1726 in science

The year 1726 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Botany

• October 27 – Caleb Threlkeld publishes Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum .....Dispositarum sive Commentatio de Plantis Indigenis praesertim Dublinensibus instituta in Dublin, the first flora of Ireland. ^[1]

Medicine

• A faculty of medicine is formally established at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, a predecessor of the University of Edinburgh Medical School. John Rutherford becomes Professor of Practice of Medicine.

Technology

• For clocks, the gridiron pendulum is developed by English clockmaker John Harrison, as a pendulum that compensates for temperature errors: a grid of alternating brass and steel rods is arranged so that the expansion due to heat is dissipated. ^[2]

Publications

• Johann Beringer publishes Lithographiæ Wirceburgensis describing hoax fossils. ^[3]

Births

• February 6 – Patrick Russell, Scottish-born surgeon and herpetologist (died 1805)
• June 3 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (died 1797)
• June 25 - Lady Anne Monson, English botanist (died 1776)
• Thomas Melvill, Scottish natural philosopher (died 1753)

Deaths

• January 25 – Guillaume Delisle, French scientist, a founder of modern geography (born 1675)

References

1. Nelson, E. Charles (1978). "The Publication Date of the First Irish Flora, Caleb Threlkeld's Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum, 1726". Glasra. 2: 37–42. Archived from the original on 2013-06-02. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
2. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History . London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN   0-304-35730-8.
3. Gould, Stephen Jay (2000). The Lying Stones of Marrakech . New York: Random House|Harmony Books. ISBN   0-609-60142-3.