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.
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, 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, 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.
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.
Born, 1802; Education: MD; Research Field: Anatomy; FRSE; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1839; Secretary of the Royal Society 1853-1872; Vice President of the Royal Society 1872-1874; died, 1880.
Born, 1713; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1750; died in Padua, Italy, 1776.
Boole was born in Lincoln on 2 November 1815, son of a small tradesman interested in mechanics and mathematics. He attended the National School in Lincoln and then the small commercial school of Thomas Bainbridge. He engaged in teaching from the age of sixteen, then at twenty opened his own school in the village of Waddington. He devoted every spare minute to the study of Greek, Latin and the modern languages of French, German and Italian. In 1844, while applying the doctrine of the separation of symbols to the solution of differential equations with viable coefficients, he was led to devise a general method in analysis. This paper was printed in the Philosophical Transactions of 1844, and he was awarded the Royal Medal for it. His work had led him to consider the possibility of constructing a calculus of deductive reasoning. He found that logical symbols in general conform to the same fundamental laws which govern the laws of algebra in particular, while also subject to a certain special law. This led to his remarkable essay, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, published in 1847. This demonstrated the calculus of logic, upon the invention of which Boole's fame as a philosophical mathematician rests, and was followed by the publication An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities (subsequently known as 'The Laws of Thought') of 1854. In 1849 he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics in the newly formed Queen's University of Cork. He produced two highly regarded textbooks on 'Differential Equations' and 'Finite Differences', and published a number of highly original papers in various journals, including the Philosophical Transactions. In 1852 the University of Dublin conferred on him the honorary title of LL.D., in consideration of his eminent services to the advancement of mathematical science. In 1857 he was awarded the Keith Medal by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in June of the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1859 at the Oxford Commemoration he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. In 1855 he married Mary, the daughter of the Rev T R Everest, by whom he had five daughters. He died on 8 December 1864 of a feverish cold and congestion of the lungs.
Born, 1903; Education: Emigrated to Canada with family in 1911; attended primary school in Calgary; Crescent Heights Collegiate Institute, Calgary; University of Alberta, Edmonton; Harvard (1924) and Harvard Gardens, Soledad, Cuba; Career: United Fruit Company, Columbia; US National Research Fellowship at Harvard; Institute of Entomology laboratory, Farnham Royal; research student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1931); Fellow of King's College, Cambridge (1933-2003); University Lecturer in Zoology, Cambridge University (1937-1965); war work for Ministry of Agriculture on the control of wireworms; Tutor for Advanced Students, King's College, Cambridge (1945-1951); collected speicimens in East Africa (1948-1949); field collection in Pakistan (1958-1959); Reader in Animal Ecology, University of Cambridge (1965-1971); Fellow of the Royal Society, 1956; died, 2003.
Born, 1902; Education: Cotham School, Bristol; BSc (Bristol); PhD (Camb); Career: Lecturer, University of Cambridge; Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, 1932-1969; Professor of Physics, Florida State University 1971-1984; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1930; Royal Medal, 1939; Copley Medal, 1952; Nobel Prize (Physics), 1933; died, 1984.
The study was carried out with a grant from the Royal Society at the Protectorate Department of Agriculture's entomological laboratory at Kukum, near Honiara on Guadalcanal.
Born, 1604; Educated in Wallachia and at Rotterdam under James Beckman; in April 1624 admitted to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; BA (1627), MA (1631); five years in Padua, then the most celbrated school of medicine in theworld, and took his degree of medicine there, MD (28 April 1636); Incorporated at Oxford (9 November 1638) He was admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians 8th April, 1639, and a Fellow 25th June, 1639; Styled as 'the ornament of his age' by Goodall, Epistle Dedicatory to historical account of the College of Physician’s proceedings. At a time when all educated men spoke Latin, and most of them with facility, Ent was renowned beyond all his contemporaries for the ease and elegance with which he did so. He was Goulstonian lecturer in 1642. Dr. Ent was Censor no less than twenty-two years; and with three exceptions, viz., 1650, 1652, and 1658, from 1645 to 1669; Registrar from 1655 to 1670; Elect, 1st October, 1657; Consiliarius, 1667, 1668, 1669, and again from 1676 to 1686 included; President, 1670, 1671, 1672, 1673, 1674, 1675; again, in place of Dr. Micklethwait, deceased, 17th August 1682; and for the last time, 24th May, 1684, in place of Dr. Whistler, deceased. He delivered the anatomy lectures at the College in April 1665, and on this occasion was honoured by the presence of Charles II, who knighted him in the Harveian Museum after the lecture. This was a solitary instance of such an honour conferred within the walls of the College.
Although born twenty-six years after him, Ent was a close friend of William Harvey, a man known best for his discovery of the circulation of blood. Ent met Harvey in Venice, shortly after his graduation from Padua. His 'Apologia' was a defense of Harvey's theory of circulation, and Ent is credited with convincing Harvey to release his 'de Generatione Animalium', which was actually edited and published by Ent.
Ent is also known for his correspondence with Cassiano dal Pozzo, who sent Ent fossilized wood specimens, including a tabletop made of petrified wood. Ent showed them to the Royal Society, where they led to increased interest in the origin of fossils.
Sir George Ent was one of the original fellows of the Royal Society, and is named in the first charter as one of the first council members.
Denis Papin was born, 1647; Education: Angers; graduated (1669); Career: Assistant to Christian Huyghens (FRS 1663) in the laboratory of the Academie Royale des Sciences; moved to London (1675); assistant to Robert Boyle (FRS 1663) (1675-1679); Assistant to Robert Hooke (FRS 1663), Curator of the Royal Society (1679); Fellow of the Royal Society, (1680); returned to Paris (1680); Curator of the Accademia Sarottiana in Venice (1681-1684); Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society (1684-1688); Professor of Mathematics at the University of Marburg (1688-1695); moved to Kassel, where he assisted the Landgrave of Hesse with his experiments (1695-1707); returned to London (1707); died (c 1712).
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz was born, 1646; Education: Nicolai School; Leipzig (admitted 1661); Jena (admitted 1663); Altdorf; LLD (1666); Career: Employed by the Elector Johann Philipp von Schonborn of Mainz as an adviser on legal matters (1667); began work on his calculating machine (1671); went on a diplomatic missions to Paris (1672) and London (1673); Fellow of the Royal Society, (1673); on the death of the Elector, went to Paris, hoping for a post at the Academie des Sciences, but was disappointed; visited Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (FRS 1680); Adviser and Librarian to the Duke of Hannover (1676); Councillor at the Court of Hannover (1679); travelled through Germany and Italy in order to prepare a genealogy of the house of Brunswick and visited Vincenzo Viviani (FRS 1696) in Florence and Marcello Malpighi (FRS 1665) in Bologna (1687-1689); Privy Councillor in Hannover; in the service of Sophia Charlotte, Electress of Brandenburg (1700); involved in a dispute about calculus with Isaac Newton (FRS 1672), in which he was accused of plagiarism, a charge which was upheld by a commission of the Royal Society (1712); Privy Councillor to Peter the Great of Russia (1712); Imperial Privy Councillor at Vienna (1712-1714); returned to Hannover and unsuccessfully petitioned the Elector, now George I of Great Britain, for a post (1714); died, 1716.
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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, 1635; Education: Queen's College, Oxford; BA (1655), DCL (1677); Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1654); Career: Travelled abroad (1659-1661); Original Fellow of the Royal Society, 1663; Clerk to the Commission of Prizes (1664-1667); Clerk to the Privy Council (1664-1679); Deputy Vice-Admiral of the Provinces of Munster (1665), Vice-Admiral (1677); Envoy extraordinary to Portugal (1665-1669), Flanders (1671-1672) and to the Elector of Brandenburg (1680); Chief Commissioner of Excise (1671-1681); Commissioner for Assessment for Middlesex (1673-1680, Westminster (1677-1680), Gloucestershire (1679-1680, 1689-1690); MP for Penrhyn (1673-1679), Lostwithiel (1685-1687); Commissioner of Customs (1689-1697); Deputy-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire (1689-1694); Principal Secretary of State for Ireland (1690-1702); Privy Councillor, Ireland (1690-death); endowed an almshouse for eight helpless men and women on his estate at Dromderrick, Kinsale (1682); died, 1702.
Thomas Young was born, 1773; Made pioneering contribution to the understanding of light by demonstrating interference patterns, known as 'Young's fringes' (1800) which led to the Young-Fresnel undulatory theory. He also formulated an important measure of elasticity, known as 'Young's Modulus'. First to explain the accommodation of the eye; discovered the phemomenon of astigmatism; and proposed the three colour theory of vision which was later known as the Young-Hemholz theory, and was finally confirmed experimentally in 1959. Appointed to a professorship of natural philosphy at the Royal Institution (1801). His lectures at Royal Institution (1802-1803) were described by Joseph Larmor as "the greatest and most original of all general lecture courses". Undertook seminal work on the Rosetta Stone, deciphering the second type of Egyptian script on the stone, known as demotic, though the credit for finally reading the hieroglyphs belongs to Jean-Francois Champollion. A major scholar in ancient Greek, and a phenomenal linguist who coined the term 'Indo-European' for the language family which includes Greek and Sanscrit. Also a distinguished physician at St. George's Hospital, adviser to the Admiralty on shipbuilding, secretary of the Board of Longitude, and superintendent of the vital 'Nautical Almanac' from 1818 to 1829. Contributed many entries to the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' (1816-1825). Physician to and inspector of calculations for the Palladian Insurance Company (1824-1829).
John Aubrey was born, 1626; Education: Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1641); Middle Temple (admitted 1646); Career: Discovered the megaliths at Avebury, Wiltshire (1649); inherited estates in Wiltshire, Herefordshire and Wales from his father (1652) but dissipated them through law suits, selling the last of his property (1670) and his library (1677); formed topographical collections on Surrey and North Wiltshire; assisted Anthony à Wood with his 'Antiquities of Oxford'; wrote 'Brief Lives' of his notable contemporaries; Original Fellow of the Royal Society; died, 1697.
Robinson was born into a well-to-do-family of surgical dressing manufacturers (Robinsons of Chesterfield). He entered Manchester University to read chemistry in 1902 aged sixteen, and on graduation began research there under W.H. Perkin. Other lasting relationships from this period were with C. Weizmann (from 1906) and A. Lapworth (from 1909). In 1912 Robinson was appointed to his first chair at the University of Sydney and subsequently occupied chairs of organic chemistry at Liverpool (1915), St Andrews (1920), Manchester (1922), University College London (1928), and the Waynflete Chair of Chemistry, Oxford (1930-1955): the university extended his tenure for four years after the normal retirement age. In all these posts, Robinson developed productive research schools working in a wide range of chemical problems, and in retirement his activity continued in a small laboratory made available by the Shell Chemical Company, where he was consultant.
He was elected FRS in 1920 (Bakerian Lecture 1930, Davy Medal 1930, Royal Medal 1932, Copley Medal 1942, PRS 1945-1950) and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1947. The actual citation read 'for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids' though his Royal Society memorialists A.R. Todd and J.W. Cornforth suggest that 'it would have been equally, or possibly more, appropriate to have said "for his outstanding contributions to the entire science of organic chemistry".' (Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol 22, 426.) Robinson was knighted in 1939 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1949.
Royal Society Club is a Dining Club and an independent body, membership of which is limited to Fellows of the Royal Society. The modern Club traces its lineage to the mid-18th century, although such institutions are at least as old as the Royal Society itself. Meetings are social rather than scientific, but inevitably matters of scientific interest have continued to form the main topics for discussion.
George and Judith Baines were both primary school teachers who pioneered new teaching methods in an open-plan environment in the 1960s-1980s. George Baines once summarised his views that the work of a teacher should be to 'prescribe the environment of school, to release the children permissively into it, to observe and diagnose needs from their activities, and to draw upon all our professional resources to meet those needs [George Baines, 'Social and environmental studies', in Vincent R. Rogers (ed.), Teaching in the British Primary School (London: Macmillan, 1970), p. 199-216.]
George Baines (1927-2009) trained as a teacher, at Newland Park Training College, Buckinghamshire, 1951-1953. From 1953-1962 he taught in schools in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, before being appointed as Headmaster of Brize Norton Primary School, Oxfordshire, 1962-1966, where he first began to experiment with teaching in open-plan spaces. In 1966 he was appointed headmaster of Eynsham County Primary School, Oxfordshire. Here he spent one year preparing the teachers for the move into a new open-plan school building, which was then being designed, and for the adoption of new teaching methods.
Judith Baines, née Purbrook, trained, 1951-1953 at OffleyTraining College, Hertfordshire, and then taught briefly at Ashwell County Primary School, Hertfordshire. In 1960-1961 she taught at Strathmore Infant School, Hitchen, Hertfordshire, and then for three years at a private school in Oxfordshire, before joining the staff at Eynsham County Primary School in 1967. She was appointed Deputy Head in 1968 and she and George Baines married in 1974.
In 1967 the new Eynsham school building opened and George and Judith began their teaching collaboration pioneering new teaching methods, including learning through the environment and project-based work, in an open-plan school. The building burned down in 1969 and the school was housed in temporary accommodation until it re-opened in 1970. It was initially a school for the age-range 5 to 9, extending to children up to 11 in the mid-1970s. The children followed a course of 'self-directed learning'. The building was not divided into classrooms, but into a number of specialist areas for different activities, e.g. 'Botany Bay' and 'Cookery Bay'. Each child had a 'Home Bay' where they gathered before morning assembly and at the end of each day and where an individual teacher was responsible. A system of vertical grouping was adopted for these groups. In the morning the children would launch straight into whatever task they wished, before the whole school gathered for morning assembly, and at the end of the day they would talk over their activities with their own teacher in their 'Home Bay'. For the rest of the day the children moved freely around the building depending upon what type of activity they wished to do and during this period they could ask for help from any teacher. Eynsham was visited by groups from all over the world to look at the teaching methods employed.
Whilst at Brize Norton and Eynsham, George Baines lectured in Bristol and elsewhere, including in Germany and Iceland (c.1975) and made three trips to Gambia (1968, 1970, 1971) and a Canadian exchange visit (1980).
George and Judith retired from Eynsham in 1983. However, George went on to teach INSET courses at Bishop Grossteste College, Lincoln in the mid-1980s and in 1987 they moved to Lincoln where Judith also taught at the College as a first-year tutor for primary studies. Here, they collaborated with David and Mary Medd on the design and establishment of a Primary Base. George Baines died on 26 September 2009.
John Stanley Beaumont Boyce was born in Stoney Stratford, Buckinghamshire, in 1911. He was the youngest of the three sons of E R S Boyce, Headmaster of Wolverton County School which his sons attended. In 1930 Boyce won a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford, from where he graduated in French and German. He worked as a Master at Ellesmere College, Cheltenham, until 1937 and thereafter at Coatham School, Redcar. In August 1937 he married Margaret L Nicholls of Oxford with whom he had 3 children.
Boyce had served with the OTC during peacetime. During the War he served with the Oxford and Bucks Infantry Regiment, followed by work under John Newsom in northern Germany as part of the military government. As part of the Education Branch he was involved in setting up local government and education systems. He ended the war with the rank of Major.
Following the war Boyce was employed as an assistant Chief Education Officer (CEO) in Hertfordshire Education Authority under John Newsom. In 1951 he became Deputy CEO in West Sussex and in 1957 followed this with work as Deputy CEO in Lancashire. He was appointed CEO of Lancashire in 1968, a post he held until his retirement in 1973.
In 1986 he received an Honorary LLD from Lancaster University. He died peacefully from cancer in 1992, 10 days after his 81st birthday.
The ILEA Bridging Course began as a pre-pilot scheme in 1976 with one college and two associated schools. By 1980, the numbers involved had grown to nine secondary schools and five colleges of further education in seven divisions of the ILEA. The intention of the Course was to bridge the transition from school to working life. It was part-funded by the EEC from 1978-1982.
Established in 1979 as the British Comparative Education Society, an offshoot of the Comparative Education Society in Europe, its main aims were to encourage the growth of comparative and international studies by organising conferences, visits and publications. In 1997 it merged with the British Association of Teachers and Researchers in Overseas Education to form the British Association for International and Comparative Education.
Mary Anne Walker was a student at Bishops Stortford Training College and was awarded her teachers certificate after a period of probation at Wheathampstead National School in 1883, where she continued to work until at least 1890.