1797 in science

The year 1797 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Chemistry

 * Smithson Tennant demonstrates that diamond is a pure form of carbon.
 * Louis Nicolas Vauquelin discovers chromium.
 * Joseph Proust proposes the law of definite proportions, which states that elements always combine in small, whole number ratios to form compounds.

Mathematics

 * Lagrange publishes his Théorie des fonctions analytiques.

Physics

 * Giovanni Battista Venturi describes the Venturi effect.

Technology

 * October 22 – André-Jacques Garnerin carries out the first descent using a frameless parachute, a 980 m (3,200 feet) drop from a balloon in Paris.

Zoology

 * Thomas Bewick publishes the first volume, Land Birds, of his History of British Birds.

Awards

 * Copley Medal: Not awarded

Births

 * January 3 – Frederick William Hope, British zoologist (died 1862)
 * January 4 – Wilhelm Beer, Prussian astronomer (died 1850)
 * February – Joseph-Alphonse Adhémar, French mathematician (died 1862)
 * February 2 – Joseph Guislain, Flemish psychiatrist (died 1860)
 * February 5 – Jean-Marie Duhamel, French mathematician and physicist (died 1872)
 * March 10 – George Poulett Scrope, British geologist and economist (died 1876)
 * March 21 – Johann Andreas Wagner, German paleontologist, zoologist and archeologist (died 1861)
 * April 29 – George Don, Scottish botanist (died 1856)
 * May 2 – Abraham Gesner, Canadian inventor of kerosene (died 1864)
 * May 30 – Karl Friedrich Naumann, German geologist and mineralogist (died 1873)
 * July 14 – James Scott Bowerbank, British naturalist, geologist and paleontologist (died 1877)
 * July 26 – William Hutton, British geologist and paleontologist (died 1860)
 * August 23 – Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant, French mechanician and mathematician (died 1886)
 * August 31 – James Ferguson, Scottish-born American astronomer (died 1867)
 * September 1 – Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut, French chemist (died 1881)
 * September 10 – Carl Gustaf Mosander, Swedish chemist (died 1858)
 * September 17 – Heinrich Kuhl, German zoologist (died 1821)
 * October 4 – Félix Savary, French astronomer (died 1841)
 * October 5 – John Gardner Wilkinson, British egyptologist (died 1875)
 * November 14 – Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist (died 1875)
 * November 20 - Mary Buckland, British paleontologist and marine biologist (died 1857)
 * December 3
 * Margaretta Morris, American entomologist (died 1867)
 * Andrew Smith, Scottish military surgeon, explorer, ethnologist and zoologist (died 1872)
 * December 17 – Joseph Henry, American scientist (died 1878)
 * December 23 – Adrien-Henri de Jussieu, French botanist (died 1853)

Deaths

 * March 16 – Cristina Roccati, Italian scholar in physics (born 1732)
 * March 26 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (born 1726)
 * June 13 – Samuel-Auguste Tissot, Swiss physician (born 1728)
 * August 29 – Joseph Wright, English painter of scientific subjects (born 1734)
 * date unknown – Wang Zhenyi, Chinese Qing dynasty female astronomer and poet (born 1768)