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MEMOIRS

OF THE

DISTINGUISHED MEN OF SCIENCE

OF GREAT BRITAIN

LIVING IN THE YEARS 1807-8.

AND APPENDIX.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

ROBERT HUNT, F.R.S., &c.

COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY

WILLIAM WALKER, JUNIOR.

Second Edition.

"The evil, that men do, lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones." SHAKSPEARE.

LONDON: E. & F. N. SPON, 16, BUCKLERSBURY.

1864.

LONDON: W. DAVY AND SON, PRINTERS, GILBERT STREET, OXFORD STREET, W.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

ALLEN, WILLIAM 1

BAILY, FRANCIS 2

BANKS, SIR JOSEPH 4

BENTHAM, BRIGADIER-GENERAL SIR SAMUEL 7

BOULTON, MATTHEW 13

BRAMAH, JOSEPH 15

BROWN, ROBERT 18

BRUNEL, SIR MARK ISAMBARD 21

CARTWRIGHT, REV. DR. EDMUND 24

CAVENDISH, HON. HENRY 27

CHAPMAN, WILLIAM 30

CONGREVE, SIR WILLIAM 34

CROMPTON, SAMUEL 35

DALTON, JOHN 41

DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY 44

DOLLOND, PETER 49

DONKIN, BRYAN 51

FRODSHAM, WILLIAM JAMES 53

GILBERT, DAVIES GIDDY 53

HATCHETT, CHARLES 56

HENRY, DR. WILLIAM 58

HERSCHEL, SIR WILLIAM 61

HOWARD, EDWARD CHARLES 63

HUDDART, CAPTAIN JOSEPH 64

JENNER, DR. EDWARD 67

JESSOP, WILLIAM 72

KATER, CAPTAIN HENRY 75

LESLIE, SIR JOHN 77

MASKELYNE, DR. NEVIL 81

MAUDSLAY, HENRY 83

MILLER, PATRICK 86

MURDOCK, WILLIAM 87

MYLNE, ROBERT 90

NAYSMITH, ALEXANDER 91

PLAYFAIR, JOHN 92

RENNIE, JOHN 96

RONALDS, FRANCIS 99

RUMFORD, COUNT 102

RUTHERFORD, DR. DANIEL 107

SMITH, WILLIAM 107

STANHOPE, CHARLES, EARL 112

SYMINGTON, WILLIAM 114

TELFORD, THOMAS 117

TENNANT, CHARLES 122

THOMSON, DR. THOMAS 124

TREVITHICK, RICHARD 126

TROUGHTON, EDWARD 132

WATSON, RICHARD, BISHOP OF LLANDAFF 134

WATT, JAMES 137

WOLLASTON, DR. WILLIAM H. 142

YOUNG, DR. THOMAS 145

APPENDIX.

BLACK, DR. JOSEPH 150

CORT, HENRY 152

IVORY, JAMES 155

PRIESTLY, JOSEPH 157

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

THE following brief memoirs were originally compiled for the purpose of accompanying the Engraving of "The Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain living in 1807-8, assembled at the Royal Institution." As, however, "The Memoirs" were found to have a considerable sale, independent of the Engraving, it has been found necessary to produce a second edition. All the lives have been carefully revised, and considerable additions made, while, in order to render the present book a more complete compendium of the great men of that period, an Appendix has been added, containing the Memoirs of Black, Cort, Ivory, and Priestly, who unfortunately were, from different reasons, unable to be included in the group in the Engraving.

With the exception of the notices of Trevithick, Tennant, Maudslay, Francis Ronalds, and one or two more, these memoirs necessarily contain little information which has not been previously published in some shape or other. The authorities from which the present particulars have been taken are given at the end of each memoir; and the writer claims no further merit than that of having compiled and arranged the works of others, whose language, in most cases, it would indeed be presumption in him to alter, further than was necessary to present to the public in a clear, brief, and (it is hoped) readable form, the doings of men who must ever be held in the grateful remembrance of their country.

INTRODUCTION.

THE influences of human thought on the physical forces which regulate the great phenomena of the universe,--and the operation of the powers of mind, on the material constituents of the planet, which is man's abiding place, form subjects for studies which have a most exalting tendency. Thought has made the subtile element of the thunderstorm man's most obedient messenger. Thought has solicited the sunbeam to betray its secrets; and an invisible agent, controlled by light, delineates external nature at man's request. Thought has subdued the wild impulses of fire, and heat is made the willing power to propel our trains of carriages with a bird-like speed, and to urge--in proud independence of winds or tides--our noble ships from shore to shore. Thought has penetrated the arcana of nature, and, by learning her laws, has imitated her works. Thus, Chemistry takes a crude mass,--rejected as unworthy and offensive,--it recombines its constituent parts, and gives us, the grateful odours of the sweetest flowers, and tinctures which rival nature in the intensity and the beauty of its dyes.

No truth was ever developed to man, in answer to his laborious toils, which did not sooner or later benefit the race. Every such development has been the result of the continuous efforts of an individual mind; therefore it is that we desire to possess some memorial of the men to whom we are indebted.

We have advanced to our present position in the scale of nations by the efforts of a few chosen minds. Every branch of human industry has been benefited by the discoveries of science. The discoverers are therefore deserving of that hero-worship which, sooner or later, they receive from all.

The following pages are intended to convey to the general reader a brief but correct account of the illustrious dead, whose names _are_ for ever associated with one of the most brilliant eras in British science. It will be remembered that, in the earliest years of the present century, the world witnessed the control and application of steam by Watt, Symington and Trevithick; the great discoveries in physics and chemistry by Dalton, Cavendish, Wollaston and Davy,--in astronomy by Herschel, Maskelyne and Baily; the inventions of the spinning-mule and power-loom by Crompton and Cartwright; the introduction of machinery into the manufacture of paper, by Bryan Donkin and others; the improvements in the printing-press, and invention of stereotype printing, by Charles Earl Stanhope; the discovery of vaccination by Jenner; the introduction of gas into general use by Murdock; and the construction (in a great measure) of the present system of canal communication by Jessop, Chapman, Telford and Rennie. During the same period of time were likewise living Count Rumford; Robert Brown, the botanist; William Smith, "The Father of English Geology;" Thomas Young, the natural philosopher; Brunei; Bentham; Maudslay; and Francis Ronalds, who, by securing perfect insulation, was the first to demonstrate the practicability of passing an electric message through a lengthened space; together with many others, the fruits of whose labours we are now reaping.

The following pages briefly record the births, deaths, and more striking incidents in the lives of those benefactors to mankind.

"Lives of great men all remind us we may make our lives sublime."--The truth of this is strongly enforced in the brief memoirs which are included in this volume. They teach us that mental power, used judiciously and applied with industry, is capable of producing vast changes in the crude productions of Nature. Beyond this, they instruct us that men, who fulfil the commands of the Creator and employ their minds, in unwearying efforts to subdue the Earth, are rarely unrewarded. They aid in the march of civilization, and they ameliorate the conditions of humanity. They win a place amongst the great names which we reverence, and each one

"becomes like a star "From the abodes where the Eternals are."

ROBERT HUNT.

WILLIAM ALLEN, F.R.S.

Born August 29, 1770. Died December 30, 1843.

William Allen, the eminent chemist, was born in London. His father was a silk manufacturer in Spitalfields, and a member of the Society of Friends. Having at an early period shown a predilection for chemical and other pursuits connected with medicine, William was placed in the establishment of Mr. Joseph Gurney Bevan in Plough Court, Lombard Street, where he acquired a practical knowledge of chemistry. He eventually succeeded to the business, which he carried on in connection with Mr. Luke Howard, and obtained great reputation as a pharmaceutical chemist. About the year 1804, Mr. Allen was appointed lecturer on chemistry and experimental philosophy at Guy's Hospital, at which institution he continued to be engaged more or less until the year 1827. He was also connected with the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and was concerned in some of the most exact experiments of the day, together with Davy, Babington, Marcet, Luke Howard, and Dalton. In conjunction with his friend Mr. Pepys, Allen entered upon his well known chemical investigations, which established the proportion of Carbon in Carbonic Acid, and proved the identity of the diamond with charcoal; these discoveries are recorded in the 'Philosophical Transactions' of the Royal Society, of which he became a member in 1807. The 'Transactions' for 1829 also contain a paper by him, based on elaborate experiments and calculations, concerning the changes produced by respiration on atmospheric air and other gases. Mr. Allen was mainly instrumental in establishing the Pharmaceutical Society, of which he was president at the time of his death. Besides his public labours as a practical chemist, he pursued with much delight, in his hours of relaxation, the study of astronomy, and was one of the original members of the Royal Astronomical Society. In connection with this science, he published, in 1815, a small work entitled 'A Companion to the Transit Instrument.'

Many years before his death Mr. Allen withdrew from business, and purchased an estate near Lindfield, Sussex. Here while still engaged in public schemes of usefulness and benevolence, he also carried out various philanthropic plans for the improvement of his immediate dependants, and poorer neighbours. He erected commodious cottages on his property, with an ample allotment of land to each cottage, and established Schools at Lindfield for boys, girls, and infants, with workshops, outhouses, and play-grounds. About three acres of land were cultivated on the most approved system by the boarders, who also took a part in household work. The subjects taught were land-surveying, mapping, the elements of Botany, the use of the barometer, rain-gauge, &c., and there was a good library with various scientific and useful apparatus.

Mr. Allen died at Lindfield, the scene of his zealous benevolence, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.--_English Cyclopædia_, London, 1856.--_Monthly notices of the Royal Ast. Soc._ vol. 6, Feb., 1844.

FRANCIS BAILY, F.R.S. &c.

Born April 28, 1774. Died August 30, 1844.

This eminent English astronomer was born at Newbury in Berkshire, and received his education at the school of the Rev. Mr. Best of that town, where he early showed a propensity to physical inquiry, obtaining among his schoolmates the nickname of 'the Philosopher of Newbury.' Francis Baily quitted this school, when fourteen years old, for a house of business in the city of London, and remained there until his twenty-second year, when, desirous of the enlargement of views which travel affords, he embarked for America in 1795. Mr. Baily remained there nearly three years, travelling over the whole of the United States and through much of the western country, experiencing at various times great hardships and privations.

Shortly after his return to England he commenced business in London as a stockbroker, and was taken into partnership by a Mr. Whitmore, in the year 1799. While engaged in this business he published several works on Life Annuities, one of which, entitled 'The Doctrine of Life Annuities and Insurances analytically investigated and explained,' was published in 1810, with an appendix in 1813, continuing to this day to be a standard work on the subject, and it may serve to give some idea of the estimation in which it was held, to mention, that when out of print, copies used to sell for four to five times their original value.

Although Mr. Baily was thus actively devoting himself to matters of a direct commercial interest, he was still able to find time for works of a more general nature: in 1810 he wrote his first astronomical paper on the celebrated Solar Eclipse, said to have been predicted by Thales, published in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1811, and in 1813 published a work entitled 'An Epitome of Universal History.' Astronomy, however, was his chief pursuit; and shortly after the celebrated fraud of De Beranger on the Stock Exchange in 1814, (in the detection and exposure of which Baily had a considerable share), this science absorbed more and more of his attention. His accounts of the Eclipse of 1820; of the Annular Eclipse of 1836, which he observed at Jedburgh; and the Total Eclipse of July 8, 1842, with its marvellous revelation of the rose-coloured protuberances of the solar atmosphere, since known as 'Baily's Beads,' are among the most interesting and classical of his writings.

In January, 1823, the Royal Astronomical Society was founded, chiefly through the suggestions of Francis Baily and Dr. Pearson, and for the first three years of its existence Mr. Baily filled the office of Secretary, sparing no exertions on its behalf, watching over its early progress with paternal care, and as the Society grew and prospered, contributing to its transactions many copious and valuable papers.

In 1825 Baily retired from the Stock Exchange, having acquired a considerable fortune, and shortly afterwards took a house in Tavistock Place, giving his whole attention to the furtherance of astronomical science. Here, he executed that grand series of labours which has perpetuated his name, and the building in which the Cavendish experiment of weighing the earth was repeated, its bulk and figure determined, and the standard of British measure perpetuated, must continue to be a source of interest to scientific men for many generations to come. The chief works to which Mr. Baily devoted himself during this later portion of his life are:--

1. The Remodelling of the Nautical Almanac.

2. The Determination of the length of the Seconds Pendulum.

3. The Fixation of the Standard of Length.

4. The Determination of the Density of the Earth.

5. The Revision of the Catalogues of the Stars.

6. The Reduction of Lacaille's and Lalande's Catalogues; and

7. The Formation of a New Standard Catalogue.

The benefits which not only astronomy but all England have derived from these laborious investigations, can hardly be too much appreciated. But a short time elapsed, after Baily had completed his observations on the pendulum, and determined the standard of length,--being thereby enabled to compare his new scale with the imperial standard yard,--when the conflagration of the Houses of Parliament in 1834 took place, and both the latter standard, and the original one by Bird (that of 1758) were destroyed. When it is considered that Baily's repetition of the Cavendish Experiment involved untiring watching for more than 1200 hours, and this, too, by one who in early life seemed only able to find food for his vigorous mind amidst the hardships and fatigues of travel, it affords a remarkable instance how a man, active and full of ardour in early youth, can yet be enabled, by the strength of his character, to concentrate the full force of his powers upon a series of researches apparently the most wearying and full of disappointment, an example well fitted for the earnest consideration of all who imagine that the energies of their minds can alone be satisfied by stirring scenes or a life full of activity and adventure. Mr. Baily's last public appearance was at Oxford, to which place he went with some difficulty, to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law. He was distinguished by great industry, which was made more effective by his methodical habits; and also by a suavity of manner which greatly enlarged the circle of his friends. In fact, Mr. Baily effected in the last 20 years of his life, a greater number of complete and refined researches than most other philosophers have accomplished during a whole lifetime.--_Memoir of Francis Baily, by Sir John Herschel, Bart._ London, 1856.

SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BART., C.B., P.R.S.

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, ETC.

Born February 12, 1743. Died June 19, 1820.

Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society for upwards of forty years, was born in Argyle Street, London. He was the eldest son of Mr. W. Banks, a gentleman of considerable landed property, whose family was originally of Swedish extraction, although it had been settled in England for several generations. The early life of Joseph Banks was passed principally at Revesby Hall, his father's seat in Lincolnshire, and his education was for several years entrusted to a private tutor; in his ninth year he was sent to Harrow and four years after to Eton, from whence he proceeded to Christ's College, Oxford.

During his residence at college, he made considerable progress in classical knowledge, but evinced at the same time a decided predilection for the study of natural history. Botany in particular was his favourite occupation, and one to which his leisure hours were devoted with enthusiastic ardour and perseverance. An anecdote is told of Mr. Banks being on one occasion so intent on exploring ditches and secluded spots, in search of rare plants, as to have excited the suspicions of some countrymen, who, conceiving that he could have no innocent design in acting thus, seized the young naturalist, when he had fallen asleep exhausted with fatigue, and brought him as a suspected thief before a neighbouring magistrate. After a strict investigation he was soon liberated, but the incident occasioned much amusement in the neighbourhood.

In the year 1761 Mr. Banks lost his father, and in 1764, on coming of age, was put in possession of his valuable estates in Lincolnshire. Mrs. Banks, soon after the death of her husband, removed with her family from Lincolnshire to Chelsea, as a spot likely to afford her son Joseph peculiar advantages in the study of botany, from the numerous gardens in the vicinity devoted to the culture of rare and curious plants of every description. And now it was that the great merit of Mr. Banks shone forth. With all the incitements which his age, his figure, and his station naturally presented to leading a life of idleness, and with a fortune which placed the more vulgar gratifications of sense or of ordinary ambition amply within his reach, he steadily devoted himself to scientific pursuits, and only lived for the studies of a naturalist. He remained out of Parliament, went little into any society but that of learned men, while his relaxation was confined to exercise and to angling, of which he was so fond, that he would devote days and even nights to it. Whilst living at Chelsea, Mr. Banks formed the acquaintance of Lord Sandwich, afterwards first Lord of the Admiralty, who as it happened had the same taste, and to the friendship of whom he was in after life indebted for essential aid in the furtherance of his numerous projects for the advancement of scientific knowledge. Soon after attaining his 21st year, Mr. Banks undertook a voyage to Newfoundland and the Labrador coast, for the purpose of exploring the botany of those unfrequented regions. On his return, he brought home valuable collections not only of plants, but also of insects and other natural productions of that district. In 1768, he obtained leave from Government, through the interest of Lord Sandwich, to embark in the ship commanded by the great navigator Cook, who had been commissioned to observe the transit of Venus in the Pacific ocean, by the observation of which phenomenon the sun's parallax might be measured, and to fulfil also the usual object of a voyage of discovery.[1]

In order to turn to the best account all opportunities that might occur during the voyage, Mr. Banks made most careful preparations. He provided himself with the best instruments for making all kinds of scientific observations, and for preserving specimens of natural history, and persuaded Dr. Solander, a distinguished pupil of Linnæus, to become his associate in the enterprise. He also took with him two draughtsmen, to delineate all objects of interest that did not admit of being transported or preserved, and four servants. This voyage occupied three years; during that period all engaged in it incurred many and severe hardships; several, including three of the attendants of Dr. Solander and Mr. Banks, losing their lives. The results were highly important, the observations necessary for making the solar parallax were made with perfect success. The manners of the natives in the Society Islands had been examined, and the singular state of their society ascertained. Their products, vegetable, mineral, and animal, as well as those of New Holland, New Zealand, and New Guinea, had been fully explored, and a considerable share of the fame, which accrued to Captain Cook and his associates in the enterprise, was due to Mr. Banks, who brought home a splendid collection of specimens from those countries.

No sooner had Mr. Banks returned from this expedition than he commenced, with unabated vigour after a few months repose, preparations for another. Having been prevented from joining Captain Cook's second expedition, chiefly through the influence of Sir Hugh Pallisser with the admiralty, he undertook the equipment of a ship at his own expense; and, taking with him Dr. Solander, Dr. Lind, Dr. Von Troil, a Swedish naturalist, and others, he sailed for Iceland in 1772. After exploring during two months that interesting region of volcanoes he returned to England, enriched with many valuable specimens, and still more valuable information respecting the productions of the country. A fine collection of books and manuscripts were purchased and presented by Mr. Banks to the British Museum, and Dr. Von Troil, in whose hands Mr. Banks, with his wonted aversion to literary fame, left the subject, published a full and interesting account of the voyage.