1698 in science

The year 1698 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• Christiaan Huygens, in his posthumously published book Kosmotheoros, argues that other planets in the Solar System could contain extraterrestrial life, starting a debate that extends into the 21st century.

Exploration

• November – HMS Paramour sets sail under the command of Edmond Halley on the first purely scientific voyage by an English naval vessel, to investigate magnetic declination.

Technology

• January 11 – April 21 – Tsar Peter the Great of Russia (incognito as 'Peter Mikhailov') visits England as part of his Grand Embassy, making a particular study of shipbuilding.
• July 25 – English engineer Thomas Savery obtains a patent for "A new invention for raising of water... by the impellent force of fire", a steam pump.
• November 14 – First Eddystone Lighthouse illuminated, the first rock lighthouse in Europe.
• The piano is invented by Italian Bartolomeo Cristofori, originally named the "piano et forte" (meaning "soft and loud").
• A metronome is developed as a machine to measure musical tempo.

Events

• November – Tani Jinzan, astronomer and calendar scholar, observes a fire destroy Tosa in Japan at the same time as a Leonid meteor shower, taking it as evidence to reinforce belief in the "Theory of Areas".

Births

• February – Colin Maclaurin, Scottish mathematician (died 1746)
• February 16 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (died 1758)
• March 26 – Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist (died 1765)
• May 8 – Henry Baker, English naturalist (died 1774)
• July 17 – Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, French mathematician (died 1759)
• November 28 – Charlotta Frölich, Swedish agronomist (died 1770)

Deaths

• August 18 – Nicolas Venette, French physician, sexologist and writer (born 1633)
• November 4 – Rasmus Bartholin, Danish scientist (born 1625)

References

1. 1698
2. List of fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1698
3. Engineering
4. 1698 in literature
5. 1698 in poetry
6. Patna Science College
7. 1699 in science
8. Cognitive science
9. List of years in science
10. Pyotr Saltykov
11. 1698 in music
12. Kosmos 1698
13. 1690 in science
14. 1694 in science
15. 1707 in science
16. 1708 in science
17. 1689 in science
18. 1693 in science
19. 1691 in science
20. 1696 in science