1779 in science

The year 1779 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

Ãtienne BÃ©zout publishes ThÃ©orie gÃ©nÃ©rale des Ã©quations algÃ©briques in Paris, containing original work on elimination theory.

Jean-Paul Marat publishes DÃ©couvertes de M. Marat sur le feu, l'Ã©lectricitÃ© et la lumiÃ¨re (Discoveries of Mr Marat on Fire, Electricity and Light).

January 8 â Bryan Higgins is granted a British patent for hydraulic cement (stucco) for use as an exterior plaster.^[1]
May â Boulton and Watt's Smethwick Engine is brought into service for pumping on the Birmingham Canal Navigations; two centuries later it will become the oldest working steam engine in the world.
James Pickard first applies a crank and flywheel to a Newcomen atmospheric engine to produce circular motion.
The Iron Bridge is erected across the River Severn in Shropshire, England; the first all-cast-iron bridge ever built.^[2] It will open to traffic on January 1, 1781.^[3]
The spinning mule is perfected by the Lancashire inventor Samuel Crompton.^[3]
The British Royal Navy adopts the carronade.
The Girandoni Air Rifle is designed in Austria.

January 5 â General Zebulon Pike, American explorer (died 1813)
May 1 â Alexander Morison, Scottish physician and psychiatrist (died 1866)
August 7
- JÃ¶ns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (died 1848)
- Louis de Freycinet, French explorer of coastal regions of Western Australia (died 1842)