1709 in science

Meteorology

• January – Great Frost in Western Europe.

  Physics

• Francis Hauksbee publishes Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects, summarizing the results of his many experiments with electricity and other topics.

  Technology

• January 10 – Industrial Revolution: Abraham Darby I successfully produces cast iron using coke fuel at his Coalbrookdale blast furnace in Shropshire, England.
• February 5 – Dramatist John Dennis devises the thundersheet as a new method of producing theatrical thunder for his tragedy Appius and Virginia at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
• March 28 – Johann Friedrich Böttger reports the first production of hard-paste porcelain in Europe, at Dresden.
• July 13 – Johann Maria Farina founds the first Eau de Cologne and perfume factory in Cologne, Germany.
• August 8 – Hot air balloon of Bartholome de Gusmão flies in Portugal.
• A collapsible umbrella is introduced in Paris.

  Awards

• April 9 – Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet dies and in his will provides funding to the Royal Society for the annual Copley Medal honoring achievement in science.

  Births

• February 24 – Jacques de Vaucanson, French engineer and inventor
• March 3 – Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, German chemist
• March 10 – Georg Steller, German naturalist
• April 17 – Giovanni Domenico Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer
• July 11 – Johan Gottschalk Wallerius, Swedish chemist and mineralogist
• August 8 – Johann Georg Gmelin, German botanist
• November 23 – Julien Offray de La Mettrie, French physician and philosopher

  Deaths

• early – Eleanor Glanville, English entomologist
• June 29 – Antoine Thomas, Belgian Jesuit astronomer in China
• June 30 – Edward Lhuyd, Welsh naturalist
• October 17 – François Mauriceau, French obstetrician