Editing 18th century (section)

==Inventions, discoveries, and introductions==
{{main|Timeline of historic inventions#18th century|Timeline of scientific discoveries#18th century}}
[[File:Spinning jenny.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[spinning jenny]]]]
* [[1709]]: The first [[piano]] was built by [[Bartolomeo Cristofori]]
* [[1711]]: [[Tuning fork]] was invented by [[John Shore (trumpeter)|John Shore]]
* [[1712]]: [[Steam engine]] invented by [[Thomas Newcomen]]
* [[1714]]: [[Mercury thermometer]] by [[Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit]]
* [[1717]]: [[Diving bell]] was successfully tested by [[Edmond Halley]], sustainable to a depth of 55&nbsp;ft
* c. [[1730]]: [[Octant (instrument)|Octant]] navigational tool was developed by [[John Hadley]] in England, and [[Thomas Godfrey (inventor)|Thomas Godfrey]] in America
* [[1733]]: [[Flying shuttle]] invented by [[John Kay (flying shuttle)|John Kay]]
* [[1736]]: Europeans encountered [[rubber]] – the discovery was made by [[Charles Marie de La Condamine]] while on expedition in South America. It was named in [[1770]] by [[Joseph Priestley]]
* c. [[1740]]: Modern [[steel]] was developed by [[Benjamin Huntsman]]
* [[1741]]: [[Vitus Bering]] discovers Alaska
* [[1745]]: [[Leyden jar]] invented by [[Ewald Georg von Kleist]] was the first electrical [[capacitor]]
* [[1751]]: [[Jacques de Vaucanson]] perfects the first precision [[lathe]]
* [[1752]]: [[Lightning rod]] invented by [[Benjamin Franklin]]
* [[1753]]: The first [[clock]]  to be built in the New World (North America) was invented by [[Benjamin Banneker]]. 
* [[1755]]: The tallest ''wooden'' [[Bodhisattva]] statue in the world is erected at [[Puning Temple (Hebei)|Puning Temple]], [[Chengde]], China.
* [[1764]]: [[Spinning jenny]] created by [[James Hargreaves]] brought on the [[Industrial Revolution]]
* [[1765]]: [[James Watt]] enhances Newcomen's steam engine, allowing new [[steel]] technologies
* [[1761]]: The problem of [[longitude]] was finally resolved by the fourth [[marine chronometer|chronometer]] of [[John Harrison]]
* [[1763]]: [[Thomas Bayes]] publishes first version of [[Bayes' theorem]], paving the way for [[Bayesian probability]]
* [[1768]]–[[1779]]: [[James Cook]] mapped the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean and discovered many [[Pacific Islands]]
* [[1774]]: [[Joseph Priestley]] discovers "dephlogisticated air", oxygen
[[File:Red building Putuo Zongcheng Temple.JPG|thumb|upright|The Chinese [[Putuo Zongcheng Temple]] of [[Chengde]], completed in 1771, during the reign of the [[Qianlong Emperor]].]]
* [[1775]]: Joseph Priestley's first synthesis of "phlogisticated nitrous air", [[nitrous oxide]], "laughing gas"
* [[1776]]: First improved steam engines installed by [[James Watt]]
* [[1776]]: [[Steamboat]] invented by [[Claude de Jouffroy]]
* [[1777]]: [[Circular saw]] invented by Samuel Miller
* [[1779]]: [[Photosynthesis]] was first discovered by [[Jan Ingenhousz]]
* [[1781]]: [[William Herschel]] announces discovery of Uranus
* [[1784]]: [[Bifocals]] invented by [[Benjamin Franklin]]
* [[1784]]: [[Argand lamp]] invented by [[Aimé Argand]]<ref>[http://corporate.britannica.com/press/inventions.html Encyclopædia Britannica's Great Inventions], [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807163707/http://corporate.britannica.com/press/inventions.html |date=August 7, 2008 }}</ref>
* [[1785]]: [[Power loom]] invented by [[Edmund Cartwright]]
* [[1785]]: [[Production line|Automatic flour mill]] invented by [[Oliver Evans]]
* [[1786]]: [[Threshing machine]] invented by [[Andrew Meikle]]
* [[1787]]: [[Jacques Charles]] discovers [[Charles's law]]
* [[1789]]: [[Antoine Lavoisier]] discovers the law of conservation of mass, the basis for chemistry, and begins modern chemistry
* [[1798]]: [[Edward Jenner]] publishes a treatise about [[smallpox]] [[vaccination]]
* [[1798]]: The [[Lithography|Lithographic printing process]] invented by [[Alois Senefelder]]<ref>Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. (1998) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 146 {{ISBN|978-0-471-29198-5}}</ref>
* [[1799]]: [[Rosetta Stone]] discovered by [[Napoleon]]'s troops