Overview of the events of 1787 in science
The year 1787 in science and technology involved some significant events.
June – William Symington patents improvements to the Watt steam engine .[ 4] c. July – John Wilkinson launches an iron barge in the English Midlands .[ 5] August 27 – Launching a 45-foot (14 m) steam-powered craft on the Delaware River , John Fitch demonstrates the first United States patent for his design. December 3 – James Rumsey demonstrates a water-jet propelled boat on the Potomac . First production of all-iron edge rail (for underground colliery rail transport ), at Plymouth Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil , South Wales .[ 6] First introduction of a plateway , underground at Sheffield Park Colliery, Yorkshire , England , by John Curr .[ 7] William Chapman designs a segmental skew arch at Finlay Bridge, Naas , on the Kildare Canal in Ireland .[ 8] Levi Hutchins of New Hampshire produces a mechanical alarm clock . January 24 – Christophe-Paulin de La Poix de Fréminville (died 1848 ), French explorer and naturalist . March 6 – Joseph von Fraunhofer (died 1826 ), Bavarian physicist . March 8 – Karl Ferdinand von Graefe (died 1840 ), Polish -born German surgeon . March 9 – Josephine Kablick (died 1863 ), Czech botanist and paleontologist . March 28 – Claudius James Rich (died 1821 ), British archaeologist and anthropologist . March 29 – Carl Philipp Sprengel (died 1859 ), German botanist . April 24 – Mathieu Orfila (died 1853 ), Spanish-born French physician and chemist . May 27 – Benjamin Valz (died 1867 ), French astronomer . June 2 – Nils Gabriel Sefström (died 1845 ), Swedish chemist and mineralogist . June 3 – Auguste Le Prévost (died 1859 ), French geologist , philologist , archaeologist and historian . June 4 – Constant Prévost (died 1856 ), French geologist . June 7 – William Conybeare (died 1857 ), English geologist . June 27 – Thomas Say (died 1834 ), American naturalist . August 16 – Jean Michel Claude Richard (died 1868 ), French botanist . August 24 – James Weddell (died 1834), Flemish -born Anglo-Scots seal hunter and Antarctic explorer. September 5 – François Sulpice Beudant (died 1850 ), French mineralogist et geologist . September 15 – Guillaume-Henri Dufour (died 1875 ), Swiss engineer et topographer . November 5 – John Richardson (died 1865 ), Scottish naturalist, explorer and surgeon . November 9 – Johann Natterer (died 1843 ), Austrian naturalist . November 18 – Louis Daguerre (died 1851 ), French inventor. December 17 – John Forbes (died 1861 ), Scottish physician December 17 (or 18) – Jan Evangelista Purkinje (died 1869 ), Czech anatomist et neurophysiologist . Undated – Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis (died 1872 ), French physician . ^ Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1986). Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 97–98 . ISBN 0-262-65038-X . ^ "Jacques Alexandre César Charles" . Centennial of Flight . U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. 2001. Archived from the original on 2007-02-24. Retrieved 2007-02-23 . ^ *Roy, William (1790). "An Account of the Trigonometrical Operation, Whereby the Distance between the Meridians of the Royal Observatories of Greenwich and Paris Has Been Determined" . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London . 80 : 111–254. doi :10.1098/rstl.1790.0015 . S2CID 186211548 . ^ Harvey, W. S.; Downs-Rose, G. (1980). "The Improved Atmospheric Engine". William Symington, inventor and engine builder . London: Northgate Publishing. pp. 19–32. ISBN 0-85298-443-X . ^ "John Wilkinson (1728 – 1808)" . History – Historic Figures . BBC. Retrieved 2011-06-29 . ^ van Laun, John (2001). Early Limestone Railways . London: Newcomen Society . pp. 203–4. ISBN 0-904685-09-8 . ^ Occasional Paper . 184, 192. Railway and Canal Historical Society , Early Railway Group.{{cite journal }}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link ) ^ McCutcheon, W. Alan (1984). The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland . Belfast: HMSO. p. 16. ISBN 0-8386-3125-8 . ^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 21 July 2020 .