Education: School and University at Bremen; MTh (1639); Oxford (entered 1656). Career: Lived in England (1640-1648); travelled on the continent, returning to Bremen (1652); sent by the Council of Bremen to negotiate with Cromwell (1653); Tutor to Henry, son of Barnabas O'Brien, 6th Earl of Thomond, and Richard Jones (FRS 1663), son of Robert Boyle's sister, Catherine, Lady Ranelagh; accompanied Jones to France and Germany (1657-1660); published 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society' (1665-1677); imprisoned in the Tower of London (1667) on suspicion that his extensive foreign correspondence was political, rather than scientific; worked as a translator (1670).
Education: Merchant Taylors' School; St John's College, Oxford; BCL (1683), Incorporated at Cambridge (1685), DCL (1694); studied botany under Tournefort in Paris (1686-1688); Leyden (admitted 1694); Padua (admitted 1696). Career: Fellow of St John's (1683-1703); granted permission to travel abroad for three periods of five years each (1685); travelled to Geneva, Rome and Naples, Cornwall and Jersey, sending lists of the plants he saw to John Ray (FRS 1667); Tutor to Sir Arthur Rawdon at Moira, Co Down (1690-1694), Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (FRS 1706), with whom he travelled in Europe (1694), Wriothesley, son of William, Lord Russell, with whom he travelled in France and Italy (1695-1699), Henry, Duke of Beaufort, at Badminton (1700-1702); Commissioner for Sick and Wounded Prisoners (1702); English Consul at Smyrna, where he grew many rare plants in his garden, formed a celebrated herbarium and travelled in Asia Minor (1703-1717); travelled in Europe (1721, 1723, 1727); bequeathed £3000 to found the chair of Botany at Oxford first occupied by his friend John James Dillenius (FRS 1724).
Sir Joseph Banks was born in London in 1743; educated at Harrow School, 1752-1756 and Eton College, 1756-1760, where he showed an interest in botany. Banks matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford and following his father's death in 1761 chose to devote himself to natural history. He was elected a Fellow of Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries, 1766 and in the same year undertook his apprenticeship as a scientifically trained Linnaean naturalist on an expedition to Labrador and Newfoundland. He later undertook the Endeavour voyage of 1768-1771 with James Cook. On his return in 1771, Banks was introduced to King George III, later becoming his friend and advisor on matters concerning science and agriculture. Banks was President of the Royal Society from 1778 to 1820 and Virtual Director of Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, 1773. Banks was one of the founders of the Africa Society and promoted greater British involvement in the exploration of Africa. He was made a knight in Order of the Bath, 1795 and died in 1820.
Born 1668 or 1673; educated in medicine, and served as a medical practitioner in south Wales; developed a method for ascertaining longitude using a theoretically derived table of the earth's magnetic variation (declination), in which the angle between geographic north and the direction indicated by a compass needle was calculated for different points of the globe; Williams also invented a device for desalinating sea water to make it drinkable; died, 1755.
Nathanael Mattheus von Wolf was born in Danzig (Gdansk), Poland on 24 January 1724; elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 1777; died, 15 December 1784.
Born, c 1646; educated, Christ's College, Cambridge; BA, 1667; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1681; secretary of the Royal Society, 1687–1709 and 1710–1714; died, 1715.
Born, 1828; educated at Kensington grammar school and The Grange, Sunderland; earnt his living by teaching, first at Glasgow and than at the Royal Institution, Liverpool; attended St John's College, Cambridge, 1848-1852; second master of Bristol grammar school, 1852; headmaster, 1855; resigned his post at Bristol grammar school, 1860; opened a private school at Manilla Hall, Clifton, 1861-1881; devoted his leisure to microscopical research, in particular the study of the Rotifera; fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, 1872; president of the Royal Microscopical Society, 1888-1890; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1889; died, 1903.
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, 1687; Free school at Holbeach; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; MB (1708), MD (1719); studied anatomy under Mr Rolfe, a surgeon in Chancery Lane, and medicine under Richard Mead (FRS 1703) at St Thomas's Hospital; practiced in Boston, Lincolnshire, 1710-1717; in London, 1717-1726; and in Grantham, Lincolnshire, 1726-1730, where his patients included members of the local aristocracy; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1718; ordained deacon and priest, 1729; Vicar of All Saints, Stamford, 1729-1747; Rector of St George-the-Martyr, Queen Square, London, 1747-1765; friend of Sir Isaac Newton (FRS 1672); died of palsy, 1765; his collections of Roman coins, fossils, pictures and antiquities were sold after his death.
Born at Valentia Island, Co. Kerry in 1845. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he Studied Mathematics. In 1875 he was appointed Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Coopers Hill in London, now part of Brunel University.
Minchin wrote several mathematical texts, Statics was the best known and ran to seven editions. As well as his mathematical work, he investigated wireless waves, X-rays and photo-electricity at Coopers Hill and University College London and he invented and developed an absolute sine-electrometer for measuring voltage.
Minchin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1895.
Louis Poirot was missionary from the Congregation de propaganda fide at Pekin.
Born, 1722; probably educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, before entering Trinity College, Oxford, BA 1743; MA 1746; MB 1750; MD 1754; practiced in Birmingham, 1752-1769; founder member of Birmingham General Hospital, 1779; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1787; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1787; leading member of the Royal College of Physicians, being censor in 1789 and 1793, Harveian orator in 1790, Goulstonian lecturer in 1791, and Croonian lecturer in 1793; died, 1798.
Paulus Orosius was a Christian historian, theologian and disciple of St. Augustine who came from Gallaecia. He wrote Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII ("Seven Books of History Against the Pagans"), which he wrote in response to the belief that the decline of the Roman Empire was the result of its adoption of Christianity.
Born, 1800; educated successively at private schools at Tooting and at Winchester; joined his elder brother, who was king's counsel at Tortola (Virgin Islands), 1815, and spent his time surveying and learning Spanish and French; served for some years on Simón Bolívar's staff, Colombia, as a captain of engineers, and ultimately attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel; granted permission to survey the Isthmus of Panama and report on the best means of inter-oceanic communication, 1827; fellow of the Royal Society, 1830; employed, under the joint direction of the Board of Admiralty and the Royal Society, in determining the difference of level in the Thames between London Bridge and the sea, 1830-1831; colonial civil engineer and surveyor-general, Mauritius, 1831-1849; associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers and served on the council, 1849; special commissioner charged with organizing displays of manufacturing and industrial products for the Great Exhibition, 1851; British chargé d'affaires to Bolivia, 1851; died, 1854.
Born, 1630; Education: Charterhouse School; Felsted School (for 4 years); Peterhouse, Cambridge; Trinity College, Cambridge; BA (1648/9), MA (1652), BD (1661), DD (1666); Incorporated at Oxford (1653); tutor to Viscount Fairfax; Fellow of Trinity (1649); travelled abroad (1655-1659); Ordained (1659); Fellow of Eton College (1660); Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge (1660-1663); Professor of Geometry, Gresham College, London (1662-1663); Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge (1663-1669); Prebendary of Salisbury (1671); Chaplain to Charles II; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge (1673-1677); Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge (1675-1676); died of an overdose of an opiate, 1677.
Father Antonio Piaggi of the order of Scole Pie resided for many years in Resina at the foot of Mount Vesuvious, he kept a diary of the volcanic activity 1779-1794.
Born, 1813; Education: Belfast Royal Academy; studied under Thomas Thomson (FRS 1811) at Glasgow and under Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas (For Mem RS 1840) and L J Thenard (For Mem 1824) in Paris; Trinity College, Dublin studying classics and science; Edinburgh, MD (Edinburgh); Career: Practised medicine, Belfast (1836-); Professor of Chemistry, Royal Belfast Academic Institution; gave up practice (1845); first Professor of Chemistry, Queen's College, Belfast (1845-1879); Vice-President of Queen's College, Belfast (1845); MRCSE; MRIA (1849); Fellow of the Royal Society (1849); President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1867); FRSE (1870) President, British Association (1874); declined a knighthood (1880); died, 1885.
Born, 1616; Education: School at Ashford; James Mouat's School at Ley Green, near Tenterden, Kent; Felsted School (for 2 years); Emmanuel College, Cambridge; BA (1637), MA (1640); Incorporated at Oxford (1649); DD (Oxford 1654); Incorporated from Oxford (1656); Career: Ordained (1640); Chaplain to Sir Richard Darley (1640-1642) and to Mary, Baroness Vere (1642-1644); employed by Parliament to decipher intercepted dispatches (1642-1645); Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge (1644-1645); Secretary to the Westminster Assembly (1644); Original Fellow of the Royal Society; Rector of St Gabriel's, Fenchurch Street, London (1645-1647); Minister of St Martin's, Ironmonger Lane, London (1647); Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford (1649-1703); Keeper of the Archives at Oxford (1654-1703); Justice of the Peace; Decipherer to William III; opposed the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (1692).
David Gregory of Kinnairdie (1627-1720), inventor, apprenticed by his father to a mercantile house in Holland. Returned in 1655, and succeeded to the estate of Kinnairdie on the death of an older brother. Highly regarded in medicine, having a large gratuitous practice both among the poor, and people of standing. First man in Aberdeenshire to possess a barometer, and his weather forecasts exposed him to suspicions of witchcraft. Moved to Aberdeen and investigated artillery. With help of an Aberdeen watchmaker constructed an improved model of a cannon, forwarding it to his eldest son David , and to Newton, who held it was 'for the diabolical purpose of increasing carnage', and who urged him to break it up.
David Gregorie (1661-1708, FRS 1692), astronomer, son of David Gregory (1627-1720). Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh University in 1683, first professor to lecture publicly on Newtonian philosophy, enthusiastic promoter of Newton's 'Principia'. In 1691 went to Oxford where introduced to Newton, who became an intimate friend and who with Flamsteed influenced his appointment as Savilian Professor of Astronomy in Oxford. His principal work 'Astronomiae Physicae et Geometricae Elementa' in 1702 was the first text book composed on gravitational principles and remodelling astronomy in conformity with physical theory. Approved by Newton, who had included in it his lunar theory, and for which he wrote a preface. Gregory was a skilful mathematician who left manuscript treatises on fluxions, trigonometry, mechanics and hydrostatics, and who was also known for his printing in 1703 of all the writings attributed, with any show of authority, to Euclid.
James Gregory (1638-1675, FRS 1668) mathematician and elder brother of David Gregory (1627-1708) His scientific talent was discovered and encouraged by his brother, and in 1673 at age 24 he published his 'Optica Promota' containing the first feasible description of a reflecting telescope, his invention of it dating from 1661, and inspiring Newton to make his own reflecting telescope. Studied mathematics in Padua 1664-1667, publishing 'Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura' in 1667, showing how to find the areas of the circle, elipse, and hyoerbole by means of converging series, and applying the same new method to calculation of logarithms. Friendly debate with Newton 1672-1673 as to merits of their respective telescopes. From 1674 first exclusively mathematical professor at Edinburgh.
Created by Robert Hooke as copies of papers read to the Society.
Born, 1655; educated at Winchester College; at New College, Oxford, 1675-1682; FRS, 1684; second secretary of the Royal Society and edited the Philosophical Transactions; formed the Philosophical Society of Oxford, 1685; practised in Oxford; practised in Exeter, 1691-; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1692; died, 1721.
William Scoffin was Captain of the Arctic Whaler Duncombe.
Born, 1858; educated at Sheffield collegiate school; discovered of manganese steel, 1882; patented silicon steel, 1886; took over the family steel business; chairman and managing director of Hadfields Steel Foundry Company, 1888-1940; fellow of the Royal Society, 1909; died, 1940.
Born, 1825; PhD; Professor of Chemistry, Owen's College, Manchester, -1857; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1853; Royal Medal, 1857; Copley Medal, 1894; Secretary of the Royal Society, 1895-1899; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1887-1888; died, 1899.
William Pengelly FRS (1812-1894) and Edward Vivian were superintendents of exploration at Kent's Cavern near Torquay in Devon.
Caleb Burrell Rose was an East Anglian surgeon and geologist.
Born, 1810; BA; Entered family iron founding business aged 21; patented the 'buckled plate' (1852); Fellow of the Royal Society, (1854); Awarded Cunningham Medal of the Royal Irish Academy (1862); honorary MAI (Master of Engineering), University of Dublin (1862); honorary LLD, University of Dublin (1864); President, Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (1866); President, Geological Society of Dublin (1846); with his son John William Mallet, FRS compiled an earthquake catalogue amd seismic map of the world (1850-1858); was the first to determine an earthquake's epicentre (Naples, 1858); died, 1881.
Robert Mallet was born, 1810; BA; Entered family iron founding business aged 21; patented the 'buckled plate' (1852); Fellow of the Royal Society, (1854); Awarded Cunningham Medal of the Royal Irish Academy (1862); honorary MAI (Master of Engineering), University of Dublin (1862); honorary LLD, University of Dublin (1864); President, Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (1866); President, Geological Society of Dublin (1846); with his son John William Mallet, FRS compiled an earthquake catalogue amd seismic map of the world (1850-1858); was the first to determine an earthquake's epicentre (Naples, 1858); died, 1881.
Colonel John Herschel was the son of Sir John Frederick William Herschel.
Robert Boyle was born on 25 January 1627 at Lismore, Munster, seventh son of the notorious Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork, thereby having high status and considerable wealth. His education began at home, then continued at Eton and with foreign travel from 1639. He visited France, Geneva - where he suffered a conversion experience which was to have a profound effect on him - and Italy, where he discovered the writings of Galileo. He returned to England in 1644, taking up residence at the family manor of Stalbridge, Dorset, from 1645. He visited Ireland in 1652-1653, then by 1656 moved to Oxford where he joined the circle of natural philosophers there which formed the liveliest centre of English science at that time. After the Restoration in 1660, many of them moved to London, where the Royal Society was founded (with Boyle among its founding Fellows), although Boyle did not move there until 1668, sharing a house in Pall Mall with his sister Katherine, Lady Ranelagh, until they both died in 1691. In the 1640's he became preoccupied with themes which were to continue throughout his life - vindication of an approved understanding of nature, in its own right as well as its utilitarian advantages; insistence on the importance of experiment in pursuing this aim, and the advocacy of spirituality. To these ends he became involved with other like-minded individuals known as the 'Invisible College', and subsequently the circle of intellectuals surrounding the Prussian emigré, Samuel Hartlib. He devoted his life to extensive and systematic experimentation, and to writing. His major scientific work on pneumatics, 'New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Air and its Effects', used the air pump as the key piece of equipment used to explore the physical properties of air, vindicated the possibility of a vacuum, illustrated the extent to which life depended on air, and proved that the volume of air varies inversely with its pressure (Boyle's Law). 1661 saw the publication of the 'Sceptical Chemist' and 'Certain Physiological Essays', the beginning of a series where he sought to vindicate a mechanistic theory of matter and to remodel chemistry along new lines, and where he crucially vindicated an experimental approach. In the 1670's his publications continued the previous themes, but also included theology. In the 1680's, his interest shifted to medical matters, such as 'Memoirs for the Natural History of Human Blood' (1684), or the collections of recipes in his 'Medicinal Experiments' (1688-1694). At the same time, he continued his work as a Christian apologist, his 'The Christian Virtuoso' appearing in 1690. His concern about the theological implications of the new philosophy can be seen in 'Discourse of Things above Reason' (1681) and 'Disquisition about the Final Causes of Things' (1688). On his death in 1691 he endowed a Lectureship to expound the Christian message. His significance to the development of natural philosphy was recognised in his lifetime, and his influence was particularly important for Isaac Newton, the leading figure in the following generation, whose work is seen as the culmination of the scientific achievement of seventeenth-century England.
In 1821–1823 Thomas Colby was deputed by the Royal Society, with Captain Henry Kater, to work with the astronomers Arago and Matthieu of the Académie des Sciences to verify observations made forty years earlier connecting the triangulations of England and France. For cross-channel observations, Fresnel lamps with compound lenses 3 feet in diameter were used, and Colby's description of them influenced Robert Stevenson to adopt them in British lighthouses. ( Source: Oxford DNB).
Born, 1800; educated successively at private schools at Tooting and at Winchester; joined his elder brother, who was king's counsel at Tortola (Virgin Islands), 1815, and spent his time surveying and learning Spanish and French; served for some years on Simón Bolívar's staff, Colombia, as a captain of engineers, and ultimately attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel; granted permission to survey the Isthmus of Panama and report on the best means of inter-oceanic communication, 1827; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1830; employed, under the joint direction of the Board of Admiralty and the Royal Society, in determining the difference of level in the Thames between London Bridge and the sea, 1830-1831; colonial civil engineer and surveyor-general, Mauritius, 1831-1849; associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers and served on the council, 1849; special commissioner charged with organizing displays of manufacturing and industrial products for the Great Exhibition, 1851; British chargé d'affaires to Bolivia, 1851; died, 1854.
Born, 1790; educated at the Royal Military College, Marlow, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 1805; joined the East India Company as a cadet, 1806; sailed for India as second lieutenant in the Bengal artillery, 1806; surveyed Java at the request of the lieutenant-governor, Stamford Raffles, 1814-1816; worked on improving the navigation of the rivers connecting the Ganges and the Hooghly; chief assistant on the great trigonometrical survey of India, 1818-1820; convalescence, 1820-1821; returned to the survey, 1821; superintendent of the great trigonometrical survey, 1823-1842; Surveyor-General of India, 1830-1843; returned to England, 1843; died, 1866.
Born, 1825; PhD; Professor of Chemistry, Owen's College, Manchester, -1857; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1853; Royal Medal, 1857; Copley Medal, 1894; Secretary of the Royal Society, 1895-1899; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1887-1888; died, 1899.
Botanical collection begun in Yorkshire c 1833; specialized in mosses and liverworts, an interest confirmed after a visit to Dr Thomas Glanville Taylor in Ireland in 1848. Came to the attention of Sir William Hooker in 1844 and sent to the Pyrenees on an expedition (1845-6) under the sponsorship of George Bentham. Hooker, Bentham and other botanists sent Spruce to South America in 1849. At the end of that year he travelled up the Amazon to Santarem where he met zoologist Alfred Russel Wallace and lepidopterist Henry Walter Bates. His exploration at this date included plants with medicinal properties, such as the datura and coca plants. He spent three years on the Orinoco and Negro rivers, then in 1854 ascended the Amazon by steamer to Nantua in Peru and then to the Andes, where he stayed two years and collected 250 species of ferns. In 1857 he came down the Amazon and went to Ecuador, later moving to Ambato which he made his headquarters and explored the Quintensian Andes. The India Office commissioned him to collect seeds and polants of the cinchona, the source of quinine, which were later sent to India. He published his report on this in 1861. In 1867 he finally returned to England and spent the remaining twenty seven years of life sorting his collections. These included notes on twenty one Amazonian languages, many hundreds of drawings, and notes and maps of three previously unexplored rivers.
Born 1800; entered the Royal Navy, 1812; served first on the BRISEIS under his uncle John whom he followed to the ACTAEON, DRIVER, and, in 1818, to the ISABELLA, in which the Rosses made their first Arctic voyage in 1818, searching for the north-west passage from Baffin Bay to the Bering Strait; appointed to undertake similar scientific work in the BECLA under William Edward Parry, 1819-1820; Arctic expedition, again under Parry in the RURY, 1821-1823; joined Parry's third voyage in the FURY, 1824-1825; second in command in the HECLA expedition on which Parry tried to reach the north pole over the ice, 1827; joined John Ross in the VICTORY to search for the north-west passage, 1829-1833; conducted the first systematic magnetic survey of the British Isles, 1835-1838; Antarctic, making geographical and magnetic observations, 1839-1843; expedition to search for Franklin, returning 1849; died, 1862.