1738

1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740

political events

The Treaty of Vienna that ended the War of the Polish Succession in 1735 is ratified November 13. Stanislaw Leszczynski receives Lorraine and Bar in compensation for renouncing the Polish throne but only on condition that the duchies devolve upon France at his death (see 1736); Spain receives Parma and Piacenza in exchange for Naples and Sicily (see 1735).

Persia's Nadir Shah embarks on a campaign against the Mughal Empire in hopes of filling his country's depleted treasury (see 1736). His 80,000-man army has captured the city of Kandahar after a 1-year siege, and he moves on to take Ghazna and Kabul (see 1739).

exploration, colonization

Portage la Prairie has its beginnings in Fort-La Reine, erected by fur trader Pierre G. de Varennes, sieur de la Vérendrye, on the Assiniboine River at a point where voyageurs portage their goods a short distance across the prairie between the river and Lake Manitoba (see 1734). Vérendrye and his sons reach the Mandan villages on the Missouri River in the fall and continue their search for a river leading to the "western sea" (see Lake Winnipegosis, 1739).

technology

A spinning machine patented by English mechanic John Wyatt, 38, draws fibers through sets of rollers that turn at different speeds (see Kay's flying shuttle, 1733). Wyatt has received financial backing from Birmingham inventor Lewis Paul, who has come up with the idea but has needed Wyatt's mechanical skills to perfect it (see Arkwright's water frame, 1769).

science

Sur la figure de la terre by French mathematician-astronomer Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, 40, reports on an expedition to Lapland. Sent by Louis XV to measure a degree of longitude, Maupertuis confirms the late Sir Isaac Newton's view that the earth is a spheroid flattened near the poles with a bulge near the equator.

Hydrodynamics by Swiss physicist-mathematician Daniel Bernoulli, 38, presents an early version of the kinetic theory of gases based on his investigations of the forces exerted by liquids (see d'Alembert, 1743).

Classes Plantarum by Linnaeus expands the system of taxonomy that he introduced last year (see 1789).

Systematic excavation begins outside Naples to uncover the town of Herculaneum, buried in 79 A.D. under volcanic ash and lava by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (see 1709). Treasure seekers and untrained workers have been looting the site for some years, and Don Carlos (Carlos VII) of Naples has taken steps to put the digs in more professional hands. The work will continue for upwards of 40 years (see 1750; Pompeii, 1763).

Physician-botanist Hermann Boerhaave falls ill during a lecture in April and dies of heart failure in his house at Leyden September 23 at age 70.

medicine

Bath's Royal Mineral Water Hospital is completed to designs by architect-city planner John Wood.

religion

John Wesley invites George Whitefield, now 23, to join him in his missionary work in the Georgia colony but then returns to England (his brother Charles returned in 1736 when his health failed). Wesley starts a society that meets for the first time May 1; both he and his brother experience evangelical conversions (see 1735; 1739).

The Fetter Lane Society founded by Moravians at London will lead to the formation of English, Welsh, and Irish Moravian Church congregations (see 1734; Bethlehem, 1740).

literature

Nonfiction: Propositions of Philosophy by Italian prodigy Maria Agnesi, 20, contains 190 essays on philosophy, logic, mechanics, elasticity, celestial mechanics, Newton's theory of universal gravitation, and the need for higher education for women. As the eldest daughter of 21 children, she has been obliged to raise her siblings since the death of her mother but has nonetheless found time to pursue her studies. Agnesi has developed a mathematical formula (it will become known as "the witch of Agnesi") describing the curve that duplicates precisely the volume of a cube, thus solving an age-old puzzle; A Discourse Addressed to Magistrates and Men of Authority by Bishop George Berkeley excoriates the Hell-Fire Club outside Dublin and its members, who call themselves the Blasters.

art

Painting: La Gouvernante by Jean-Siméon Chardin.

theater, film

Theater: The Poetry Craze (La Métromanie, ou Le Poète) by Alexis Piron at the Comédie-Française, Paris.

architecture, real estate

On the Designing of Country Seats and on the Decoration of Buildings in General (De la distribution des maisons de plaisance et de la décoration des édifices en général) (second of two volumes) by French architect Jacques-François Blondel, 33, contains no original ideas but expresses an ideal of Enlightenment tastes. Blondel will teach architecture at Paris and have students who will include Scotsman William Chambers as well as Dutch, German, and French students.

food availability

More Frenchmen will die of hunger in the next 2 years than died in all the wars of Louis XIV, according to René Louis de Voyer, 44, marquis d'Argenson, who will make the claim in later writings. Fragmentation of French land holdings to the point where a single fruit tree may constitute a "farm" has contributed to a decline in food production.

food and drink

The Manufacture de Vincennes opens to begin French production of porcelain (see 1753; Entrecolles, 1712).

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