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1750 In Science
The year 1750 in science and technology involved some significant events. Astronomy * Thomas Wright suggests that the Milky Way Galaxy is a disk-shaped system of stars with the Solar System near the centre. Exploration * April 1 – Pehr Osbeck sets out on a primarily botanical expedition to China. Physics * January 17 – John Canton reads a paper before the Royal Society on a method of making artificial magnets. * ''Approx. date'' – Leonhard Euler and Daniel Bernoulli develop the Euler–Bernoulli beam equation. Technology * November 18 – Westminster Bridge across the River Thames in London, designed by the Swiss-born engineer Charles Labelye, is officially opened. Publications * '' Historia Plantarum'', originally written by Conrad Gessner between 1555 and 1565. Awards * Copley Medal: George Edwards Births * March 16 – Caroline Herschel, German-born English astronomer (died 1848) * July 2 – François Huber, Swiss naturalist (died 1831) * July 5 – Ami A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics, such as analytic number theory, complex analysis, and infinitesimal calculus. He also introduced much of modern mathematical terminology and Mathematical notation, notation, including the notion of a mathematical function. He is known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy, and music theory. Euler has been called a "universal genius" who "was fully equipped with almost unlimited powers of imagination, intellectual gifts and extraordinary memory". He spent most of his adult life in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in Berlin, then the capital of Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia. Euler is credited for popularizing the Greek letter \pi (lowercase Pi (letter), pi) to denote Pi, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caroline Herschel
Caroline Lucretia Herschel ( , ; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet, which bears her name.Nysewander, Melissa. Caroline Herschel. Biographies of Women Mathematicians, Atlanta: Agnes Scott College, 1998. She was the younger sister of astronomer William Herschel, with whom she worked throughout her career. She was the first woman to receive a salary as a scientist and the first woman in England to hold a government position. She was also the first woman to publish scientific findings in the ''Philosophical Transactions'' of the Royal Society, to be awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1828), and to be named an honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society (1835, with Mary Somerville). She was named an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy (1838). The King of Prussia presented her with a G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Edwards (naturalist)
George Edwards (3 April 1694 – 23 July 1773) was an English natural history, naturalist and ornithology, ornithologist, known as the "father of British ornithology". Edwards was born at West Ham, then in the county of Essex. In his early years, he travelled extensively through mainland Europe, studying natural history, and gained a reputation for his coloured drawings of animals, especially birds. He was appointed as beadle to the Royal College of Physicians in 1733. Over a period of 21 years, Edwards published seven volumes containing descriptions and hand-coloured etchings of birds. In a few cases, he depicted other animals. None of the species were native to the British Isles. The first four volumes were published between 1743 and 1751 with the title ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. The three subsequent volumes were published between 1758 and 1764 with the title ''Gleanings Of Natural History''. The volumes contain a total of 362 hand-coloured etchings of which 317 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copley Medal
The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". The award alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. It is arguably the highest United Kingdom, British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth award for scientific achievement, and has often been included among the most distinguished international scientific awards. Given annually, the medal is the oldest Royal Society medal awarded and the oldest surviving scientific award in the world, having first been given in 1731 to Stephen Gray (scientist), Stephen Gray, for "his new Electrical Experiments: – as an encouragement to him for the readiness he has always shown in obliging the Society with his discoveries and improvements in this part of Natural Knowledge". The medal is made of silver-gilt and awarded with a £25,000 prize. It is awarded to "senior scientists" irres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrad Gessner
Conrad Gessner (; ; 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his talents and supported him through university, where he studied classical languages, theology and medicine. He became Zürich's city physician, but was able to spend much of his time on collecting, research and writing. Gessner compiled monumental works on bibliography ('' Bibliotheca universalis'' 1545–1549) and zoology ( 1551–1558) and was working on a major botanical text at the time of his death from plague at the age of 49. He is regarded as the father of modern scientific bibliography, zoology and botany. He was frequently the first to describe species of plants or animals in Europe, such as the tulip in 1559. A number of plants and animals have been named after him. Life Conrad Gessner was born on 26 March 1516, in Zürich, Switzerland, the son of Ursus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historia Plantarum (Gessner)
''Historia Plantarum'' (also called ''Conradi Gesneri Historia Plantarum'') is an extensive botanical encyclopedia by the Swiss natural scientist, Conrad Gessner Conrad Gessner (; ; 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his talents and supported him t ... (1516 – 1565). Although compiled between 1555 and 1565, it was not published till 1754, since he died of the plague, prior to its completion. To complete the work, he amassed a collection of some 1,500 drawings of plants, most of which were his own work. The scale and scientific rigour were unusual for the time, and Gessner was a skilled artist, producing detailed drawings of specific plant parts that illustrated their characteristics, with extensive marginal notation discussing their growth form and habitation. Reprints * Heinrich Zoller, Martin Steinmann (ed.): ''Con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The London Encyclopaedia
''The London Encyclopaedia'', first published in 1983, is a 1,100-page historical reference work on London, the capital city of the United Kingdom, covering the whole of the Greater London area. Development The first edition of the encyclopaedia was compiled over a number of years by the antiquarian bookseller Ben Weinreb and the historian Christopher Hibbert. Revised editions were published in 1993, 1995 and 2008. It has around 5,000 articles, supported by two indices, one general and one listing people, each with about 10,000 entries, and is published by Macmillan. In 2012, an app was developed by Heuristic-Media and released as ''London—A City Through Time''. Toby Evetts and Simon Reeves, partners in Heuristic-Media, discussed the development of the app with ''The Guardian'' in 2013, describing how 4,500 entries had to be plotted onto a guide map by hand. Antecedents The encyclopaedia builds on a number of earlier publications, including: *'' Survey of London'' by Joh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
