The year 1748 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Archaeology

Rediscovery of the ruins of Pompeii.

Chemistry

Thomas Frye of the Bow porcelain factory in London produces bone china.[1]

Mathematics

Leonhard Euler publishes Introductio in analysin infinitorum, an introduction to pure analytical mathematics.[2] He calculates the mathematical constant e to 23 digits.[3]
Maria Agnesi publishes Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana in Milan, "regarded as the best introduction extant to the works of Euler".[4]
approx. date - Thomas Bayes originates Bayes' theorem.[5]

Medicine

John Fothergill publishes Account of the Sore Throat, attended with Ulcers, an early description of diphtheria.

Technology

Pierre Le Roy invents the detent escapement in watchmaking.[6][7][8]
Lewis Paul invents a hand machine for wool-carding.

Publications

Publication in Madrid of Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa's Relación Histórica del Viage a la América Meridionale, including Ulloa's account of platinum.[9]

Awards

Copley Medal: James Bradley
Eva Ekeblad becomes the first female member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Births

February 27 - Anders Sparrman, Swedish botanist (d. 1820)
March 5 - Jonas C. Dryander, Swedish botanist (d. 1810)
March 10 - John Playfair, Scottish scientist (d. 1819)
April 12 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
April 13 - Joseph Bramah, English inventor (d. 1814)
June 30 - Dominique, comte de Cassini, French astronomer (d. 1845)
August 8 - Johann Friedrich Gmelin, German naturalist (d. 1804)
December 9 - Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (d. 1822)

1748 Birth of James Archibald Hamilton

Deaths

January 1 - Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (born 1667)
November - Aleksei Chirikov, Russian explorer (born 1703)

References

^ Freestone, I. C. (20–24 June 1999). "Science Of Early English Porcelain". Sixth Conference and Exhibition of the European Ceramic Society 1. Brighton. pp. 11-17.
^ Boyer, C. B. (April 1951). "The Foremost Textbook of Modern Times". American Mathematical Monthly (Mathematical Association of America) 58 (4): 223–226. doi:10.2307/2306956. JSTOR 2306956.
^ Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
^ A'Becket, John Joseph (1907). "Maria Gaetana Agnesi". The Catholic Encyclopedia. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 2011-04-27.
^ McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch (2011). The Theory That Would Not Die. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16969-0.
^ Britten's Watch & Clock Makers' Handbook Dictionary & Guide (15th ed.). p. 122.
^ Macey, Samuel L.. Encyclopedia of Time. p. 348.
^ A Journal of natural philosophy, chemistry and the arts, p. 159, "The invention of the detached escapement belongs to P. Le Roy"
^ "78: Platinum". Elementymology & Elements Multidict. Elements.vanderkrogt.net. Retrieved 2011-11-16.