NATURAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
The inductive method, or the "Baconian" method of observation and experiment, began to bear rich fruits. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) not only discovered the law of gravitation: other discoveries by him in mechanics and optics were of great moment in the progress of those sciences. Fluxions, or the differential calculus, was discovered independently by both Newton and Leibnitz. Euler, a Swiss mathematician of the highest ability (1707-1783), contributed essentially to the advancement of mechanics. Napier invented logarithms, to shorten mathematical calculations. Huygens, a Dutch philosopher (1629-1695), invented the pendulum clock. Gregory (1638-1675) invented the reflecting telescope, Halley, an English astronomer (1656-1742), gave his name to a comet whose return he predicted. Guericke invented (1680), and Robert Boyle (1627-1691) perfected, the air-pump. Boyle was active in founding the Royal Society (1660). Volta, by the invention of the pile called by his name, and Franklin, signally advanced the study of electricity. In the history of zoölogy, Buffon is a great name, as is that of Lavoisier in chemistry. Linnaeus, a Swede, born in the same year with Buffon (1707), attained to the highest distinction by reducing botany to a system. The lives of the eminent astronomers Lagrange (1736-1813), Laplace (1749-1827), and Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), outlasted the eighteenth century.
The radical improvement of the steam-engine by James Watt, a Scotchman (1736-1819),—who obtained his first patent in 1769,—and the invention of the spinning-jenny by Richard Arkwright (1732-1792), are indicative of a new era of progress in the application of science to practical arts and uses.