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.
The Food (War) Committee was founded in 1915 to act as a scientific advisory body to government bodies regulating food policy, trade and distribution, and rationing schemes in the food shortage of WWI. Composed of eminent biochemists, physiologists, agricultural scientists and economists, headed by William B Hardy, Secretary of the Royal Society. Prominent members include physiologists A D Waller, D Noel Paton, E P Cathcart, F G Hopkins, and W M Bayliss; agriculturalists T H Middleton, and T B Wood, and economist William J Ashley.
The Committee undertook pioneering work in researching dietary requirements, arriving at the minimum calorie needs to maintain a body at rest, and investigating the calorie requirements of different classes of workers. They advised against rationing of bread and developed distribution schemes based on sound science. Most of the correspondence deals with these research interests and policy advice.
Topics addressed include diet and mental work, scurvy and beriberi, nitrogen in the diet, early work on vitamins, and investigation of alternate food sources such as soya beans, cocoa butter, banana chips, and saccharine [MS/527/2]. The most successful scheme involved a public campaign to collect horse chestnuts to use in producing acetone for munitions manufacture, so that cereals usually used for this purpose could be saved to increase the nation's supply.
Born, 1733; Education: Trinity Hall, Cambridge; LLB (1758); Incorporated at Oxford (1767); DCL (Oxford 1774); Career: Rector of St Mary, Newington, Surrey (1758-1793); Rector of Albury, Surrey (1774-1779); Rector of Thorley, Hertfordshire (1777-1782); Archdeacon of St Albans (1781-1788); Vicar of South Weald, Essex (1782-1793); Prebendary of St Paul's (1783-1794); Prebendary of Gloucester (1787-1793); Bishop of St David's (1788-1793); Bishop of Rochester (1793-1802); Dean of Westminster (1793-1802); Bishop of St Asaph (1802-1806); was active in the improvement of conditions of junior clergy RSActivity; Fellow of the Royal Society, (1767); Secretary of the Royal Society Council, (1773-1778); died, 1806.
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.
Born in Hampshire, England; physician; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1734; died, 1759.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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 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.
Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer was born in the Netherlands in 1881; Research Field:
Mathematics; Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 1948; died, 1966.
Born, 1820; Education: PhD; Career: Taught at Queenwood College, Hampshire (to 1853); in 1859, his labortory experiments showed that water vapour and carbon dioxide absorb infra-red radiation and that they could therefore affect the climate of the Earth. As soon as his paper was published in 1861 in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society', he put out a press release for the London newspapaers explaining that this result implied that all past climate changes were now understood and all future climate changes could be predicted simply from a knowledge of the concentrations of these 'greenhouse' gases. Tyndall restricted himself to describing his experiments and simply linking it to work of Fourier a few decades earlier. It took more than a century before the credible quantitative estimates of these effects and their influence on past and possibly future climates were made, along with good enough observations of the gases to know that they have (and continue) to change significantly. Fellow of the Royal Society, 1852; Rumford Medal, 1864; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1879-1880; died, 1893.
Born, 1759; Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 1819; died, 1829.
The British Empire Exhibition was an exhibition held at Wembley, Middlesex in 1924 and 1925. Its official aim was " to stimulate trade, to strengthen the bonds that bind the Mother Country to her Sister States and Daughter Nations, to bring all into closer touch, the one with the other, to enable all who owe allegiance to the British Flag to meet on common ground, and to learn to know each other. It is a family party, to which every member of the Empire is invited, and at which every part of the Empire is represented". It was opened by King George V 23 April 1924. Of the 58 members of the British Empire only Gambia and Gibraltar did not take part.
Born, 1775; Profession: Scientific instrument maker; Career: succeeded to his father's business, and extended it to scientific instrument making; invented apparatus, including a Eudiometer, and the Pepys Water gas holder; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1808; died, 1856.
Born, 1653; assistant to the Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, 1684-1685, 1688 and 1690; clerkship in the King's shipyard at Portsmouth, 1691; returned to Little Horton, 1694, here he pursued mathematics, astronomy, and instrument making; died, 1742.
Born, 1685; Education: Educated at home; Secket's private school; St John's College, Cambridge; LLB (1709), LLD (1714); Career: Advocate in the Court of Arches (1714-c 1720); travelled to France several times; corresponded with Pierre Remond de Montmort (FRS 1715); worked on the application of calculus to various problems, including the refraction of light and the determination of the centres of oscillation and percussion and enunciated the principle of vanishing points; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1712; Royal Society Council: 1714-1717, 1721, 1723, 1725; Royal Society Secretary, 1714-1718; died, 1731.
Born 22 June 1903 in Poplar, son of Karl Henry and Ellen, (nee Biggs), one of five children. Childhood spent in Battle, Sussex. Educated at St Leonard's Collegiate School Hastings, then at Hastings Grammar School. Obtained an exhibition (£30) at the Royal College of Science London (later became part of the Imperial College of Science and Technology) and awarded his Associateship with first class honours in 1923, taking a London External B.Sc. with a different syllabus later in the year, again obtaining first class honours. Researched inorganic chemistry under H.B. Baker at the Royal College of Science, investigating some aspects of the luminiscent oxidation of phosphorus. Wrote initial paper with W.E Downey, and when the latter was killed while climbing in the Alps he continued the research alone, developing elegant experimental techniques. Awarded Dixon Fund Essay Prize in 1925 and degree of Ph.D (London) conferred 1926. He spent 1927-1928 at the Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, working at the laboratory of one of the greatest German exponents of preparative inorganic chemistry, Alfred Stock. With his assistant Erich Pohland they isolated and characterized decaborane fot the first time. In 1929 on his return to London he was awarded the D.Sc degree of the University of London, and with a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship spent 1929-1931at Princeton University with Professor (later Sir) Hugh Taylor. Here he also met his wife, Mary Catherine Horton of Lynchburg, Virginia. He came back to Imperial College, London, first as a demonstrator, then as lecturer and Reader (1931-1945). In 1945 he took up a Readership at Cambridge, and then a personal chair of inorganic chemistry, becoming a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, and remained there for the rest of his life. He had a profound effect on the development of inorganic chemistry in Britain, and a lasting influence on the approach to the subject by research students from the UK, the Commonwealth, America and Europe. His book 'Modern Aspects of Inorganic Chemistry' (1938), co-authored with J S Anderson, revived interest in the subject. Subsequently in Cambridge he built up an internationally acclaimed school of inorganic chemistry which dominated the subject for several decades. Equally important was his influence on an astonishing number of students and collaborators who went on to distinguished careers and senior academic positions worldwide.
Born, 1744; 1760, he entered the navy. Served at the reduction of Martinique and St Lucia; on 17 March 1762 promoted to Lieutenant and took part in the reduction of Havana. In 1768 he was elected Member of Parliament for Lincoln, and from 1777 to 1784 Member of Parliament for Huntingdon, as well as one of the lords of the Admiralty. In 1773 he commanded the 'Racehorse', which with the 'Carcass' was fitted out to attempt to discover a northern route to India, although the expedition only sailed to the north of Spitzbergen because the sea was absolutely blocked with ice. In 1784 he became Member of Parliament for Newark on Trent. In the same year he was appointed joint paymaster general of the forces, a Commissioner for the Affairs of India, and one of the lords of 'Trades and Plantations'. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and instrumental in founding the 'Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture'; Baron 1790; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1771; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1778-1792; died, 1792.
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).
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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, 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 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.
William Hyde Wollaston: born at East Dereham, Norfolk, 1766; third son of the author Francis Wollaston and his wife, Althea Hyde; educated at a private school at Lewisham for two years and then at Charterhouse, 1774-1778; a pensioner of Caius College Cambridge, 1782; scholar of Caius College Cambridge, 1782-1787; appointed a senior fellow, 1787; retained his fellowship until his death; while at Cambridge, became intimate with John Brinkley and John Pond and studied astronomy with their assistance; graduated MB, 1788; on leaving Cambridge, worked as a physician in Huntingdon, 1789; subsequently went to Bury St Edmund's; became acquainted with the Reverend Henry Hasted, a close friend and lifelong correspondent; MD, 1793; elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1793 and admitted, 1794; admitted candidate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1794; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1795; went to London and set up practice at no 18 Cecil Street, Strand, 1797; censor of the Royal College of Physicians, 1798; increasing devotion to various branches of natural science, including physics, chemistry, and botany, led him to retire from medical practice, 1800; looked to support himself by chemical research; took a house, no 14 Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, and set up a laboratory, 1801; innovations relating to platinum including the discovery of palladium and of a process for producing pure platinum and welding it into vessels, c 1804; awarded the Copley medal, 1802; Secretary of the Royal Society, 1804-1816; Fellow of the Geological Society, 1812; suggested in evidence before a committee of the House of Commons the replacement of the various gallons then in use by the 'imperial gallon' (adopted in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824), 1814; served as commissioner of the Royal Society on the Board of Longitude, 1818-1828; a member of the Royal Commission on Weights and Measures that rejected the adoption of the decimal system of weights and measures, 1819; frequently elected a vice-president of the Royal Society; declined a proposal to be nominated president of the Royal Society, but consented to act as president until the election, 1820; elected a foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences, 1823; elected to the Royal College of Physicians, 1824; suffered occasional partial blindness in both eyes from 1800; attacked by symptoms said to be signify a fatal brain tumour, 1827; set about dictating papers on his unrecorded work, many of which were published posthumously; transferred £1,000 to the Geological Society (which formed 'the Wollaston Fund' from which the society awards annually the Wollaston medal and the balance of the interest), 1828; transferred £2,000 to the Royal Society to form the `Donation Fund', the interest to be applied in promoting experimental research, 1828; awarded a royal medal by the Royal Society for his work, 1828; elected a member of the Astronomical Society, 1828; died, 1828; his house was afterwards inhabited by his friend Charles Babbage. Publications: fifty-six papers on pathology, physiology, chemistry, optics, mineralogy, crystallography, astronomy, electricity, mechanics, and botany, the majority read before the Royal Society and published in the Philosophical Transactions.
Founder member of the Royal Society, one of the earliest Freemasons, he was devoted to the causes of the welfare of Scotland, loyalty to his monarch, and in promoting the new experimental philosophy. He was experienced in negotiating affairs of state, and an intimate friend of King Charles II. The son of Sir Mungo Moray of Craigie in Perthshire, he was educated in Scotland and in France, probably a member of the Scottish regiment which joined the French army in 1633. He made a considerable reputation for himself and was favoured by Cardinal Richelieu. In 1641 he was recruiting Scots soldiers for the French, later becoming Colonel of the Scots Guards at the French court. He was knighted in 1643 by Charles I. He was captured by the Duke of Bavaria in November 1643 whilst leading his regiment into battle for the French, and whilst in prison until 1645 was lent a book on magnetism by Kircherus, with whom he entered into correspondence. He tried unsuccessfully to arrange the escape of Charles I in 1646, and in 1651 was engaged in negotiations with the Prince of Wales to persuade him to come to Scotland, thus beginning his long friendship with the future Charles II.
After a failed Scottish rising in the Highland in 1653, his military career was over and he went into exile, in Bruges in 1656, then Maastricht until 1659, where he led the life of a recluse but spent his time in scientific pursuits. It was at this time that many of his letters to Alexander Bruce were written. Late in 1659 he went to Paris and did much, by correspondence, to help prepare for the return of the King to England, especially in relation to religious matters. After the return he was active in promoting the best interests of Scotland and was given high office. He was also provided with rooms at Whitehall Palace, the King's London residence, which included a laboratory, as the King shared his scientific interests. It was Moray who was the chief intermediary between the Royal Society and the King, and other highly placed persons at the Court such as Prince Rupert and the Duke of York. More important than his scientific work for the Society were his powers of organisation and firmness of purpose in establishing it on a sound and lasting basis, including his efforts in obtaining the three founding Royal Charters and his attempts to put the Society on a sound financial footing. In 1670 he and Lauderdale quarrelled, leading to Moray withdrawing from politics. On his death in 1673 he was buried in Westminster Abbey by personal order and expense of the king.