1799 in science

List of years in science (Table)
… 1789 • 1790 • 1791 • 1792 • 1793 • 1794 • 1795 • 1796 • 1797 • 1798 – 1799 – 1800 • 1801 • 1802 • 1803 • 1804 • 1805 • 1806 • 1807 • 1808 • 1809 …
Related time period or subjects
… 1796 • 1797 • 1798 – 1799 – 1800 • 1801 • 1802 … … 1760s • 1770s • 1780s – 1790s – 1800s • 1810s • 1820s … … 17th century – 18th century – 19th century …
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Science more

The year 1799 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below.

Events

July 15 - In the Egyptian port city of Rosetta (Rashid), French Captain Pierre Bouchard finds the Rosetta Stone, which will become the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
July 25 - At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte gains French control of Egyptian artifacts by defeating 10,000 Ottoman Mamluk troops under Mustafa Pasha.

A 12-year-old Conrad John Reed finds what he described as a "heavy yellow rock" along Little Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County, North Carolina and makes it a doorstop in his home. Conrad's father John Reed learns that the rock is actually gold in 1802, initiating the first gold rush in the United States.

An all-platinum kilogram prototype was fabricated with the objective that it would equal, as close as was scientifically feasible for the day, the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at 4 °C. The prototype was presented to the Archives of the Republic of France in June and on 10 December the prototype was formally ratified as the Kilogramme des Archives (Kilogram of the Archives) and the kilogram was defined as being equal to its mass. This standard stood for the next ninety years.