouth Block Mills in England.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bagust|first=Harold|title=The Greater Genius? – a biography of Marc Isambard Brunel|year=2006|publisher=Ian Allan|location=Hersham|isbn=978-0-7110-3175-3|page=31}}</ref> * George Bodley of Exeter in England patents the first enclosed kitchen stove.<ref>{{cite web|first1=David|last1=Cornforth|first2=Anne|last2=Speight|title=Bodley & Co.|url=http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/bodley.php|work=Exeter Memories|date=2009-05-03|access-date=2011-03-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Ranges|url=http://www.antiquefireplacesandranges.com/historyofranges.html|publisher=Antique Fireplaces & Ranges|location=Tarvin|access-date=2011-03-12}}</ref>

==Publications== * January 2 – Rev. Abraham Rees begins publication in London of ''The New Cyclopædia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences''.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/science_library/~/media/EF4C87E781D6416E8CC65F252635C086.ashx|title=The subversive encyclopedia|first=John|last=Underwood|journal=Science Museum Library & Archives Newsletter|date=Spring–Summer 2010|publisher=Science Museum at Wroughton|access-date=2011-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117233801/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/science_library/~/media/EF4C87E781D6416E8CC65F252635C086.ashx|archive-date=2011-01-17|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Awards== * Copley Medal: William Hyde Wollaston<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=21 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

==Births== * February 6 – Charles Wheatstone, English inventor (died 1875) * April 4 – Dorothea Dix, American mental health reformer (died 1887) * July 9 – Thomas Davenport, American inventor (died 1851) * August 5 – Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician (died 1829) * October 10 – Hugh Miller, Scottish geologist (suicide 1856) * December 15 – János Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician (died 1860)

==Deaths== * April 14 – John Mackay, Scottish botanist (born 1772) * April 18 – Erasmus Darwin, English author of ''Zoonomia'' (born 1731) * November 16 – André Michaux, French botanist (born 1746)

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:1802 in science Category:19th century in science Category:1800s in science