1702 in science explained

The year 1702 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• April 20 – Comet of 1702 (C/1702 H1): The 10th-closest comet approach in history, it missed Earth by a distance of 0.0437 AU (6,537,000 km).^[1]
• David Gregory publishes the first textbook, Astronomiae physicae et geometricae elementa, the first astronomy textbook based on Isaac Newton's principles of motions and theory of gravitation.^{[2] [3]}

Technology

• A fountain pen was developed by Frenchman M. Bion.^[4] (Nicolas Bion (1652–1733) described a fountain pen in a treatise published in 1709; he did not claim to have invented them nor is there any evidence that he made them.)^[5]
• Pierre Varignon applies calculus to spring-driven clocks.

Births

• November 5 – Edward Stone, English polymath (died 1768)^[6]
• Undated
  • Giuseppa Barbapiccola, Italian natural philosopher, poet and translator (died 1740)
  • Benjamin Stillingfleet, English botanist (died 1771)

Deaths

• April – Clopton Havers, English physician who did pioneering research on the microstructure of bone (born 1657)
• December 12 – Olof Rudbeck, Swedish physiologist who discovered that the thoracic duct is connected to the intestinal lymphatics (born 1630)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Historic Comet Close Approaches . NASA . 2008-01-06. dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080109135952/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/historic_comets.html. 9 January 2008 .
2. Book: Bunch, Bryan H. . Alexander Hellemans . The history of science and technology: a browser's guide to the great discoveries, inventions, and the people who made them, from the dawn of time to today . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . 2004 . 776 pages . registration . 978-0-618-22123-3. 30 July 2010 .
3. Web site: Archives Hub: Papers of David Gregory (1661–1708) . https://archive.today/20120718164620/http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/0210dgr.html . dead . 2012-07-18 . . 2008-01-06 .
4. Web site: Narayanan. Vivek. Patent and Trademark History in the Fountain Pen Industry. 2005-05-18. 2008-01-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20040228150710/http://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/narayana/Academics/Intellectual_Property/termpaper.pdf. 2004-02-28.
5. Web site: Who invented the fountain pen?. vintagepens.com. 2013-07-31.
6. Ralph. Mann. Stone, Edward (1702–1768). 2004. 10.1093/ref:odnb/38014. 2011-02-17.