The year 1820 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

• Astronomical Society of London is founded.^[1]

Biology

• Christian Friedrich Nasse formulates Nasse's law: hemophilia occurs only in males and is transmitted by asymptomatic females.

Chemistry

• May - John Herapath draws up a partial account of the kinetic theory of gases.^[2]

Computing

• Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar makes his "Arithmometer", the first mass-produced calculator.

Exploration

• January 28 (NS) - Antarctica is sighted for the first time by Imperial Russian Navy captain Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.^[3]
• January 30 - Antarctica is sighted for the second time by British Royal Navy captain Edward Bransfield.^[3]
• November 17 - Antarctica is sighted for the third time by United States seal hunter Nathaniel Palmer.^[4]

Physics

• Hans Christian rsted discovers the relationship between electricity and magnetism.
• Laws of electrodynamics are established by Andr -Marie Amp re.
• Jean-Baptiste Biot and F lix Savart demonstrate the Biot Savart law in electromagnetism.

Technology

• July 26 - Opening of Union Chain Bridge across the River Tweed between England and Scotland, designed by Captain Samuel Brown. Its span of 449 ft (137 metres) is the longest in the Western world at this time, and it is the first wrought iron vehicular suspension bridge bridge of its type in Britain.^[5]
• English inventor Thomas Hancock patents the production of fastenings using rubberized fabrics and invents the "pickling machine" (masticator) for recycling rubber scraps.
• French engineer Jean-Victor Poncelet develops an inward-flow water turbine.
• British inventor Warren De la Rue creates the first light bulb using a vacuum tube, although its use of a platinum coil makes it commercially unviable.

Awards

• Copley Medal - Hans Christian rsted

Births

• January 20 - Alexandre-Emile B guyer de Chancourtois (died 1886), mineralogist.
• March 24 - Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (died 1891), physicist.
• April 4 - David Kirkaldy (died 1897), engineer, pioneer of materials testing.
• April 16 - Victor Alexandre Puiseux (died 1883), mathematician.
• May 12 - Florence Nightingale (died 1910), nurse.
• July 5 William John Macquorn Rankine (died 1872), physicist.
• August 2 - John Tyndall (died 1893), physicist.

Deaths

• April 15 John Bell (born 1763), surgeon.
• June 19 Joseph Banks (born 1743), naturalist.

References

fr:1820 en science he:1820 mk:1820 no:Vitenskaps ret 1820 nn:Vitskap i 1820 sv:Vetenskaps ret 1820