360The 1840s: stamps, anaesthesia and the first computer program
The world's first postage stamp, the Penny Black, appeared in 1840. Ada Lovelace published what is often called the first computer program, and surgeons began using anaesthesia. Astronomers found Neptune by mathematics, while famine struck Ireland and gold drew thousands to California.
On 1 May 1840, Britain issued the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp. A letter could now be sent anywhere in the country for one penny, paid in advance. Postal systems around the world copied the idea.
In 1843, the mathematician Ada Lovelace published notes on Charles Babbage's design for the Analytical Engine, a mechanical computer. Her notes included a method for the machine to calculate a series of numbers, often described as the first computer program. She also foresaw that such machines might one day handle music and images.
On 16 October 1846, in Boston, the dentist William Morton gave a public demonstration of ether anaesthesia during surgery. Operations could now be performed without pain, transforming medicine.
In September 1846, astronomers in Berlin found the planet Neptune almost exactly where mathematicians Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams had predicted from its effect on Uranus.
From 1845, potato blight caused the Great Famine in Ireland, in which about a million people died and many more emigrated. In 1848, gold was found in California, starting the Gold Rush. That year, revolutions also spread across many European countries.
- 1840
- Penny Black stamp issued
- 1843
- Ada Lovelace's notes published
- 1846
- Anaesthesia demonstrated; Neptune discovered
- 1848
- California Gold Rush begins
Sources: Britannica · The Postal Museum · Science Museum.