1731 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1731 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.
Agriculture
- Jethro TullJethro Tull (agriculturist)Jethro Tull was an English agricultural pioneer who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, and later a horse-drawn hoe...
publishes The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry; or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation in 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...
.
Astronomy
- The octantOctant (instrument)The octant, also called reflecting quadrant, is a measuring instrument used primarily in navigation. It is a type of reflecting instrument.-Etymology:...
is developed by John HadleyJohn HadleyJohn Hadley was an English mathematician, inventor of the octant, a precursor to the sextant, around 1730.He was born in Bloomsbury, London, to Katherine FitzJames and George Hadley....
(it will eventually be replaced as an essential tool of navigation by the sextantSextantA sextant is an instrument used to measure the angle between any two visible objects. Its primary use is to determine the angle between a celestial object and the horizon which is known as the altitude. Making this measurement is known as sighting the object, shooting the object, or taking a sight...
). - The orreryOrreryAn orrery is a mechanical device that illustrates the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons in the Solar System in a heliocentric model. Though the Greeks had working planetaria, the first orrery that was a planetarium of the modern era was produced in 1704, and one was presented...
(or planetariumPlanetariumA planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
model) is developed as an apparatus showing the relative positions of heavenly bodies in the solar systemSolar SystemThe Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
by using balls moved by wheelwork.
Exploration
- 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...
Captain Charles GoughGough-Calthorpe familyThe Gough-Calthorpe family is descended from ancient and notable families who both held lands in the area around Birmingham, England.Sir Henry Gough, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament, was made a Baronet in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom in 1728...
rediscovers Gough IslandGough IslandGough Island , also known historically as Gonçalo Álvares or Diego Alvarez, is a volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a dependency of Tristan da Cunha and part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha...
in the South Atlantic.
Geology
- The modern seismograph is developed by ItalianItalian peopleThe Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
scientist Nicholas Cerillo using a pendulumPendulumA pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position...
.
Medicine
- Laura BassiLaura BassiLaura Maria Caterina Bassi was an Italian scientist, the first woman to officially teach at a university in Europe.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a wealthy family with a lawyer as a father, she was privately educated and tutored for seven years in her teens by Gaetano Tacconi...
becomes the first official female university teacher on being appointed professor of anatomyAnatomyAnatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
at the University of BolognaUniversity of BolognaThe Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
at the age of 21. - The Society for the Improvement of Medical KnowledgeRoyal Society of EdinburghThe Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
in EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
begins publication of the peer reviewPeer reviewPeer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
ed Medical Essays and Observations.
Technology
- The harpoon gun is developed and used for the purpose of throwing the harpoonHarpoonA harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...
into the body of whaleWhaleWhale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
s.
Awards
- 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"...
: The first Copley Medal is awarded to Stephen GrayStephen Gray (scientist)Stephen Gray was an English dyer and amateur astronomer, who was the first to systematically experiment with electrical conduction, rather than simple generation of static charges and investigations of the static phenomena....
.
Births
- October 10 - Henry CavendishHenry CavendishHenry Cavendish FRS was a British scientist noted for his discovery of hydrogen or what he called "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable air, which formed water on combustion, in a 1766 paper "On Factitious Airs". Antoine Lavoisier later reproduced Cavendish's experiment and...
, 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...
scientist (d. 18101810 in scienceThe year 1810 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.-Medicine:* John Haslam, resident apothecary at Bethlem Hospital in London, produces the book Illustrations of Madness: Exhibiting a Singular Case of Insanity, And a No Less Remarkable Difference in Medical...
) - November 9 - Benjamin BannekerBenjamin BannekerBenjamin Banneker was a free African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac author and farmer.-Family history and early life:It is difficult to verify much of Benjamin Banneker's family history...
, African-American astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
and surveyor (d. 18061806 in scienceThe year 1806 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Botany:* Publication begins in London of the Flora Graeca collected by John Sibthorp.-Mathematics:* Jean-Robert Argand introduces the Argand diagram....
) - December 12 - Erasmus DarwinErasmus DarwinErasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
, English physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and botanist (d. 18021802 in scienceThe year 1802 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* March 28 - H. W. Olbers discovers the second asteroid Pallas....
)
Deaths
- January 6 - Étienne François GeoffroyÉtienne François GeoffroyÉtienne François Geoffroy , French physician and chemist, best known for his 1718 affinity tables. He first contemplated a career as an apothecary, but then decided to practice medicine. He is sometimes known as Geoffroy the Elder.-Biography:He was born in Paris...
, 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...
chemistChemistA chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
(b. 16721672 in scienceThe year 1672 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* John Flamsteed determines the solar parallax from observations of Mars.* Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, a satellite of Saturn....
) - December 29 - Brook TaylorBrook TaylorBrook Taylor FRS was an English mathematician who is best known for Taylor's theorem and the Taylor series.- Life and work :...
, English mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
(b. 16851685 in scienceThe year 1685 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Medicine:* Govert Bidloo publishes an atlas of human anatomy, Ontleding des menschelyken lichaams, with plates by Gerard de Lairesse.-Technology:...
)