1754 in science
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The year 1754 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, postulates retardation of Earth's orbit.
Chemistry
- Joseph Black, Scottish chemist, discovers carbonic acid gas.[1]
Earth sciences
- Albert Brahms, Frisian Dijkgraaf, begins publication of Anfangsgründe der Deich und Wasser-Baukunst ("Principles of Dike and Aquatic Engineering") advocating scientific recording of tides.[2]
Mathematics
- Joshua Kirby publishes the pamphlet Dr. Brook Taylor's Method of Perspective made Easy both in Theory and Practice containing William Hogarth's Satire on False Perspective.
- Lagrange begins to work on the problem of tautochrone.
Physics
- Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist in the fields of applied electricity, develops a weather-machine. The same year, an electrical conductor devised by him is installed at the Vienna General Hospital.
Awards
Births
- March 4 â Benjamin Waterhouse, American physician (died 1846)
- March 15 â Archibald Menzies, Scottish surgeon and botanist (died 1842)
- March 23 â Jurij Vega, Slovene mathematician, physicist and artillery officer (died 1802)
- May 6 â Thomas Coke, English agriculturalist and geneticist (died 1842)
- June 4 â Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, German astronomer (died 1832)
- August 21 â William Murdoch, Scottish engineer and inventor (died 1839)
- September 26 â Joseph Proust, French chemist (died 1826)
Deaths
- February 5 â Nicolaas Kruik (Cruquius), Dutch cartographer and meteorologist (born 1678)
- February 16 â Richard Mead, English physician (born 1673)
- April 9 â Christian Wolff, German philosopher, mathematician and scientist (born 1679)
- April 15 â Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (born 1676)
- November 27 â Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (born 1667)