Science & Discovery
The discoveries and expeditions of 1778, spanning Cook's Pacific voyage, the death of Linnaeus, Lavoisier's combustion chemistry, and advances in astronomy and precision instruments.
Every Science & Discovery article in the 1778 knowledge base. Use the topic filters to narrow by sub-topic.
Total Solar Eclipse of June 24, 1778
A total solar eclipse crossed North America on June 24, 1778—the first total solar eclipse record...
David Rittenhouse — Astronomer and Instrument Maker of 1778
Philadelphia naturalist David Rittenhouse observed the June 24, 1778 solar eclipse from Philadelp...
Mesmerism and Anton Mesmer's Rise in 1778
Franz Anton Mesmer arrived in Paris in February 1778 and established a clinic in the Place Vendôm...
Captain Cook's Discovery of Hawaii
Captain James Cook, commanding HMS *Resolution* and HMS *Discovery* on his third great Pacific vo...
Death of Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist and botanist who revolutionized biological classification, ...
Scientific Instruments and Methods in 1778
By 1778, European natural philosophers had at their disposal a sophisticated array of precision i...
Antoine Lavoisier — Chemical Experiments and the Oxygen T...
French chemist Antoine Lavoisier conducted precision experiments on combustion and agricultural c...
James Edward Smith and the Preservation of Linnaeus's Legacy
James Edward Smith was an 18-year-old English naturalist in 1778 when Carl Linnaeus died on Janua...
Leonhard Euler's Advances in Celestial Mechanics
Leonhard Euler, the prolific Swiss mathematician and physicist, continued his foundational work o...
Captain Cook's Northwest Passage Expedition Documentation
During 1778, Captain James Cook's third great Pacific voyage produced unprecedented scientific do...
Buffon's Les Époques de la Nature (1778)
Buffon's 1778 Époques de la Nature proposed seven epochs of Earth history and, from cooling-spher...