The year 1796 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

Pierre-Simon Laplace publishes Exposition du système du monde, his work on astronomy (mainly celestial mechanics) following Newton and Lagrange. He develops an analytical theory of tides, deduces the mass of the moon, improves calculation of cosmic orbits, and predicts that Saturn's rings will be found to rotate. Most notably, he propounds the modern nebular hypothesis, independently outlined by Kant.

Chemistry

Rev. James Parker is granted a patent in Britain for Roman cement ("A certain Cement or Terras to be used in Aquatic and other Buildings and Stucco Work").

Exploration

June 21 - Mungo Park becomes the first European to reach the Niger River.[1]

Mathematics

This is a productive year for the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (b. 1777) and his work in number theory:[2][3]
March 30 - He obtains conditions for the constructibility by ruler and compass of regular polygons, including the heptadecagon.[4]
April 8 - He becomes the first to prove the quadratic reciprocity law, enabling determination of the solvability of any quadratic equation in modular arithmetic.
May 31 - He puts forward his prime number theorem on the distribution of prime numbers among the integers.
July 10 - He discovers that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most three triangular numbers, noting in his diary "Heureka! num = Δ + Δ + Δ."
October 1 - He publishes a result on the number of solutions of polynomials with coefficients in finite fields.

Medicine

May 14 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.[5]
Franz Joseph Gall develops his theory of 'cranioscopy', a forerunner of phrenology.[6]

Paleontology

April - Georges Cuvier reads his paper Mémoires sur les espèces d'éléphants vivants et fossiles at the opening of the Institut National in Paris, demonstrating that species had become extinct.

Technology

Completion of the first cast iron aqueducts, on the English canals
February - Holmes Aqueduct on the Derby Canal, designed by Benjamin Outram (demolished 1971).[7]
March - Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct on the Shrewsbury Canal, designed by Thomas Telford (extant).[8]
August 9 - Opening to traffic of the Wearmouth Bridge in England, designed by Thomas Paine in cast iron. The second in this material built after that at Ironbridge, but over twice as long, its span of 237 feet (72 m) makes it the world's longest single-span vehicular bridge extant at this date.[9][10][11]
Printing by lithography is invented by Alois Senefelder in Bohemia.[12]

Zoology

Pierre André Latreille publishes Précis des caracteres generiques des insectes, disposes dans un ordre naturel in Paris.

Awards

Copley Medal: George Atwood

Births

February 10 - Henry De la Beche, English geologist (d. 1855)
February 22 - Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian mathematician and astronomer (d. 1874)
1 June 1796 Birth of Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French physicist (d. 1832)
July 29 - Walter Hunt, American inventor (d. 1859)
August 21 - James Lick, American philanthropist who endowed the Lick Observatory (d. 1876)
September 19 - Richard Harlan, American zoologist (d. 1843)
December (approx. date) - William Banting, English undertaker and dietician (d. 1878)

1796 Birth of Johann Daniel Titius

Deaths

May 1 - Alexandre Guy Pingré, French astronomer and naval geographer (b. 1711
December 11 - Johann Daniel Titius, German astronomer (b. 1729)

References

^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 346. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
^ Dunnington, G. Waldo (2004). Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (new ed.). Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America. ISBN 0-88385-538-0. OCLC 53933110.
^ Hall, Tord (1970). Carl Friedrich Gauss: a Biography. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-08040-0. OCLC 185662235.
^ Gauss, Carl Friedrich (1801). "§§365–366". Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. Leipzig.
^ Waldman, Thomas A. (2003). "Immunotherapy: past, present and future" (PDF). Nature Medicine 9 (3): 269–277. doi:10.1038/nm0303-269. PMID 12612576. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
^ Graham, Patrick (2001). Phrenology: revealing the mysteries of the mind (videorecording (DVD)). Richmond Hill, Ont.: American Home Treasures. ISBN 0-7792-5135-0.
^ "Benjamin Outram (1764–1805)". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
^ Brown, Peter. "Thomas Telford". Retrieved 2011-07-18.
^ Tyrrell, Henry Grattan (1911). History of Bridge Engineering. Chicago. pp. 153–154. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
^ Troyano, Leonardo Fernández (2003). Bridge Engineering: a Global Perspective. London: Thomas Telford Publishing. p. 49. ISBN 0-7277-3215-3.
^ "Sunderland Wearmouth Bridge". Wearside Online. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
^ Meggs, Philip B. (1998). A History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. p. 146. ISBN 0-471-29198-6.