The year 1779 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

March 23 - Edward Pigott discovers the Black Eye Galaxy (M64).
May 5 - The spiral galaxy M61 is discovered in the constellation Virgo by Barnabus Oriani.

Technology

January 8 - Bryan Higgins is granted a British patent for hydraulic cement (stucco) for use as an exterior plaster.[1]
The Iron Bridge is erected across the River Severn in Shropshire, England; the first all-cast-iron bridge ever built.[2] It will open to traffic on January 1, 1781.[3]
The spinning mule is perfected by the Lancashire inventor Samuel Crompton.[3]
The British Royal Navy adopts the carronade.

Births

January 5 - General Zebulon Pike, explorer (died 1813)
August 7 - Jöns Jakob Berzelius, chemist (died 1848)
August 7 - Louis de Freycinet, explored coastal regions of Western Australia (died 1842)

Deaths

22 January 1779 Death of Jeremiah Dixon in Cockfield, Durham, England, surveyor and astronomer (born 1733)
February 14 - James Cook, explorer (born 1728)
November 16 - Pehr Kalm, botanist (born 1716)

1779 Death of John Winthrop

References

^ Knight, David (2004). "Higgins, Bryan (c.1741–1818)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13228. Retrieved 2011-06-20. subscription or UK public library membership required
^ "Icons, a portrait of England 1750-1800". Retrieved 2007-08-27.
^ a b Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 333–334. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.