1678 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1678 in science
and technology
involved some significant events.
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Edmund Halley publishes a catalogue of 341 southern stars - the first systematic southern sky survey.
Physics
- Christiaan Huygens publishes his Traité de la Lumière/Treatise on Light, which states his principle of wavefront sources.
- Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
discovers the fundamental law of elasticityElasticity (physics)In physics, elasticity is the physical property of a material that returns to its original shape after the stress that made it deform or distort is removed. The relative amount of deformation is called the strain....
when he finds that the stress (force) exerted is proportional to the strain (elongation) produced.
Zoology
- Publication of English Spiders by Martin ListerMartin ListerMartin Lister FRS was an English naturalist and physician.-Life:Lister was born at Radcliffe, near Buckingham, the son of Sir Martin Lister MP for Brackley in the Long Parliament and his wife Susan Temple daughter of Sir Alexander Temple. Lister was connected to a number of well known individuals...
, the first book devoted to spiderSpiderSpiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s.
Births
- April 14 - Abraham Darby IAbraham Darby IAbraham Darby I was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal...
, ironmasterIronmasterAn ironmaster is the manager – and usually owner – of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain....
(died 17171717 in scienceThe year 1717 in science and technology involved few significant events.-Biology:* James Petiver publishes Papilionum Brittaniae Icones, the first book devoted exclusively to British butterflies, giving English names to a number of species.-Births:...
) - July 16 - Jakob HermannJakob HermannJakob Hermann was a mathematician who worked on problems in classical mechanics. He is the author of Phoronomia, an early treatise on Mechanics. In 1729, he proclaimed that it was as easy to graph a locus on the polar coordinate system as it was to graph it on the Cartesian coordinate system...
, mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
(died 17331733 in scienceThe year 1733 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Physiology and medicine:* Rev. Stephen Hales publishes Hæmastaticks, the second volume of his Statical Essays, in London, containing the results of his experiments in measuring blood pressure.-Inventions:* May 26 - The flying...
) - October 27 - Pierre Raymond de MontmortPierre Raymond de MontmortPierre Rémond de Montmort, a French mathematician, was born in Paris on 27 October 1678, and died there on 7 October 1719. His name was originally just Pierre Rémond or Raymond...
, mathematician (died 17191719 in scienceThe year 1719 in science and technology involved some significant events some of which are enumerated here.-Botany:* Johann Jacob Dillenius publishes Catalogus plantarum sponte circa Gissam nascentium.-Births:...
) - November 26 - Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de MairanJean-Jacques d'Ortous de MairanJean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan , a French geophysicist, astronomer and most notably, chronobiologist, was born in the town of Béziers on November 26, 1678...
, geophysicist (died 17711771 in scienceThe year 1771 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Events:* Society of Civil Engineers first meets , the world's oldest engineering society.-Exploration:...
) - December 2 - Nicolaas KruikNicolaas KruikNicolaas Kruik , also known as Nicolaes Krukius or most commonly by the Latinized Nicolaus Samuelis Cruquius, was a Dutch land surveyor, cartographer, astronomer and weatherman...
(Cruquius), cartographer and meteorologist (died 17541754 in scienceThe year 1754 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, postulates retardation of Earth's orbit.-Chemistry:* Joseph Black, Scottish chemist, discovers carbonic acid gas-Mathematics:...
) - unknown - Pierre FauchardPierre FauchardPierre Fauchard was a significant French physician, credited as being the "father of modern dentistry". He is widely known for his book, Le chirurgien dentiste, "The Surgeon Dentist" 1728, where he described the basic oral anatomy and function, signs and symptoms of oral pathology, operative...
, physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and "father of modern dentistry" (died 17611761 in scienceThe year 1761 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* June 6 - The first transit of Venus since Edmond Halley suggested that its observation could determine the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Joseph-Nicolas Delisle set up a 62-station network for...
)
Deaths
- November 28 - Willem PisoWillem PisoWillem Piso was a Dutch physician and naturalist who participated as an expedition doctor in Dutch Brazil from 1637 - 1644, sponsored by Earl Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen and the Dutch West India Company...
, physician and naturalistNaturalistNaturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
(born 16111611 in scienceThe year 1611 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* February 27 - Sunspots are first observed by telescope by Frisian astronomers Johannes Fabricius and David Fabricius and Johannes publishes the results of these observations in De Maculis in Sole observatis in...
)