Originally set to the family trade of broadcloth weaving, Canton's learning and mechanical talent, as shown by his creation of an accurate sundial proudly displayed outside the house by his father, brought him to the attention of Dr Henry Miles (Fellow of the Royal Society, 1843). Miles persuaded Canton's father to allow John to reside with him in Tooting, Surrey, until 1738, when John articled himself to Samuel Watkins, master of a school in Spital Square, London, whom he succeeded as master and owner of the school until his death in 1772. Canton's first contributions to science were routine calculations of the times of lunar eclispes, published in the Ladies Diary for 1739 and 1740. Through Miles he met London's best 'experimental philosophers' such as the apothecary William Watson and clockmaker John Ellicott. He rapidly acquired the same reputation, largely for his invention of a new method of making strong artificial magnets. He kept the method secret, hoping to make some income from it, until the publication of John Mitchell's A Treatise of Artificial Magnets (1750). His procedure appeared very similar to Mitchell's, who immediately accused him of plagiarism. This did not prevent the Royal Society from awarding him the Copley Medal for 1751; Canton had a method before Mitchell's publication, and from what is known of his character testifies to his innocence. In 1752 Canton learned of the French experiments confirming Franklin's conjecture about lightning. He was the first in England to repeat the experiments successfully, and in the process discovered independently that clouds came electrified both positively (as theory suggested) and negatively. His work on determining the sign of a cloud's charge led Canton to design the well known experiments on electrostatic induction which have earned him a place in the history of electricity. He also made the notable discovery that glass does not always charge positively by friction; the sign of the electricity developed depends upon the nature of the substance rubbed over it and the condition of the surface of the glass. Other contributions to the subject were a portable pith-ball electroscope (1754), a method for electifying the air by communication (1754), a careful account of that bewildering stone the tourmaline (1759) and an improvement in the electrical machine, coating its cushion with an amalgam of mercury and tin (1762). As a gifted amateur physicist of his time, Canton displayed interest in other topics, such as identifying the cause of the luminosity of seawater (putrefying organic matter); invented a strongly phosphorescent compound 'Canton's phosphor' made of sulphur and calcined oyster shells (CaS); kept a meteorological journal; recorded the diurnal variations of the compass; and demonstrated the compressibility of water, a notable achievement, which depended on measurements so minute he was challenged on his revolutionary interpretation of them, although they stood the scrutiny of a special committee of the Royal Society and earned him a second Copley Medal in 1765. He was a frequenter of the Club of Honest Whigs in the company of Franklin and Dissenting Ministers like Joseph Priestley, whose History and Present State of Electricity owed much to his patient assistance. Canton was one of the most distinguished of the group of self-made, self-educated men who were the best representatives of English physics in the mid-eighteenth century.
Born 11 July 1857 in Magheragall, County Antrim, Ireland, Larmor attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, then Queen's University Belfast, where he received his BA and MA, and entered St John's College, Cambridge University, in 1877. He was Senior Wrangler in the mathematical tripos in 1880, was awarded a Smith's Prize and elected Fellow of St John's. He was Professor of Natural History at Queen's College Galway, 1880-1885, then returned as a lecturer to St John's. He became Lucasian Professor in 1903 after Sir George Gabriel Stokes, retiring in 1932. He was concerned with geometrical and physical aspects of a problem rather than the analytical, described in his 'Address on the Geometrical Method' of 1896. The researches for which he is chiefly remembered took place mainly between 1892-1901, a transition period in physics by the end of which X-rays, electrons and radio-activity had again set experimental physics in feverish progress, followed by revolutionary changes in the foundations of physical theory. Of those who brought classical physics to the point where new methods became inevitable, H A Lorentz and Larmor were the most prominent, preparing the old physics for the advent of the new. Larmor's major contribution to this was his book Aether and Matter, published in 1900, which began as a memoir published initially in the Philosophical Transactions between 1894-1897 and which to the student of the period was the gateway to new thought. He was concerned with numerous other subjects, such as the bending of radio waves round the earth (1924), with E H Hills producing a new kind of analysis of the irregular motion of the earth's axis of rotation as given by the determinations of latitude variation at the chain of International Latitude Observatories (1906 and 1915), protection from lightening (1914), and geomagnetism, on which he was a leading authority. His intense feelings over the Irish Question led him to enter Parliament, representing Cambridge University as a unionist from 1911 to 1922. His most important work outside the university was in the responsible and influential post of secretary of the Royal Society, 1901-1912.
The British National Antarctic or Discovery Expedition of 1901-1904 was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage, 1839-1843. It was organised by a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and it aimed to carry out scientific research and geographical exploration. Its scientific results covered extensive ground in biology, zoology, geology, meteorology and magnetism and King Edward VII Land, and the Polar Plateau via the western mountains route were discovered. The expedition did not make a serious attempt on the South Pole, its principal southern journey reaching a Furthest South at 82°17'S.
Born, 1814; Education: Mus Doc (1867, Oxford); Career: Articled to an engineer; Consulting engineer, Westminster; Professor of Engineering, Elphinstone College, Bombay (1844-1847); returned to England and was Consulting Engineer to the Government and other bodies; Professor of Civil Engineering, University College, London (1857) Lecturer at the Royal Engineer Establishment, Chatham; Member of the Government Commission on the use of Iron for War Purposes; was colour blind; wrote on the game of whist; Memberships: FRAS; FGS; MICE (1840); Fellow of the Royal Society, (1861); Vice President of the Royal Society Council, (1875-1876 and 1888-1889); died (1900).
Born, 1819; Assistant in the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope (1835-1845), cooperated with Sir Thomas Maclear in the extension of Lacaille's arc; produced oldest known calotypes of people and scenes in Southern Africa with the help of John Herschel; Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy, University of Edinburgh (1845-1888), introduced time service for Edinburgh with time ball on the Nelson monument and later a time gun fired from Edinburgh Castle (1861); resigned Fellowship on 7 February 1874 on the Society denying him the reading of his paper on the interpretation of the design of the Great Pyramid, published "The Great Pyramid and the Royal Society"; Became obsessed with the metre - he believed the decimal system was foreign, French, and atheist. Claimed if the pyramids were measured very accurately, it was possible to tell that they were based on the British yard, given by God and built by the Hebrews. Led expeditions to Egypt to measure them accurately to prove this. Use of the yard in the Pyramids proved there were common values between the founders of Egypt and the Anglo-Saxons, and so helped to justify the Conquest of Egypt in 1881-2; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1857; died, 1900.
The 1856 expedition to the rugged volcanic mountain of Tenerife in the Canary Islands was an accomplishment which transformed the relatively unknown son of a famous admiral into an international scientific figure. It was also the focus of important and extensive activity in photographic publishing. It was this trip to Teneriffe which gave Smyth his entry into the elite scientific community. It also marked a turning point regarding his use of photography, having been certainly almost the first to experiment with calotypes at the Cape of Good Hope, and received his instruction from Talbot, Herschel and Hunt. The major donation for the expedition came from Robert Stephenson, who had read Smyth's 1855 'Royal Observatory of Edinburgh Report' and offered Smyth passage to Tenerife aboard his iron hulled yacht, the 'Titania', handing it to him for his exclusive use for the expedition in 1856, which departed from Cowes on 24 June. Santa Cruz was reached on 8 July.
Nicolas Fatio de Duillier was born, 1664; educated in Geneva; Enrolled a citizen of Geneva (1678); originally intended to enter the Protestant ministry but later left to his own devices; corresponded with Gian Domenico Cassini (FRS 1672); went to Paris (1682); was informed of a plot to kidnap the Prince of Orange, which he revealed to Gilbert Burnet (FRS 1664) and they both went to Holland to tell the Prince; offered a chair of mathematics by the Prince of Orange in The Hague, but instead went to England; Tutor to the eldest son of Sir William Ellis, with whom he went to Utrecht (1690); returned to London (1691) where he taught mathematics; in Switzerland (1699-1701); involved himself in the dispute over the calculus between Isaac Newton (FRS 1672) and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (FRS 1673); associated himself with the Camisards and was prosecuted for spreading 'wicked and counterfeit prophecies' (1707); went on an expedition to convert the world, travelling through Germany and into Asia before returning to England; retired to Worcester; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1688; died, 1753.
Born in Birstall, Yorkshire, the eldest of six children. From 1742 adopted by his father's eldest sister, Sarah, wife of John Keighley. At Batley Grammar School from 1745, where learnt Latin and Greek; subsequently pupil of John Kirkby (1677-1754) congregational minister who had taught him Hebrew. Health initially not good enough to be a minister, so taught himself French German and Italian, and sought instruction in algebra and mathematics from George Haggerston (d. 1792) When health improved went to a dissenting academy, the Daventry Academy, where he was the first theological student under Caleb Ashworth, although Samuel Clarke (1727-1769) had more influence. His first post was as presbyterian minister at Needham Market, Suffolk, where his preaching was uncontroversial, though he did not hide his Arianism. In 1758 he became minister at Nantwich, Cheshire, where he established a flourishing school, and formed friendships with Edward Harwood and Joseh Brereton, vicar of Acton. In 1761 he became tutor at Warrington Academy, followed in 1762 by becoming ordained and marrying Mary, daughter of Isaac Wilkinson of Plas Grono, ironmaster at Bersham. The marriage led him to found a 'widows fund' for protestant dissenters of Lancashire and Cheshire in 1764, which became a valuable benefit society. Priestley spent a part of every year in London, where he met Benjamin Franklin. He was happy at Warrington, but it was not well paid, and his wife's health failed, so he took a post at Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds in 1767, where his ecclesiastical views underwent a change, and his printed tracts aroused criticism. In 1770 he founded the Leeds circulating library, and in 1771 received the offer of the post of astronomer on Captain Cook's second expedition by Sir Joseph Banks which he was unable to take up. Instead, in 1772 he took up the post of librarian or 'literary companion' with William Fitzmaurice-Pettty, second earl of Sherburne, afterwards first marquis of Lansdowne, at Calne. The books he catalogued are now the Lansdowne MSS in the British Museum, and he was given an extra £40 a year for his scientific experiments. He made his major discovery of 'dephlogisticated air' on 1 August 1774, just before accompanying his patron on a continental tour. His winters were spent in London, where he frequented the Whig Club at the London coffee-house of which Franklin and Canton were members. In 1780 he and Shelbourne parted amicably, and he moved to Birmingham to be nearer his brother-in-law John Wilkinson, who provided him with a house. His income was augmented by gifts from a wealthy widow, Elizabeth Rayner, and by annual subscriptions from his friends, such as Josiah Wedgwood the potter, and Samuel Parker a London optician, who also supplied him with every instrument he needed in glass. He became engaged for pastoral Sunday duty at the New Meeting in Birminghan in 1780. He dined once a month with the 'Lunar Society', meeting Matthew Boulton, James Keir, James Watt, William Withering the botanist and Erasmus Darwin. Politically he was never a member of a political party, but supported the reforming measures of the ablition of the slave trade and the repeal of the test and corporation acts. Popular feeling was against him after he vindicated the principles of the French revolution. In 1791 the Constitutional Society of Birmingham held a meeting, to which Priesltley did not go, but which led to riots; finding the guests had left the Dudley Hotel, the mob attacked the residences of the organisers, including Priestley's house at Fairhill. therafter he took up residence in London, becoming minister at the Gravel Pit Chapel in Hackney, where his friends more than made up his financial losses. However, he considered emigration to America for the sake of his children, a move supported by his wife, and in 1793 his three sons emigrated, followed in 1794 by Priestley and his wife.He settled in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, and after the death of his wife in 1796 went to live with his eldest son. He was never naturalized as an American citizen. He considered returning to Europe, especially France where he had property, but developing a fever while visiting Philadelphia in 1801 enfeebled him, and he died in Northumberland in 1804, and was buried in the Quakers burial ground there with William Chrisite giving a funeral address.
Born in Hampshire, England; physician; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1734; died, 1759.
Son of Francis Joseph Schuster of Frankfurt who in 1869 transferred his business in cotton goods to Manchester to escape Prussian nationality when Frankfurt annexed by Prussia. Left the Gymnasium in Frankfurt in 1868 to learn French at Geneva, where he also studied chemistry under Marignac, physics under Soret, and astronomy under Plantamour at the Geneva Academy. In 1870 he joined his family in Manchester, initially joining the firm of Schuster Brothers as an apprentice, but also attending evening classes in chemistry at Owen's College. He entered Owen's College as a day student in 1871, where he turned to spectrum analysis for special study, the Royal Society publishing his first paper 'On the Spectrum of Nitrogen'. In 1872 under Roscoe's guidance he went to Heidelberg to study under Kirchoff, and obtained his Ph.D 'magna cum laude'. he was appointed by the Royal Society to lead the expedition to observe the total solar eclipse off the coast of Siam, although the photographic plates being used were much too slow to be successful. He then worked at the Cavendish Laboratory 1876-1881 with Clerk Maxwell, and collaborated with Lord Rayleigh on the value of the ohm. He also took part in his second eclipse expedition to Colorado in 1878.In 1878 he was also appointed to the Professorship of Applied Mathematics at Owens College in Manchester, where he again took up spectrum analysis research. He still remained fascinated by eclipses, and was at last successful in photographing the spectrum of the solar corona on an expedition to Egypt in 1882, and went on his fourth and last eclipse expedition to the West Indies in 1886. He performed pioneering work on the discharge of electricity in gases, this being the subject of both Bakerian lectures. In 1888 he was appointed Professor of Physics in Owen's College on the death of Balfour Stewart. His own interests moved on to terrestrial magnetism, optics, solar physics, and the mathematical theory of periodicities. In 1896 Roentgen communicated to him his discovery of X-rays, experiments which Schuster repeated successfully, his laboratory subsequently being inundated with requests from the medical profession for aid in the introduction of X-ray practice. In 1900 the Royal Society, then the governing body of the Meteorological Office which was making difficulties for the Society with its ever-increasing demands for funds, appointed him to the Meteorological Council. In 1905 the Council was replaced by a Meteorological Committee under direct Treasury control, with Schuster one of the two Royal Society Representatives on the Committee. He served for thirty two years, taking a leading part in its work and acting as Vice- Chairman after the Office was transferred to the Air Ministry in 1919. He was also responsible for introducing meteorology as a university subject in England, funding a small department of meteorology as part of the Physics Department of Manchester University in 1905, and funding the Readership in Meteorology at Cambridge University at his own expense from 1907. Administratively his work was very varied, and included work for the College and University, such as building new physical laboratories at Manchester, for the Royal Society and Government, and above all for international science, particularly the International Research Council, of which he became the first secretary from 1919 to 1928.
William Dines was born on 5 August 1855, son of George Dines, inventor of a hygrometer and an active Fellow of the Meteorological Society. Never robust, he was the only son to survive childhood. He attended Woodcote House School in Windlesham. He learned engineering as a pupil at the Nine Elm Works of the South Western Railway, and after completing his apprenticeship went to Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, taking his BA degree in 1881 as twentieth wrangler. In 1882 he remained at Cambridge as a mathematical coach. He continued to teach mathematics, first as assistant to an army coach, and then in correspondence classes, but subsequently his meteorological work absorbed all his time. The Tay Bridge disaster of 28 December 1879, when a train crossing the bridge was carried away with the bridge into the river by a squall of wind, claimed attention of both meterologists and engineers to decide what allowance should be made for wind force on engineers' structures. Dines became the most active member of a Wind-Force Committee appointed by the Meteorological Society in 1886, revising the equation for wind-force from three 'significant figures' with a tolerance for 40 per cent to a single figure with very little error. He also designed the pressure tube anemograph for measuring wind velocity, including a device for recording the direction as well as velocity, hence providing a record of wind indispensable for the study of dynamical meterology. In his investigation of the structure of the upper air, Dines was equally successful, being the prime mover in establishing a committee for the investigation of the characteristics of the free atmosphere by the Royal Meteorological Society and the British Association in 1901. Dines began with diamond shaped kites of his own design at Oxshott, and moved to the Chiltern Hills near Watlington. Here he developed the use of sounding balloons, maintaining the investigation with kites at the same time. He was helped by his assistant H W Baker, and other stations were set up by C J P Cave of Ditcham Park, Dr G C Simpson at the experimental station at Glossop Moor in Derbyshire, S H R Salmon with a kite station at Brighton, Captain C H Ley RE with sounding balloons at Ross in Herefordshire and subsequently at Bird Hill, Limerick. Later Mungret College in Limerick became a regular station for work in the upper air. By 1913 the scientific value of the use of sounding-balloons had been recognised, and in 1914 Dines acquired the property at Benson (Wallingford, Berkshire) with the assent of the Meteorological Office. During the war the various centres of meteorological activity co-operated through the Meteorological Sub-Committee of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The work at Benson was significant both in experimental work and in co-ordinating and discussing results. After the war L F Richardson joined Dines, and they worked on investigating solar radiation. In 1922 Dines resigned the official charge of the observatory, his son L H G Dines becoming Assistant Superintendent to take charge of the official work, until in 1923 it was transferred to Kew Observatory. His main efforts of investigation were wind-measurement, investigation of the upper air, and solar and terrestrial radiation; but he was equally at home with the design of instruments, co-ordination and discussion of results, and consideration of current theory. He died in 1927.
Sowerby trained as an artist and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. He was best known for his illustrations to English Botany: or Coloured Figures of British Plants, With Their Essential Characters, Synonyms, and Places of Growth (1790-1814). This subsequently became known as 'Sowerby's Botany', although the text was supplied by James Edward Smith, whose name was at first withheld at his own request. His accurate descriptions and Sowerby's skilful drawings, beautifully coloured, made it a highly esteemed work which was frequently re-issued. Sowerby then published British Mineralogy in parts beginning in 1802, and his more important Mineral Conchology of Great Britain, again issued in parts from 1812. Sowerby also provided illustrations for other natural history works, such as that of Strata Identified by Organized Fossils by William Smith. His major contribution to natural history was his vast correspondence with naturalists in Britain and abroad, illustrating the advice he gave and his encouragement to collectors of plants, birds, insects, fossils and minerals. Many specimens were sent to him for identification. He too sent others in return, together with copies of parts of his publications, stimulating further research. He had his own museum at 2 Mead Place Lambeth, which was regularly visited by other naturalists. He married Anne de Carle of Norwich. His eldest son James de Carle Sowerby (1787-1871) and second son George Brettingham Sowerby (1788-1854) assisted him in his work. Their children too were artists and naturalists.
Isaac Newton was born, 1642; Education: Grantham Grammar School; Trinity College, Cambridge; BA (1665), MA (1668); Career: Left Cambridge because of the plague and spent two years at Woolsthorpe, where he did most of the work later published in the 'Principia Mathematica' and 'Opticks' (1665-1667); Fellow of Trinity (1667-death); Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Cambridge (1669-1701); MP for Cambridge University (1689, 1701); Warden of the Mint (1696); Master of the Mint (1699-death); Commissioner for Assessment for Cambridge, Cambridge University and Lincolnshire (1689-1690); acknowledged throughout Europe as a great scientist, philosopher and mathematician, he was involved in bitter controversies with Robert Hooke (FRS 1663), with Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (FRS 1673) over the calculus and with John Flamsteed (FRS 1677) over the publication of his astronomical observations; his body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster; Benefactor to the chapels of Christ's and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge and to Addenbrooke's Hospital; Fellow of the Royal Society, (1672); President of the Royal Society, (1703-1727); Royal Society Council (1697, 1699); died, 1727.
The origins of the Royal Society lie in an "invisible college" of natural philosophers who began meeting in the mid-1640s to discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon. Its official foundation date is 28 November 1660, when 12 of them met at Gresham College after a lecture by Christopher Wren, the Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and decided to found 'a Colledge for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning'. This group included Wren himself, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Sir Robert Moray, and William, Viscount Brouncker. The Society was to meet weekly to witness experiments and discuss what we would now call scientific topics. The first Curator of Experiments was Robert Hooke. It was Moray who first told the King, Charles II, of this venture and secured his approval and encouragement. At first apparently nameless, the name The Royal Society first appears in print in 1661, and in the second Royal Charter of 1663 the Society is referred to as 'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge'. The Society found accommodation at Gresham College and rapidly began to acquire a library (the first book was presented in 1661) and a repository or museum of specimens of scientific interest. After the Fire of 1666 it moved for some years to Arundel House, London home of the Dukes of Norfolk. It was not until 1710, under the Presidency of Isaac Newton, that the Society acquired its own home, two houses in Crane Court, off the Strand. In 1662 the Society was permitted by Royal Charter to publish and the first two books it produced were John Evelyn's Sylva and Micrographia by Robert Hooke. In 1665, the first issue of Philosophical Transactions was edited by Henry Oldenburg, the Society's Secretary. The Society took over publication some years later and Philosophical Transactions is now the oldest scientific journal in continuous publication. From the beginning, Fellows of the Society had to be elected, although the criteria for election were vague and the vast majority of the Fellowship were not professional scientists. In 1731 a new rule established that each candidate for election had to be proposed in writing and this written certificate signed by those who supported his candidature. These certificates survive and give a glimpse of both the reasons why Fellows were elected and the contacts between Fellows. The Society moved again in 1780 to premises at Somerset House provided by the Crown, an arrangement made by Sir Joseph Banks who had become President in 1778 and was to remain so until his death in 1820. Banks was in favour of maintaining a mixture among the Fellowship of working scientists and wealthy amateurs who might become their patrons. This view grew less popular in the first half of the 19th century and in 1847 the Society decided that in future Fellows would be elected solely on the merit of their scientific work. This new professional approach meant that the Society was no longer just a learned society but also de facto an academy of scientists. The Government recognised this in 1850 by giving a grant to the Society of £1,000 to assist scientists in their research and to buy equipment. Therefore a Government Grant system was established and a close relationship began, which nonetheless still allowed the Society to maintain its autonomy, essential for scientific research. In 1857 the Society moved once more, to Burlington House in Piccadilly, with its staff of two. The Royal Society Building Over the next century the work and staff of the Society grew rapidly and soon outgrew this site. Therefore in 1967 the Society moved again to its present location on Carlton House Terrace with a staff which has now grown to over 120, all working to further the Royal Society's roles as independent scientific academy, learned society and funding body.
George Lindsay Johnson, MD, FRCS.
Born, 1819; Assistant in the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope (1835-1845), cooperated with Sir Thomas Maclear in the extension of Lacaille's arc; produced oldest known calotypes of people and scenes in Southern Africa with the help of John Herschel; Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy, University of Edinburgh (1845-1888), introduced time service for Edinburgh with time ball on the Nelson monument and later a time gun fired from Edinburgh Castle (1861); resigned Fellowship on 7 February 1874 on the Society denying him the reading of his paper on the interpretation of the design of the Great Pyramid, published "The Great Pyramid and the Royal Society"; Became obsessed with the metre - he believed the decimal system was foreign, French, and atheist. Claimed if the pyramids were measured very accurately, it was possible to tell that they were based on the British yard, given by God and built by the Hebrews. Led expeditions to Egypt to measure them accurately to prove this. Use of the yard in the Pyramids proved there were common values between the founders of Egypt and the Anglo-Saxons, and so helped to justify the Conquest of Egypt in 1881-2; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1857; died, 1900.
James Sowerby trained as an artist and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. He was best known for his illustrations to English Botany: or Coloured Figures of British Plants, With Their Essential Characters, Synonyms, and Places of Growth (1790-1814). This subsequently became known as 'Sowerby's Botany', although the text was supplied by James Edward Smith, whose name was at first withheld at his own request. His accurate descriptions and Sowerby's skilful drawings, beautifully coloured, made it a highly esteemed work which was frequently re-issued. Sowerby then published British Mineralogy in parts beginning in 1802, and his more important Mineral Conchology of Great Britain, again issued in parts from 1812. Sowerby also provided illustrations for other natural history works, such as that of Strata Identified by Organized Fossils by William Smith. His major contribution to natural history was his vast correspondence with naturalists in Britain and abroad, illustrating the advice he gave and his encouragement to collectors of plants, birds, insects, fossils and minerals. Many specimens were sent to him for identification. He too sent others in return, together with copies of parts of his publications, stimulating further research. He had his own museum at 2 Mead Place Lambeth, which was regularly visited by other naturalists. He married Anne de Carle of Norwich. His eldest son James de Carle Sowerby (1787-1871) and second son George Brettingham Sowerby (1788-1854) assisted him in his work. Their children too were artists and naturalists.
Robert Were Fox was the son of Robert Were Fox, a shipping agent, and Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Tregellen of Falmouth. Educated privately, he showed a special aptitude in mathematics, and was taught to study natural phenomena by his mother. In 1814, during his wedding trip on the continent, he formed lasting friendships with F W H A von Humboldt and other foreign scientists. His researches began in 1812 with Joel Lean, when they performed a series of experiments hoping to improve Watt's engines which were used in Cornish mines. In 1815 Fox began his researches into the internal temperature of the earth, which continued throughout his life. Facilities were provided for this by his lifelong connection with Cornish mines. Fox was the first to prove definitively that heat increased with depth, and that this increase was in diminishing ratio as depth increased. Fox was also interested in magnetic phenomena, especially relating to the earth's magnetism, and constructed a new dipping needle of great sensitivity and accuracy which was later used by Sir James Clark Ross in his voyage to the Antarctic in 1837 and by Captain Nares in the expedition to the North Pole in 1875-1877. Fox was one of the founders of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society in 1833, and was Vice President several times. He died at his house near Falmouth in 1877 and was buried at the Friends' burial ground at Budock.
Born, 1847; succeeded his father as Ironmaster, Wortley Iron Works; practised as a consulting metallurgical engineer and metallurgical chemist; FRSE; FCS; AICE; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1888; died, 1907.
Professor Hartridge was a physiologist who made important contributions to knowledge of the mechanisms of hearing and sight as well as inventing apparatus, especially optical apparatus. He worked in the Physiology Department at Cambridge until 1927, then as Professor of Physiology at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School 1927-1947 and as Director of an MRC Unit at the Institute of Opthalmology 1947-1951. For further details see Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society vol 23, 1977, pp 193-211.
Samuel Holmes was Sergeant-Major of the 12th light dragoons.
The Philosophical Club was formed as part of the general movement to reform the Royal Society and was founded in 1847. It merged with the Royal Society (Dining) Club in 1901.
Born, 1828; Education: Trinity College, Dublin. BA (1850), MA (1870); MEng; Career: Conducted railway surveys, Spain (1852-1853); resident engineer on the construction of the Boyne Viaduct; Engineer, Dublin Port and Docks Board (1862-1898); Memberships: MICE; MICE, Ireland (President); MRIA; RDS; FRGS; MINA; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1881; died, 1909.
Born, c 1637; Education: Westminster School; Christ Church, Oxford; BA (1658), MA (1660); Career: Began his travels before he had taken his Master's degree, captured by pirates and sold; returned to Oxford (c 1660); accompanied the Earl of Carlisle, Ambassador-Extraordinary to Sweden (1668); Secretary to the Embassy at Paris, where he acted as medium of communication between men of science in England and France (1669-1671); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1672; travelled through Venice, Dalmatia, Greece, Turkey and Persia, where he was murdered by some Arabs in a quarrel over a penknife, 1677.
Born, 1731; Education: School at Nottinghamshire School, Chesterfield; St John's College, Cambridge; Edinburgh Medical School. MB (1755); MD (Edinburgh); Career: Practised medicine at Lichfield, Staffordshire; member of the Lunar Society; many inventions, including a vertical-axis windmill, used in Josiah Wedgwood's (FRS 1783) factory; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1761; died, 1802.
Born, 1856; Education: Owen's College, Manchester; Trinity College, Cambridge. BA (1880); Career: Fellow and Lecturer of Trinity College, Cambridge; Profesor of Natural Philosophy, Royal Institution, London; Cavendish Professor of Physics, Cambridge (1884-1918); Master of Trinity College, Cambridge (1918); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1884; died, 1940.
Pasteur's research on fermentation and rabies led to his discovery that most infectious diseases are caused by germs, the 'germ theory of disease'. He invented pasteurisation and his work became a key influence on developments in bacteriology and microbiology as well as in gerenal medical practise; The Pasteur Institute was founded in 1887 by Louis Pasteur; Louis Pasteur's grandfather was Jean Henri Pasteur, and his aunt Jeannette Pasteur, were both of Vuillafans, near Besançon. A cousin, Maximien Buchon, was of Salins; Magnan family correspondence includes letters Marie and Louise Pasteur, Jules Raulin, Eugène Magnan, and Mathilde Magnan (afterwards Fournery); Jules Raulin (1836-1896), was Pasteur's first assistant, afterwards Sous-Directeur of Pasteur's Laboratoire de Chimie Physiologique at the Ecole Normale and Professor of Chemistry at Lyons. 1862-84 and n.d; Louis Pasteur's assistant Fernand Boutroux, was the brother of Jeanne Pasteur; Henry Debray (1827-1888) and Eugène Viala were also assistants to Pasteur; Jules Vercel was a school friend of Pasteur's from Arbois.
Born in Victoria, Australia, 1891; Education: MBBS (Melbourne, 1915); MD, DSc; career: Served in the Australian Army Medical Corps (World War One); Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne (1920); Medical Research Officer, Bombay; returned to Hall Institute (1927); Lecturer, School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1929-1940); Consulting Physician, Australian Military Forces (1940-1942); Director of Medicine and Chairman, Combined Advisory Committee on Tropical Medicine, South Pacific Area (1942-1946); Professor of Tropical Medicine, London (1946); resigned on health grounds (1948); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1942; Buchanan Medal, 1957; died, 1966.
George Lindor Brown was born in Liverpool on 9 February 1903, son of George William Arthur Brown, schoolmaster in Warrington, and Helen Wharram. He attended Boteler Grammar School in Warrington, and entered the University of Manchester on a scholarship to study medicine, where A V Hill, the Nobel Prize winner, was his Professor of Physiology. He took an honours B.Sc. in physiology in 1924, then won the Platt Physiological Scholarship which enabled him to do research with B A McSwiney, earning an M.Sc. (1925). He qualified in Medicine in 1928 (MB, Ch.B Manch.), winning the Bradley Prize and medal for operative surgery. He joined McSwiney as lecturer in physiology at Leeds University in 1928, taking six months' leave to work in Sir C S Sherrington's laboratory at Oxford, and collaborating with J C Eccles. In 1934 Sir Henry Dale offered, and Brown accepted, a post at the National Institute for Medical Research in Hampstead, where he worked with (Sir) John Gaddum and W S Feldberg establishing the cholinergic theory of chemical transmission. In 1942 the Royal Naval Personnel Research Committee was established, and he became involved very successfully with diving and underwater operations, remaining Secretary to the RNPRC until 1949, and then its chairman until 1969. In 1949 he accepted the Jodrell Chair of Physiology at University College London, where he strenghthened the physiology and biophysics departments under (Sir) Bernard Katz and worked with J S Gillespie on adrenergic transmission. He served on various Royal Society committees, becoming Biological Secretary, 1955-1963. In 1960 he accepted the Waynflete chair of physiology in Oxford, becoming a Fellow of Magdalen. He also became a member of the Franks Commission of Inquiry into the working of Oxford University. In 1967 he resigned his chair to be elected Principal of Hertford College Oxford, although he continued with his research group in the pharmacology department. He was responsible for inaugurating the College's major apeal, negotiated two senior research fellowships, and dealt lightly with student restiveness. He married in 1930 Jane Rosamond, daughter of Charles Herbert Lees, FRS, Professor of Physics in the University of London and Vice-Principal of Queen Mary College, and had one daughter and three sons.
Born, 1922; Education: Oundle School; Oxford, D.Phil. research into infr-red spectroscopy under HW Thompson; Career: Wartime work on enemy aviation fuels; infra-red research on aromatic benzene nucleus; electron-spin resonance spectrometry; 'spin-flip laser project'; Lecturer, University of Birmingham (1949-); Superintendent , Molecular Science Division, National Physical Labboratory; Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Newcastle (1968-1985); Dean of Science, University of Newcastle (1974-1977) Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Newcastle (1980-1983); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1966; Royal Society Council, 1971-1973; died, 2002.
Born, 1815; Education: University College, London. BA (1841); Career: Articled to an architect and surveyor; took up teaching; assistant to George Fownes (FRS 1845); Professor of Practical Chemistry, University College, London (1849-1857); had a speech impediment; Editor, Journal of the Chemical Society (1849-1884); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1866; died, 1884.
Born, 1859; Education: DSc (Lond); Honours: CIE 1908; KCIE 1913; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1895; died 1940.
Born, 1827; Education: University College, London; PhD (Giessen); Career: Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, St Thomas's ( by 1852); Fullerian Professor of Chemistry, Royal Institution (1874-1877); undertook pioneer research in optics and spectroscopy; worked with the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Christian Evidence Society (CES); suffered a cardiac seizure after a meeting of the CES and was found dead in his study; Royal Society, 1853; Davy Medal, 1897; died, 1902.
Born in 1803 at Rose in Vale, Cornwall, Henry James was educated at the grammar school in Exeter, and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; and was commissioned second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 22 September 1826. The following year he was appointed to the Ordnance Survey, on which he served mainly in Ireland. In 1843 James was appointed loal superintendent of the geological survey of Ireland under Sir Henry De la Beche. On 7 July 1846 James was transferred to Admiralty employment, and became chief engineer at Portsmouth with charge of the construction works in the dockard. On 8 September 1847 he was appointed to the commission investigating the use of iron in railway structures. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society on 30 November 1848, and an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 1 May 1849. James returned to the Ordnance Survey in 1850, and had his divisional headquarters at Edinburgh. In 1854 James married Anne Matson, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. On 11 July 1854 James was appointed superintendent of the Ordnance Survey.
Whilst in charge of the Survey, one-inch and six-inch scale maps were retained for the whole of the UK and the 1:2500
scale was adopted in addition for populous, cultivated, and mining districts. Also, related scientific investigations were undertaken: in 1856, observations were made with Airy's zenith sector on the sumit of Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh, to determine the mean specific gravity of the earth by triangulation. In 1860 James was knighted in recognition of his services. Also, In 1864-5 James arranged for a survey of Jerusalem, with the aim to make the city's water system less hazardous to pilgrims.
James also advocated a new process of map reproduction for which he conied the name of 'photozincography' (a chromocarbon photographic print of a small drawing was prepared and then transfered to zinc). This process allowed the Survey to keep pace with demands for maps in a variety of scales.
Born, 1844; Education: LLD; MA; Honours: CMG 1901; Kt 1915; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1900; died, 1934.
Born, 1882; Education: MA; PhD; Career: Professor of Mathematical Physics in the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1928; died, 1946.
The son of a physician, Edward George Tandy Liddell was born on 25 March 1895 in Harrogate. Suffering from pneumonia bouts during his first years, Liddell was to remain in poor health throughout his life, but completed a vast amount of experimental work on the nature of the nervous system.
As an undergraduate reading medicine at Trinity College, Oxford, Liddell was greatly influenced by Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, who at that time held the position of Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford. Sherrington had already made significant contributions to the study of the nervous system and reflexes with finely-tuned experiments on cats and dogs. His results demonstrated 'Sherrington's Law,' the principle that when one muscle is stimulated, muscles that work in opposition are simultaneously inhibited, a turning point in the understanding of co-ordinated motion. Liddell was to be Sherrington's sole assistant in research until 1926. Much of their collaboration appears in Liddell's dissertation, which provided concrete experimental evidence of Sherrington's theories of inhibition.
Liddell continued to refine his experimental techniques in recording reflexes and contributed many details to the emerging picture of the integrated nervous system, often collaborating with pioneers of neurology such as D Denny-Brown and J C Eccles. He conducted several experiments concerning postural reflexes and their origin of control in the brain, work which proved crucial in understanding spinal cord injuries. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1939 and Waynflete Professor of Physiology in 1940, he was increasingly active in administration and the rebuilding of laboratories at Oxford after the war.
In 1960 Liddell published a book/memoir, 'The Discovery of Reflexes,' detailing the history of ideas about the nervous system up through the exciting time of Sherrington's laboratory work.
The collection of Liddell's papers includes his unpublished degree thesis, 'The excitatory and inhibitory states in reflex activity,' as well as notebooks from his early school years through university. A later notebook contains Liddell's own detailed instructions for cat dissection with an emphasis on features of the nervous system. The collection also includes correspondence relating to the publication of his book 'The Discovery of Reflexes,' with notes and reminiscing from Sherrington's son Carr, D Denny-Brown, R S Creed, R Granit and other well-known names in the history of neurophysiology.
Born in Edinburgh. Son of James Cumming of Duthil, Inverness-shire. Taken into service by Lord Milton on account of his precocious mechanical skill. Member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. Working in Inverary, Argyll as watchmaker and enrolled as burgess by 1752. With his brother John employed by Duke fo Argyll in making a new organ for his castle at Inverary, and a long case clock for the castle. Argyll's family connections with John Stuart, third Earl of Bute and tutor to George III led to patronage and Cumming's establishment in New Bond Street London. His reputation led him to be appointed a member of the commission to adjudicate on John Harrisons's 'timekeeper for discovering the longitude at sea'. One of those who insisted that a second timekeeper be made according to Harrison's principles to prove he had both fully disclosed his methods and had invented a reliable means of checking longitude. His essay 'Elements of Clock and Watch Work Adapted to Practice' printed in 1766 where he outlined his ideas about clockwork and included one fo the earliest designf for a gravity escarpment, seemingly arose when he was appointed to the commission on Harrison's timekeeper, and he deposited it with the Philosophicle Society of Edinburgh to protect himself against the possibility of charges of plagiarism after he had heard Harrison's explanation.
He was especially interested in the measurement of air pressure and the ideas outlined by Robert Hooke for recording barometer readings, in 1765 making a special clock for George III which recorded on a chart the changes in barometer readings over a year. This is considered to be the first effective recording barograph, and he was paid £15 per year to maintain it. The next year he made a slightly different version for his own use, which after his death was bought by Luke Howard, who used it for the observations that formed the basis of his pioneering work ' The Climate of London'. He made two gold stopwatches for William Hamilton FRS 1766 at Naples, and in 1769 a watch for Charles Blagden FRS 1772, on whose behalf he ordered an electifying machine from Jesse Ramsden FRS 1786.
Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer was born in the Netherlands in 1881; Research Field:
Mathematics; Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 1948; died, 1966.
Born, 1888; Education: BA (Camb); Career: Reader in Pure Mathematics, University of Manchester; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1924; Sylvester Medal, 1949; died, 1972.
Born, 1903; CBE 1956; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1948; Rumford Medal, 1956; died, 1968.
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952) was Professor-Superintendent of the Brown Institution, which specialised in research into diseases of domestic animals. The Institute was situated in Wandsworth Road, South West London and was destroyed by bombing in 1944. Sherrington was later Professor of Pathology, University of London, and Lecturer on Physiology at St Thomas's Hospital.
John Newport Langley was born, 1852; Education: Exeter Grammar School; St John's College, Cambridge. BA (1875), MA (1878), ScD (1896); Career: Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1877, re-elected 1885); Lecturer, Trinity College, Cambridge; Lecturer, Cambridge University (1883-1903); Professor of Physiology, Cambridge (1903-1925); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1883; Royal Medal, 1892; Royal Society Council, 1897-1898; Royal Society Vice President, 1904-1905; died, 1925.
Francis Gotch was born, 1853; Education: BA; BSc (Lond); Hon MA (Oxon); MRCS; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1892; died, 1913.