The year 1734 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.
Mathematics
*
George Berkeley
George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...
publishes ''
The Analyst
''The Analyst'' (subtitled ''A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician: Wherein It Is Examined Whether the Object, Principles, and Inferences of the Modern Analysis Are More Distinctly Conceived, or More Evidently Deduced, Than Religious ...
'', an empiricist critique of the foundations of
infinitesimal calculus
Calculus is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations.
Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of ...
, influential in the development of mathematics.
*
Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential ...
introduces the
integrating factor
In mathematics, an integrating factor is a function that is chosen to facilitate the solving of a given equation involving differentials. It is commonly used to solve non-exact ordinary differential equations, but is also used within multivari ...
technique for solving first-order ordinary
differential equations.
Technology
*
James Short constructs a
Gregorian reflecting telescope
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...
with an
aperture
In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...
of .
Zoology
*
René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (; ; 28 February 1683 – 17 October 1757) was a French entomologist and writer who contributed to many different fields, especially the study of insects. He introduced the Réaumur temperature scale.
Lif ...
begins publication of ''Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des insectes'' in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
.
Awards
*
Copley Medal
The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". The award alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the bio ...
:
John Theophilus Desaguliers
John Theophilus Desaguliers (12 March 1683 – 29 February 1744) was a French-born British natural philosopher, clergyman, engineer and freemason who was elected to the Royal Society in 1714 as experimental assistant to Isaac Newton. He had stu ...
Births
* January 23 –
Wolfgang von Kempelen,
Hungarian inventor (died
1804
Events
January–March
* January 1 – Haiti gains independence from France, and becomes the first black republic.
* February 4 – The Sokoto Caliphate is founded in West Africa.
* February 14 – The First Serbian uprising begins th ...
)
* April 18 –
Elsa Beata Bunge
Elsa Beata Bunge, née Wrede (18 April 1734 – 19 January 1819), was a Swedish botanist, writer and nobility, noble.
Biography
Elsa Beata was born 18 April 1734. She was the daughter of statesman and noble, baron Fabian Wrede, and Katarina Char ...
,
Swedish botanist
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
(died
1819
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The Panic of 1819, the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States, begins.
* January 25 – Thomas Jefferson founds the University of Virginia.
* January 29 – Si ...
)
* May 23 –
Franz Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer ( ; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural Energy (esotericism), energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimat ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
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 ...
(died
1815
Events
January
* January 2 – Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke in Seaham, county of Durham, England.
* January 3 – Austria, Britain, and Bourbon-restored France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Pr ...
)
* September 3 –
Joseph Wright,
English painter of scientific subjects (died
1797
Events
January–March
* January 3 – The Treaty of Tripoli, a peace treaty between the United States and Ottoman Tripolitania, is signed at Algiers (''see also'' 1796).
* January 7 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Repu ...
)
Deaths
* February 1 –
John Floyer, English physician (born
1649
Events
January–March
* January 4 – In England, the Rump Parliament passes an ordinance to set up a High Court of Justice, to try Charles I for high treason.
* January 17 – The Second Ormonde Peace concludes an allian ...
)
* April 25 –
Johann Konrad Dippel
Johann Konrad Dippel, also spelled Johann Conrad Dippel (10 August 1673 – 25 April 1734), was a German Pietist theologian, physician, and alchemist.
Life
Dippel was born at Castle Frankenstein near Mühltal and Darmstadt, thus, when he ent ...
, German
theologian
Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...
,
alchemist
Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
and physician (born
1673
Events
January–March
* January 22 – Impersonator Mary Carleton is hanging, hanged at Newgate Prison in London, for multiple thefts and returning from penal transportation.
* February 10 – Molière's ''comédie-ballet ...
)
References
{{reflist
18th century in science
1730s in science