Henry Baker (8 May 1698 – 25 November 1774) was a British naturalist.

Life

Baker, Henry – Attempt towards a natural history of the polype, 1744 – BEIC 8761995

He was born in

Chancery Lane Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Boro ...

, London, 8 May 1698, the son of William Baker, a clerk in chancery. In his fifteenth year he was

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

d to John Parker, a bookseller. At the close of his indentures in 1720, Baker went on a visit to John Forster, a relative, who had a

deaf-mute Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have som ...

daughter, then eight years old. As a successful therapist of deaf people, he went on to make money, by a system that he kept secret. His work as therapist caught the attention of

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

, whose youngest daughter Sophia he married on 30 April 1729. In 1740 he was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the

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 ...

. In 1744 he received the Copley gold medal for microscopical observations on the crystallization of saline particles. He was one of the founders of the

Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, founded in 1754, was the precursor of The ''Royal'' Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce now more usually known as the RSA. The original Society gaine ...

in 1754 (later the Society of Arts), and for some time acted as its secretary. He died in London, and was buried at St Mary le Strand.

''Universal Spectator''

Under the name of Henry Stonecastle, Baker was associated with Daniel Defoe in starting the ''Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal'' in 1728. Defoe in fact did little except at the launch of the publication, intended as an essay-sheet rather than a newspaper. It appeared until 1746, running to 907 issues. Baker's involvement as editor continued until 1733. Among the major early contributors was the journalist John Kelly.

Works

He contributed many memoirs to the ''

Transactions of the Royal Society ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

''. Among his publications were ''A Short History of Speech'' (1723), ''The Microscope made Easy'' (1743), ''Employment for the Microscope'' (1753), where he noted down the presence of

dinoflagellates The dinoflagellates (Greek δῖνος ''dinos'' "whirling" and Latin ''flagellum'' "whip, scourge") are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered algae. Dinoflagellates a ...

for the first time as "Animalcules which cause the Sparkling Light in Sea Water", and several volumes of verse, original and translated, including ''The Universe, a Poem intended to restrain the Pride of Man'' (1727).Baker's description of the polyp was translated into French by Pierre Demours in 174

Legacy

His name is perpetuated by the Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society, for the foundation of which he left by will the sum of £100.

Literature

* George Rousseau. ''The Letters and Private Papers of Sir John Hill'' (New York: AMS Press, 1981). . Provides much biographical material about Baker in the Royal Society, and his Monday and Wednesday club of FRS at his London house. *

References

External links

*Baker, Henry (1743
''An attempt towards a natural history of the polype, in a letter to Martin Folkes...''
- digital facsimile from the

Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...

*Baker, Henry (1743
''The microscope made easy''
- digital facsimile from the

Henry Baker collection
at

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriquet ...

, Manchester. {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Henry 1698 births 1774 deaths Scientists from London English naturalists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Microscopists Recipients of the Copley Medal 18th-century English writers 18th-century English poets