Grønland   (1756) The Danish 50-gun Grønland , launched five years ago at Nyholm island near Copenhagen, departs for a scientific expedition in the Mediterranean sea. She got used to navigating these dangerous waters for she protected Danish trade ships against Barbary pirates lately. This expedition is named the Arabia mission. It has been mounted under the auspices of King Frederick V, who has wisely achieved not to get involved in the global war which begun five years ago

Aurore After having tackled the building of a marine watch in 1756, Pierre Le Roy, 50 years old, has reached a new step last year. It is said that the chronometer he presented to the Académie Royale des Sciences is as precise and reliable as famous Harrison's H4. ¤ Le Roy already invented the detent pivot escapement, or detached escapement, that he presented the Académie in 1748, the temperature-compensated balance by using bi-metallic components, and lately the isochronou

John Fitch, 43, originally a clockmaker then a gunsmith, successfully trials his steamboat Perseverance on the Delaware river. Fitch's first model (1785) Two years ago, Fitch achieved to convince the state legislative bodies of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia to award him a conditional 14-year monopoly for steam navigation on their waterways. He just missed Maryland and the district of Columbia to get a complete area of business in the core of the

James Cook James Cook, the famous explorer, 44 years old by now, departs for his second voyage around the world with a copy of famous Watchmaker John Harrison’s H4, that is the watch K1, and three other time-keepers made last year. ¤ Harrison's H4 was the prototype which achieved to meet the accuracy requirement set by the Board of Longitude when crossing the Atlantic ocean. It completed it twice, in 1761 and 1763 - results met with some initial scepticism by the Board of L

The Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin, a 2,200-ton 60-gun Manila galleon, makes a bad journey from Manila to Acapulco. Having 435 persons aboard initially, she has lost 74 ones of typhus during her 221-day long journey. Three hundreds and ten or twenty more are lying, unable to move, near death. ¤ A standard journey takes five or six months. A seven-month one is long but not surprising. What is surprising is that a few men achieved to handle this quite big s

Claude d’Auxiron, ex-officer and polymath, a rightly renowned economist, 41, and Charles Monnin de Follenay, ex-officer, 38, formed last year a joint-venture company to promote steam navigation on river. Henri Léonard Bertin They achieved to convince the Secretary-of-State Henri Léonard Jean-Baptiste Bertin , aged 53, of the feasibility of a steamboat and of its economical interest. Since 1763 Bertin has been leading a ministry including agriculture, mines, river navigation

Always looking for a solution of river navigation substituting for the horse-drawn barges, Claude de Jouffroy d’Abbans is back in...

Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans Looking for a solution of river navigation substituting for the horse-drawn barges, a French gentleman,...

Tobias Mayer Tobias Mayer, a German astronomer aged 29, publishes Tabulæ motuum Solis et Lunæ novæ et correctæ, that are tables of the...