Henry Coddington (1798/9,

Oldbridge Oldbridge () is a townland near Drogheda in County Meath, Ireland. The area is home to the Boyne Navigation, the Battle of the Boyne Interpretive Centre and the southern half of the Mary McAleese Boyne Valley Bridge (which carries the M1 motorway ...

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

— 3 March 1845,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, fellow and tutor of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

and

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

clergyman.

Life

Henry Coddington was the son of Latham Coddington, Rector of

Timolin Timolin () is a village in the south of County Kildare, Ireland. It is located off the R448 road, the former N9 road (now by-passed by the M9 motorway) about south of Dublin. It is a small village, with less than a hundred inhabitants, one ...

Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional cen ...

. Admitted to

in 1816, Coddingtion graduated BA as

Senior Wrangler The Senior Frog Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain." Specifically, it is the person who a ...

in 1820, and first Smith's prizeman; proceeded M.A. in 1823, and obtained a fellowship and sub-tutorship in his college. He retired to the college living of Ware in Hertfordshire, and in the discharge of his clerical duties burst a blood-vessel, thereby fatally injuring his health. Coddington was vicar of

Ware, Hertfordshire Ware is a town in Hertfordshire, England close to the county town of Hertford. It is also a civil parishes in England, civil parish in East Hertfordshire district. Location The town lies on the north–south A10 road (Great Britain), A10 road ...

from 1832 to 1845. Advised to try a southern climate, he travelled abroad, and died at

3 March 1845.

Family

He married a daughter of Dr. Batten, principal of

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia **Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an international ...

, and left seven children.

Legacy

He wrote chiefly on

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...

, in particular ''An Elementary Treatise on Optics''. He also made the

Coddington magnifier A Coddington magnifier is a magnifying glass consisting of a single very thick lens with a central deep groove diaphragm at the '' equator'', thus limiting the rays to those close to the axis, which minimizes spherical aberration. This allows for ...

popular. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in February, 1829.

Awards

His name occurs on the first list of members of the

British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

. He was one of the earliest members of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

, was a fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

and

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, and sat on the council of the latter body in 1831–2.

References

;Attribution

Sources

W. W. Rouse Ball Walter William Rouse Ball (14 August 1850 – 4 April 1925), known as W. W. Rouse Ball, was a British mathematician, lawyer, and fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1878 to 1905. He was also a keen amateur magician, and the founding ...

, ''A History of the Study of Mathematics at Cambridge University'', 1889, repr.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 2009, , p. 131 {{DEFAULTSORT:Coddington, Henry 1798 births 1845 deaths English physicists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Senior Wranglers Fellows of the Royal Society