1709 - Science

Science

A bequest by English nobleman Sir Godfrey Copley establishes the Copley Medal for scientific achievement. The Royal Society chartered in 1662 will confer four other medals each year, but the Copley will survive as Britain's most prestigious scientific award.

The Fahrenheit alcohol thermometer introduced by German physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, 23, has a scale on which the freezing point at standard atmospheric pressure (sea level) is +32° Fahrenheit (F.); 212° F. is the point at which water boils (see Celsius, 1714; 1742).

Traces of the town of Herculaneum that was buried along with Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. turn up near the Bay of Naples, close to where traces of Pompeii were found more than a century ago by the architect Domenico Fontana (see 1738).