1720 in science

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The year 1720 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal.

Medicine

• Dr Steevens' Hospital is established at Kilmainham, Dublin.
• Great Plague of Marseille, the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe.

Technology

• A theodolite is developed by Jonathan Sisson of England.
• Pinchbeck is invented by English watchmaker Christopher Pinchbeck; it is an alloy of 83% copper and 17% zinc, creating a strong, hard-wearing metal which has the appearance and weight of 20 carat gold.
• An early chronograph is invented which has only mechanical parts in it.
• Henry de Saumarez (of the Channel Islands) produces an instrument called the Marine Surveyor intended to measure a ship's velocity.
• A single-action five-pedal harp is developed by Jacob Hochbrucker of Bavaria which can raise the pitch of the selected strings by a half step.
• approx. date - Joseph Williamson uses a differential gear in a clock.

Births

• March 13 - Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist and philosophical writer (died 1793)
• July 18 - Gilbert White, English naturalist (died 1793)
• December ? - James Hargreaves, English inventor (died 1778)
• approx. date - Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov, Russian chemist (died 1758)