{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see WP:SDNONE --> {{Year nav topic5|1852|science}} {{Science year nav|1852}}

The year '''1852 in science''' and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

==Aeronautics== thumb|Giffard airship * September 24 – French engineer Henri Giffard makes the first airship trip, from Paris to Trappes.

==Astronomy== * September 19 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid 20 Massalia from the north dome of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples.

==Biology== * October 5 – American apiarist L. L. Langstroth patents the Langstroth hive for the cultivation of honey bees. * The parathyroid gland is first discovered by Richard Owen, in the Indian rhinoceros.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cave|first=A. J. E.|editor=Underwood, E. Ashworth|title=Science, Medicine and History. Essays on the Evolution of Scientific Thought and Medical Practice|access-date=2009-07-20|volume=2|year=1953|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=217–222|chapter=Richard Owen and the discovery of the parathyroid glands|chapter-url=http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/ref_files/1216989886.pdf}}</ref> * Last recognised sighting of a great auk, on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.<ref>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International|year=2016 |title=Pinguinus impennis |volume=2016 |article-number=e.T22694856A93472944 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22694856A93472944.en |access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref>

==Chemistry== * August Beer proposes Beer's law, which explains the relationship between the composition of a mixture and the amount of light it will absorb. Based partly on earlier work by Pierre Bouguer and Johann Heinrich Lambert, it establishes the analytical technique known as spectrophotometry.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lambert-Beer Law|publisher=Sigrist-Photometer AG|date=2007-03-07|url=http://www.photometer.com/en/abc/abc_061.htm|access-date=2007-03-12}}</ref>

==Mathematics== * October 23 – Francis Guthrie poses the four colour problem to Augustus De Morgan.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Robin|author-link=Robin Wilson (mathematician)|title=Four Colors Suffice|place=London|publisher=Penguin Books|year=2002|isbn=0-691-11533-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/fourcolorssuffic00wils/page/18 18]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/fourcolorssuffic00wils/page/18}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Cayley|first=Arthur|title=On the colourings of maps|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society|volume=1|year=1879|pages=259–261|doi=10.2307/1799998|jstor=1799998|issue=4|publisher=Blackwell}}</ref>

==Medicine== * January 15 – Nine representatives of Hebrew charitable organizations come together to form what will become the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. * February 15 – The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits its first patient.<ref>{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}</ref>

==Technology== * March 2 – The first American experimental steam fire engine, designed by Alexander Bonner Latta, is tested.<ref>{{cite book|first=William T.|last=King|title=History of the American Steam Fire-Engine|year=1896}}</ref> * August 23 – George Jennings receives a U.K. patent for improvements to the flush toilet.<ref>No. 14,273. {{cite web|title=Innovations in toilet design|url=https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/explore-by-topic/business-finance-and-innovation/toilet-design/|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=2024-11-01}}</ref> * The mechanical semaphore line in France is superseded by the electric telegraph. * Captain E. M. Boxer of the Royal Arsenal devises an improvement to the shrapnel shell by insertion of an iron diaphragm, preventing premature ignition.<ref>{{cite journal|first=A.|last=Marshall|title=The Invention and Development of the Shrapnel Shell|url=https://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/1920/JAN_FEB_1920/JAN_FEB_1920_PAGES_12_18.pdf|journal=The Field Artillery Journal|year=1920|pages=12–18|access-date=2012-03-08|archive-date=2011-06-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617051316/http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/1920/JAN_FEB_1920/JAN_FEB_1920_PAGES_12_18.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> * French physicist Léon Foucault (1819–1868) makes the first gyroscope for scientific use

==Awards== * Copley Medal: Alexander von Humboldt<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=23 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref> * Wollaston Medal for Geology: William Henry Fitton

==Births== * March 25 – Charles Loomis Dana (died 1935), American neurologist. * April 10 – Arthur Vierendeel (died 1940), Belgian civil engineer. * May 1 – Santiago Ramón y Cajal (died 1934), Spanish neuroscientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. * August 4 – Catharine van Tussenbroek (died 1925), Dutch physician. * August 30 – Jacobus van 't Hoff (died 1911), Dutch chemist. * September 9 – John Henry Poynting (died 1914), English physicist, discoverer of the Poynting–Robertson effect and the Poynting vector. * September 15 – Edward Bouchet (died 1918), African American physicist. * September 23 – William Stewart Halsted (died 1922), American surgeon. * September 28 – Isis Pogson (died 1945), English astronomer and meteorologist. * October 2 – William Ramsay (died 1916), Scottish winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. * October 6 – Bruno Abakanowicz (died 1900), Polish mathematician, inventor and electrical engineer. * October 9 – Hermann Emil Fischer (died 1919), German winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. * November 12 - Xavier Arnozan (died 1928), French physician.<ref>{{Base Léonore|19800035/241/31985}}</ref> * December 13 – Charles E. de M. Sajous (died 1929), American endocrinologist. * December 15 – Henri Becquerel (died 1908), French physicist.

==Deaths== [[File:Ada Lovelace in 1852.jpg|thumb|Ada Lovelace shortly before her death in 1852]] * January 1 – John George Children (born 1777), English chemist, mineralogist and entomologist. * January 6 – Louis Braille (born 1809), French inventor. * January 13 - Jean-Nicolas Gannal (born 1791), French pharmacist, chemist, and inventor. * August 15 – Johan Gadolin (born 1760), Finnish chemist. * August 24 – Sarah Guppy (born 1770), English inventor. * September 4 – William MacGillivray (born 1796), Scottish naturalist and ornithologist. * September 8 – Anna Maria Walker (born 1778), Scottish botanist. * October 9 – Thomas Frederick Colby (born 1784), English cartographer. * November 10 – Gideon Mantell (born 1790), English paleontologist. * November 27 – Augusta Ada King (née Byron), Countess of Lovelace (born 1815), English computing pioneer.

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:1852 in science Category:19th century in science Category:1850s in science