The year 1720 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal.

Medicine

Dr Steevens' Hospital is established at Kilmainham, Dublin.[1]
Great Plague of Marseille, the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe.

Technology

A theodolite is developed by Jonathan Sisson of England.
Pinchbeck is invented by English watchmaker Christopher Pinchbeck; it is an alloy of 83% copper and 17% zinc, creating a strong, hard-wearing metal which has the appearance and weight of 20 carat gold.
An early chronograph is invented which has only mechanical parts in it.
Henry de Saumarez (of the Channel Islands) produces an instrument called the Marine Surveyor intended to measure a ship's velocity.[2]
A single-action five-pedal harp is developed by Jacob Hochbrucker of Bavaria which can raise the pitch of the selected strings by a half step.
approx. date - Joseph Williamson uses a differential gear in a clock.

Births

March 13 - Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist and philosophical writer (died 1793)
July 18 - Gilbert White, English naturalist (died 1793)
December ? - James Hargreaves, English inventor (died 1778)
approx. date - Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov, Russian chemist (died 1758)

1720 Birth of Maximilian Hell

Deaths

29 December 1720 Death of Maria Margaretha Winkelman Kirch in Berlin, Germany

References

^ Kirkpatrick, Thomas Percy Claude (1924). The History of Dr Steevens' Hospital, Dublin 1720-1920. Dublin University Press.
^ Robinson, A. H. W. (1956). "Forum". Journal of Navigation 9: 358-40. doi:10.1017/S0373463300036493