History of Physics and Astronomy

1850 AD to 1899 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1850 AD until 1899 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1850 Light - speed of light measurement – Foucault – rotating mirror
1850 Thermodynamics – second law of thermodynamics Rudolf Clausius,
1851 Foucault pendulum
1851 Ruhmkorff coil
1851-1901 Fitzgerald
1852 Gyroscope – Foucault
1852 Joule-Thompson effect
1852 Polarisation using Herapathite
1852- 1909 Becquerel
1852-1931 Michelson
1853-1928 Lorentz
1854 Geissler – good vacuum
1854 Heat death of the universe - Hermann von Helmholtz,
1854 Thermodynamic temperature scale (?1848)
1854-1856 Crimean War
1854-1912 Poincare
1855 Spiral galaxies - William Parsons
1855-1944 Boys
1856-1940 Thomson, J.J
1857 Kinetic theory – Clausius
1857 Nature of Saturn's rings - James Clerk Maxwell
1857-1894 Hertz
1858 Matrices – Cayley
1858 Mean free path of a molecule – Clausius
1858-1947 Planck
1859 Anomolous perihelion shift of Mercury - Urbane Le Verrier
1859 Cathode rays - Hittorf and Plucker
1859 Origin of the Species - Darwin
1859-1906 Curie, Pierre
1860 Internal combustion engine
1860 Kinetic theory of gases – proof of the formula
1860 Kirchhoff's Law - heat
1860 Molecular velocity distribution in a gas – Maxwell
1861 Andrews experiments with carbon dioxide
1862 Constant flow calorimeter (C_p) - Regnault
1862 Hydrogen observed in the sun - Anders Angstrom
1862 Phototelegraphy – Abbe Caselli
1863-1932 Wolf
1864 Coefficient of expansion – Fizeau – using Newton's rings
1864 Electromagnetic theory – Maxwell
1864-1928 Wien
1864 Coefficient of expansion – Fizeau – using Newton's rings
1864 Electromagnetic theory – Maxwell
1864-1928 Wien
1865 Entropy – Clausius
1865 Leclanche cell
1866 Sound – speed of sound – Kundt's dust tube method
1867-1934 Curie, Marie
1868 Doppler effect in the spectra of stars – Huggins
1868 Helium identified and named in the Sun's spectrum - Joseph Lockyer
1868 Helium lines observed in the Sun's spectrum - Pierre-Jules Janssen
1868-1951 Sommerfield
1868- 1953 Millikan
1869 Cathode rays – Hittorf
1869 Dynamite
1869 Mendeleev table of the elements
1869 Spectroscope used in a total eclipse of the Sun
1869-1952 Lees (Lees disc)
1870 Fibre optics – Tyndall
1870-1942 Perrin, Jean – Perrin tube
1871 Helium – name for the new element
1871 Light scattering and why the sky is blue - Tyndall and Rayleigh
1871- 1937 Rutherford
1872 Clark cell
1872 Van der Waals equation
1872-1934 De Sitter
1873 Photocell – selenium
1874 Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge founded – Maxwell as director
1874 Electron – particle named by Stoney who also estimated its mass
1874 Half wave plate - Laurent
1874-1945 Marconi
1874-1954 Lyman
1875 Kerr effect
1876 Cathode rays – named by Goldstein
1876 Telephone – commercial version invented
1877 Gramophone invented - Edison
1877 Moons of Mars discovered - Asaph Hall
1877 Oxygen liquefied – Pictet
1877 Resistance thermometer – Callendar
1877-1945 Aston
1877-1956 Soddy
1878 Electric light bulb – Edison
1878 Helium discovered in solar spectrum – Lockyer (?1868)
1878 Microphone – carbon microphone – Hughes
1878 Wimshurst machine
1879 Light - speed of light – Michelson – rotating prism
1879 Stefan-Boltzmann Law for Black Body radiation
1879 Telephone exchange – first one in London
1879-1955 Einstein
1879-1960 Von Laue
1879-1968 Hahn
1880 Piezo electric effect – P and J. Curie
1881 Bolometer – Langley
1881 Electron – name proposed for the fundamental unit of charge (?)
1881 Mass of electrified particle increases as speed increases
1881 Optical interferometer - Albert Michelson
1882 Comet – the great comet became the first one to be photographed
1882 Diffraction grating – Rowland
1882- 1944 Eddington
1882-1945 Geiger
1882-1945 Goddard
1884 Nipkow disc
1884 Photometer – wax block photometer
1884 Stefan-Boltzmann Law
1884 Turbine – Parsons
1885 Balmer series in hydrogen
1885 Classification of stars – E.C.Pickering
1885-1962 Bohr, Niels
1886 Canal rays – Goldstein
1886 Dynamic method for saturated vapour pressure – Ramsay and Young
1886 Germanium discovered - Clemens Winkler
1886 Interference fringes – surface map of a material - Laurent
1886 Joly differential steam calorimeter
1887 Callendar and Griffiths bridge
1887 Car – Daimler
1887 Michelson-Morley experiment – absence of ether drift
1887 Photoelectric effect discovered - Hallwachs
1887 Wireless waves detected - Hertz
1887-1961 Schrφdinger
1888 Contact lenses
1888 Tyre - pneumatic – Dunlop
1888-1946 Baird, James Logie
1889 Length contraction - George Fitzgerald
1889 Metre – modern standard metre introduced
1889 Turbine – de Laval
1889-1953 Hubble
1890 C_v - Joly
1890 Rydberg constant
1891 Minor planet – first to be discovered by photography – Wolf
1892 Blooming of lenses – Taylor
1892 Dewar flask
1892 Metre – number of cadmium waves in a metre - Michelson
1892 Units – rationalised system – Heaviside
1892- 1987 De Broglie
1892- 1894 Oxygen liquefied
1892-1962 Compton, A.H
1893 Black body displacement law derivation - Wilhelm Wien
1893 Diesel engine
1893 Fitzgerald contraction
1893 Greenwich 28" refractor completed
1893 Motion picture – first one made
1894 Argon discovered – Ramsay and Rayliegh
1894 Greenwich 28" refractor opened
1895 Carbon dioxide discharge tube
1895 Cathode rays – negatively charged
1895 Curie point for magnetic materials identified
1895 G – Boys method
1895 Hampson and Linde process
1895 Helium isolated
1895 Lorentz transformation – first form - Hendrick Lorentz
1895 Tsiolkovsky publishes first ideas of space travel
1895 X rays discovered – Rφntgen
1896 Black body radiation curve - Wien
1896 Nobel died
1896 Radioactivity discovered in uranium ore - Becquerel
1896 Rayleigh refractometer
1896 Zeeman effect – Pieter Zeeman
1897 Cathode ray oscilloscope – Braun
1897 Electrons 'discovered' – J.J.Thomson
1897 Infra red – Lummer and Pringsheim
1897 Interferometer – Fabry-Perot
1897 Yerkes 40" refractor opened
1897-1967 Cockcroft, James
1898 Hydrogen liquefied - Dewar
1898 Lees disc
1898 Polonium discovered
1898 Radium discovered - Curies
1898 Wireless message – first paid one
1899 Alpha, beta and gamma rays discovered by Rutherford
1899 Diffraction of X rays
1899 Hydrogen solidified - Dewar
1899-1902 War - Boer War