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1787 in science
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1787 science
1787
The year 1787 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
January 11 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, the first moons of Uranus found.
February 19 – First light for William Herschel's 40-foot telescope under construction at Observatory House, Slough, England.
Caroline Herschel is granted an annual salary of £50 by King George III of Great Britain for acting as assistant to her brother William in astronomy.Ogilvie Marilyn Bailey Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century https://archive.org/details/womeninscience00mari registration MIT Press 1986 Cambridge, Massachusetts 97–98 0-262-65038-X
Biology
William Curtis begins publication of The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed in London. As Curtis's Botanical Magazine, it will still be published into the 21st century.
Spanish physician Francisco Xavier Cid publishes Tarantismo Observado en España, a study of tarantulas and the tarantella as a cure for their bite.
King George III of Great Britain, writing as Ralph Robinson of Windsor, contributes to Arthur Young's Annals of Agriculture.
Chemistry
Guyton de Morveau, Jean-Henri Hassenfratz, Antoine François, Antoine Lavoisier, Pierre Adet and Claude Berthollet publish Méthode de nomenclature chimique in Paris.
Jacques Charles proposes Charles's law, a corollary of Boyle's law, describes relationship between temperature and volume of a gas.Jacques Alexandre César Charles Centennial of Flight U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission 2001 http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Charles/DI16.htm 2007-02-23 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20070224222637/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Charles/DI16.htm 2007-02-24
Physics
Ernst Chladni publishes Entdeckungen über die Theorie des Klanges, demonstrating modes of vibration.
Jean-Paul Marat publishes the first French translation of Newton's 'Opticks'
Surveying
The first great theodolite constructed by Jesse Ramsden for the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) linking the observatories of Paris and Greenwich.* 1790 Roy William An Account of the Trigonometrical Operation, Whereby the Distance between the Meridians of the Royal Observatories of Greenwich and Paris Has Been Determined Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 80 111–254 https://archive.org/stream/philtrans00940584/00940584#page/n0/mode/2up 10.1098/rstl.1790.0015 186211548
Technology
June – William Symington patents improvements to the Watt steam engine.The Improved Atmospheric Engine W. S. Harvey G. Downs-Rose William Symington, inventor and engine builder London Northgate Publishing 1980 0-85298-443-X 19–32
c. July – John Wilkinson launches an iron barge in the English Midlands.John Wilkinson (1728 – 1808) https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wilkinson_john.shtml History – Historic Figures BBC 2011-06-29
August 27 – Launching a 45 ft m on steam-powered craft on the Delaware River, John Fitch demonstrates the first United States patent for his design.
December 3 – James Rumsey demonstrates a water-jet propelled boat on the Potomac.
First production of all-iron edge rail (for underground colliery rail transport), at Plymouth Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.van Laun John Early Limestone Railways Newcomen Society London 2001 0-904685-09-8 203–4
First introduction of a plateway, underground at Sheffield Park Colliery, Yorkshire, England, by John Curr.none Railway and Canal Historical Society, Early Railway Group Occasional Paper 184,192
William Chapman designs a segmental skew arch at Finlay Bridge, Naas, on the Kildare Canal in Ireland.The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland W. Alan McCutcheon 1984 16 0-8386-3125-8 Belfast HMSO https://books.google.com/books?id=3-96ic2OHB8C&pg=PA16
Levi Hutchins of New Hampshire produces a mechanical alarm clock.
Awards
Copley Medal: John HunterCopley Medal British scientific award https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal Encyclopedia Britannica 21 July 2020 en
Births
January 24 – Christophe-Paulin de La Poix de Fréminville (died 1848), French explorer and naturalist.
March 6 – Joseph von Fraunhofer (died 1826), Bavarian physicist.
March 8 – Karl Ferdinand von Graefe (died 1840), Polish-born German surgeon.
March 9 – Josephine Kablick (died 1863), Czech botanist and paleontologist.
March 28 – Claudius James Rich (died 1821), British archaeologist and anthropologist.
March 29 – Carl Philipp Sprengel (died 1859), German botanist.
April 24 – Mathieu Orfila (died 1853), Spanish-born French physician and chemist.
May 27 – Benjamin Valz (died 1867), French astronomer.
June 2 – Nils Gabriel Sefström (died 1845), Swedish chemist and mineralogist.
June 3 – Auguste Le Prévost (died 1859), French geologist, philologist, archaeologist and historian.
June 4 – Constant Prévost (died 1856), French geologist.
June 7 – William Conybeare (died 1857), English geologist.
June 27 – Thomas Say (died 1834), American naturalist.
August 16 – Jean Michel Claude Richard (died 1868), French botanist.
August 24 – James Weddell (died 1834), Flemish-born Anglo-Scots seal hunter and Antarctic explorer.
September 5 – François Sulpice Beudant (died 1850), French mineralogist et geologist.
September 15 – Guillaume-Henri Dufour (died 1875), Swiss engineer et topographer.
November 5 – John Richardson (died 1865), Scottish naturalist, explorer and surgeon.
November 9 – Johann Natterer (died 1843), Austrian naturalist.
November 18 – Louis Daguerre (died 1851), French inventor.
December 17 – John Forbes (died 1861), Scottish physician
December 17 (or 18) – Jan Evangelista Purkinje (died 1869), Czech anatomist et neurophysiologist.
Undated – Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis (died 1872), French physician.
Deaths
February 13 – Ruđer Bošković, Ragusan physicist, mathematician and astronomer (born 1711)
May 10 – William Watson, English physician, botanist and physicist (born 1715)
References
Category:18th century in science
Category:1780s in science