1702 in science

The year 1702 in science and technology involved some significant events.

List of years in science (table)
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Astronomy

• April 20 – Comet of 1702 (C/1702 H1): The 10th-closest comet approach in history, it missed Earth by a distance of 0.0437 AU (6,537,000 km).^[1]
• May 5 – Globular cluster Messier 5 (M5, NGC 5904) is discovered by Gottfried Kirch and his wife Maria Margarethe.
• David Gregory publishes the first textbook, Astronomiae physicae et geometricae elementa, the first astronomy textbook based on Isaac Newton's principles of motions and theory of gravitation.^[2][3]

Technology

• A fountain pen is developed by French instrument-maker Nicholas Bion.^[4][5]
• Pierre Varignon applies calculus to spring-driven clocks.

Births

• November 5 – Edward Stone, English polymath (died 1768)^[6]
• Undated
  • Giuseppa Barbapiccola, Italian natural philosopher, poet and translator (died 1740)
  • Benjamin Stillingfleet, English botanist (died 1771)

Deaths

• April – Clopton Havers, English physician who did pioneering research on the microstructure of bone (born 1657)
• December 12 – Olof Rudbeck, Swedish physiologist who discovered that the thoracic duct is connected to the intestinal lymphatics (born 1630)

References

1. "Historic Comet Close Approaches". NASA. Archived from the original on 9 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
2. Bunch, Bryan H.; Alexander Hellemans (2004). The history of science and technology: a browser's guide to the great discoveries, inventions, and the people who made them, from the dawn of time to today. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 776 pages. ISBN 978-0-618-22123-3. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
3. "Archives Hub: Papers of David Gregory (1661–1708)". Archives Hub. Archived from the original on 2012-07-18. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
4. Narayanan, Vivek (2005-05-18). "Patent and Trademark History in the Fountain Pen Industry" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-02-28. Retrieved 2024-12-12 – via Wayback Machine.
5. "Who invented the fountain pen?". vintagepens.com. Retrieved 2024-12-12.
6. Mann, Ralph (2004). "Stone, Edward (1702–1768)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38014. Retrieved 2011-02-17. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)