The year 1657 in

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

involved some significant events.

Geography

* Peter Heylin publishes his ''Cosmographie'', one of the earliest attempts to describe the entire world in English and the first known description of Australia.

Mathematics

Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Halen, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , ; ; also spelled Huyghens; ; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution ...

writes the first book to be published on

probability theory Probability theory or probability calculus is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expre ...

, ''De ratiociniis in ludo aleae'' ("On Reasoning in Games of Chance").

Medicine

* Walter Rumsey invents the provang, a

baleen Baleen is a filter feeder, filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales. To use baleen, the whale first opens its mouth underwater to take in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by th ...

instrument which he describes in his ''Organon Salutis: an instrument to cleanse the stomach.''

Technology

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s his 1656 design for a

pendulum clock A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is an approximate harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dep ...

and the first example is made for him by Salomon Coster at

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. * ''approx. date'' – The

anchor escapement In horology, the anchor escapement is a type of escapement used in pendulum clocks. The escapement is a mechanism in a mechanical clock that maintains the swing of the pendulum by giving it a small push each swing, and allows the clock's wheels ...

for

clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...

s is probably invented by

Robert Hooke Robert Hooke (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath who was active as a physicist ("natural philosopher"), astronomer, geologist, meteorologist, and architect. He is credited as one of the first scientists to investigate living ...

Institutions

Accademia del Cimento The Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment), an early scientific society, was founded in Florence in 1657 by students of Galileo, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and Vincenzo Viviani and ceased to exist about a decade later. The foundation of Acade ...

established in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Births

* February 11 –

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (; ; 11 February 1657 – 9 January 1757), also called Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle, was a French author and an influential member of three of the academies of the Institut de France, noted especially for his ...

, French scientific populariser (died

1757 Events January–March * January 2 – Seven Years' War: The British East India Company Army, under the command of Robert Clive, captures Calcutta, India. * January 5 – Robert-François Damiens makes an unsuccessful assa ...

) * ''approx. date'' –

Pierre-Charles Le Sueur Pierre-Charles Le Sueur (; c. 1657, Artois, France – 17 July 1704, Havana, Cuba) was a French fur trader and explorer in North America, recognized as the first known European to explore the Minnesota River valley. Le Sueur came to Canada w ...

, French fur trader and explorer (died 1704)

Deaths

* June 3 –

William Harvey William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions to anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, pulmonary and systemic circulation ...

, English

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

who discovered the circulation of blood (born 1578) * June 16 –

Fortunio Liceti Fortunio Liceti (Latin: ''Fortunius Licetus''; October 3, 1577 – May 17, 1657) was an Italian physician and philosopher. Early life He was born prematurely at Rapallo, near Genoa to Giuseppe Liceti and Maria Fini, while the family was moving ...

, Italian Aristotelian scientific

polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

(born 1577) * September 23 –

Joachim Jungius Joachim Jungius (born Joachim Junge; 22 October 1587 – 23 September 1657) was a German mathematician, logician and philosopher of science. Life Jungius was a native of Lübeck. He studied metaphysics at the Universities of University of Ro ...

, German

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

logician Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure of arg ...

and philosopher of science (born 1587) * October 22 – Cassiano dal Pozzo, Italian scholar and patron (born 1588) * November – John French, English physician and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

(born c.

1616 Events January–March * January 1 – King James I of England attends the masque '' The Golden Age Restored'', a satire by Ben Jonson on fallen court favorite the Earl of Somerset. The king asks for a repeat performance on January 6. ...

)

References

{{reflist 17th century in science 1650s in science