1779 in science
The year 1779 in science and technology involved some significant events.
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Astronomy
- March 23 – Edward Pigott discovers the Black Eye Galaxy (M64).
- May 5 – The spiral galaxy M61 is discovered in the constellation Virgo by Barnabus Oriani.
Exploration
- Horace-Bénédict de Saussure begins publication of Voyages dans les Alpes.
Mathematics
- Étienne Bézout publishes Théorie générale des équations algébriques in Paris, containing original work on elimination theory.
Physics
- Jean-Paul Marat publishes Découvertes de M. Marat sur le feu, l'électricité et la lumière (Discoveries of Mr Marat on Fire, Electricity and Light).
Technology
- January 8 – Bryan Higgins is granted a British patent for hydraulic cement (stucco) for use as an exterior plaster.[1]
- May – Boulton and Watt’s Smethwick Engine is brought into service for pumping on the Birmingham Canal Navigations; two centuries later it will become the oldest working steam engine in the world.
- James Pickard first applies a crank and flywheel to a Newcomen atmospheric engine to produce circular motion.
- The Iron Bridge is erected across the River Severn in Shropshire, England; the first all-cast-iron bridge ever built.[2] It will open to traffic on January 1, 1781.[3]
- The spinning mule is perfected by the Lancashire inventor Samuel Crompton.[3]
- The British Royal Navy adopts the carronade.
- The Girandoni Air Rifle is designed in Austria.
Births
- January 5 – General Zebulon Pike, American explorer (died 1813)
- May 1 – Alexander Morison, Scottish physician and psychiatrist (died 1866)
- August 7
- Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (died 1848)
- Louis de Freycinet, French explorer of coastal regions of Western Australia (died 1842)
Deaths
- January 22 – Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor and astronomer (born 1733)
- February 14 – James Cook, English explorer (born 1728)
- June 28 – Martha Daniell Logan, American botanist (born 1704)
- October 18 – Patrick d'Arcy, Irish-born mathematician (born 1725)
- November 16 – Pehr Kalm, Swedish botanist (born 1716)
References
- Knight, David (2004). "Higgins, Bryan (c. 1741–1818)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13228. Retrieved 2011-06-20. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
- "Icons, a portrait of England 1750-1800". Archived from the original on 2007-08-17. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
- Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 333–334. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
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