Science In The 1860's

Science Timeline In the early 1860’s the French beverage industry was thriving. Pasteur was called upon to tackle some of the problems that were plaguing the industry. The special concern was the spoiling of wine and beer, which caused great economic loss and tarnished France’s reputation for fine vintage wines. He noticed that when aged properly, the liquid contained little yeast cells. But when the wine turned sour, he was a proliferation of bacterial cells which were producing lactic acid. Pasteur suggested that heating the wine gently at 120 degrees Fahrenheit would kill the bacteria that produced lactic acid and let the wine age properly. In 1862, Pasteur was approached and asked to help with a problem. Silkworms had been attacked by a mysterious
disease, and its rapid spread threatened the French silk production.
For five years he worked on the silkworm diseases and eventually found the problem. The silk industry was saved, and Pasteur’s reputation grew. Once discovering the bacteria that cause cholera, a deadly disease at the time, he discovered how to make a good vaccine. New discoveries about photography were happening during the 1860’s. English physician and physicist Thomas Young had a theory regarding color vision. Young believed that the eye had three types of receptors that were sensitive to three primary colors of light. Maxwell showed how any color of the rainbow could be created by adding or subtracting one of these three primary colors of light: red, blue, and green. Using this knowledge, he made the first color photograph in 1861. Later he went on to study the nature of Saturn’s rings. The astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens who discovered them, had a theory that was not yet
widely accepted. Maxwell suggested that the rings were neither solid nor liquid, and that they would break up due to mechanical forces. In 1860, he turned his attention to the tiny particles that compose gases on Earth. The question of how the molecules moved was a topic of conjecture. He concluded that the molecules in a given gas do not all travel at the same speed. Maxwell had created the kinetic theory of gases, showing that the motion of molecules was responsible for the production of heat; when the average velocity of the molecules increased, so did the temperature of the gas. Maxwell also came to the theory that light itself was a form of electromagnetic radiation that traveled in waves, and that visible light was just a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Starting in 1864, Maxwell made his greatest contribution to science by devising equations that unified electrical and magnetic phenomena. He had written a paper called, “On Faraday’s Lines of Force,” discussing some of the earlier experiments of English Physicist Michael Faraday. Maxwell’s theory became known as the electromagnetic theory. Because of his creation of the periodic table, Mendeleev changed an unfocused and speculative branch of chemistry into logical science. His formation of the periodic law and invention of the periodic table of elements in 1869 brought order to the science of chemistry. Mendeleev wanted to find a way to organize his discussion of the 63 chemical elements that were known at the time. He concluded that the atomic weights of the elements might provide a clue. He found three elements that were missing from the table, which were later discovered. Mendeleev later created a textbook for his students, “Principles in Chemistry” which would later become a classical in the field.