1891 in science

{{Short description|none}} thumb | right | Early compound microscope "Stand I" from the Optical Workshop Carl Zeiss in Jena, in 1891 <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see WP:SDNONE --> {{Year nav topic5|1891|science}} {{Science year nav|1891}}

The year '''1891 in science''' and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

==Biology== * March 3 – Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, predecessor of Shoshone National Forest, in Wyoming is established as the first United States National Forest. * The New Zealand government sets aside Resolution Island in Fiordland as a nature reserve.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Susanne|author2=John|year=1987|title=Richard Henry of Resolution Island|publisher=John McIndoe|location=Dunedin|isbn=0-86868-094-X}}</ref> * The New York Botanical Garden is founded in The Bronx largely due to the efforts of Nathaniel Lord Britton. * Jane Willis Kirkaldy and Catherine Pollard become the first women to sit final examinations in biology at the University of Oxford (and achieve first class honours).<ref>{{cite journal|title=The female firsts|url=https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=959|journal=Oxford Today|volume=22|issue=1|date=29 September 2009|access-date=2011-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927172840/https://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=959|archive-date=2011-09-27}}</ref>

==Chemistry== * Agnes Pockels first publishes the results of her researches into surface tension.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Agnes|last=Pockels|title=Surface tension|journal=Nature|volume=43|issue=1115|pages=437–439|year=1891|doi=10.1038/043437c0|bibcode=1891Natur..43R.437R|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429323}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=C. H.|last1=Giles|first2=S. D.|last2=Forrester|title=The origins of the surface film balance: Studies in the early history of surface chemistry, part 3|journal=Chemistry & Industry|pages=43–53|date=9 January 1971}}</ref> * The Fischer projection is devised by German chemist Hermann Emil Fischer,

==Geology== *Hans Reusch describes what comes to be known as Reusch's Moraine in northern Norway: tillite from a Precambrian glaciation.<ref name=Hoffman2011>{{cite book |last1=Hoffman |first1=Paul F.|author-link=Paul F. Hoffman|editor-last=Arnaud|editor-first=E. |editor-last2=Halverson|editor-first2=G.P.|editor-last3=Shields-Zhou|editor-first3=G. |date=2011 |title=The Geological Record of Neoproterozoic Glaciations |chapter=A history of Neoproterozoic glacial geology, 1871– 1997 |issue=36 |pages=17–37 |series=Geological Society, London, Memoirs|publisher=Geological Society of London}}</ref>

==Environment== *The Japan Meteorological Agency begins taking records of the global average temperature.<ref>{{cite web |title=Annual Anomalies of Global Average Surface Temperature (1891 - 2013) |url=http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/gwp/temp/ann_wld.html |work=JMA |date=14 November 2014 |access-date=15 November 2014 }}</ref>

==Mathematics== * Fyodorov–Schoenflies theorem concluded by Yevgraf Fyodorov and Arthur Schoenflies from their work on crystallographic groups.<ref>{{cite book|first=Marjorie|last=Senechal|author-link=Marjorie Senechal|editor-last=Lima-de-Faria|editor-first=J.|chapter=A brief history of geometrical crystallography|title=Historical Atlas of Crystallography|year=1990|pages=43–59|publisher=Kluwer|isbn=0-7923-0649-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8|page=153}}</ref> * Édouard Lucas first formulates the ménage problem.

==Paleontology== * October – Eugène Dubois finds the first fragmentary bones of ''Pithecanthropus erectus'' (later redesignated ''Homo erectus''), or 'Java Man', at Trinil on the Solo River.<ref>{{cite book|first=Sean B.|last=Carroll|title=Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2009|isbn=978-1-84916-072-8|pages=90–91}}</ref>

==Physiology and medicine== * Julius Ludwig August Koch begins publication of ''[https://archive.org/details/diepsychopathis00kochgoog Die psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten]'' in Ravensburg, introducing the concept of psychopathology.<ref>{{cite journal|author-link=Jon Ronson|first=Jon|last=Ronson|title=How to spot a psychopath|journal=Guardian Weekend|date=2011-05-21|page=31}}</ref> * Arnold Pick first uses the term ''dementia praecox'' in this form.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Ueber primäre chronische Demenz (so. Dementia praecox) im jugendlichen Alter|journal=Prager medicinische Wochenschrift|volume=16|pages=312–15|year=1891}}</ref> * Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz names the neuron.<ref>{{cite journal|first=H. W. G.|last=von Waldeyer-Hartz|title=Ueber einige neuere Forschungen im Gebiete der Anatomie des Centralnervensystems|journal=Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift|location=Berlin|year=1891|volume=17|pages=1213–1356}}</ref> * Myxedema is first treated successfully, by George Redmayne Murray using thyroid extract. * The earliest recorded attempt at hip replacement is carried out by Themistocles Gluck in Berlin, using ivory to replace the femoral head.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gomez|first1=Pablo F.|last2=Morcuende|first2=Jose A.|title=Early attempts at hip arthroplasty, 1700s to 1950s|pmc=1888777 |journal=Iowa Orthopaedic Journal|volume=25|pages=25–9|year=2005|pmid=16089067}}</ref> * Viennese pathologist Hans Chiari describes a form of Chiari malformation.

==Technology== * March 10 – Almon B. Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, is granted a patent in the United States<ref>{{Cite patent|country=US|number=447918|pubdate=1891-03-10|title=Automatic telephone-exchange|inventor1-last=Strowger|inventor1-first=Almon B.}}</ref> for an automatic telephone exchange using the Strowger switch.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Roger B. |last=Hill |title=The Early Years of the Strowger System |url=http://www.privateline.com/Switching/EarlyYears.html |journal=Bell Laboratories Record |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=95–103 |access-date=2011-11-03 |date=March 1953 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025123622/http://www.privateline.com/Switching/EarlyYears.html |archive-date=2011-10-25 }}</ref> * May 20 – First public demonstration of the Kinetograph moving picture system developed by W. K. L. Dickson under the direction of Thomas Alva Edison, a showing of the film known as ''Dickson Greeting''. Edison files patents on the camera and peephole viewer on August 24.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mannoni|first=Laurent|author2=Campagnoni, Donata Pesenti|author3= Robinson, David|year=1996|title=Light and Movement: Incunabula of the Motion Picture, 1420–1896|location=London|publisher=BFI|isbn=88-86155-05-0}}</ref> * Crompton & Co. introduce the electric kettle, in the United Kingdom. * Michelin patent the removable pneumatic bicycle tire.<ref>{{cite book|first1=John|last1=Lloyd|author-link=John Lloyd (writer)|first2=John|last2=Mitchinson|title=The Second Book of General Ignorance|location=London|publisher=Faber|year=2010|isbn=978-0-571-26965-5|page=163}}</ref> * Panhard et Levassor produce the first ''Système Panhard'' automobile layout, consisting of four wheels with front-engine, rear-wheel drive and a sliding-gear transmission, designed by Émile Levassor.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Georgano, G. N. |title=Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars|year=1982|publisher=Ebury Press|location=London|isbn=0-85223-234-9}}</ref> * William Le Baron Jenney develops the construction of steel frame skyscrapers in Chicago with the Ludington, Manhattan and Second Leiter Buildings. * The modern taximeter is invented by Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn in Germany.

==Awards== * Copley Medal: Stanislao Cannizzaro<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: John Wesley Judd

==Births== * January 8 – Walther Bothe (died 1957), German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1954). * January 26 – Wilder Penfield (died 1976), American-born neurosurgeon. * April 22 – Harold Jeffreys (died 1989), English mathematician. * May 15 – Fritz Feigl, (died 1971), Austrian-born Brazilian chemist * July 5 – John Howard Northrop (suicide 1987), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1946) * July 27 – Jacob van der Hoeden, Dutch-Israeli veterinary scientist (died 1968) * August 17 – Aly Tewfik Shousha (died 1964), Egyptian bacteriologist. * September 14 – Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov (died 1983), Russian mathematician. * September 24 – W. F. Friedman (died 1969), Bessarabian-born cryptanalyst. * October 24 – Ernest Melville DuPorte (died 1981), Caribbean-born Canadian insect morphologist. * November 14 – Frederick Banting (died 1941), Canadian discoverer of insulin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1923).

==Deaths== * January 6 – Hugh Owen Thomas (born 1834), British orthopaedic surgeon. * February 10 – Sofia Kovalevskaya (born 1850), Russian mathematician. * March 9 – Amalie Dietrich (born 1821), German naturalist. * May 11 – Edmond Becquerel (born 1820), French physicist. * June 9 – Henry Edwards (born 1827), English-born American entomologist and actor. * June 23 ** Sir Norman Pogson (born 1829), English-born astronomer. ** Wilhelm Eduard Weber (born 1804), German physicist. * August 30 – Emanoil Bacaloglu (born 1830), Romanian polymath. * September 18 – William Ferrel (born 1817), American meteorologist. * October 3 – Édouard Lucas (born 1842), French mathematician. * November 18 – Joseph Wolstenholme (born 1829), English mathematician. * December 21 – William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire (born 1808), English landowner and promoter of science.

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:1891 in science Category:19th century in science Category:1890s in science