The year 1819 in science and technology involved
some significant events, listed below.
== Astronomy and space science ==
Johann Franz Encke computes the orbit of Comet
Encke, identifying it as periodic.
July 1 – Johann Georg Tralles discovers
the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It is
the first comet analyzed using polarimetry,
by François Arago.
== Chemistry ==
Joseph Bienaimé Caventou and Pierre Joseph
Pelletier isolate the alkaloid brucine from
Strychnos nux-vomica.
== Exploration ==
February 19 – Captain William Smith in British
merchant brig Williams sights Williams Point,
the northeast extremity of Livingston Island
in the South Shetlands, the first land discovered
south of latitude 60° S.
October 15 – Desolation Island in the South
Shetland Islands of the Antarctic is discovered
by Captain William Smith in the Williams.
A British Arctic expedition under William
Edward Parry comprising HMS Hecla and HMS
Griper reaches longitude 112°51' W in the
Northwest Passage, the furthest west which
will be attained by any single-season voyage
for 150 years.
== Geology ==
G. B. Greenough publishes his book A critical
examination of the first principles of geology
in a series of essays in London.
== Medicine ==
August – René Laennec publishes De l’Auscultation
Médiate ou Traité du Diagnostic des Maladies
des Poumons et du Coeur in Paris, describing
his invention of the stethoscope.
English physician John Bostock publishes the
first account of allergic rhinitis (in himself).
== Technology ==
May 22 – SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah,
Georgia on a voyage to become the first steamship
to cross the Atlantic Ocean, although only
a fraction of the trip is made under steam.
The ship arrives at Liverpool, England, on
June 20.
Invention of the M1819 breech-loading flintlock
using interchangeable parts by Captain John
H. Hall of Harpers Ferry Armory in the United
States.
== Institutions ==
Cambridge Philosophical Society founded as
a scientific society at the University of
Cambridge in England.
== Awards ==
Copley Medal: Not awarded
== Births ==
March 24 – Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs
(died 1885), German medical pathologist.
May 3 (O.S. April 21) – Nikolai Annenkov
(died 1889), Russian botanist.
June 5 – John Couch Adams (died 1892), Cornish-born
mathematician and astronomer.
August 9 – William T. G. Morton (died 1868),
American dentist.
August 13 – George Gabriel Stokes (died
1903), Irish-born mathematician and physicist.
September 18 – Léon Foucault (died 1868),
French physicist.
September 23 – Hippolyte Fizeau (died 1896),
French physicist.
== Deaths ==
January – Elsa Beata Bunge (born 1734),
Swedish botanist.
August 19 – James Watt (born 1736), British
inventor, mechanical engineer and mathematician.
November 22 – John Stackhouse (born 1742),
English botanist
