1709 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1709 in science
and technology
involved some significant events.
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
involved some significant events.
Physics
- Francis HauksbeeFrancis HauksbeeFrancis Hauksbee the elder , also known as Francis Hawksbee, was an 18th-century English scientist, and a Fellow of the Royal Society...
publishes Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects, summarizing the results of his many experiments with electricityElectricityElectricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
and other topics.
Technology
- January 10 - Industrial RevolutionIndustrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
: Abraham Darby IAbraham Darby IAbraham Darby I was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal...
successfully produces cast ironCast ironCast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
using coke fuelCoke (fuel)Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
at his CoalbrookdaleCoalbrookdaleCoalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides...
blast furnaceBlast furnaceA blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
in ShropshireShropshireShropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. - August 8 - Hot air balloonHot air balloonThe hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...
of Bartholome de Gusmão flies in PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. - European porcelainPorcelainPorcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
production is begun, but porcelain cups do not have a noticeable impact on steinSteinStein is a German and Norwegian word meaning "stone" and may refer to:* Beer stein* Stein , a beer brewery in Bratislava, Slovakia* USS Stein , a frigate in the U.S...
making until the 1720s. - The folding umbrellaUmbrellaAn umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight. The term parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun; umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain...
is invented, during the reign of the Sun King.
Awards
- April 9 - Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet dies and in his will provides funding to the Royal SocietyRoyal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
for the annual Copley MedalCopley MedalThe Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society of London for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science, and alternates between the physical sciences and the biological sciences"...
honoring achievement in science (first awarded in 17311731 in scienceThe year 1731 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Agriculture:* Jethro Tull publishes The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry; or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation in England.-Astronomy:...
).
Births
- February 24 - Jacques de VaucansonJacques de VaucansonJacques de Vaucanson was a French inventor and artist who was responsible for the creation of impressive and innovative automata and machines such as the first completely automated loom.-Early life:...
, French engineer and inventor (died 17821782 in scienceThe year 1782 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.-Aviation:* December 14 - The Montgolfier brothers first test fly a hot air balloon; it floats nearly .-Births:...
) - March 3 - Andreas Sigismund MarggrafAndreas Sigismund MarggrafAndreas Sigismund Marggraf was a German chemist and pioneer of analytical chemistry from Berlin, which was then the capital of Brandenburg, a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire. He isolated zinc in 1746 by heating calamine and carbon...
, German chemist (died 1782) - March 10 - Georg Steller, German naturalist (died 17461746 in scienceThe year 1746 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Chemistry:* John Roebuck invents the lead-chamber process for the manufacture of sulfuric acid....
) - April 17 - Giovanni Domenico MaraldiGiovanni Domenico MaraldiGiovanni Domenico Maraldi was an Italian-born astronomer, nephew of Giacomo F. Maraldi.Born at Perinaldo, Liguria, Maraldi came to Paris in 1727 and became a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1731...
, French-Italian astronomer (died 17881788 in scienceThe year 1788 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Biology:* Thomas Walter publishes Flora Caroliniana, the first Flora of North America to follow Linnaean taxonomy....
) - July 11 - Johan Gottschalk WalleriusJohan Gottschalk WalleriusJohan Gottschalk Wallerius was a Swedish chemist and mineralogist.Wallerius was born in Stora Mellösa in Närke, entered Uppsala University in 1725, and graduated as magister in 1731 after studies of mathematics, physics and medicine. He continued his studies at Lund University, where he received...
, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (died 17851785 in scienceThe year 1785 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Aviation:* January 7 - Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.-Biology:* Antoine...
) - August 8 - Johann Georg GmelinJohann Georg GmelinJohann Georg Gmelin was a German naturalist, botanist and geographer.- Early life and education :Gmelin was born in Tübingen, the son of an professor at the University of Tübingen. He was a gifted child and begun attending university lectures at the age of 14. In 1727, he graduated with a medical...
, German botanist (died 17551755 in scienceThe year 1755 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Chemistry:* Joseph Black describes his discovery of carbon dioxide and magnesium in a paper to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh.-Earth sciences:...
) - December 25 - Julien Offray de La MettrieJulien Offray de La MettrieJulien Offray de La Mettrie was a French physician and philosopher, and one of the earliest of the French materialists of the Enlightenment...
, French physician and philosopher (died 17511751 in scienceThe year 1751 in science and technology involved some significant events.#-Astronomy:* The globular cluster 47 Tucanae , visible with the unaided eye from the southern hemisphere, is discovered by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who catalogues it in his list of southern nebulous...
)
Deaths
- early -- Eleanor GlanvilleEleanor GlanvilleLady Eleanor Glanville was a 17th century English entomologist from Tickenham in Somerset. She was particularly interested in butterflies. Lady Glanville collected large numbers of butterfly specimens, many of which survive as some of the earliest specimens kept in the Natural History Museum...
, EnglishEnglish peopleThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
entomologist (born c.16541654 in scienceThe year 1654 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Mathematics:* At the prompting of the Chevalier de Méré, Blaise Pascal corresponds with Pierre de Fermat on gambling problems, from which is born the theory of probability.-Physics:...
) - June 29 - Antoine ThomasAntoine ThomasAntoine Thomas was a Belgian Jesuit priest, missionary and astronomer in China.- Early life :Born in Namur in 1644, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1660 and first taught in the schools of Armentières, Huy and Tournai...
, Belgian Jesuit astronomer in China (born 16441644 in scienceThe year 1644 AD in science and technology involved some significant events.-Mathematics:* The Basel problem is posed by Pietro Mengoli, and will puzzle mathematicians until solved by Leonhard Euler in 1731.-Births:...
) - June 30 - Edward LhuydEdward LhuydEdward Lhuyd was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also known by the Latinized form of his name, Eduardus Luidius....
, Welsh naturalist (born 16601660 in scienceThe year 1660 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Events:* November 28 - At Gresham College in London, twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Robert Moray, meet after a lecture by Wren and resolve to found "a College for the Promoting of...
) - October 17 - François MauriceauFrançois MauriceauFrançois Mauriceau was a French obstetrician from Paris. He received his training in obstetrics at the Hôtel-Dieu.Mauriceau was a leading obstetrician in 17th century Europe...
, FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
obstetrician (born 16371637 in scienceThe year 1637 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Mathematics:*René Descartes introduces the Cartesian coordinate system in his work La Géométrie and promotes intellectual rigour in Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences...
)