1829 in science

Mathematics

Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet publishes a memoir giving the Dirichlet conditions, showing for which functions the convergence of the Fourier series holds; introducing Dirichlet's test for the convergence of series; the Dirichlet function as an example that not any function is integrable; and, in the proof of the theorem for the Fourier series, the Dirichlet kernel and Dirichlet integral.^[1] He also introduces a general modern concept for a function.^[2]
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky publishes his work on hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometry.^[3]
S. D. Poisson publishes Sur l'attraction des sphéroides.

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Palaeontology

Jules Desnoyers names the Quaternary period.
Engis 2, part of the skull of a young child and other bones, recognised in 1936 as the first known Neanderthal fossil, is found in the Awirs cave near Engis in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) by Philippe-Charles Schmerling.^[5]

Technology

May – Cyrill Demian patents a version of the accordion in Vienna.
June 30 – Henry Robinson Palmer files a British patent application for corrugated iron for use in buildings.^[6]
July 23 – In the United States, William Burt obtains the first patent for a form of typewriter, the typographer.^[7]
October 6–14 – The Rainhill Trials, a steam locomotive competition, are run in England and won by Stephenson's Rocket.
December 19 – Charles Wheatstone patents the concertina in Britain.^[8]
William Mann invents the compound air compressor.
Louis Braille publishes the first description of his method of embossed printing that allows the visually impaired to read.^[9]

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Births

February 2
- Alfred Brehm (died 1884), German zoologist.
- William Stanley (died 1909), English inventor.
March 23 – N. R. Pogson (died 1891 in science), English-born astronomer.
April 28 – Charles Bourseul (died 1912), Belgian-born telegraph engineer.
April 30 – Ferdinand von Hochstetter (died 1884), German-born geologist.
July 30 – George Rolleston (died 1881), English physician and zoologist.
August 13 (O.S. August 1) – Ivan Sechenov (died 1905), "father of Russian physiology".
August 23 – Moritz Cantor (died 1920), German historian of mathematics.
August 24 - Emanuella Carlbeck (died 1901), Swedish pioneer in the education of students with intellectual disability.
September 7 – August Kekulé (died 1896), German chemist.
September 30
- Franz Reuleaux (died 1905), German mechanical engineer, "father of kinematics".
- Joseph Wolstenholme (died 1891), English mathematician.
October 15 – Asaph Hall (died 1907), American astronomer.
November 4 – Hanna Hammarström (died 1909), Swedish inventor.

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Chemistry