Timeline 1800 to 1859

1800 Alessandro Volta announces his invention of the electric battery
1800 William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle use electrolysis to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen
1800 William Herschel discovers infrared radiation
1801 Johann Ritter discovers ultraviolet radiation
1801 Robert Fulton builds the first submarine
1801 Thomas Young demonstrates the wave nature of light and the principle of interference
1801 Guiseppe Piazzi discovers the asteroid Ceres
1801 Steam-Powered Pumping Station
The Fairmount Water Works harnesses steam power to provide water for the city of Philadelphia.

1802 William Wollaston observes dark lines in the stellar spectrum
1803 John Dalton introduces atomic ideas into chemistry and states that matter is composed of atoms of different weights
1803 Thomas Young explains supernumerary rainbows
1803 Spray Gun
Dr. Alan de Vilbiss of Toledo, Ohio, invented this device to replace swabs as the method of applying medication to oral and nasal passages.

1805 Amphibious Vehicle
Oliver Evans' "Orukter Amphibolos" dredges the waters near the Philadelphia docks. Its steam-powered engine drove either wooden wheels or a paddle wheel. Evans demonstrated his machine in Philadelphia's Center Square, where he passed the hat for money.

1806 Coffee Pot
Coffee drinkers the world over no longer have to chew their brew. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, invents a coffee pot with a metal sieve to strain away the grounds.

1807 Steamboat
Robert Fulton, former miniaturist and landscape painter, opens American rivers to two-way travel. His steamboat the "Clermont" travels 150 miles upstream between New York and Albany at an average speed of 5 mph.

1807 Joseph Fourier first announces his discoveries about the trigonometric decomposition of functions
1807 Isaac de Rivas makes a hydrogen gas powered vehicle
1808 \'Etienne Malus discovers polarization by reflection
1809 \'Etienne Malus publishes the law of Malus
1809 Jean Lamarck revives the idea that acquired characteristics can be inherited in Philosophie Zoologique
1811 Amedeo Avogadro claims that equal volumes of gases should contain equal numbers of molecules
1811 Dominique Arago discovers the optical activity of quartz
1813 Armored Warship
Steam power enhances military power. Robert Fulton's "Demolos" sails. At 140 ft. in length, it carries a thirty 32-pound cannon.

1814 Plough
Farmers had furrowed the rocky soil of New England with wooden-tipped ploughs. John Jethro Woods of Poplar Ridge, New York, creates a plough with a replaceable cast-iron tip, making farming in America easier.

1814 Joseph Fraunhofer studies the spectral lines of the sun
1814 George Stephenson builds the first practical steam locomotive
1816 Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope
1816 David Brewster discovers stress birefringence
1817 Erie Canal
Overland travel in the 1800s is slow and arduous. Engineers propose a plan to supplement natural water systems by digging a 363 mile canal to connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie. The "Seneca Chief" will make the inaugural run through the Erie Canal in 1825.

1818 Profile Lathe
Thomas Blanchard of Middlebury, Connecticut, builds a woodworking lathe that does the work of 13 men. His invention helps to lower wood prices.

1819 Augustus Siebe invents a diving suit which receives air pumped down from the surface
1820 Hans Oersted notices that a current in a wire can deflect a compass needle
1821 Michael Faraday builds an electricity-powered motor
1822 Joseph Fourier formally introduces the use of dimensions for physical quantities in his Theorie Analytique de la Chaleur
1823 William Sturgeon invents the electromagnet
1824 Sadi Carnot analyzes heat engines
1824 Niels Abel partially proves that the general quintic or higher equations do not have algebraic solutions
1825 Augustin Fresnel phenomenologically explains optical activity by introducing circular birefringence
1826 Joseph Ni\'epce takes the first permanent photograph
1826 Heinrich Olbers puts forth Olbers' paradox
1826 Simon Ohm states his law of electrical resistance
1827 Robert Brown discovers the Brownian motion
1828 George Green proves Green's theorem
1829 Nikolai Lobachevski publishes his work on hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometry
1830 Electro-magnetic Motor
Joseph Henry, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Science at the Albany Academy, builds a motor employing the electromagnet, invented by William Sturgeon in London just five years earlier. Henry's motor has no practical use.

1831 Reaping Machine
The McCormick Reaper, which cut grain much faster than a man with a scythe, failed to catch on. McCormick sold the first unit around 1840; by 1844, only 50 had sold. After taking his operation to Chicago, McCormick prospered. By 1871 his company was selling 10,000 reapers per year.

1831 Michael Faraday states his law of induction
1831 Michael Faraday begins his work on electrolysis
1831 Joseph Henry proposes an electromagnetic telegraph
1832 \'Evariste Galois presents a general condition for the solvability of algebraic equations
1833 Sewing Machine
Walter Hunt invents the first lock-stitch sewing machine, but loses interest and does not patent his invention. Later, Elias Howe secures patent on an original lock-stitch machine, but fails to manufacture and sell it. Still later, Isaac Singer infringes on Howe's patent to make his own machine, which makes Singer rich. Hunt also invents the safety pin, which he sells outright for $400.

1834 Threshing Machine
John A. and Hiram Abial Pitts invent a machine that automatically threshes and separates grain from chaff, freeing farmers from a slow and laborious process.

1834 William Hamilton states his dynamical principle
1834 Carl Jacobi discovers his ellipsoids
1834 Benoit-Pierre Clapeyron presents a formulation of the second law of thermodynamics
1834 Charles Babbage proposes an analytical engine calculating machine
1835 Gaspard de Coriolis deduces the Coriolis force
1836 Revolver
To finance the development of his "six shooter," Samuel Colt traveled the lecture circuit, giving demonstrations of laughing gas. Colt's new weapon failed to catch on, and he went bankrupt in 1842 at age 28. He reorganized and sold his first major order to the War Department during the Mexican War in 1846, and went on to become rich.

1837 Power Tools
Thomas Davenport of Brandon, Vermont, is one of the first to find a practical application for the electric motor. He uses a motor he built to power shop machinery and also builds the first electric model railroad car.

1837 - Cooke and Wheatstone obtain a patent on telegraph. Morse publicly demonstrates his telegraph. *[Note 3]
1838 Friedrich Bessel, T. Henderson, Friedrich Struve measure the parallax of stars
1839 Charles Goodyear invents vulcanized rubber
1840 Justus von Leibig invents artificial fertilizer
1840 - Congress was requested to provide funding for a semaphore system running from NYC to New Orleans. Samuel Morse, it is said, advised against funding of this system because of his work on developing the electric telegraph.
1840 Paint Tube
John Rand invents a collapsible metal squeeze tube. The container immediately hits markets in Europe, where it is used to hold and dispense artists' pigments.

1842 Ether Anesthesia
Crawford Williamson Long, of Jefferson, Georgia, performs the first operation using an ether-based anesthesia, when he removes a tumor from the neck of Mr. James Venable. Long will not reveal his discovery until 1849.

1842 Christian D\"oppler states the D\"oppler shift formula
1842 Crawford Long performs the first surgical operation using anasthesia
1843 Samuel Morse builds the first long distance electric telegraph line
1843 James Joule experimentally demonstrates that heat is a form of energy
1843 Vulcanized Rubber
Rubber, so named because it could erase pencil, had long been considered a waterproofing agent, but in its natural state, it melted in hot weather and froze solid in the cold. After ten years of tireless work and abject poverty, Charles Goodyear perfects his process for "vulcanizing" rubber, or combining it with sulfur to create a soft, pliable substance unaffected by temperature.

1843 - FAX invented by the Scotch physicist Alexander Bain.
1844 - Morse demonstrates the electric telegraph.
*[Note 1]: Samuel F.B. Morse demonstrates his telegraph by sending a message to Baltimore from the chambers of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The message, "What hath God wrought?," marks the beginning of a new era in communication.
1844 - Morse's first telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore opens in May. *[Note 3]
1844 Telegraph
Samuel F.B. Morse demonstrates his telegraph by sending a message to Baltimore from the chambers of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The message, "What hath God wrought?," marks the beginning of a new era in communication.

1845 False Teeth
Cladius Ash helps Americans get a better grip on what they're eating. He creates a new type of artificial dental wear featuring individual porcelain teeth mounted with steel springs.

1845 Michael Faraday discovers that light propagation in a material can be influenced by external magnetic fields
1845 Urbain LeVerrier observes a 35'' per century excess precession of Mercury's orbit
1845 Lord Rosse builds the Parsontown 72-inch optical reflecting telescope
1846 John Adams and Urbain LeVerrier predict the existence and location of Neptune from irregularities in the orbit of Uranus
1846 Johann Galle discovers Neptune
1846 Cylinder Printing Press
Richard M. Hoe creates a revolution in printing by rolling a cylinder over stationary plates of inked type and using the cylinder to make an impression on paper. This eliminated the need for making impressions directly from the type plates themselves, which were heavy and difficult to maneuver.

1847: American Medical Association is founded.
1847 (March 3) - Birth of Alexander Graham Bell, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1847 Hermann Helmholtz presents a formulation of the first law of thermodynamics
1847 Ignaz Semmelweis studies and prevents the transmission of puerperal fever
1848 Louis Pasteur discovers stereoisomers
1848 Lord Kelvin discovers the absolute zero point of temperature
January 24, 1848 -- Gold discovered at Sutter's Creek -- A millwright named James Marshall discovers gold along the banks of Sutter's Creek in California, forever changing the course of history in the American West. A tributary to the South Fork of the American River in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco, Sutter's Creek was named for a Swiss immigrant who came to Mexican California in 1839. John Augustus Sutter became a citizen of Mexico and won a grant of nearly 50,000 acres in the lush Sacramento Valley, where he hoped to create a thriving colony. He built a sturdy fort that became the center of his first town, New Helvetia, and purchased farming implements, livestock, and a cannon to defend his tiny empire. Copying the methods of the Spanish missions, Sutter induced the local Indians to do all the work on his farms and ranches, often treating them as little more than slaves. Workers who dared leave his empire without permission were often brought back by armed posses to face brutal whippings or even execution. In the 1840s, Sutter's Fort became the first stopping-off point for overland Anglo-American emigrants coming to California to build farms and ranches. Though sworn to protect the Mexican province from falling under the control of the growing number of Americans, Sutter recognized that his future wealth and influence lay with these Anglo settlers. With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, he threw his support to the Americans, who emerged victorious in the fall of 1847. With the war over and California securely in the hands of the United States, Sutter hired the millwright James Marshall to build a sawmill along the South Fork of the American River in January 1848. In order to redirect the flow of water to the mill's waterwheel, Marshall supervised the excavation of a shallow millrace. On the morning of January 24, 1848, Marshall was looking over the freshly cut millrace when a sparkle of light in the dark earth caught his eye. Looking more closely, Marshall found that much of the millrace was speckled with what appeared to be small flakes of gold, and he rushed to tell Sutter. After an assayer confirmed that the flakes were indeed gold, Sutter quietly set about gathering up as much of the gold as he could, hoping to keep the discovery a secret. However, word soon leaked out and, within months, the largest gold rush in the world had begun. Ironically, the California gold rush was a disaster for Sutter. Though it brought thousands of men to California, the prospectors had no interest in joining Sutter's despotic agricultural community. Instead, they overran Sutter's property, slaughtered his herds for food, and trampled his fields. By 1852, New Helvetia was ruined, and Sutter was nearly wiped out. Until his death in 1880, he spent his time unsuccessfully petitioning the government to compensate him for the losses he suffered as a result of the gold rush he unintentionally ignited.
January 23, 1849 -- First woman M.D. -- Elizabeth Blackwell is granted a medical degree from Geneva College in New York, becoming the first female to be officially recognized as a physician in U.S. history. Blackwell, born in Bristol, England, came to the United States in her youth and attended the medical faculty of Geneva College, now known as Hobart College. In 1849, she graduated with the highest grades in her class and was granted an M.D. In 1857, after several years of private practice, she founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children with her sister, Emily Blackwell, also a doctor. In 1868, the institution was expanded to include a women's college for the training of nurses and doctors, the first of its kind in America. The next year, Blackwell returned to England, where in 1875 she became professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Women, a medical discipline she had helped to establish.
1849 Armand Fizeau measures the speed of light to within 5\%
1850 George Stokes proves Stokes' theorem
1850 Edouard Roche finds the limit of tidal destruction for a body held together only by its self gravity
1850 Lord Rosse discovers that some of the nebulous objects show spiral structure
1851 Jean Bernard Foucalt shows the Earth's rotation with a huge pendulum
1851 - There are 51 telegraph companies in operation
1851 Crystal Palace
In a glass conservatory in London, the Great Exhibition begins. Among the 14,000 exhibits were Colt's repeating pistol, Goodyear's vulcanized rubber, and Gail Borden's meat biscuit. More than six million visitors from around the world attended. The exhibition became a model for all World Fairs to come.
1852 George Stokes defines the Stokes parameters of polarization
1852 James Joule and Lord Kelvin demonstrate that a rapidly expanding gas cools
1852 - On November 11, 1852, the Saturday Evening Gazette published “The Rival Painters: A Story of Rome,” by Louisa May Alcott, author of “Little Women” (1868). Alcott spent most of her life caring for her family financially, emotionally and physically. Her father died in March 1888 and she followed him just two days later.
1854 Georg Riemann introduces Riemannian geometry
1856 Louis Pasteur states that microorganisms produce fermentation
1856 - Western Union formed by six men from Rochester, N.Y. They start an acquisition spree.
1857 Passenger Elevator
Elisha Graves Otis dramatically demonstrates his passenger elevator at the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York by cutting the elevator's cables as it ascends a 300 foot tower. Otis' unique safety braking system prevents the elevator from falling; his business prospects rise.

1858 Burglar Alarm
Edwin T. Holmes of Boston begins to sell electric burglar alarms. Later, his workshop will be used by Alexander Graham Bell as the young Bell pursues his invention of the telephone. Holmes will be the first person to have a home telephone.
1858 - Burglar Alarm - Edwin T. Holmes of Boston begins to sell electric burglar alarms. Later, his workshop will be used by Alexander Graham Bell as the young Bell pursues his invention of the telephone. Holmes will be the first person to have a home telephone. *[Note 1]
1858 Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace independently propose natural selection theories of evolution
October 27, 1858 -- Macy's is a hit -- The eighth time was the charm for Roland Macy. After a string of seven business failures, the resilient entrepreneur finally hit the jackpot in 1858 when he founded his own department store, named (you guessed it!) Macy's. The store, which opened in New York City, was packed with a variety of useful products and became an immediate success. Today, Macy's is, by volume of sales, the biggest department store in the world.
1859 James Maxwell discovers the distribution law of molecular velocities
1859 Oil Well
Drilling at Titusville, Pennsylvania, "Colonel" Edwin Drake strikes oil at a depth of 69.5 feet. Prior to that, oil, which had been used mostly as a lubricant and lamp fuel, had been obtained only at places where it seeped from the ground. Western Pennsylvania witnesses the world's first oil boom.

1859: Louis Pasteur suggests in a paper that microorganisms may cause many human and animal diseases.