Editing 1785 in science

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{{Science year nav|1785}}

The year '''1785 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events.

==Astronomy==
* [[Dunsink Observatory]] established near [[Dublin]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Alexander Thom|author-link=Alexander Thom (almanac editor)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6V4NAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA258|title=Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory|edition=7th|year=1850|page=258<!--|accessdate=2011-02-22-->}}</ref>

==Aviation==
* January 7 – [[France|Frenchman]] [[Jean-Pierre Blanchard]] and [[United States|American]] [[John Jeffries]] travel from [[Dover]], [[England]] to [[Calais]], [[France]] in a gas [[balloon]], becoming the first to cross the [[English Channel]] by air.
* January 19 – [[Richard Crosbie]] successfully flies in a [[hot air balloon]] across [[Dublin]], the first ascent in [[Ireland]].

==Biology==
* [[Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy|Antoine François]] and [[Étienne Louis Geoffroy]] publish ''Entomologia Parisiensis, sive, Catalogus insectorum quae in agro Parisiensi reperiuntur ...''.
* [[John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute]], publishes ''Botanical Tables, containing the different families of British plants''.

==Earth sciences==
* March 7–July – [[James Hutton]]'s ''Theory of the Earth'' is first presented, at the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=James |last=Hutton |title=Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe |journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=209–304 |url=http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/hutton/hutton.htm |year=1788 |accessdate=2011-10-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20030729055405/http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/Hutton/Hutton.htm |archivedate=2003-07-29 }}</ref>

==Exploration==
* [[André Michaux]] is sent by the French government to [[North America]] to look for new [[plant]]s.

==Mathematics==
* The [[Marquis de Condorcet]] publishes ''[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k417181 Essai sur l'application de l'analyse á la probabilité des décisions rendues á la pluralité des voix]'' including his [[voting paradox]], the [[Condorcet method]] of voting and his [[Condorcet's jury theorem|jury theorem]].

==Medicine==
* [[William Withering]] publishes ''An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses''.
* [[John Aikin]] publishes ''A Manual of Materia Medica, Containing a Brief Account of All the Simples Directed in the London and Edinburgh Dispensatories, with Their Several Preparations and the Principal Compositions into which They Enter''.
* A form of [[chainsaw]] is first illustrated by Scottish doctor John Aitken, for use in [[symphysiotomy]].<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=Aitken|title=Principles of Midwifery or Puerperal Medicine|year=1785}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Skippen|first1=M.|last2=Kirkup|first2=J.|last3=Maxton|first3=R. M.|last4=McDonald|first4=S. W.|date=2004|title=The Chain Saw - A Scottish Invention|journal=Scottish Medical Journal|language=en|volume=49|issue=2|pages=72–75|doi=10.1177/003693300404900218|pmid=15209147|s2cid=19878683|issn=0036-9330}}</ref>
* [[London Hospital Medical College]] opens as England's first chartered medical school.

==Physics==
* [[Charles-Augustin de Coulomb]] first publishes [[Coulomb's law]].<ref>Coulomb (1785). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=by5EAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA569 Premier mémoire sur l’électricité et le magnétisme]". ''Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences''. pp. 569–577.</ref>

==Technology==
* [[Lionel Lukin]] [[patent]]s a [[Lifeboat (rescue)|rescue lifeboat]] in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]].
* Approximate date – American inventor [[Oliver Evans]] erects a fully automated [[flour mill]] capable of operating continuously through the pioneering use of [[bulk material handling]] devices including [[bucket elevator]]s, [[conveyor belt]]s, and [[Archimedean screw]]s at [[Greenbank Historic Area|Greenbank Mill]], in [[New Castle County, Delaware]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Oliver|author2=Evans, Thomas Ellicott Cadwallader|title=The Young Mill-wright and Miller's Guide|edition=12th|publisher=Lea & Blanchard|year=1848|page=[https://archive.org/details/youngmillwright00jonegoog/page/n210 204]|url=https://archive.org/details/youngmillwright00jonegoog}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Structures of Change in the Mechanical Age: Technological Invention in the United States 1790-1865|last=Thomson|first=Ross|year=2009|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore, MD|isbn=978-0-8018-9141-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/structuresofchan0000thom}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=73000513}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Greenbank Historic Area|first1=Rosemary|last1=Troy|first2=Graydon|last2=Wood|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|date=June 1972}}</ref> – "He practically invented the modern science of handling materials."<ref>{{Roe1916}}.</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[William Roy]]<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 15 – [[William Prout]], English [[chemist]] (died [[1850 in science|1850]])
* February 26 – [[Anna Sundström]], Swedish chemist (died [[1871 in science|1871]])
* March 17 &ndash; [[Ellen Hutchins]], Irish botanist (died [[1815 in science|1815]])
* March 22 – [[Adam Sedgwick]], English [[geologist]] (died [[1873 in science|1873]])
* April 26 – [[John James Audubon]], Haitian-born American [[Natural history|naturalist]], [[illustrator]] (died [[1851 in science|1851]])
* July 6 – [[William Jackson Hooker]], English botanist (died [[1865 in science|1865]])

==Deaths==
* January 23 – [[Matthew Stewart (mathematician)|Matthew Stewart]], [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[mathematician]] (born [[1717 in science|1717]])
* June 2 – [[Jean Paul de Gua de Malves]], [[French people|French]] mathematician (born [[1713 in science|1713]])
* November 16 – [[Johan Gottschalk Wallerius]], [[Swedes|Swedish]] chemist and [[mineralogist]] (born [[1709 in science|1709]])
* December 12 – [[Edme-Louis Daubenton|Edmé-Louis Daubenton]], French naturalist (born [[1730 in science|1730]])
* [[Pierre Le Roy]], French [[clockmaker]] (born 1717)
* [[Saverio Manetti]], [[Italians|Italian]] natural historian (born [[1723 in science|1723]])
* ''undated'' – [[Faustina Pignatelli]], Italian mathematician (born [[1705 in science|1705]])

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1785 in science| ]]
[[Category:18th century in science]]
[[Category:1780s in science]]