1712 to 1790

This page of the timeline covers -

• 1720
• 1740
• 1760
• 1780

1714

first typewriter patented by Henry Mill in England

1719

Reaumur proposes using wood to make paper

     1720

John Law's Banque Royale in Paris goes bung

South Sea Bubble bursts

Bubble Act in UK

Francis Hutcheson's Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

     1725

1725

Bouchon uses perforated paper tape to control loom

1727

The Gentleman's Magazine, first modern magazine

1729

Franklin's Modest Enquiry into the Nature & Necessity of a Paper Currency

1728

Falcon uses perforated cards to control loom

Chambers' Cyclopaedia

1737

Vaucanson's mechanical flute player

1738

Vaucanson's mechanical duck

     1740

Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature

1741

American Magazine is first magazine in North America

     1742

Franklin's General Magazine prints first American magazine ads

Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

     1750

1751

Hogarth's The Four Stages of Cruelty

1752

Gregorian calendar adopted in Britain

1753

Linnaeus' Species Plantarum

1755

Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

Great Lisbon Earthquake kills 30,000

1757

Whatman invents wove paper

Linnaeus' Systema Naturae

1759

Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments

     1760

1761

Rousseau's Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse

1762

Académie Francaise recognises term 'millionaire'

Rousseau's Émile

     1764

Fournier develops point system to measure type sizes

Lloyds Ship Register

Beccaria's Essay on Crimes & Punishment

     1765

earliest known children's pop-up book

     1767

Burmese army sacks Ayutthaya

Ferguson's A History of Civil Society

     1768

first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica

first voyage of Cook's Endeavour

Royal Academy established in England

     1770

gum eraser

von Kempelen's mechanical Turk

James Cook lands in New South Wales

     1772

first patent issued in England for coloured ink

Scottish banking crisis

     1774

paper whitener

1775

Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy

1776

Richard Price's Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty

     1779

John Hely-Hutchinson's The Commercial Restraints of Ireland Considered is last book burnt by common hangman in England

     1780

1783

Montgolfier's first hot air balloon flight

1782

Anna Göldi is last execution for witchcraft in Europe?

     1784

Smith's The Wealth of Nations

Cort's iron manufacturing process successfully deployed

     1785

first edition of London Daily Universal Register

     1786

Playfair's Commercial & Political Atlas

Haüy's Essai sur l’Education des Aveugles

     1788

London Daily Universal Register becomes The Times

     1789

Declaration of the Rights of Man

Bentham's Introduction to the Principles & Morals of Legislation

     1790

US Copyright Act

one accountant in London







    next page  (1791-1830)