The year 1786 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.
Astronomy
* January 17 –
Pierre Méchain
Pierre François André Méchain (; 16 August 1744 – 20 September 1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets.
Life
Pierre Méchain was bo ...
first observes
Comet Encke
Comet Encke , or Encke's Comet (official designation: 2P/Encke), is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every 3.3 years. (This is the shortest period of a reasonably bright comet; the faint main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS has ...
, from
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
.
* August 1 –
Caroline Herschel
Caroline Lucretia Herschel ( , ; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet, which b ...
becomes the first woman to discover a
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...
.
Biology
*
Subfossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
bones of the
Rodrigues solitaire
The Rodrigues solitaire (''Pezophaps solitaria'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemism, endemic to the island of Rodrigues, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Genetically within the family of Columbidae, pigeons and doves, it wa ...
are discovered.
Linguistics
* February 2 – In a speech before
The Asiatic Society
The Asiatic Society is an organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of " Oriental research" (in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions). It was founded by the philologist Will ...
in
Calcutta
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
,
Sir William Jones
Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, orientalist, Indologist and judge. Born in Westminster, London to Welsh mathematician William Jones, he moved to the Bengal Presidency where Jones served as ...
notes the formal resemblances between
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
,
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
, laying the foundation for
comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.
Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language and comparative linguistics aim ...
and
Indo-European studies
Indo-European studies () is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical p ...
.
Mathematics
*
Erland Samuel Bring
Erland Samuel Bring (19 August 1736 – 20 May 1798) was a Swedish mathematician.
Bring studied at Lund University between 1750 and 1757. In 1762 he obtained a position of a reader in history and was promoted to professor in 1779. At Lund he wr ...
publishes ', proposing algebraic solutions to
quintic function
In mathematics, a quintic function is a function of the form
:g(x)=ax^5+bx^4+cx^3+dx^2+ex+f,\,
where , , , , and are members of a field, typically the rational numbers, the real numbers or the complex numbers, and is nonzero. In other word ...
s.
*
Lagrange
Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi Lagrangia[Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...](_blank)
to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
under the patronage of
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
.
*
William Playfair
William Playfair (22 September 1759 – 11 February 1823) was a Scottish engineer and political economist. The founder of graphical methods of statistics, Playfair invented several types of diagrams: in 1786 he introduced the line, area and ...
produces the first
line and
bar chart
A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical variable, categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally. A ...
s.
Technology
* August –
James Rumsey
James Rumsey (1743 – December 21, 1792) was an American mechanical engineer chiefly known for exhibiting a boat propelled by machinery in 1787 on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown in present-day West Virginia before a crowd of local notables ...
tests his first steamboat in the
Potomac River
The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...
at
Shepherdstown, Virginia.
*
Ignaz von Born
Ignaz Edler von Born, also known as Ignatius von Born (, , ) (26 December 1742 in Alba Iulia, Grand Principality of Transylvania, Habsburg monarchy – 24 July 1791 in Vienna), was a mineralogist and metallurgist. He was a prominent freemason ...
introduces a method of extracting metals using the
patio process
The patio process is a process for extracting silver from ore. Smelting, or refining, is most often necessary because silver is only infrequently found as a native element like some metals nobler than the redox couple 2 + 2 ⇌ (gold, mercury ...
in his ''Ueber des Anquicken der gold- und silberhältigen Erze'', published in Vienna.
*
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
millwright
Andrew Meikle
Andrew Meikle (5 May 1719 – 27 November 1811) was a Scottish mechanical engineer credited with inventing the threshing machine, a device used to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat. He also had a hand in assisting Firbeck in the inv ...
invents a practical
threshing machine
A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of agricultural machinery, farm equipment that separates grain seed from the plant stem, stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed ...
.
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 ...
: Not awarded
Births
* January 5 –
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an English botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841.
Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
,
English naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
(died
1859
Events
January–March
* January 21 – José Mariano Salas (1797–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico.
* January 24 ( O. S.) – Under the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia are uni ...
)
* February 26 –
François Arago
Dominique François Jean Arago (), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: , ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the Carbonari revolutionaries and politician.
Early l ...
,
French 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 ...
,
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
and
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
(died
1853
Events
January–March
* January 6 –
** Florida Governor Thomas Brown signs legislation that provides public support for the new East Florida Seminary, leading to the establishment of the University of Florida.
**U.S. President-elect ...
)
* February 28 –
Christian Ramsay
Christian Ramsay, Countess of Dalhousie (; 28 February 1786 – 22 January 1839), informally Lady Dalhousie, was a Scottish botanist and natural historian. She married George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie and travelled with him when he was app ...
,
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
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
1839
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The first photograph of the Moon is taken, by French photographer Louis Daguerre.
* January 6 – Night of the Big Wind: Ireland is struck by the most damaging cyclone in 300 years.
* January 9 – ...
)
* April 16 –
Thomas Sewall,
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
(died
1845
Events
January–March
* January 1 – The Philippines began reckoning Asian dates by hopping the International Date Line through skipping Tuesday, December 31, 1844. That time zone shift was a reform made by Governor–General Narciso ...
)
* April 28 –
Elizabeth Andrew Warren, Cornish botanist and marine
algolologist (died
1864
Events
January
* January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song "Beautiful Dream ...
)
* July 24 –
Joseph Nicollet
Joseph Nicolas Nicollet (July 24, 1786 – September 11, 1843), also known as Jean-Nicolas Nicollet, was a French geographer, astronomer, and mathematician known for mapping the Upper Mississippi River basin during the 1830s. Nicollet led thre ...
, French geographer, explorer, mathematician and astronomer (died
1843
Events January–March
* January 3 – The '' Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms'' (海國圖志, ''Hǎiguó Túzhì'') compiled by Wei Yuan and others, the first significant Chinese work on the West, is published in China.
* J ...
)
* November 3 –
Ernst Friedrich Germar
Ernst Friedrich Germar (3 November 1786 – 8 July 1853) was a German professor and director of the Mineralogy, Mineralogical Museum at Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle. As well as being a mineralogist he was interested in entomology and particularly ...
,
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 ...
entomologist
Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...
(died 1853)
* December 6 –
Johann Georg Bodmer
Johann Georg Bodmer (6 December 1786 – 30 May 1864) was a prolific Swiss inventor, making contributions to areas ranging from weaponry to steam engines
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work usi ...
,
Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
mechanical engineer
Mechanical may refer to:
Machine
* Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement
* Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...
and inventor (died
1864
Events
January
* January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song "Beautiful Dream ...
)
Deaths
* February 25 –
Thomas Wright, English astronomer, mathematician, instrument maker, architect, garden designer, antiquary and genealogist (born
1711
In the Swedish calendar it was a common year starting on Sunday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January–March
* January – Cary's Rebellion: The Lords Proprietor appoint Edward ...
)
* May 2 –
Petronella Johanna de Timmerman
Petronella Johanna de Timmerman (31 January 1723, in Middelburg – 2 May 1786, in Utrecht) was a Dutch poet and scientist.
Married in 1769 to Johann Friedrich Hennert, professor of mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. During her second marria ...
, Dutch scientist (born
1723
Events
January–March
* January 25 – English-born pirate Edward Low intercepts the Portuguese ship ''Nostra Signiora de Victoria''. After the Portuguese captain throws his treasure of 11,000 gold coins into the sea rather th ...
)
* May 4 –
Leonardo Ximenes
Leonardo Ximenes (27 December 17163 May 1786) was a famous Italian Jesuit, mathematician, engineer, astronomer and geographer from Sicily.
After having attended a Jesuit school, he became a mathematician, a hydraulic and civil engineer, and was ...
,
Tuscan 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
1716
Events
January–March
* January 16 – The application of the Nueva Planta decrees to Catalonia make it subject to the laws of the Crown of Castile, and abolishes the Principality of Catalonia as a political entity, conclud ...
)
* May 15 –
Eva Ekeblad
Eva Ekeblad (née De la Gardie; 10 July 1724 – 15 May 1786) was a Swedish agriculturist and salon hostess. She discovered a method to make alcohol and flour from potatoes, significantly reducing Sweden's incidence of famine. She became the fi ...
,
agronomist
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.) is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the Uni ...
, first woman in the
Swedish Royal Academy of Science (born
1724
Events
January–March
* January 15 – King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne in favour of his 16-year-old son Louis I.
* January 18 – The Dutch East India Company cargo ship '' Fortuyn'', on its maiden voyage, dep ...
)
* May 21 –
Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (, ; 9 December 1742 – 21 May 1786) was a Swedish Pomerania, German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist.
Scheele discovered oxygen (although Joseph Priestley published his findings first), and identified the elements molybd ...
, Swedish
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
1742
Events
January–March
* January 9 – Robert Walpole is made Earl of Orford, and resigns as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, effectively ending his period as Prime Minister of Great Britain. On his f ...
)
* October 16 –
Alexander Wilson, Scottish polymath (born
1714
Events
January–March
* January 21 – After being tricked into deserting a battle against India's Mughal Empire by the rebel Sayyid brothers, Prince Azz-ud-din Mirza is blinded on orders of the Emperor Farrukhsiyar as punishment.
* ...
)
* November 10 –
John Hope, Scottish
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 ...
and
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 ...
(born
1725
Events
January–March
* January 1 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata ''Jesu, nun sei gepreiset'', BWV 41, which features the trumpet fanfares from the beginning also in the end.
* January 6 &nd ...
)
References
{{Reflist
18th century in science
1780s in science