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The 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.

Earth sciences

  • Albert Brahms, Frisian Dijkgraaf, begins publication of Anfangsgründe der Deich und Wasser-Baukunst ("Principles of Dike and Aquatic Engineering") advocating scientific recording of tides.

Mathematics

  • Joshua Kirby publishes the pamphlet Dr. Brook Taylor's Method of Perspective made Easy both in Theory and Practice containing William Hogarth's Satire on False Perspective.
  • Lagrange begins to work on the problem of tautochrone.

Physics

  • Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist in the fields of applied electricity, develops a weather-machine. The same year, an electrical conductor devised by him is installed at the Vienna General Hospital.

Awards

  • Copley Medal: William Lewis

Births

  • March 4 – Benjamin Waterhouse, American physician (died 1846)
  • March 15 – Archibald Menzies, Scottish surgeon and botanist (died 1842)
  • March 23 – Jurij Vega, Slovene mathematician, physicist and artillery officer (died 1802)
  • May 6 – Thomas Coke, English agriculturalist and geneticist (died 1842)
  • June 4 – Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, German astronomer (died 1832)
  • August 21 – William Murdoch, Scottish engineer and inventor (died 1839)
  • September 26 – Joseph Proust, French chemist (died 1826)

Deaths

  • February 5 – Nicolaas Kruik (Cruquius), Dutch cartographer and meteorologist (born 1678)
  • February 16 – Richard Mead, English physician (born 1673)
  • April 9 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher, mathematician and scientist (born 1679)
  • April 15 – Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (born 1676)
  • November 27 – Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (born 1667)

References