1753 in science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The year 1753 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Ruđer Bošković's De lunae atmosphaera demonstrates the lack of atmosphere on the Moon.[1]
Botany
- May 1 – Publication of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum, the start of formal scientific classification of plants.[2]
- June – Establishment in Florence of the Accademia dei Georgofili, the world's oldest society devoted to agronomy and scientific agriculture.
Chemistry
Computer science
- January 1 – Retrospectively, the minimum date value for a datetime field in an SQL Server (up to version 2005) due to this being the first full year since Britain's adoption of the Gregorian calendar.
Medicine
- James Lind publishes the first edition of A Treatise on the Scurvy (although it is little noticed at this time).[6]
Physics
- November 25 – The Russian Academy of Sciences announces a competition among chemists and physicists to provide "the best explanation of the true causes of electricity including their theory"; the prize will be won in 1755 by Johann Euler.[7]
Technology
- February 17 – The concept of electrical telegraphy is first published in the form of a letter from 'C. M.' to The Scots' Magazine.[8]
- Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod, to ring a bell when struck by lightning, following his 1752 kite and key tests.
- George Semple uses hydraulic lime cement in rebuilding Essex Bridge in Dublin.[9]
Awards
Births
- March 26 – Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, Anglo-American physicist (died 1814)
- April 28 – Franz Karl Achard, chemist (died 1821)
- August 3 – Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, British statesman and scientist (died 1816)
Deaths
- August 6 – Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Russian physicist, electrocuted (born 1711)
- December – Thomas Melvill, Scottish natural philosopher (born 1726)