1790 in science

The year 1790 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• Armagh Observatory founded by Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby, Archbishop of Armagh.

Biology

• English ornithologist John Latham publishes his Index Ornithologicus, including a scientific description of the Black Swan.
• English botanical illustrator James Sowerby begins publication of his English Botany, with text by James E. Smith.

Chemistry

• July 31 - Samuel Hopkins of Vermont is granted a patent for a potash production technique, the first issued under the 1st United States Congress's Patent Act of 1790.^[1]
• Publication in Montpellier of Jean-Antoine Chaptal's Élémens de chimie, in which he coins the word nitrogen (nitrogène).

Awards

• Copley Medal: Not awarded

Births

• February 3 - Gideon Mantell, English paleontologist (died 1852)
• March 12 - John Frederic Daniell, English chemist and physicist (died 1845)
• May 23 - Jules Dumont d'Urville, French explorer (died 1842)
• May 30 - John Herapath, English physicist (died 1868)
• July 1 - George Everest, Welsh surveyor and geographer (died 1866)
• October 25 - Robert Stirling, Scottish inventor (died 1878)
• November 17 - August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician (died 1868)
• December 19 - William Edward Parry, English Arctic explorer (died 1855)

Deaths

• February 5 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (born 1710)
• April 17 - Benjamin Franklin, American scientist and inventor, known for his experiments with electricity (born 1706)
• July 17 - Johann II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (born 1710)

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