1662 in science

The year 1662 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Botany

• February 16 – John Evelyn presents the basic text of his Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber to the College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning, probably the earliest treatise on forestry (it is published in book form in 1664).

Chemistry

• First attempt to manufacture graphite drawing sticks from powdered graphite (mixed with sulphur and antimony), in Nuremberg, Germany.

Physics

• Robert Boyle publishes Boyle's law, in the second edition of his New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching The Spring of the Air, and its Effects (Oxford).^[1]

Statistics

• John Graunt, in one of the earliest uses of statistics, publishes information about births and deaths in London.

Events

• July 15 – The Royal Society of London receives its royal charter. Robert Hooke becomes its Curator of Experiments this year.^[2]

Births

• December 13 – Francesco Bianchini, Italian astronomer (died 1729)

Deaths

• April 22 – John Tradescant the Younger, English botanist (born 1608)^[3]
• August 19 – Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and physicist (born 1623)^[4]