1709 in science

The year 1709 in science and technology involved some significant events.

List of years in science (table)
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Meteorology

• January – Great Frost in Western Europe.[1][2]

Physics

• Francis Hauksbee publishes Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects, summarizing the results of his many experiments with electricity and other topics.

Technology

• January 10 – Industrial Revolution: Abraham Darby I successfully produces cast iron using coke fuel at his Coalbrookdale blast furnace in Shropshire, England.[3][4][5]
• February 5 – Dramatist John Dennis devises the thundersheet as a new method of producing theatrical thunder for his tragedy Appius and Virginia at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.[6]
• March 28 – Johann Friedrich Böttger reports the first production of hard-paste porcelain in Europe, at Dresden.
• July 13 – Johann Maria Farina founds the first Eau de Cologne and perfume factory in Cologne, Germany.
• August 8 – Hot air balloon of Bartholome de Gusmão flies in Portugal.
• A collapsible umbrella is introduced in Paris.[7]

Awards

• April 9 – Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet dies and in his will provides funding to the Royal Society for the annual Copley Medal honoring achievement in science (first awarded in 1731).

Births

• February 24 – Jacques de Vaucanson, French engineer and inventor (died 1782)
• March 3 – Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, German chemist (died 1782)
• March 10 – Georg Steller, German naturalist (died 1746)
• April 17 – Giovanni Domenico Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer (died 1788)
• July 11 – Johan Gottschalk Wallerius, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (died 1785)
• August 8 – Johann Georg Gmelin, German botanist (died 1755)
• November 23 – Julien Offray de La Mettrie, French physician and philosopher (died 1751)

Deaths

• early – Eleanor Glanville, English entomologist (born c. 1654)
• June 29 – Antoine Thomas, Belgian Jesuit astronomer in China (born 1644)
• June 30 – Edward Lhuyd, Welsh naturalist (born 1660)
• October 17 – François Mauriceau, French obstetrician (born 1637)

References

1. Pain, Stephanie (7 February 2009). "1709: the year that Europe froze". New Scientist.
2. Luterbacher, Jürg; Dietrich, Daniel; Xoplaki, Elena; Grosjean, Martin; Wanner, Heinz (2004). "European Seasonal and Annual Temperature Variability, Trends, and Extremes Since 1500". Science. 303 (5663): 1499–1503. Bibcode:2004Sci...303.1499L. doi:10.1126/science.1093877. PMID 15001774.
3. Mott, R. A. (5 January 1957). "The earliest use of coke for ironmaking". The Gas World, coking section supplement. 145: 7–18.
4. Raistrick, Arthur (1953). Dynasty of Ironfounders: the Darbys and Coalbrookdale. London: Longmans, Green. p. 34.
5. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 292. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
6. Rees, Nigel (1987). Why Do We Say ...?. ISBN 0-7137-1944-3.
7. "The History of Umbrellas". Oakthrift Corporation. Archived from the original on 2013-09-02. Retrieved 2011-12-22.