Intellectual Enlightenment
This historic theme of Intellectual Enlightenment, explores the place where rationalism,reason, observation and measurement permeated science, philosophy and art. Use the timeline and map to explore this fascinating time and discover those involved in this new thinking that would benefit everyone in society.
Logic Lane Oxford
Education is the kindling of a flame not the filling of a vessel
Socrates
The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, was a confluence of ideas and activities that took place throughout the 18th century in Europe and America. IT is not a single event that can be tied down to any one specific time, place or person. It ranges over subjects as diverse as art, philosophy, science, exploration, religion, social theory and indeed morality.
Captain Cook Explorer and scientist whose journals inspired others both in the past and the present.
The period from 1650 - 1800 is loosely attributed to the period and clusters of thinking were organized in cities in France, Germany and other parts of Europe, including Scotland. It was the step away from Medieval thinking, away from the alchemists view of the world and witch craft trials and inquisitions.
It was about education, through the printed word to a more literate society, through new universities. It was about sharing ideas in coffee shops, in institutions and societies.
People who were part of the intellectual enlightenment include Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), a philosopher and political theorist whose 'Leviathan' kick started the English enlightenment and David Hume (1711–1776), the Scottish philosopher and skeptic. But there were many others, composers such as Handel and Mozart added their interpretations of enlightenment.
This theme then, looks at the people involved, their ideas and the relative impact of what they were saying and doing. Were these individuals connected in some way, how did they share their knowledge? We will try and capture some of their ideas and show how they related to everyday society.
The timeline will help organize this complex theme and we will be updating it as we discover more.
| Year | Event | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 1185 | The first recorded use of a post windmill, in Yorkshire. The first were of the sunken type. | Invention Engineering |
| 1400 | Oil is used as a base for paints | Art |
| 1409 | St Andrew's University in Edinburgh is founded | Education |
| 1414 | First written record of an outbreak of influenza in Europe | Medical |
| 1430 | First instance of a drive belt to power an engine | Engineering |
| 1434 | The first book on perspective is written by Leone Alberti | Mathematics |
| 1440 - 1449 | Gutenberg and Koster invent printing with movable type | Printing Art |
| 1452 | Leonardo da Vinci born in Italy | People |
| 1454 | Gutenberg prints the 42 line Bible in Germany using movable type | Printing Art |
| 1455 | Johann Fust acquires Gutenberg's presses in repayment of a debt and is the first European to print in more than a single colour | Printing Art |
| 1472 | Regiomontanus is the first person to scientifically study a comet (later to become known as Halley's comet) | Astronomy |
| 1473 | Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel | Art |
| 1473 | Nicolaus Copernicus is born. He was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. | Astronomy |
| 1474 | William Caxton prints the first book in English | Printing |
| 1490 | An anatomical theatre is opened in Padua Italy | Medical |
| 1491 | Calandri's arithmetic text introduces the algorithm for long division | Mathematics |
| 1492 | Christopher Columbus reaches the West Indies | Exploration |
| 1492 | Pello introduces the decimal point | Mathematics |
| 1492 | First globe map of the Earth made by Martin Behaim | Cartography |
| 1492 | Da Vinci draws a flying machine | Invention Flight |
| 1494 | First paper mill is built in England possibly in the Meon Valley Hampshire | Printing Art |
| 1494 | Da Vinci draws a clock with a pendulum | Invention Time |
| 1494 | First printed book on algebra derived from Fibonacci's Liber abaci | Mathematics |
| 1496 | Da Vinci invents roller bearings | Invention |
| 1497 | Copernicus observes and records the occultation of a star by the moon | Astronomy |
| 1498 | Vasco de Gama reaches India | Exploration |
| 1498 | Venetian printer Petrucci invents a way of printing music using movable type | Printing Music |
| 1500 | First appearance of the gun in the West. Da Vinci invents the wheel lock musket | Invention Military |
| 1502 | Henlein builds a spring driven pocket watch, the first pocket watch | Time Invention |
| 1507 | Cartographer Waldseemuller publishes a 1000 copies of a map on which is seen the name America appear for the first time | Cartography |
| 1514 | Copernicus writes his first version of his heliocentric theory | Astronomy |
| 1514 | The + and - sign is introduced by mathematician Vander Hoecke | Mathematics |
| 1517 | Fracastoro examines fossils in strata and determines they are the remains of actual organisms and also postulates that they were laid down at different times not all at once following Noah's flood. | Geology |
| 1518 | The Royal College of Physicians is established in London | Medical |
| 1519 | Leonardo da Vinci died in Amboise in France | People |
| 1522 | Cuthbert Tunstall publishes the first book on arithmetic in England | Mathematics |
| 1527 | Matteo Bresan, supervisor of the Venice Arsenal, oversaw the construction of a full-rigged sailing ship with lidded gunports, called a 'galleon.' | Maritime |
| 1530 | Matches first used in Europe | Invention |
| 1530 | Girolamo Fracastoro identified typhus. | Medical |
| 1533 | A way of finding longitude is described using a mechanical clock and comparing it to sun time | Time Navigation Maritime |
| 1535 | Diving bells are invented | Invention Maritime |
| 1540 | Blue glass is produced by the introduction of Cobalt in the glass making process | Glass Chemistry |
| 1543 | Copernicus's book 'On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies' is published, describing the notion that the Earth and other planets move around the sun | Astronomy |
| 1543 | Andreas Vesalius published a large collection of meticulous anatomical drawings, emphasizing especially the systems of organs. | Biology |
| 1544 | Cosmographia' published in Germany, the first work on world geography | Geography |
| 1545 | Charles Estienne published illustrations showing the venous, arterial, and nervous systems. | Biology |
| 1546 | The idea that diseases are seed like and transfer from person to person is postulated for the first time | Medical |
| 1546 | Tycho Brahe was born in Skane, then in Denmark, now in Sweden. His contributions to astronomy were enormous. He not only designed and built instruments, he also calibrated them and checked their accuracy periodically. | Astronomy People |
| 1546 | The word fossil is used for the first time | Geology |
| 1550 | Tobacco is grown in Spain for the first time | Botany |
| 1550 | John Napier is born. He was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer | Mathematics |
| 1551 | Up to date astronomical tables are published using Copernicus's theory | Astronomy |
| 1551 | Theodolite is invented by Leonard Digges | Mathematics Cartography Geography |
| 1554 | Galileo is born | People |
| 1557 | Discovery of Platinum | Geology |
| 1562 | Gabriel Fallopio described the ovaries and uterus and the tubes connecting them. | Biology |
| 1564 | The horse drawn carriage is introduced to England | Transport |
| 1565 | The potato arrives in Spain | Botany |
| 1566 | First seed drill is used in Europe | Agriculture |
| 1568 | Mercator produces the projected map that still carries his name | Cartography |
| 1570 | The pinhole camera is invented | Photography |
| 1571 | Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his laws of planetary motion | Astronomy People |
| 1578 | Mathematician and innkeeper William Bourne designs an underwater rowing boat, covered in waterproof leather. The design is never built. | Maritime |
| 1582 | Pope Gregory reforms the calender it becomes the Gregorian calender | Time |
| 1583 | Cesalpino, in De Plantis, classified plants with seeds according to the number, position, and shape of the parts of their fruit | Botany |
| 1583 | Galileo discovered by experiment that the oscillations of a swinging pendulum took the same amount of time regardless of their amplitude. | Physics |
| 1586 | Stevinus performs the key experiment on gravity, dropping 2 differently weighted obects at the same time and noting that they strike the ground at the same time | Physics |
| 1586 | Walter Raleigh introduces the smoking of tobacco into England | |
| 1589 | William Lee invents the knitting machine. | Invention Textiles |
| 1590 | Janssen invents the compound microscope, combined double convex lenses in a tube, producing the first telescope. | Invention |
| 1590 | Galileo refute Aristotelian physics | Physics |
| 1591 | Snowflakes are first described as being six sided or six pointed | Physics |
| 1596 | Andreas Cellarius was a Dutch-German cartographer, best known for his Harmonia Macrocosmica of 1660, a major star atlas | Cartography Astronomy People |
| 1600 | The first tretise based on experimental science is published. It relates static electricity and describes the Earth as a magnet. William Gilbert 'Concerning Magnetism' | Physics |
| 1601 | Tycho Brahe, astronomer dies | Astronomy People |
| 1602 | Tycho Brahe's 'Introduction to the New Astronomy' is published posthumously. | Astronomy |
| 1603 | Hugh Platt discovers coke | |
| 1604 | Johannes Kepler describes how the eye focuses light | Physics |
| 1604 | Kepler observes and descrobes a supernova | Astronomy |
| 1605 | Francis Bacon, with the Advancement of Learning, began the publication of his philosophical works, in which he urged collaboration between the inductive and experimental methods of proof | People Methodology |
| 1608 | Hans Lippershey invents the telescope | Astronomy Physics |
| 1609 | Galileo built a telescope with which he discovered the mountains on the moon, that the Milky Way consisted of innumerable stars, the four largest satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and sunspots. | Astronomy |
| 1611 | Scientific explanation of the rainbow | Physics |
| 1614 | John Napier explains the nature of logarithms and produces tables and rules for their use | Mathematics |
| 1616 | William Harvey lectures about the circulation of the blood to the Royal College of Physicians | Medical |
| 1616 | Galileo is warned by Cardinal Bellarmine that he should not defend the Copernican doctrine | Physics |
| 1617 | John Napier describes the device for multiplying that becomes known as Napier's rods | Mathematics |
| 1620 | Cornelius Drebbel builds a navigable submarine that can carry 24 people. Tested on the River Thames. | Maritime |
| 1623 | Binomial names used to describe first the genus and second the genus | Biology |
| 1623 | Blaise Pascal is born. He was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He invented a calculating machine | Mathematics |
| 1625 | Giovanni Domenico Cassini studied mathematics and astronomy at the Jesuits and became professor of astronomy at Bologna | Astronomy People |
| 1627 | The aurochs, the wild ancestor of domestic cattle, becomes extinct | Biology |
| 1629 | Giovanni Branca describes a steam turbine in which steam is directed at the vanes of a wheel | Inventions |
| 1629 | Pierre de Fermat discovered that the equation f(x,y)=0 represents a curve in thexy-plane. This is the fundamental principle of analytic geometry | Mathematics |
| 1631 | The Vernier Scale is invented for precise measurements | Inventions |
| 1633 | The Roman Catholic Inquisition forces Galileo to recant his Copernican view | Astronomy |
| 1635 | Robert Hooke, natural philosopher, inventor, architect, chemist, mathematician, physicist, engineer. Robert Hooke is one of the most neglected natural philosophers of all time. The inventor of, amongst other things, the iris diaphragm in cameras | Physics People Chemistry |
| 1639 | William Gascoigne unvents the micrometer. It is placed in the focus of a telescope and used to measure the angular distance between stars | Invention Astronomy |
| 1642 | Pascal invents a calculating machine | Mathematics |
| 1642 | Isaac Newton is born in Woolsthorpe | People |
| 1643 | Torricelli makes the first barometer and in doing so the first vacuum known to science | Invention |
| 1647 | Denis Papin was born. He was a French physicist, mathematician and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of the forerunner of the steam engine, and of the pressure cooker. | Invention Mathematics People |
| 1650 | Invention of the air pump to create vacuums | Invention |
| 1652 | Thomas Bartholin discovered the lymphatic system and determined its relation to the circulatory system. | Biology |
| 1656 | Edmund Halley is born. After a famous meeting with Wren and Hooke, he visited Newton in Cambridge, and hearing about his work on gravitation, persuaded him to publish it. In 1703 he became professor of astronomy at Oxford, and in 1720 astronomer-royal. He computed the orbits of several comets, and deduced that those of 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 were periodic returns of the same body. | Astronomy People |
| 1658 | Robert Hooke invents the the balance spring for watches | Invention |
| 1658 | Jan Swammerdam is the first to see and describe red blood cells | Biology |
| 1661 | Robert Boyle, in the Sceptical Chymist, separated chemistry as corpuscles, from alchemy, as qualities, and gave the first precise definitions of a chemical element, a chemical reaction, chemical analysis, and made studies of acids and bases. | Chemistry |
| 1662 | Robert Boyle asserts that in an ideal gas under constant temperature volume and pressure vary inversely | Chemistry |
| 1664 | Isaac Newton discovers the binomial theorem | Mathematics |
| 1665 | Robert Hooke compares light waves to water waves | Physics |
| 1665 | Isaac Newton invents the first form of calculus. He also discovers that white light is a mixture of colours and develops his first law of universal gravitation | Physics |
| 1665 | Grimaldi, in 'Physico-Mathesis de lumine, coloribus, et eride', discovered that light going through a fine slit cannot be prevented from spreading on the farther side, a phenomena which he named 'diffraction' and postulated was caused by its wave-like motion. | Physics |
| 1665 | Robert Hooke, in Micrographia, named and gave the first description of cells | Biology |
| 1665 | Cassini, while attempting to map Jupiter, discovered the Great Red Spot | Astronomy |
| 1666 | First blood transfusion between two animals (dogs) is demonstrated | Biology |
| 1666 | Robert Boyle in 'The Origin of Forms and Quantities' suggests that everything is made up of atoms | Chemistry |
| 1668 | Isaac Newton invents the reflecting telescope | Physics |
| 1668 | John Wallis is the first to suggest the law of conservation of momentum | Physics |
| 1670 | Robert Boyle produced hydrogen by reacting metals with acid. | Physics |
| 1676 | Hookes Law. Hooke found that the stretch of a spring varies directly with it's tension | Physics |
| 1678 | Edmond Halley returned from St. Helena where he had added 341 stars to the southern hemisphere catalogue with the aid of a telescope. | Astronomy |
| 1679 | Denis Papin devised a vessel in which the boiling point of water is raised by an increase in steam pressure. | Physics |
| 1679 | Binary maths is introduced by Leibniz | Mathematics |
| 1680 | Minute hands on clocks are introduced | Time |
| 1684 | Wren, Hooke, Halley and Newton discuss the laws of movement of the planets. This leads Newton to begin the task of writing his ideas down in what will become 'Principia' | Physics |
| 1686 | Newton presents his first volume of 'Principia' | Physics |
| 1691 | Robert Boyle died | People |
| 1691 | First textbook on bones of the human body is published by Clopton Havers | Biology |
| 1693 | Edmund Halley discovered the formula for the focus of a lens | Physics |
| 1693 | John Harrison was born. He was a carpenter and clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer | Maritime Time People |
| 1698 | Thomas Savery patented an engine which produced a vacuum by condensing steam. The engine is used for pumping water out of mines, it is known as the 'Miners Friend' | Invention Engineering |
| 1701 | Jethro Tull invents the machine drill for planting seeds | Invention Agriculture |
| 1703 | Robert Hooke dies | People |
| 1704 | Isaac Newton's 'Optics' published | Physics |
| 1705 | Proof that sound needs air to travel. Francis Hauksbee shows that sound cannot travel in a vacuum | Physics |
| 1705 | Posthumous lecture by Hooke suggesting that earthquakes might change the face of the surface of the Earth | Geology |
| 1707 | Papin modifies Thomas Savery's steam pump | Inventions |
| 1709 | Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit constructed an alcohol thermometer | Physics |
| 1709 | Abraham Derby introduces the use of coke for iron smelting | Industrial Revolution |
| 1710 | Jacob Le Bon invents 3 colour printing | Invention Printing |
| 1712 | Flamsteed's publishes first volume of his star catalogue | Astronomy |
| 1712 | Thomas Newcomen builds the first practical steam engine to use both a piston and a cylinder | Invention Engineering |
| 1714 | British parliament set up the Board of Longitude. The two competing methods were astronomical calculation, which meant plotting the position of the moon against known stars, and by chronometer, which meant timing the position against a known land longitude. | Maritime |
| 1718 | Mary Wortley Montagu publicized the use of inoculation against smallpox in Turkey. | Medical |
| 1712 | Astronomer Cassini died | People |
| 1713 | Physicist Francis Hauksbee died | People |
| 1713 | Revised edition of Newton's 'Principia' is published, it contains the famous General Scholium | Physics |
| 1714 | Fahrenheit builds a mercurythermometer | Physics |
| 1714 | British Board of Longitude set up | Maritime |
| 1715 | John Harrison constructs an 8 day clock | Time Maritime |
| 1718 | Halley discovers proper motion of fixed stars, i.e apparent motion with respect to other fixed stars | Astronomy |
| 1718 | Mary Wortley Montagu publicized the use of inoculation against smallpox in Turkey. | Medical |
| 1719 | John Flamsteed died in Greenwich | People |
| 1720 | George Graham invents the deadbeat escapement for clocks | Time Invention |
| 1721 | George Graham invents the mercury compensating pendulum for clocks | Time Invention |
| 1723 | Sir Christopher Wren died | People |
| 1724 | Gabriel Fahrenheit describes the super cooling of water | Physics |
| 1730 | Otto Muller is among the first to observe bacteria and to classify them | Biology |
| 1730 | First tracheotomy for the treatment of diptheria | Medical |
| 1730 | George Brandt discovered cobalt. | Chemistry |
| 1733 | John Kat patented his 'Flying Shuttle' | Industrial Revolution |
| 1735 | John Harrison builds his first marine chronometer known as Number 1 | Maritime Time |
| 1735 | Linnaeus 'System of Nature' the system of classification of organisms still in use today | Biology Botany |
| 1736 | Work on sea salt identifies the 2 salts sodium and potassium | Chemistry |
| 1736 | James Watt was born. He was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution | Inventor Industrial Revolution |
| 1737 | Linnaeus explains his classification method and classifies 18,000 species of plants | Botany |
| 1737 | Pierre Fournier introduces the point system for measuring type sizes | Printing |
| 1738 | Charles Dangeau de Labelye develops the caisson, a device for building tunnels and bridges | Engineering |
| 1741 | Jethro Tull died | Agriculture |
| 1742 | Benjamin Huntsman introduces the crucible process for molten steel | Industrial Revolution |
| 1742 | Celcius developed the centigrade temperature scale which carries his name. | Physics |
| 1742 | Edmund Halley astronomer died | Astronomy |
| 1743 | Christopher Pack draws the first geological map | Cartography |
| 1744 | Benjamin Franklin invents the Franklin stove | Invention |
| 1746 | The lead chamber process for making sulfuric acid is invented by John Roebuck in England | Invention Chemistry |
| 1746 | William Watson's experiments on the nature of electricity is published | Physics |
| 1748 | John Wilkinson builds the first blast furnace in Bilston UK | Industrial Revolution |
| 1748 | Bradley announced that there were tiny deviations in the Earth's axis caused by the pull of the Moon. | Astronomy |
| 1749 | Vaughn patents radial ball bearings for carriage axils | Inventions Engineering |
| 1749 | Benjamin Franklin installs a lightening conductor on his home | Physics |
| 1751 | Linnaeus rejects any idea of evolution | Biology |
| 1751 | The first mental health institute is opened in London | Medical |
| 1751 | Benjamin Franklin describes electricity as a fluid and distinguishes between + and - electricity. He also shows that electricity can magnetize and demagnetize iron needles | Physics |
| 1752 | Britain adopts the Gregorian calender | |
| 1752 | Benjamin Franklin demonstrates his kite experiment to show that lightening is a form of electricity | Physics |
| 1754 | Henry Cort builds his first iron rolling mill at Funtley in Hampshire UK | Industrial Revolution |
| 1757 | John Wilkinson patents a hydraulic blowing machine that uses waterpower to drive bellows | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1758 | British Imperial Standards are introduced | Methodology |
| 1758 | Jedediah Strutt invents the ribbing machine for the manufacture of stockings | Invention Industrial Revolution |
| 1759 | James Brindley builds the first canal that crosses a river on an aqueduct | Canals Engineering |
| 1759 | John Harrison completes marine chronometer Number 4 | Maritime |
| 1760 | Royal Botanical Gardens open at Kew | Botany |
| 1761 | John Rennie builds Waterloo Bridge | Bridges Engineering |
| 1762 | James Bradley completes a new star catalogue measuring the position of 60,000 stars | Astronomy |
| 1764 | James Hargreaves invents the 'Spinning Jenny' | Invention Textiles |
| 1765 | John Harrison receives the Longitude prize | Maritime |
| 1765 | James Watt builds a model of a steam engine in which the condenser is separated from the cylinder | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1766 | Matthew Boulton founds the Lunar Society | Organisations |
| 1767 | Joseph Priestly writes 'The history and present state of electricity' He has met Franklin who encouraged him to write this and he included Franklin's kite experiment | Physics |
| 1768 | Captain Cook begins the first of his three voyages to the Pacific | Exploration Astronomy Maritime |
| 1768 | Euler proposed that the wave length of light determines its color. | Physics |
| 1769 | Richard Arkwright patents the 'Water Frame' spinning machine | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1771 | The Smeatonian Club for engineers is founded in London | Organisations |
| 1772 | Cook's voyages announce there is no large southern continent except Australia | Exploration |
| 1772 | Daniel Rutherford described nitrogen, which he called 'residual air.' | Chemistry |
| 1773 | Priestly discovered sulphur dioxide, ammonia, and 'dephlogisticated air' which was later named Oxygen | Chemistry |
| 1774 | John Wilkinson patents a precision cannon borer | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1775 | James Watt obtains a patent for his version of the steam engine | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1776 | John Wilkinson uses a steam engine to create a blast of air in a blast furnace | Industrial Revolutions Inventions |
| 1776 | John Harrison clockmaker died | People |
| 1777 | Bushnel invents the torpedo | Inventions |
| 1778 | John Wilkinson invents the turning lathe | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1779 | Lavoisier proposes name oxygen for the part of the air responsible for combustion | Chemistry |
| 1779 | Samuel Compton develops the 'Spinning Mule' | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1779 | Abraham Derby builds the first iron bridge at Coalbrookdale | Industrial Revolution |
| 1781 | Priestly ignited hydrogen in oxygen obtaining water | Chemistry |
| 1781 | Richard Arkwright builds the first factory | Industrial Revolution Textiles |
| 1781 | James Watt patents a way to change the power produced by a steam engine from a back and forth motion to a rotary motion | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1782 | James Watt patents a double acting steam engine | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1783 | Joseph Michel Montgolfier and Jacques Étienne Montgolfier invented the first practical hot air balloon | Inventions Flight |
| 1784 | Cavendish announces the composition of water | Chemistry |
| 1784 | Henry Cort invents the puddling method of turning coke smelted iron into wrought iron | Industrial Revolution Inventions |
| 1784 | Benjamin Franklin invents bifocal glasses | Invention |
| 1784 | Andrew Meikle invents the threshing machine | Invention Agriculture |
| 1785 | Edmund Cartwright invents a power loom | Invention Industrial Revolution Textiles |