1620 in science

The year 1620 in science and technology involved some significant events.

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Astronomy

• The work of Copernicus (died 1543) is edited and released, as directed by the Congregation of the Index (reading forbidden in March 1616): nine sentences, which state the heliocentric system as certain, are either omitted or changed.

Cartography

• The atlas Atlante geografico d'Italia, compiled by Giovanni Antonio Magini, is published posthumously.

Chemistry

• The scientific method of reasoning is expounded by Francis Bacon in his Novum Organum.

Earth sciences

• Francis Bacon notices the jigsaw fit of the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Medicine

• Nicholas Habicot, surgeon to the Duke of Nemours, publishes a report of four successful "bronchotomies" which he has performed; these include the first recorded case of a tracheotomy for the removal of a thrombus and the first pediatric tracheotomy, to extract a foreign body from a 14-year-old's esophagus.[1]

Technology

• May 17 – The first carousel is seen at a fair (Philippapolis, Turkey).
• Cornelis Drebbel builds the first navigable submarine, in England.[2][3]

Births

• April? – William Brouncker, Anglo-Irish mathematician (died 1684)
• July 21 – Jean Picard, French astronomer (died 1682)
• September 25 – François Bernier, French physician and traveller (died 1688)
• Ralph Bathurst, English theologian, physician and academic (died 1704)
• Bernard de Gomme, Dutch-born military engineer (died 1685)
• Edme Mariotte, French physicist and priest (died 1684)
• Robert Morison, Scottish botanist and taxonomist (died 1683)

Deaths

• Simon Stevin, Flemish scientist (born c. 1548)

References

1. Habicot, Nicholas (1620). Question chirurgicale par laquelle il est démonstré que le chirurgien doit assurément practiquer l'operation de la bronchotomie, vulgairement dicte laryngotomie, ou perforation de la fluste ou du polmon. Paris: Corrozet.
2. Davis, R. H. (1955). Deep Diving and Submarine Operations (6th ed.). Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey: Siebe Gorman & Co. Ltd. p. 693.
3. Acott, C. (1999). "A brief history of diving and decompression illness". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal. 29 (2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. Retrieved 2009-03-17.