1757 in science
# 1757 in science

The year 1757 in science and technology involved some significant events.

## Astronomy

* Nicolas Louis de Lacaille publishes his Astronomiae Fundamenta Novissimus, containing a standard catalogue of 398 bright stars with positions corrected for aberration and nutation.
* Tobias Mayer presents accurate tables of the Moon's motion to the Board of Longitude in Great Britain.

## Chemistry

* Scottish physician Francis Home publishes The Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation, an early presentation of the chemical principles underlying plant nutrition, in Edinburgh.

## Medicine

* December 8 – Opening of the "New Lying-In" or Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, designed by Richard Cassels.
* Albrecht von Haller begins publication of Elementa physiologiae corporis humani in Switzerland.

## Physics

* Leonhard Euler publishes his equations for inviscid flow.

## Technology

* London instrument maker John Bird makes the first navigational sextant.
* Benjamin Franklin invents a three-wheel clock movement, which later leads to several variants in the design of pendulum clocks.
* The Grubenmann brothers complete timber arch bridges in Switzerland which include the longest vehicular bridge spans extant at this date:
   * Crossing the Rhine at Schaffhausen in two spans of 52 m and 59 m (by Hans Ulrich)
   * A single-span of 67 m at Reichenau (by Johannes)

## Awards

* Copley Medal: Lord Charles Cavendish

## Births

* January 17 – John Gough, English natural philosopher (died 1825)
* May 24 – William Charles Wells, Scottish American physician (died 1817)
* June 22 – George Vancouver, English explorer (died 1798)
* July 11 – Johann Matthäus Bechstein, German naturalist (died 1822)
* August 9 – Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (died 1834)
* November 12 – Robert Willan, English dermatologist (died 1812)
* date unknown - Agnes Ibbetson, English plant physiologist (died 1823)

## Deaths

* January 9
   * Louis Bertrand Castel, French Jesuit mathematician and physicist (born 1688)
   * Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientific populariser (born 1657)
* August 28 – David Hartley, English physician and psychologist (born 1705)
* October 17 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French physicist (born 1683)
