1807 in science

The year 1807 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

 * March 29 – H. W. Olbers discovers the asteroid which Carl Friedrich Gauss names Vesta.

Chemistry

 * Potassium and sodium are isolated by Sir Humphry Davy.
 * The use of fulminate in firearms is patented by Scottish clergyman Alexander John Forsyth.

Geology

 * The Geological Society is founded in London; among the more prominent founders are William Babington, James Parkinson, Humphry Davy and George Bellas Greenough.

Mathematics

 * William Wallace proves that any two simple polygons of equal area are equidecomposable, later known as the Wallace–Bolyai–Gerwien theorem.

Medicine

 * Samuel Hahnemann first introduces the term 'homeopathy' in an essay, "Indications of the Homeopathic Employment of Medicines in Ordinary Practice", published in Versammlung der Hufelandische medicinisch-chirurgischen Gesellschaft.
 * British Army surgeon John Vetch describes the keratoconjunctivitis ("Egyptian ophthalmia") suffered by troops returned from service overseas; he identifies it as epidemic.

Technology

 * July 20 – French brothers Claude and Nicéphore Niépce receive a patent for their Pyréolophore, an early internal combustion engine, having demonstrated it powering a boat on the Saône.
 * August 17 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat makes her first trip from New York City to Albany.
 * November 19 – English inventor Lionel Lukin launches the world's first sailing self-righting rescue life-boat, the Frances Anne, at Lowestoft.
 * William Cubitt patents self-regulating sails for windmills.
 * Henry Maudslay patents an improved table engine.
 * William Hyde Wollaston patents the camera lucida.

Zoology

 * April 21 – The Tasmanian devil is first described, by George Prideaux Robert Harris.

Publications

 * Alexander von Humboldt's Le Voyage aux Régions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799–1804, par Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bonpland begins publication.
 * Thomas Young's A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts published.

Awards

 * Copley Medal: Everard Home

Births

 * January 28 – Robert McClure, Irish-born Arctic explorer (died 1873)
 * May 28 – Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born American zoologist and geologist (died 1873)
 * November 14 – Auguste Laurent, French chemist (died 1853)
 * November 30 – William Farr, English epidemiologist (died 1883)

Deaths

 * February 27 – Louise du Pierry, French astronomer (born 1746)
 * April 4 – Jérôme Lalande, French astronomer (born 1732)
 * December 5 – Francis Willis, English physician specialising in mental disorders (born 1718)