1703 in science

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The year 1703 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Biology

• Charles Plumier's Nova plantarum Americanarum genera begins publication in Paris. This includes descriptions of Fuchsia, discovered by him on Hispaniola,^[1] and naming of the genus Magnolia, applied to species from Martinique.

Chemistry

• Georg Ernst Stahl, professor of medicine and chemistry at the University of Halle, proposes phlogiston theory in the way it comes to be generally understood.^[2]

Mathematics

• Gottfried Leibniz first publishes a description of binary numbers in the West.^[3]
• Leonty Magnitsky's Arithmetic (Арифметика) is published, the first scientific book in the Russian language.

Meteorology

• November 24 – December 2 – The Great Storm of 1703, an Atlantic hurricane, ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing nearly 8000, mostly at sea.

Technology

• An early, crude seismograph is developed by the French physicist Abbé Jean de Hautefeuille.

Appointments

• November 30 – Isaac Newton is elected president of the Royal Society in London, a position he will hold until his death in 1727.

Births

• January 8 – André Levret, French obstetrician (died 1780)
• January 15 – Johann Ernst Hebenstreit, German physician and naturalist (died 1757)
• June 21 – Joseph Lieutaud, French physician (died 1780)
• August 23 – Robert James, English physician (died 1776)
• September 16 – Guillaume-François Rouelle, French chemist and apothecary (died 1770)
• October 28 – Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (died 1768)
• November 25 – Jean-François Séguier, French astronomer and botanist (died 1784)
• December 2 – Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian explorer (died 1759)
• December 9 – Chester Moore Hall, English scientific instrument maker (died 1771)
• undated – Aleksei Chirikov, Russian explorer (died 1748)

Deaths

• March 3 – Robert Hooke, English scientist (born 1635)
• March 20 (probable) – Johann von Löwenstern-Kunckel, German chemist (born 1630?)
• September 22 – Vincenzo Viviani, Italian mathematician and scientist (born 1622)
• October 28 – John Wallis, English mathematician (born 1616)

References

1. The Encyclopædia Britannica: a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, Volume XI, Franciscans to Gibbons 11th ed. New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company (1910). p. 272. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
2. Mason, Stephen F. (1962). "Chapter 26". A History of the Sciences (revised ed.). New York: Collier Books.
3. Leibniz G. "Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire". Memoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences. Repr. in Gerhardt, C., ed. (1879), Die Mathematische Schriften, Berlin, 7:223. English translation as "Explanation of Binary Arithmetic" at Leibniz Translations, retrieved on 2013-12-24.