The year 1737 in
science and
technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
* May 28 – The
planet Venus passes in front of
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
. The event is witnessed during the evening by amateur
astronomer John Bevis at the
Royal Greenwich Observatory
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in G ...
in
England.
Botany
* February 27 – French scientists
Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and
Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon publish the first study correlating past weather conditions with an examination of
tree rings.
*
Elizabeth Blackwell's ''A Curious Herbal'', with her own colour illustrations, is published in London.
Geology
* Francesco Serao is the first person to use the word
lava in connection with extruded
magma in a short account of the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius which took place between May 14 and June 4.
* October 11 – An
earthquake in
Calcutta,
India is said to have caused 300,000 deaths; this is now
in question: it was probably a cyclone, with deaths estimated at 3,000.
* October 16 – An
earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.3 strikes offshore of the
Kamchatka Peninsula.
Mathematics
*
Divergence of the sum of the reciprocals of the primes proved by
Leonhard Euler.
Technology
*
John Harrison is given an award from the
longitude prize to continue his work on development of a stable
marine chronometer in England.
Publications
* Venetian polymath
Francesco Algarotti publishes ''Newtonianism for Ladies, or Dialogues on Light and Colours'' (''Neutonianismo per le dame'').
Awards
*
Copley Medal
The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society, for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given every year, the medal is t ...
:
John Belchier
John Belchier (1706 – 6 February 1785) was a British surgeon at Guy's Hospital from 1736 to 1768. He discovered at about the time of his Guy's appointment that the vegetable dye madder stained newly forming bone tissue, opening up the stud ...
Births
* August 14 –
Charles Hutton,
English mathematician (died
1823
Events January–March
* January 22 – By secret treaty signed at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance gives France a mandate to invade Spain for the purpose of restoring Ferdinand VII (who has been captured by armed revolutio ...
)
* September 9 –
Luigi Galvani
Luigi Galvani (, also ; ; la, Aloysius Galvanus; 9 September 1737 – 4 December 1798) was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher, who studied animal electricity. In 1780, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs ...
,
Italian physicist (died
1798
Events
January–June
* January – Eli Whitney contracts with the U.S. federal government for 10,000 muskets, which he produces with interchangeable parts.
* January 4 – Constantine Hangerli enters Bucharest, as Prince of Wa ...
)
Deaths
*
References
{{Reflist
18th century in science
1730s in science