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1720 in science
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1720 science
1720
The year 1720 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
February 10 – Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal of England.
Medicine
May – First patient admitted to the Westminster Public Infirmary, predecessor of St George's Hospital, London.
Dr Steevens' Hospital is established at Kilmainham, Dublin.Kirkpatrick Thomas Percy Claude 1924 The History of Dr Steevens' Hospital, Dublin 1720–1920 Dublin University Press
Great Plague of Marseille, the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe.
English physician Richard Mead publishes A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it.
Physics
Willem 's Gravesande publishes Physices elementa mathematica, experimentis confirmata, sive introductio ad philosophiam Newtonianam, an introduction to Newtonian physics, in Leiden.
Technology
A theodolite is developed by Jonathan Sisson of England.
Pinchbeck is invented by English watchmaker Christopher Pinchbeck; it is an alloy of 83% copper and 17% zinc, creating a strong, hard-wearing metal which has the appearance and weight of 20 carat gold.
An early chronograph is invented which has only mechanical parts in it.
Henry de Saumarez (of the Channel Islands) produces an instrument called the Marine Surveyor intended to measure a ship's velocity.A. H. W. Robinson Forum 358-40 Journal of Navigation 9 1956 10.1017/S0373463300036493 free
A single-action five-pedal harp is developed by Jacob Hochbrucker of Bavaria which can raise the pitch of the selected strings by a half step.
approx. date – Joseph Williamson uses a differential gear in a clock.
Births
January 30 – Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist (died 1778)
March 13 – Charles Bonnet, Genevan naturalist and philosophical writer (died 1793)
July 18 – Gilbert White, English naturalist (died 1793)
October 8 – Geneviève Thiroux d'Arconville, French novelist, translator and chemist (d. 1805)
November 5 – Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet, French pharmacist and botanist (died 1778)
December ? – James Hargreaves, English inventor (died 1778)
approx. date – Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov, Russian chemist and (died 1758)
Deaths
December 29 – Maria Margarethe Kirch, German astronomer (born 1670)Maria Kirch – German astronomer https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maria-Kirch Encyclopædia Britannica 5 April 2018 en
David Gregory, Scottish physician and inventor (born 1625)
References
Category:18th century in science
Category:1720s in science