1720 in science

The year 1720 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal.

Medicine

• May – First patient admitted to the Westminster Public Infirmary, predecessor of St George's Hospital, London.
• Dr Steevens' Hospital is established at Kilmainham, Dublin.^[1]
• Great Plague of Marseille, the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe.

Technology

• A theodolite is developed by Jonathan Sisson of England.
• Pinchbeck is invented by English watchmaker Christopher Pinchbeck; it is an alloy of 83% copper and 17% zinc, creating a strong, hard-wearing metal which has the appearance and weight of 20 carat gold.
• An early chronograph is invented which has only mechanical parts in it.
• Henry de Saumarez (of the Channel Islands) produces an instrument called the Marine Surveyor intended to measure a ship's velocity.^[2]
• A single-action five-pedal harp is developed by Jacob Hochbrucker of Bavaria which can raise the pitch of the selected strings by a half step.
• approx. date – Joseph Williamson uses a differential gear in a clock.

Births

• March 13 – Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist and philosophical writer (died 1793)
• July 18 – Gilbert White, English naturalist (died 1793)
• December ? – James Hargreaves, English inventor (died 1778)
• approx. date – Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov, Russian chemist (died 1758)

Deaths

• David Gregory, Scottish physician and inventor (born 1625)

References