The year 1770 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

* July 1 –

Lexell's Comet D/1770 L1, popularly known as Lexell's Comet after its orbit computer Anders Johan Lexell, was a comet discovered by astronomer Charles Messier in June 1770.Other comets named after their orbit computer, rather than discoverer, are 27P/Crom ...

passes closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.015 AU. It is observed by Charles Messier between June 14 and October 3.

Biology

* Arthur Young publishes ''A Course of Experimental Agriculture'' in England.

Chemistry

* Benjamin Rush publishes ''Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry'' in Philadelphia, the first

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

textbook in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Exploration

* March 26 – First voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

and his crew aboard complete the circumnavigation of New Zealand. * April 18 (April 19 by Cook's log) – Captain Cook and his crew become the first recorded Europeans to encounter the eastern coastline of the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n continent. * April 28 (April 29 by Cook's log) – Captain Cook drops anchor in a wide bay about 16 km (10 mi) south of the present city of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. Because the young

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

on board the ship,

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

, discovers 30,000 specimens of plant life in the area, 1,600 of them unknown to European science, Cook names the place Botany Bay on May 7. * August 22 (August 23 by Cook's log) – Captain Cook determines that New Holland (Australia) is not contiguous with New Guinea.

Mathematics

* French mathematician and political scientist Jean-Charles de Borda formulates the ranked preferential electoral system which becomes known as the Borda count. *

Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi Lagrangiaelimination theory; publishes his first paper on the general process for solving an algebraic equation of any degree via ''Lagrange resolvents ''; and proves Bachet's theorem that every positive integer is the sum of four squares.

Medicine

* January – Outbreak of

Russian plague of 1770-1772 Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. * October 18 –

Radcliffe Infirmary The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street. History The initial proposals to build a hospital in Oxford were put forw ...

, Oxford, England, admits its first patients.

Paleontology

* The fossilised bones of a huge animal (later identified as a Mosasaur) are found in a quarry near Maastricht in the Netherlands.

Technology

* July – James Hargreaves obtains a British patent for the spinning jenny. * The

Spring scale A spring scale, spring balance or newton meter is a type of mechanical force gauge or weighing scale. It consists of a spring fixed at one end with a hook to attach an object at the other. It works in accordance with Hooke's Law, which states th ...

was created by Richard Salter.

Awards

Copley Medal The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society, for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given every year, the medal is t ...

: William Hamilton

Births

* April 9 – Thomas Johann Seebeck, Baltic German physicist (died

1831 Events January–March * January 1 – William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing '' The Liberator'', an anti-slavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts. * January 10 – Japanese department store, Takashimaya in Kyoto establ ...

) * April 18 – William Nicol,

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

geologist (died

1851 Events January–March * January 11 – Hong Xiuquan officially begins the Taiping Rebellion. * January 15 – Christian Female College, modern-day Columbia College, receives its charter from the Missouri General Assembly. ...

) * November 5 – Sarah Guppy, English inventor (died

1852 Events January–March * January 14 – President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic. * January 15 – Nine men representing various Jewish charitable organizations come tog ...

)

Deaths

* April 25 – Abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

physicist (born

1700 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 19), where then Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 11 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 17 ...

) * July 21 – Charlotta Frölich, Swedish agronomist and historian (born

1698 Events January–March * January 1 – The Abenaki tribe and Massachusetts colonists sign a treaty, ending the conflict in New England. * January 4 – The Palace of Whitehall in London, England is destroyed by fire. * January 23 – G ...

) * September 9 – Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, German-born anatomist in Holland (born

1697 Events January–March * January 8 – Thomas Aikenhead is hanged outside Edinburgh, becoming the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy. * January 11 – French writer Charles Perrault releases the book ''Histoires ou ...

) * December 5 – James Stirling, Scottish mathematician (born

1692 Events January–March * January 24 – At least 75 residents of what is now York, Maine are killed in the Candlemas Massacre, carried out by French soldiers led by missionary Louis-Pierre Thury, along with a larger force of Abenaki and ...

)

References

{{reflist 18th century in science 1770s in science