1771 in science

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The year 1771 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• Lagrange discusses how numerous astronomical observations should be combined so as to give the most probable result.

Exploration

• August 17 - Edinburgh botanist James Robertson makes the first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis in Scotland.

Mathematics

• Lagrange publishes his second paper on the general process for solving an algebraic equation of any degree via Lagrange resolvents; and proves Wilson's theorem that if n is a prime, then (n − 1)! + 1 is always a multiple of n.

Organizations

• Society of Civil Engineers first meets (in London), the world's oldest engineering society.

Publications

• Louis Antoine de Bougainville publishes Le voyage autour du monde, par la frégate La Boudeuse, et la flûte L'Étoile.
• Peter Simon Pallas begins publication of Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs, chronicling his ongoing scientific expedition through the Russian Empire.
• Arthur Young publishes The Farmer's Kalendar.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Matthew Raper

Births

• April 13 - Richard Trevithick (died 1833), engineer and inventor.
• October 13 - Johann Fischer von Waldheim (died 1853), naturalist.
• November 6 - Alois Senefelder (died 1834), inventor of lithography.

Deaths

• March 23 - Henry Hindley, English clock and scientific instrument maker (born c. 1701)
• undated - Chester Moore Hall, English scientific instrument maker (born 1703)