By the late 18th century, the useful practices of engineering and technology began to influence philosophical explanations of the composition of matter. Those who speculated on the ultimate nature of matter began to verify their "thought experiments" with some repeatable demonstrations, when they could.
Ragusan polymath Roger Boscovich (1711–1787) provided the first general mathematical theory of atomism based on the ideas of Newton and Leibniz, but transforming them so as to provide a programme for atomic physics.