The year 1742 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

James Bradley succeeds Edmond Halley as Astronomer Royal in Great Britain.

Mathematics

June - Christian Goldbach produces Goldbach's conjecture.[1]

Physiology and medicine

Surgeon Joseph Hurlock publishes his A Practical Treatise upon Dentition, or The breeding of teeth in children in London, the first treatise in English on dentition.

Technology

Benjamin Robins publishes his New Principles of Gunnery, containing the determination of the force of gun-powder and an investigation of the difference in the resisting power of the air to swift and slow motions in London, containing a description of his ballistic pendulum and the results of his scientific experiments into improvements in ballistics.[2][3][4]

Awards

Copley Medal: Christopher Middleton.

Births

May 18 - Lionel Lukin, English inventor (d. 1834).

1 July 1742 Birth of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in Ober-Ramstadt, Germany
December 3 - James Rennell, English geographer, historian and oceanographer (d. 1830).
December 9 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (d. 1786).
December 26 - Ignaz von Born, Hungarian metallurgist (d. 1791).

Deaths

January 14 - Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist (b. 1656).
February 28 - Willem 's Gravesande, Dutch polymath (b. 1688).
May 13 - Nicolas Andry, French physician (b. 1658).
September 22 - Frederic Louis Norden, Danish explorer (b. 1708).

1742 Birth of Carl Wilhelm Scheele

References

^ Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
^ "Chronograph". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
^ Routh, Edward John (1905). The Elementary Part of A Treatise on the Dynamics of a System of Rigid Bodies. London: Macmillan.
^ Ferguson, Niall (2011). Civilization: The West and the Rest. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-1-84614-273-4.