1813 in science

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The year 1813 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

• April – William Charles Wells reads a paper to the Royal Society of London making the first clear statement about natural selection.^[1][2][3][4]
• Charles Waterton begins the process of turning his estate at Walton Hall, West Yorkshire, England, into what is, in effect, the world's first nature reserve.^[5]

Chemistry

• Mathieu Orfila publishes his groundbreaking Traité des poisons, formalizing the field of toxicology.^[6]
• Louis Jacques Thénard commences publication of his textbook Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique in Paris.
• Edward Howard invents the enclosed vacuum pan for refining sugar.

Exploration

• May 11 – Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth leave on an expedition to cross the Blue Mountains (New South Wales).

Mathematics

• S. D. Poisson publishes Poisson's equation, his correction of Laplace's second order partial differential equation for potential.^[7]

Physics

• British engineer Peter Ewart supports the idea of the conservation of energy in his paper "On the measure of moving force".

Sociology

• Henri de Saint-Simon publishes Physiologie sociale.

Technology

• Probable date – George E. Clymer invents the Columbian press.

Institutions

• March 1 – Sir Humphry Davy employs Michael Faraday as "chemical assistant" at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London.

Awards

• Copley Medal: William Thomas Brande

Births

• January 19 – Henry Bessemer, English inventor (died 1898)
• February 18 – Karl Weltzien, Russian-born German inorganic chemist, an organizer of the Karlsruhe Congress (died 1870)
• March 19 – David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (died 1873)
• July 12 – Claude Bernard, French physiologist (died 1878)
• October 17 – Georg Büchner, Hessian-born writer and anatomist (died 1837).
• December 19 – Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist (died 1885)

Deaths

• April 10 – Joseph Louis Lagrange, Piedmont-born mathematician (born 1736)
• April 19 – Benjamin Rush, Founding Father of the United States, chemist and physician (born 1746)
• April 27 – General Zebulon Pike, American explorer (born 1779)
• May – Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger, German zoologist (born 1775)
• July 22 – George Shaw, English naturalist (born 1751)
• August 23 – Alexander Wilson, Scottish American ornithologist (born 1766)

References

1. Published posthumously in 1818 in his Two Essays.
2. Green, J. H. S. (1957). "William Charles Wells FRS (1757–1817)" (PDF). Nature. 179: 997–99. doi:10.1038/179997a0. Retrieved 2011-12-16.
3. Darwin, Charles (1866). "Historical Sketch". On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection (4th & subsequent ed.). London: Murray. [Wells] distinctly recognises the principle of natural selection, and this is the first recognition which has been indicated.
4. Glass, Bentley; et al., eds. (1959). Forerunners of Darwin, 1745-1859. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. p. 369.
5. Blackburn, Julia (1989). Charles Waterton, 1782-1865: traveller and conservationist. London: The Bodley Head. pp. 52–9. ISBN 0-370-31248-1.
6. Bertomeu-Sánchez, José Ramón; Nieto-Galan, Agustí, eds. (2006). Chemistry, Medicine and Crime: Mateu J. B. Orfila (1787–1853) and his times. Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications. ISBN 0-88135-275-6.
7. Bulletin de la société philomatique.