1709 in science
The year 1709 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Meteorology
- January – Great Frost in Western Europe.
Physics
- Francis Hauksbee publishes Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects, summarizing the results of his many experiments with electricity and other topics.
Technology
- January 10 – Industrial Revolution: Abraham Darby I successfully produces cast iron using coke fuel at his Coalbrookdale blast furnace in Shropshire, England.
- February 5 – Dramatist John Dennis devises the thundersheet as a new method of producing theatrical thunder for his tragedy Appius and Virginia at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
- March 28 – Johann Friedrich Böttger reports the first production of hard-paste porcelain in Europe, at Dresden.
- July 13 – Johann Maria Farina founds Farina gegenüber, the first Eau de Cologne and perfume factory in Cologne, Germany.
- August 8 – Hot air balloon of Bartholome de Gusmão flies in Portugal.
- A collapsible umbrella is introduced in Paris.
Awards
- April 9 – Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet dies and in his will provides funding to the Royal Society for the annual Copley Medal honoring achievement in science.
Births
- February 24 – Jacques de Vaucanson, French engineer and inventor
- March 3 – Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, German chemist
- March 10 – Georg Steller, German naturalist
- April 17 – Giovanni Domenico Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer
- July 11 – Johan Gottschalk Wallerius, Swedish chemist and mineralogist
- August 8 – Johann Georg Gmelin, German botanist
- November 23 – Julien Offray de La Mettrie, French physician and philosopher
Deaths
- early – Eleanor Glanville, English entomologist
- June 29 – Antoine Thomas, Belgian Jesuit astronomer in China
- June 30 – Edward Lhuyd, Welsh naturalist
- October 17 – François Mauriceau, French obstetrician