1698 in science
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The year 1698 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Christiaan Huygens, in his posthumously published book Kosmotheoros, argues that other planets in the Solar System could contain extraterrestrial life, starting a debate that extends into the 21st century.
Exploration
- November – HMS Paramour sets sail under the command of Edmond Halley on the first purely scientific voyage by an English naval vessel, to investigate magnetic declination.
Technology
- January 11 – April 21 – Tsar Peter the Great of Russia (incognito as 'Peter Mikhailov') visits England as part of his Grand Embassy, making a particular study of shipbuilding.[1]
- July 25 – English engineer Thomas Savery obtains a patent for "A new invention for raising of water... by the impellent force of fire", a steam pump.[2]
- November 14 – First Eddystone Lighthouse illuminated,[3] the first rock lighthouse in Europe.[4]
- The piano is invented by Italian Bartolomeo Cristofori, originally named the "piano et forte" (meaning "soft and loud").
- A metronome is developed as a machine to measure musical tempo.
Events
- November – Tani Jinzan, astronomer and calendar scholar, observes a fire destroy Tosa in Japan at the same time as a Leonid meteor shower, taking it as evidence to reinforce belief in the "Theory of Areas".
Births
- February – Colin Maclaurin, Scottish mathematician (died 1746)
- February 16 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (died 1758)
- March 26 – Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist (died 1765)
- May 8 – Henry Baker, English naturalist (died 1774)
- July 17 – Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, French mathematician (died 1759)
- November 28 – Charlotta Frölich, Swedish agronomist (died 1770)
Deaths
- August 18 – Nicolas Venette, French physician, sexologist and writer (born 1633)[5]
- November 4 – Rasmus Bartholin, Danish scientist (born 1625)