1754 in science
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The year 1754 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, postulates retardation of Earth's orbit.
Chemistry
- Joseph Black, Scottish chemist, discovers carbonic acid gas.
Earth sciences
- Albert Brahms, Frisian Dijkgraaf, begins publication of Anfangsgründe der Deich und Wasser-Baukunst ("Principles of Dike and Aquatic Engineering") advocating scientific recording of tides.*{{citation|contribution=History and heritage of German coastal entineering |first1=Hanz D. |last1=Niemeyer |first2=Hartmut |last2=Eiben |first3=Hans |last3=Rohde |title=A Collection of Papers on the History of Coastal Engineering in Countries Hosting the International Coastal Engineering Conference 1950-1996 |year=1996 |editor-first=Nicholas C. |editor-last=Kraus |publisher=American Society of Civil Engineers |url=http://coast.gkss.de/staff/storch/pdf/Niemeyer-heritage.coast.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111206130523/http://coast.gkss.de/staff/storch/pdf/Niemeyer-heritage.coast.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 6, 2011 |quote=far ahead of his contemporaries. }}
Mathematics
- Joshua Kirby publishes the pamphlet Dr. Brook Taylor's Method of Perspective made Easy both in Theory and Practice containing William Hogarth's Satire on False Perspective.
- Lagrange begins to work on the problem of tautochrone.
Physics
- Václav Prokop Diviš, Czech theologian and natural scientist in the fields of applied electricity, develops a weather-machine. The same year, an electrical conductor devised by him is installed at the Vienna General Hospital.
Awards
Births
- March 4 – Benjamin Waterhouse, American physician (died 1846)
- March 15 – Archibald Menzies, Scottish surgeon and botanist (died 1842)
- March 23 – Jurij Vega, Slovene mathematician, physicist and artillery officer (died 1802)
- May 6 – Thomas Coke, English agriculturalist and geneticist (died 1842)
- June 4 – Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, German astronomer (died 1832)
- August 21 – William Murdoch, Scottish engineer and inventor (died 1839)
- September 26 – Joseph Proust, French chemist (died 1826)
Deaths
- February 5 – Nicolaas Kruik (Cruquius), Dutch cartographer and meteorologist (born 1678)
- February 16 – Richard Mead, English physician (born 1673)
- April 9 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher, mathematician and scientist (born 1679)
- April 15 – Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (born 1676)
- November 27 – Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (born 1667)