Editing 1773 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Year nav topic5|1773|science}}
{{Science year nav|1773}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

The year '''1773 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events.

==Astronomy==
[[File:Messier51 sRGB.jpg|120px|Whirlpool Galaxy|thumb|right]]
* October 13 – [[France|French]] [[astronomer]] [[Charles Messier]] discovers the [[Whirlpool Galaxy]] ''(pictured)'', an [[Interacting galaxy|interacting]], [[grand design spiral galaxy]] located at a distance of approximately 23 million [[light-year]]s in the [[constellation]] [[Canes Venatici]].
* [[Joseph Louis Lagrange|Lagrange]] presents his work on the [[secular equation]] of the Moon to the [[Académie française]], introducing the idea of the potential of a body. He also publishes on the attraction of [[ellipsoid]]s.

==Chemistry==
* [[Hilaire Rouelle]] discovers [[urea]].
* [[Carl Wilhelm Scheele]] and [[Joseph Priestley]] independently isolate oxygen, called by Priestley "dephlogisticated air" and Scheele "fire air".<ref name="Profile">{{cite web|title=
Joseph Priestley|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/joseph-priestley|website=Science History Institute|accessdate=March 21, 2018}}</ref><ref name=Bowden>{{cite book|last1=Bowden|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences|url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd|url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|location=Philadelphia, PA|isbn=9780941901123|chapter=
Joseph Priestley|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/5 5-7]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Carl Wilhelm Scheele|work=History of Gas Chemistry|publisher=Center for Microscale Gas Chemistry, Creighton University|date=September 11, 2005|url=http://mattson.creighton.edu/History_Gas_Chemistry/Scheele.html|accessdate=February 23, 2007}}</ref>
* [[Antoine Baumé]] publishes his textbook ''Chymie expérimentale et raisonnée'' in Paris.

==Exploration==
* January 17 – English Captain [[James Cook]] becomes the first European explorer to cross the [[Antarctic Circle]].
* Spring – English Captain [[Tobias Furneaux]] explores the coast of [[Van Diemen's Land]].
* June 4 – September 30 – British Royal Navy [[1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole|Phipps expedition towards the North Pole]], which produces the first scientific description of the [[polar bear]] and the [[ivory gull]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Savours|first=Ann|authorlink=Ann Savours Shirley|date=1984|title="A Very Interesting Point in Geography": The 1773 Phipps Expedition towards the North Pole|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40510304|journal=Arctic|volume=37|issue=4|pages=402–428|doi=10.14430/arctic2224|jstor=40510304|issn=0004-0843|doi-access=free|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Linguistics==
* [[Scottish people|Scottish]] judge [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo]], begins publication of ''Of the Origin and Progress of Language'', a contribution to [[Evolutionary ideas of the Renaissance and Enlightenment|evolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment]].

==Mathematics==
* [[Joseph Louis Lagrange|Lagrange]] considers a [[functional determinant]] of order 3, a special case of a [[Jacobian matrix and determinant|Jacobian]]. He also proves the expression for the [[volume]] of a [[tetrahedron]] with one of the vertices at the origin as one sixth of the [[absolute value]] of the [[determinant]] formed by the coordinates of the other three vertices.

==Medicine==
* October 12 – North America's first [[insane asylum]] opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in [[Williamsburg, Virginia]].
* [[Medical Society of London]] founded by [[John Coakley Lettsom]].
* [[Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau]] proposes the use of "muriatic acid gas" ([[hydrogen chloride]]) for fumigation of buildings.

==Technology==
* [[David Hartley (the Younger)|David Hartley]] [[patent]]s a method of [[fireproofing]] construction for buildings and ships in Britain.

==Institutions==
* [[Istanbul Technical University]] is established (under the original name of Royal School of Naval Engineering) as the world's first comprehensive institution of higher learning dedicated to engineering education.

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[John Walsh (scientist)|John Walsh]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=July 21, 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[John Harrison]] receives the [[Longitude prize]] for his invention of the [[marine chronometer]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1750-1800|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1750-1800|accessdate=August 25, 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817164134/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1750-1800|archivedate=August 17, 2007<!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref>

==Births==
* January 29 – [[Friedrich Mohs]], German mineralogist (died [[1839 in science|1839]])
* February 24 - [[Jean Boniface Textoris]], French military surgeon (died [[1828 in science|1828]])<ref>{{Base Léonore|LH&#x2F;/2582/41|id=355243}}</ref>
* April 9 – [[Marie Boivin]], French midwife, inventor and obstetrics writer (died [[1841 in science|1841]])
* May 19 – [[Arthur Aikin]], English chemist and mineralogist (died [[1854 in science|1854]])
* June 13 – [[Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]], English physicist (died [[1829 in science|1829]])
* June 29 ''(bapt.)'' – [[John Bostock (physician)|John Bostock]], English physician and geologist (died [[1846 in science|1846]])
* July 23 – [[Thomas Brisbane]], Scottish astronomer and Governor of New South Wales (died [[1860 in science|1860]])
* August 23 – [[Abraham Colles]], Anglo-Irish surgeon (died [[1843 in science|1843]])
* October 28 – [[Simon Goodrich]], English mechanical engineer (died [[1847 in science|1847]])
* December 21 – [[Robert Brown (Scottish botanist from Montrose)|Robert Brown]], Scottish botanist (died [[1858 in science|1858]])
* December 27 – [[George Cayley]], English pioneer of heavier-than-air flight (died [[1857 in science|1857]])

==Deaths==
* July 16 – [[Nils Rosén von Rosenstein]], [[Swedes|Swedish]] [[pediatrician]] (born [[1706 in science|1706]])
* July 23 – [[George Edwards (naturalist)|George Edwards]], English naturalist (born [[1693 in science|1693]])

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1773 in science| ]]
[[Category:18th century in science]]
[[Category:1770s in science]]