1742 in science

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The year 1742 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• James Bradley succeeds Edmond Halley as Astronomer Royal in Great Britain.

Mathematics

• June – Christian Goldbach produces Goldbach's conjecture.

Physiology and medicine

• Surgeon Joseph Hurlock publishes his A Practical Treatise upon Dentition, or The breeding of teeth in children in London, the first treatise in English on dentition.

Technology

• Benjamin Robins publishes his New Principles of Gunnery, containing the determination of the force of gun-powder and an investigation of the difference in the resisting power of the air to swift and slow motions in London, containing a description of his ballistic pendulum and the results of his scientific experiments into improvements in ballistics.
• The first large (12 ft focal length) reflecting telescope is made, in Gregorian form, by James Short, for use by Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, in London.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Christopher Middleton.

Births

• March 15 (bapt.) – John Stackhouse, English botanist (died 1819).
• May 18 – Lionel Lukin, English inventor (died 1834).
• December 3 – James Rennell, English geographer, historian and oceanographer (died 1830).
• December 9 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (died 1786).
• December 26 – Ignaz von Born, Hungarian metallurgist (died 1791).

Deaths

• January 14 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist (born 1656).
• February 28 – Willem 's Gravesande, Dutch polymath (born 1688).
• May 13 – Nicolas Andry, French physician (born 1658).
• September 22 – Frederic Louis Norden, Danish explorer (born 1708).