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1749 in science
The year
1749 in
science
and
technology
involved some significant events.
Astronomy
Pierre Bouguer
publishes
La figure de la terre
in
Paris
, describing some of the results of his work with
Charles Marie de La Condamine
on the
French Geodesic Mission
to
Peru
(begun in
1735
) to measure a degree of the
meridian arc
near the
equator
.
Biology
Georges-Louis Leclerc,
afterwards
Comte du Buffon
, begins publication of his .
Mathematics
April 12 âÂÂ
Euler
produces the first proof of
Fermat's theorem on sums of two squares
, based on
infinite descent
.
Institutions
April 12 â Official opening of the
Radcliffe Library
in
Oxford
, built under the will of the
physician
John Radcliffe
(died
1714
) (although it does not become a primarily
science library
until 1810).
Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin
appointed Secretary of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
in
Stockholm
, a position he will hold until his death in
1783
.
Awards
Copley Medal
:
John Harrison
Births
February 4 âÂÂ
Thomas Earnshaw
,
English
watchmaker
(died
1829
)
February 7 -
Philippe Petit-Radel
,
French
surgeon
(died
1815
)
March 23 âÂÂ
Pierre-Simon Laplace
,
French
mathematician
and
astronomer
(died
1827
)
May 17 âÂÂ
Edward Jenner
, English
physician
, inventor of the
smallpox
vaccine
(died
1823
)
September 6 âÂÂ
Benjamin Bell
,
Scottish
surgeon (died
1806
)
September 25 âÂÂ
Abraham Gottlob Werner
,
German
geologist
(died
1817
)
November 3 âÂÂ
Daniel Rutherford
, Scottish
physician
,
chemist
and
botanist
noted for the isolation of
nitrogen
(died
1819
)
Deaths
September 10 âÂÂ
ÃÂmilie du Châtelet
, French mathematician and
physicist
(born
1706
)
December 23 âÂÂ
Mark Catesby
, English
naturalist
(born
1683
)
References