1824 in science

Astronomy

• Franz von Gruithuisen explains the formation of craters on the Moon as a result of meteorite impacts.
• William Pearson publishes An Introduction to Practical Astronomy.

  Biology

• John Curtis begins publication of British Entomology in London.
• Thomas Say begins publication of American Entomology, or Descriptions of the Insects of North America in Philadelphia, including the first description of the Colorado potato beetle.

  Climatology

• Joseph Fourier calculates that the Earth would be far colder if it lacked an atmosphere.

  Mathematics

• Niels Henrik Abel partially proves that the general quintic or higher equations cannot be solved by a general formula involving only arithmetical operations and roots.
• Augustin-Louis Cauchy proves convergence of the Euler method, using the implicit Euler method.

  Paleontology

• The Rev. Professor William Buckland becomes the first person to describe a dinosaur in a scientific journal.

  Technology

• October 21 – Patent issued to Joseph Aspdin for Portland cement.
• Sadi Carnot scientifically analyzes the efficiency of steam engines and heat engines in general in his book Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire and on Machines Fitted to Develop that Power.
• Louis Braille, at age 15, develops the six-dot code, later known as Braille, which allows the visually impaired to read and write faster than previous raised-letter systems.
• The Panoramagram is invented as the first stereoscopic viewer.

  Institutions

• January 8 – After much controversy, Michael Faraday is finally elected as a member of the Royal Society with only one vote against him.
• February 5 – The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts is founded in Philadelphia by Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating.
• November 5 – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first technological university in the English-speaking world, is founded in Troy, New York.

  Awards

• Copley Medal: John Brinkley

  Births

• February 7 – William Huggins, astronomer.
• February 16 – Peter Kosler, cartographer, geographer.
• March 12 – Gustav Kirchhoff, physicist.
• May 18 – Wilhelm Hofmeister, botanist.
• June 26 – William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, physicist.
• June 28 – Paul Broca, anthropologist.
• December 11 – Jonathan Letterman, surgeon and "Father of Battlefield Medicine".

  Deaths

• December 21 – James Parkinson, surgeon.