You are here: Home / Resources / Physics Timeline / Physics Timeline 1700 – 1750

Physics Timeline 1700 – 1750

Dates Characters Theories and discoveries
1702 Francis Hauksbee Rarified air glows during electrical discharge
1704 Isaac Newton Publishes corpuscular theory of light and colour
1705 Edmund Halley Noticed that three previous comets are the same and predicts its return in 1758
1709 Gabriel Fahrenheit Alcohol thermometer
1710 George Berkeley Idealist philosophy against materialist
1714 Gottfreid Leibniz Energy conservation
1714 Gottfreid Leibniz Rejection of absolute space and time
1714 Gabriel Fahrenheit Mercury thermometer
1718 Edmund Halley Measures proper motion of stars
1720 Edmund Halley Early form of Olbers’ paradox
1721 George Berkeley Space exists because of matter in it
1724 Gabriel Fahrenheit Supercooling of water
1727 Stephen Hales Makes oxygen
1728 James Bradley Speed of light and stellar aberration
1729 Stephen Gray Conduction of electricity
1731 Rene Reaumur Alcohol/water thermometer
1733 Charles Du Fay Recognises distinction between positive and negative electric charge
1735 Antonio de Ulloa Element platinum
1736 Leonhard Euler Differential equations in mechanics
1738 Daniel Bernoulli Kinetic theory of gas
1738 Daniel Bernoulli Hydrodynamics
1739 Georg Brandt Element cobalt
1740 Pierre Bouguer Gravitational anomalies
1742 Anders Celsius Reverse centigrade temperature scale
1743 Jean Christin Celsius temperature scale
1743 Jean d’Alembert Energy in Newtonian mechanics
1744 Pierre de Maupertuis Principle of least action
1744 Jean d’Alembert Theory of fluid dynamics
1744 Leonhard Euler Euler-Lagrange equations
1744 Mikhail Lomonosov Heat is a form of motion
1745 von Kleist, van Musschenbroek Leyden jar for electric charge storage
1746 Andreas Marggraf Rediscovery of element zinc
1746 Leonhard Euler Wave theory of light refraction and dispersion
1747 d’Alembert, Euler Solution of equations for vibrating string
1748 Mikhail Lomonosov Conservation of mass and energy
1749 Thomas Melvill Early spectrscopy and yellow line of sodium in salt
1750 Benjamin Franklin Theory of electricity and lightning
1750 John Michell Magnetic induction
1750 John Michell Inverse square law for magnetic fields
1750 Thomas Wright Milky Way could be due to slab like distribution of stars