1742 in science

The year 1742 in science and technology involved some significant events.

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Astronomy

• January 14 – Death of Edmond Halley; James Bradley succeeds him as Astronomer Royal in Great Britain.

Mathematics

• June – Christian Goldbach produces Goldbach's conjecture.^[1]
• Colin Maclaurin publishes his Treatise on Fluxions in Great Britain, the first systematic exposition of Newton's methods.

Metrology

• Anders Celsius publishes his proposal for a centigrade temperature scale originated in 1741.^[2]

Physiology and medicine

• Surgeon Joseph Hurlock publishes his A Practical Treatise upon Dentition, or The breeding of teeth in children in London, the first treatise in English on dentition.

Technology

• Benjamin Robins publishes his New Principles of Gunnery, containing the determination of the force of gun-powder and an investigation of the difference in the resisting power of the air to swift and slow motions in London, containing a description of his ballistic pendulum and the results of his scientific experiments into improvements in ballistics.^[3][4][5]
• The first large (12 ft focal length) reflecting telescope is made, in Gregorian form, by James Short, for use by Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, in London.^[6]

Awards

• Copley Medal: Christopher Middleton.^[7]

Births

• March 15 (bapt.) – John Stackhouse, English botanist (died 1819).
• May 18 – Lionel Lukin, English inventor (died 1834).
• December 3 – James Rennell, English geographer, historian and oceanographer (died 1830).
• December 9 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (died 1786).
• December 26 – Ignaz von Born, Hungarian metallurgist (died 1791).

Deaths

• January 14 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist (born 1656).
• February 28 – Willem 's Gravesande, Dutch polymath (born 1688).
• May 13 – Nicolas Andry, French physician (born 1658).
• September 22 – Frederic Louis Norden, Danish explorer (born 1708).

References

1. Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
2. Celsius, Anders (1742). "Observationer om twänne beständiga grader på en thermometer" (Observations about two stable degrees on a thermometer). Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (Proceedings of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) 3:171-180 and .
3. Jervis-Smith, Frederick John (1911). "Chronograph" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 302.
4. Routh, Edward John (1905). The Elementary Part of A Treatise on the Dynamics of a System of Rigid Bodies. London: Macmillan.
5. Ferguson, Niall (2011). Civilization: The West and the Rest. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-1-84614-273-4.
6. Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, inventory 98721 (exhibit label noted 2012).
7. "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 21 July 2020.