rule over China. His favorite official, Heshen, is ordered to commit suicide. 1800: On 1 January, the bankrupt Dutch East India Company (VOC) is formally dissolved and the nationalised Dutch East Indies are established. Inventions, discoveries, introductions 1709: The first piano was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori 1711: Tuning fork was invented by 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 ft c. 1730: Octant navigational tool was developed by John Hadley in England, and Thomas Godfrey in America 1733: Flying shuttle invented by 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, 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 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 1775: Joseph Priestley 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 1785: Power loom invented by Edmund Cartwright 1785: 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