Robert Barker (died 1745) was a British physician and inventor. He was 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 ...

from 1732. Barker invented both a reflecting microscope, exhibited in 1736, and "Barker's mill", a prototype

reaction turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful Work (physics), work. The work produced by a turbine can be used ...

(1743). According to James Dodson, he was a friend of

Charles Labelye Charles Labelye (1705, Vevey, Switzerland – 1762) was a Swiss bridge engineer and mathematician. Moving to England in the 1720s and receiving patronage from the Duke of Bedford and Earl of Pembroke, he is best known there for his work on the ...

. He died in London, on 9 September 1745.

Barker's Mill

Barker's Mill, a rotating device powered by water and

Newton's Third Law Newton's laws of motion are three basic laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows: # A body remains at rest, or in motion ...

, is sometimes described as a 17th century invention. It is attributed to Dr Robert Barker F.R.S., in 1743. It was published by

John Theophilus Desaguliers John Theophilus Desaguliers FRS (12 March 1683 – 29 February 1744) was a British natural philosopher, clergyman, engineer and freemason who was elected to the Royal Society in 1714 as experimental assistant to Isaac Newton. He had studied at O ...

in his book ''Experimental Philosophy'' of 1744. Desaguliers, who himself demonstrated the mill to 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 ...

, attributed the principle involved to

Antoine Parent Antoine Parent (September 16, 1666 – September 26, 1716) was a French mathematician, born in Paris and died there, who wrote in 1700 on analytical geometry of three dimensions. His works were collected and published in three volumes at Paris in 1 ...

. French terms for the mill are ''tourniquet hydraulique'', ''moulin de Parent'' or ''roue à réaction''. A complex timeline of development ensued. *As the

Segner wheel The Segner wheel or Segner turbine is a type of water turbine invented by Johann Andreas Segner in the 18th century. It uses the same principle as Hero's aeolipile. The device is placed in a suitable hole in the ground (or at the slope of a hill ...

, practical application of the idea is often credited to Johann Andreas Segner (1750). *

Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in ma ...

with the Euler wheel of 1754 developed Segner's concept. *

James Ferguson James Ferguson may refer to: Entertainment * Jim Ferguson (born 1948), American jazz and classical guitarist * Jim Ferguson, American guitarist, past member of Lotion * Jim Ferguson, American movie critic, Board of Directors member for the Broadca ...

the lecturer notices in 1767 "a model of Dr. Barker's water mill". *c.1790

James Rumsey James Rumsey (1743 – December 21, 1792) was an American mechanical engineer chiefly known for exhibiting a boat propelled by machinery in 1787 on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown in present-day West Virginia before a crowd of local notables ...

had an "improvement upon Dr. Barker’s mill: a mode to allow circular or retrograde motion mills with a smaller quantity of water to be moved or turned". *1827

water turbine A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work. Water turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now, t ...

of Benoît Fourneyron. *In 1839 James Whitelaw and James Stirrat of Paisley obtained a patent for a

based on "Barker's Mill".

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Robert Year of birth missing 1745 deaths 18th-century British medical doctors Fellows of the Royal Society 18th-century British inventors