1746 in science

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The year 1746 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Chemistry

• John Roebuck invents the lead-chamber process for the manufacture of sulfuric acid.
• German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf (1709–1782) is credited with describing zinc as a separate metal.
• Eva Ekeblad discovers how to make flour and alcohol out of potatoes.

Geology

• Jean-Étienne Guettard presents the first mineralogical map of France to the French Academy of Sciences.
• William Cookworthy discovers kaolin in Cornwall.

Mathematics

• Jean le Rond d'Alembert develops the theory of complex numbers.
• Scottish mathematician Matthew Stewart publishes Some General Theorems of Considerable use in the Higher Parts of Mathematics, including an account of Stewart's theorem on the measurement of the triangle.

Technology

• Pierre Bouguer publishes a treatise on naval architecture,Traité du navire, which first explains use of the metacentric height as a measure of ships' stability.
• John Muller publishes A Treatise Containing the Elementary Part of Fortification.

Zoology

• Linnaeus publishes Fauna Svecica.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Benjamin Robins

Births

• January 4 - Benjamin Rush, Founding Father of the United States, chemist and physician (died 1813)
• March 7 - André Michaux, French botanist (died 1802)
• May 10 - Gaspard Monge, French mathematician (died 1818)
• July 7 - Giuseppe Piazzi, Italian Theatine monk, astronomer and mathematician (died 1826)
• March 15 - Giovanni Battista Venturi, Italian physicist after whom the Venturi tube is named (died 1822)
• Louise du Pierry, French astronomer (died 1789)

Deaths

• June 14 - Colin Maclaurin, Scottish mathematician (born 1698)
• November 14 - Georg Steller, German naturalist (born 1709)