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Edinburgh Encyclopædia
The ''Edinburgh Encyclopædia'' is an encyclopaedia in 18 volumes, printed and published by William Blackwood and edited by David Brewster between 1808 and 1830. In competition with the Edinburgh-published ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', the ''Edinburgh Encyclopædia'' is generally considered to be strongest on scientific topics, where many of the articles were written by the editor. The ''Edinburgh Encyclopædia'' was originally planned to encompassed 12 volumes, but by the time the final volume was published, in 1830, it counted 18 volumes. Some subjects, such as the polarization of light and electromagnetism, had not even been heard of when the project began, and yet the Encyclopedia had articles on them. The electromagnetism article was even contributed by Hans Christian Ørsted, the founder of modern electromagnetic studies. It also included information on contemporary events such as Christopher Hansteen's 1829 expedition to Siberia. In 1815 William Elford Leach published the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Carlyle attended the University of Edinburgh where he excelled in mathematics, inventing the Carlyle circle. After finishing the arts course, he prepared to become a minister in the Burgher Church while working as a schoolmaster. He quit these and several other endeavours before settling on literature, writing for the ''Edinburgh Encyclopædia'' and working as a translator. He found initial success as a disseminator of German literature, then little-known to English readers, through his translations, his ''Life of'' ''Friedrich Schiller'' (1825), and his review essays for various journals. His first major work was a novel entitled ''Sartor Resartus'' (1833–34). After relocating to London, he became famous with his ''French Rev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Barclay (anatomist)
John Barclay (10 December 1758 – 21 August 1826) was a Scottish comparative anatomist, extramural teacher in anatomy, and director of the Highland Society of Scotland. Life He was born in Cairn, Perthshire 10 December 1758, the son of a farmer, and nephew of John Barclay, who established the Berean Church. He was educated at Muthill parish school. Barclay initially studied divinity at the University of St Andrews, and served as a minister. Then working as a family tutor, he educated himself in biological topics and anatomy. Pupils of his entered the University of Edinburgh in 1789, and Barclay became an assistant there to John Bell the anatomist, and was also associated with his brother Charles Bell. His employer Sir James Campbell financed the completion of his medical course. Barclay qualified M.D. at Edinburgh, before studying anatomy under Andrew Marshall for a year in London. He returned to Edinburgh and established himself as an anatomical lecturer in 1797. Unt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Balfour (novelist)
Alexander Balfour (1767–1829) was a Scottish novelist born in the parish of Monikie, Forfarshire. Biography Balfour was born on 1 March 1767 to parents who were both of the humblest peasantry. Being a twin, he was from his birth under the care of a relative. He was physically weak. His education was of the scantiest. When a mere lad he was apprenticed to a weaver. Later he taught in a school in his native parish, and many lived to remember him gratefully for his rough and ready but successful teaching of them. In his twenty-sixth year (1793) he became one of the clerks of a merchant manufacturer in Arbroath. In 1794 he married. He commenced writing at the age of twelve. Not very long after he filled "the poets' corner" in the local newspaper. Later he contributed verse to the '' British Chronicle'' newspaper and to '' The Bee'' of Dr. Anderson. In 1793 he was one of the writers in the '' Dundee Repository'' and in 1796 in the '' Aberdeen Magazine''. Four years after his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Bald
Robert Bald FRSE FSA MWS (1776–1861) was a Scottish surveyor, civil and mining engineer, and antiquarian. Robert Bald was one of the earliest and most eminent mining engineers and land surveyors in Scotland, and by the late nineteenth century he was referred to as "the acknowledged father of mining engineering in Scotland". Early life He was born in Culross, Scotland, the son of Alexander Bald (1753–1823), a colliery agent of Alloa. His brother was Alexander Bald, poet and friend of James Hogg. His life The engineer Robert Bald apprenticed to his father Alexander, the superintendent and manager of the Mar collieries. The pair can be seen as forming 'something of a "school" of viewers', and a Scottish equivalent of the Buddle family of viewers of northern England. He combined two qualities vital for colliery direction: a deep practical knowledge with a respect for scientific enquiry (he contributed to the ''Edinburgh Philosophical Journal'' among other learned publication ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porisms
A porism is a mathematical proposition or corollary. It has been used to refer to a direct consequence of a proof, analogous to how a corollary refers to a direct consequence of a theorem. In modern usage, it is a relationship that holds for an infinite range of values but only if a certain condition is assumed, such as Steiner's porism. The term originates from three books of Euclid that have been lost. A proposition may not have been proven, so a porism may not be a theorem or true. Origins The book that talks about porisms first is Euclid's ''Porisms''. What is known of it is in Pappus of Alexandria's ''Collection'', who mentions it along with other geometrical treatises, and gives several lemmas necessary for understanding it. Pappus states: :The porisms of all classes are neither theorems nor problems, but occupy a position intermediate between the two, so that their enunciations can be stated either as theorems or problems, and consequently some geometers think that they are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Notation
In linguistics and semiotics, a notation is a system of graphics or symbols, characters and abbreviated expressions, used (for example) in artistic and scientific disciplines to represent technical facts and quantities by convention. Therefore, a notation is a collection of related symbols that are each given an arbitrary meaning, created to facilitate structured communication within a domain knowledge or field of study. Standard notations refer to general agreements in the way things are written or denoted. The term is generally used in technical and scientific areas of study like mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, but can also be seen in areas like business, economics and music. Written communication Writing systems * Phonographic writing systems, by definition, use symbols to represent components of auditory language, i.e. speech, which in turn refers to things or ideas. The two main kinds of phonographic notational system are the alphabet and the syllabary. Some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Annesley
Alexander Annesley (died December 1813, aged 60), was an English legal and political writer of the late eighteenth century. Biography Annesley was a London solicitor and member of the Inner Temple. After many years' practice, by which he acquired a large fortune, he retired to Hyde Hall, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, and died there on 6 December 1813. He is buried in Great St Mary's, Sawbridgeworth, and there is a funerary hatchment and a wall monument to him there with 15 December given as the date of death. Annesley was a man of many accomplishments, paid repeated visits to the continent, and was an enthusiastic sportsman. In politics he followed William Pitt. His works are: #''Strictures on the true Cause of the present alarming Scarcity of Grain and Provisions, and a Plan for permanent Relief'', 1800. Annesley proposed ‘bounties on production rather than on importation, an excise on all grain, the establishment of public granaries and additional corn-mills.’ #''Obs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Allan (mineralogist)
Thomas Allan of Lauriston FRS FRSE FSA FLS (17 July 1777 – 12 September 1833) was a British mineralogist. Life Allan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 17 July 1777, the son of Robert Allan (1748–1818), a banker. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh and took up banking as profession; but he is remembered today for his contributions to mineral science. At an early age Allan became fascinated with minerals and he began to accumulate a large mineral collection that was subsequently bequeathed to his son Robert Allan FRSE. This collection was later incorporated into Robert Greg's, which was ultimately acquired by the British Museum of Natural History in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1813, Allan was influential in securing a mineralogy post in the Dublin Philosophical Society for the German mineralogist Karl Ludwig Giesecke (1761–1833). Allan was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1805, his proposers being Sir James Hall, William Wright and J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well as harbours and tunnels. Such was his reputation as a prolific designer of highways and related bridges, he was dubbed ''The Colossus of Roads'' (a pun on the Colossus of Rhodes), and, reflecting his command of all types of civil engineering in the early 19th century, he was elected as the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a post he held for 14 years until his death. The town of Telford in Shropshire was named after him. Early career Telford was born on 9 August 1757, at Glendinning, a hill farm east of Eskdalemuir Kirk, in the rural parish of Westerkirk, in Eskdale, Dumfriesshire. His father John Telford, a shepherd, died soon after Thomas was born. Thomas was raised in poverty by his mother Janet Jac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gibson Lockhart
John Gibson Lockhart (12 June 1794 – 25 November 1854) was a Scottish writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the seminal, and much-admired, seven-volume biography of his father-in-law Sir Walter Scott: ''Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart'' Early years Lockhart was born on 12 June 1794 in the manse of Cambusnethan House in Lanarkshire to Dr John Lockhart, who transferred in 1796 to Glasgow, and was appointed minister in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and his second wife Elizabeth Gibson (1767–1834), daughter of Margaret Mary Pringle and Reverend John Gibson, minister of St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. He was the younger paternal half-brother of the politician William Lockhart. Lockhart attended Glasgow High School, where he showed himself clever rather than industrious. He fell into ill-health, and had to be removed from school before he was 12; but on his recovery he was sent at this early age to the University of Glasgow, and displayed so much ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Liston
Henry Liston (30 June 1771 – 24 February 1836) was a Scottish minister and inventor. Life Born on 30 June 1771, he was the oldest son of Robert Liston, minister of Aberdour, Fife. He studied for the ministry and in 1793 became minister to the parish of Ecclesmachan, Linlithgowshire, and was clerk of its presbytery and in 1820 he became conjunct clerk of the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Liston died suddenly on 24 February 1836 at Merchison Hall, Falkirk. Works Liston invented a special pipe organ he called the "Euharmonic Organ." It had a tuning with 58 pitches in the space of an octave for performing music in just intonation and was championed by John Farey, Sr., who also directed attention to instruments developed for similar purposes by David Loeschman and William Hawkes. Liston used a series of pedals to change the pitch assigned to the keys of an ordinary keyboard, changing sharps and flats, as well as raising or lowering pitches by a major comma as required by the ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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