1737 in science explained

The year 1737 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• May 28 – The planet Venus passes in front of Mercury. The event is witnessed during the evening by amateur astronomer John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England.^[1]

Botany

• February 27 – French scientists Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon publish the first study correlating past weather conditions with an examination of tree rings.^[2]
• Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal, with her own colour illustrations, is published in London.^[3]
• Johannes Burman's Thesaurus zeylanicus, a flora of Ceylon, is published in Amsterdam.

Geology

• Francesco Serao is the first person to use the word lava in connection with extruded magma in a short account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which took place between May 14 and June 4.^[4]
• October 11 – An earthquake in Calcutta, India is said to have caused 300,000 deaths; this is now in question: it was probably a cyclone, with deaths estimated at 3,000.^[5]
• October 16 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.3 strikes offshore of the Kamchatka Peninsula.^[6]

Mathematics

• Divergence of the sum of the reciprocals of the primes proved by Leonhard Euler.^[7]

Technology

• John Harrison is given an award from the longitude prize to continue his work on development of a stable marine chronometer in England.^[8]

Publications

• Venetian polymath Francesco Algarotti publishes Newtonianism for Ladies, or Dialogues on Light and Colours (Neutonianismo per le dame).^[9]

Awards

• Copley Medal: John Belchier^[10]

Births

• January 4 – Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, French chemist and politician (died 1816)
• August 14 – Charles Hutton, English mathematician (died 1823)
• September 9 – Luigi Galvani, Italian physicist (died 1798)^[11]

Notes and References

1. Book: Bakich . Michael E. . The Cambridge Planetary Handbook . 2000 . Cambridge University Press . 9780521632805 . 103 . en.
2. "On the cause of the eccentricity of the woody layers which one perceives when one cuts horizontally the trunk of a tree" (De la cause de l'excentricité des couches ligneuses qu'on apperçoit quand on coupe horisontalement le tronc d'un arbre).
3. Web site: A Curious Herbal . The British Library . 21 March 2019.
4. Book: Duffin . C. J. . Gardner-Thorpe . C. . Moody . R. T. J. . Geology and Medicine: Historical Connections . 2017 . Geological Society of London . 9781786202833 . 60 . en.
5. Book: Gates . Alexander E. . Ritchie . David . Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes . 2006 . Infobase Publishing . 9780816072705 . 38 . en.
6. Book: Dasgupta . Samir . Şiriner . İsmail . De . Partha Sarathi . Women's Encounter with Disaster . 2010 . ismail siriner . 9788190884143 . 250 . en.
7. Leonhard. Euler. Variae observationes circa series infinitas. Various observations concerning infinite series. Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Petropolitanae. 9. 1737. 160–188.
8. Web site: Longitude found: John Harrison . Royal Museums Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site In London . 21 March 2019 . en . 7 October 2015.
9. Book: Ritchie . Stefka . Samuel Johnson's Pragmatism and Imagination . 2018 . Cambridge Scholars Publishing . 9781527521094 . 76 . en.
10. Web site: medal . British Museum . 21 March 2019.
11. Web site: Luigi Galvani Italian physician and physicist . Encyclopedia Britannica . 21 March 2019 . en.