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1773 In Science
The year 1773 in science and technology involved some significant events. Astronomy * October 13 – French astronomer Charles Messier discovers the Whirlpool Galaxy ''(pictured)'', an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 23 million light-years in the constellation Canes Venatici. * Lagrange presents his work on the secular equation of the Moon to the Académie française, introducing the idea of the potential of a body. He also publishes on the attraction of ellipsoids. Chemistry * Hilaire Rouelle discovers urea. * Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Joseph Priestley independently isolate oxygen, called by Priestley "dephlogisticated air" and Scheele "fire air". * Antoine Baumé publishes his textbook ''Chymie expérimentale et raisonnée'' in Paris. Exploration * January 17 – English Captain James Cook becomes the first European explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle. * Spring – English Captain Tobias Furneaux explores the coast of Van ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilaire Rouelle
Hilaire Marin Rouelle (; 15 February 1718 – 7 April 1779) was an 18th-century French chemist. Commonly cited as the 1773 discoverer of urea, he was not the first to do so. Dutch scientist Herman Boerhaave had discovered this chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ... as early as 1727. Rouelle is known as "le cadet" (the younger) to distinguish him from his older brother, Guillaume-François Rouelle, who was also a chemist. References 1718 births 1779 deaths People from Mathieu, Calvados 18th-century French chemists Members of the Royal Spanish Academy {{chem-hist-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Burnett, Lord Monboddo
James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (baptised 25 October 1714 – 26 May 1799) was a Scottish judge, scholar of linguistic evolution, philosopher and deist. He is most famous today as a founder of modern comparative historical linguistics. In 1767, he became a judge in the Court of Session. As such, Burnett adopted an honorary title based on the name of his father's estate and family seat, Monboddo House. Monboddo was one of a number of scholars involved at the time in development of early concepts of biological evolution. Some credit him with anticipating in principle the idea of natural selection that was read by (and acknowledged in the writings of) Erasmus Darwin. Charles Darwin read the works of his grandfather Erasmus and later developed the ideas into a scientific theory. Early years James Burnett was born in 1714 at Monboddo House in Kincardineshire, Scotland. After his primary education at the parish school of Laurencekirk, he studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen, from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish People
Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the Scotland in the Early Middle Ages, early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or ''Kingdom of Alba, Alba'') in the 9th century. In the following two centuries, Celtic-speaking Hen Ogledd, Cumbrians of Kingdom of Strathclyde, Strathclyde and Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons, Angles of Northumbria became part of Scotland. In the Scotland in the High Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, during the 12th-century Davidian Revolution, small numbers of Normans, Norman nobles migrated to the Lowlands. In the 13th century, the Norse-Gaels of the Kingdom of the Isles, Western Isles became part of Scotland, followed by the Norsemen, Norse of the Northern Isles in the 15th century. In modern usage, "Scottish people" or "Scots" refers to anyone whose linguistic, cultural, family ancestral or genetic origin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polar Bear
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can Hybrid (biology), interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear and land carnivore, with adult males weighing . The species is sexually dimorphic, as adult females are much smaller. The polar bear is white- or yellowish-furred with black skin and a thick layer of fat. It is more slender than the brown bear, with a narrower skull, longer neck and lower shoulder hump. Its teeth are sharper and more adapted to cutting meat. The paws are large and allow the bear to walk on ice and paddle in the water. Polar bears are both terrestrial and Pagophily, pagophilic (ice-living) and are considered marine mammals because of their dependence on marine ecosystems. They prefer the annual sea ice but live on land when the ice melts in the summer. They are mostly carnivorous and specialized for preying on pinniped, se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1773 Phipps Expedition Towards The North Pole
The 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole was a British Royal Navy expedition suggested by the Royal Society and especially its vice president Daines Barrington, who believed in an ice-free Open Polar Sea. Two bomb vessels, and , were modified for greater protection against ice and sailed towards the North Pole in the summer of 1773 under the commands of Constantine John Phipps and Skeffington Lutwidge. The ships became stuck in ice near Svalbard. The report of the journey, published by Phipps in 1774, contained the first scientific descriptions of the polar bear, ivory gull, and Clione limacina, naked sea butterfly. Background In January 1773, on the initiative of the Royal Society's vice president Daines Barrington, the Society's Secretary, Matthew Maty, sent a letter to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty, suggesting a voyage to the North Pole. Barrington had been influenced by the writings of the Swiss geographer Samuel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island was first visited by the Dutch ship captained by Abel Tasman in 1642, working under the sponsorship of Anthony van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. The British retained the name when they established a settlement in 1803 before it became a separate colony in 1825. Its Penal colony, penal colonies became notorious destinations for the Convicts in Australia, transportation of convicts due to the harsh environment, isolation and reputation for being escape-proof. The name was changed to Tasmania on 1st January 1856 to disassociate the island from its convict past and to honour its discoverer, Abel Tasman. The old name had become a byword for horror in England because of the severity of its convict settlements such as Macq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tobias Furneaux
Captain Tobias Furneaux (21 August 173518 September 1781) was a British navigator and Royal Navy officer, who accompanied James Cook on his second voyage of exploration. He was one of the first men to circumnavigate the world in both directions, and later commanded a British vessel during the American War of Independence. Early life Furneaux was born at Swilly House near Stoke Damerel, Plymouth Dock, son of William Furneaux (1696–1748) of Swilly, and Susanna Wilcocks (1698–1775).Hough (1995), pages 228-229 He entered the Royal Navy and was employed on the French and African coasts and in the West Indies during the latter part of the Seven Years' War (1760–1763). He served as second lieutenant of under Captain Samuel Wallis on the latter's voyage round the globe (August 1766May 1768) and due to Wallis being ill and confined to his cabin, Furneaux was the first European to set foot on Tahiti, hoisting a pennant, turning a turf, and taking possession of the land in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antarctic Circle
The Antarctic Circle is the most southerly of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of Earth. The region south of this circle is known as the Antarctic, and the zone immediately to the north is called the Southern Temperate Zone. South of the Antarctic Circle, the Sun is above the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year (and therefore visible at solar midnight) and the centre of the Sun (ignoring refraction) is below the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year (and therefore not visible at solar noon); this is also true within the Arctic Circle, the Antarctic Circle’s counterpart in the Northern Hemisphere. The position of the Antarctic Circle is not fixed and, not taking account of the nutation, currently runs south of the Equator. This figure may be slightly inaccurate because it does not allow for the effects of astronomical nutation, which can be up to 10″. Its latitude depends on the Earth's axial tilt, which fluctuates within ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Cook
Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. He completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the main islands of New Zealand and was the first known European to visit the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager before enlisting in the Royal Navy in 1755. He served during the Seven Years' War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the St. Lawrence River during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, siege of Quebec. In the 1760s, he mapped the coastline of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland and made important astronomical observations which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty and the Royal Society. This acclaim came at a crucial moment in Brit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antoine Baumé
Antoine Baumé (26 February 172815 October 1804) was a French people, French chemist. Life He was born at Senlis, Oise, Senlis. He was apprenticed to the chemist Claude Joseph Geoffroy, and in 1752 was admitted a member of the École de Pharmacie, where in the same year he was appointed professor of chemistry. The money he made in a business he carried on in Paris for dealing in chemical products enabled him to retire in 1780 in order to devote himself to applied chemistry, but, ruined in the French Revolution, Revolution, he was obliged to return to a commercial career. He devised many improvements in technical processes, e.g. for bleaching silk, dyeing, gilding, purifying Potassium nitrate, saltpetre, etc., but he is best known as the inventor of the Baumé scale hydrometer or "spindle" which provides scientific measurements for the density of liquids. The scale remains associated with his name but is often improperly spelt "Beaumé". Of the numerous books and papers he wrote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
