1779 in science

Astronomy

• March 23 – Edward Pigott discovers the Black Eye Galaxy.
• May 5 – The spiral galaxy M61 is discovered in the constellation Virgo by Barnabus Oriani.

Exploration

• Horace-Bénédict de Saussure begins publication of Voyages dans les Alpes.

Mathematics

• Étienne Bézout publishes Théorie générale des équations algébriques in Paris, containing original work on elimination theory.

Physics

• Jean-Paul Marat publishes Découvertes de M. Marat sur le feu, l'électricité et la lumière.

Technology

• January 8 – Bryan Higgins is granted a British patent for hydraulic cement for use as an exterior plaster.
• May – Boulton and Watt's Smethwick Engine is brought into service for pumping on the Birmingham Canal Navigations; two centuries later it will become the oldest working steam engine in the world.
• James Pickard first applies a crank and flywheel to a Newcomen atmospheric engine to produce circular motion.
• The Iron Bridge is erected across the River Severn in Shropshire, England; the first all-cast-iron bridge ever built. It will open to traffic on January 1, 1781.
• The spinning mule is perfected by the Lancashire inventor Samuel Crompton.
• The British Royal Navy adopts the carronade.
• The Girandoni Air Rifle is designed in Austria.

Births

• January 5 – General Zebulon Pike, American explorer
• May 1 – Alexander Morison, Scottish physician and psychiatrist
• August 7
• * Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist
• * Louis de Freycinet, French explorer of coastal regions of Western Australia

Deaths

• January 22 – Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor and astronomer
• February 14 – James Cook, English explorer
• June 28 – Martha Daniell Logan, American botanist
• October 18 – Patrick d'Arcy, Irish-born mathematician
• November 16 – Pehr Kalm, Swedish botanist undated – John Kay, English inventor