Editing 1775 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1775|science}}
{{Science year nav|1775}}

The year '''1775 in''' [[science]] and [[technology]] involved some significant events.

==Biology==
* The [[cheetah]] (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is described.<ref name="Catsg2017">{{cite journal |author=Kitchener, A.C. |author2=Breitenmoser-Würsten, C. |author3=Eizirik, E. |author4=Gentry, A. |author5=Werdelin, L. |author6=Wilting, A. |author7=Yamaguchi, N. |name-list-style=amp |year=2017 |title=A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group |journal=Cat News |issue=Special Issue 11 |url=http://www.catsg.org/fileadmin/filesharing/5.Cat_News/5.3._Special_Issues/5.3.10._SI_11/CN_Special_Issue_11_Revised_taxonomy_of_the_Felidae.pdf}}</ref>

==Chemistry==
* May 25 – [[Joseph Priestley]]'s account of his isolation of [[oxygen]] in the form of a [[gas]] ("dephlogisticated air") is read to the [[Royal Society]] of [[London]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Priestley|first=Joseph|jstor=106209|title=An Account of Further Discoveries in Air|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]]|volume=65|year=1775|pages=384–94|doi=10.1098/rstl.1775.0039|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Torbern Bergman]]'s ''{{lang|la|De attractionibus electivis}}'' ("A Dissertation on Elective Attractions") is published, containing the largest tables of [[chemical affinity]] ever published.

==Exploration==
* July 30 – 3-year [[second voyage of James Cook]] completed, the first eastabout global [[circumnavigation]], during which the [[Antarctic Circle]] has been crossed three times, ''[[Terra Australis]]'' shown to be a myth, and [[Larcum Kendall]]'s K1 [[chronometer watch|chronometer]] demonstrated to be a reliable timekeeper for the purpose of calculating [[longitude]].

==Mathematics==
* [[Joseph Louis Lagrange|Lagrange]]'s ''[[List of important publications in mathematics#Recherches d'Arithmétique|Recherches d'Arithmétique]]'' develops a general theory of binary [[quadratic forms]].
*First [[Stanhope Demonstrator]], a mechanical device to demonstrate and solve problems in logic, is produced by English aristocrat [[Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Logic Machines|authorlink=Martin Gardner|first=Martin|last=Gardner|journal=[[Scientific American]]|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24950629|volume=186|pages=68–69|year=1952|issue=3 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0352-68 |jstor=24950629 |bibcode=1952SciAm.186c..68G |quote=...the first true logic machine, the Stanhope Demonstrator.|url-access=subscription|access-date=2023-02-20|archive-date=2023-03-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323144336/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24950629|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* English surgeon [[Percivall Pott]] finds the first occupational link to [[cancer]], contributing to the science of [[epidemiology]].
* German physician [[Melchior Adam Weikard]] anonymously publishes the textbook ''[[Der Philosophische Arzt]]'' including the earliest description of symptoms resembling [[attention deficit hyperactivity disorder]].

==Natural history==
* February 21 – [[La Specola]], [[Florence]]'s Museum of Zoology and Natural History, opens to the public.
* [[Johan Christian Fabricius]] publishes his ''{{lang|la|Systema entomologiæ}}''.
* [[Peter Forsskål]]'s ''{{lang|la|Descriptiones Animalium: Avium, amphiborum, insectorum, vermium quæ in itinere orientali}}'' (containing early observations on [[bird migration]]) and ''{{lang|la|Flora Ægyptiaco-Arabica sive descriptiones plantarum quas per Ægyptum Inferiorem et Arabiam felicem detexit}}'' are published posthumously, edited by [[Carsten Niebuhr]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The University of Copenhagen – A Danish centre of learning since 1479|url=http://www.e-pages.dk/ku/196/99|publisher=[[University of Copenhagen|Københavns Universitet]]|accessdate=2011-05-19}}</ref>

==Technology==
[[Image:Watt steam pumping engine.JPG|thumb|300px|[[Watt steam engine]]]]
* May 22 – [[James Watt]]'s 1769 [[steam engine]] [[patent]] is extended to June 1800 by [[Act of Parliament]] of [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] and the first [[Watt steam engine|engines]] are built under it.<ref>{{cite journal|first=F. M.|last=Scherer|title=Invention and Innovation in the Watt-Boulton Steam-Engine Venture|journal=[[Technology and Culture]]|volume=6|issue=2|year=1965|pages=165–87|jstor=3101072|doi=10.2307/3101072|s2cid=112618665 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwattsenginespread.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120525164012/http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwattsenginespread.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 25, 2012|title=The Invention of the Steam Engine: The Life of James Watt. Part 4: The Steam Engine Gains Popularity|work=About.com Inventors|accessdate=2011-02-25}}</ref>
* [[Jacques-Constantin Périer]] operates a [[paddle steamer]] on the [[Seine]], but it proves to be underpowered.<ref>{{cite book|first=H. Philip|last=Spratt|title=The Birth of the Steamboat|url=https://archive.org/details/birthofsteamboat0000spra|url-access=registration|location=London|year=1958|page=[https://archive.org/details/birthofsteamboat0000spra/page/35 35]}}</ref>
* [[Alexander Cumming]] patents the [[Trap (plumbing)|S-trap]] in [[London]], laying the foundations for the modern [[flush toilet]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Development of the Flushing Toilet – Detailed Chronology 1596 onwards|publisher=Twyfords Bathrooms|location=Stoke-on-Trent|url=http://www.twyfordbathrooms.com/default.asp?path=1;52;8648;8723|access-date=2011-05-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100322192643/http://www.twyfordbathrooms.com/default.asp?path=1|archive-date=2010-03-22|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Edinburgh]] [[confectioner]] [[Charles Spalding]] devises improvements to the [[diving bell]], adding a system of balance-weights.<ref>{{citation|title=Transactions of the Society Instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce|year=1806|publisher=[[Society of Arts]]|pages=220–232|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zxtbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA232|edition=3rd|volume=1|accessdate=2013-01-22}}</ref>
* [[Pierre-Simon Girard]], age 10, invents a [[water turbine]].
* December 30 – [[John Arnold (watchmaker)|John Arnold]] takes out his first [[patent]] for improvements in the construction of [[marine chronometer]]s in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]], including the first for a [[compensation balance]].<ref>No. 1113. {{cite ODNB|authorlink=Jonathan Betts|first=Jonathan|last=Betts|title=Arnold, John (1735/6–1799)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/677|accessdate=2012-03-09|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/677}}</ref>
* Approximate date – [[Thomas Mudge (horologist)|Thomas Mudge]] invents the detached [[lever escapement]] for clocks and watches.
* [[French Academy of Sciences]] made the statement that the academy "will no longer accept or deal with proposals concerning [[perpetual motion]]."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Scaffer |first1=Simon |title=The Show That Never Ends: Perpetual Motion in the Early Eighteenth Century |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |date=June 1995 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=157–189 |jstor=4027676 |doi=10.1017/S0007087400032957 |s2cid=146549874 }}</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[Nevil Maskelyne]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=21 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

==Births==
* January 22 – [[André-Marie Ampère]], [[French people|French]] [[physicist]] (died [[1836 in science|1836]])
* February 9 – [[Farkas Bolyai]], [[Hungarians|Hungarian]] [[mathematician]] (died [[1856 in science|1856]])
* May 10 – [[William Phillips (geologist)|William Phillips]], [[English people|English]] [[geologist]] (died [[1828 in science|1828]])
* July 23 – [[Étienne-Louis Malus]], French physicist and mathematician] (died [[1812 in science|1812]])
* September 30 – [[Robert Adrain]], [[Ireland|Irish]]-born mathematician (died [[1843 in science|1843]])
* November 19 – [[Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger]], [[Germans|German]] [[entomologist]] and [[zoologist]] (died [[1813 in science|1813]])

==Deaths==
* March 3 – [[Richard Dunthorne]], English [[astronomer]] (born [[1711 in science|1711]])
* May 1 – [[Israel Lyons]], English mathematician and botanist (born [[1739 in science|1739]]; died of measles)
* October 25 – [[Johan Maurits Mohr]], [[Dutch people|Dutch]] astronomer (born [[1716 in science|1716]])

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1775 in science| ]]
[[Category:18th century in science]]
[[Category:1770s in science]]