Prof William Hallowes Miller FRS H

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

LLD DCL (6 April 180120 May 1880) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

mineralogist and laid the foundations of modern

crystallography Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics (condensed matter physics). The wor ...

Miller indices Miller indices form a notation system in crystallography for lattice planes in crystal (Bravais) lattices. In particular, a family of lattice planes of a given (direct) Bravais lattice is determined by three integers ''h'', ''k'', and ''� ...

are named after him, the method having been described in his ''Treatise on Crystallography'' (1839). The mineral known as millerite is named after him.

Life and work

Miller was born in 1801 at Velindre near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire,

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

. He was educated at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, where he graduated in 1826 as fifth wrangler. He became a Fellow there in 1829. For a few years Miller was occupied as a college tutor and during this time he published treatises on hydrostatics and

hydrodynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) and ...

. Miller also gave special attention to

, and at 31 years old, on the resignation of

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved dist ...

he succeeded in 1832 to the professorship of mineralogy, a post he held until 1870. Miller's chief work, on ''Crystallography'', was published in 1839. He was elected 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 ...

in 1838 and received the Royal Medal in 1870, and in the same year was appointed on the ''International Commission du Metre''. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 1874. Miller was the main thrust in reforming the Parliamentary standards of length and weight, after a fire which in 1834 destroyed the old standards. He was a member of the committee as well as on the Royal Commission which oversaw these new standards.See '' Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'', 1856 Miller died in 1880 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England.

Family

In 1844 he married Harriet Susan Minty.

Selected writings

*William Hallowes Miller (1831
''The Elements of Hydrostatics and Hydrodynamics''
*William Hallowes Miller (1833
''An Elementary Treatise on the Differential Calculus''
*William Hallowes Miller (1839
''A Treatise on Crystallography''
*William Phillips, William Hallowes Miller, & Henry James Brooke (1852
''An Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy''
*William Hallowes Miller (1863
''A Tract on Crystallography''
In 1852 Miller edited a new edition of H. J. Brooke's ''Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, William Hallowes 1801 births 1880 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Welsh mineralogists People from Carmarthenshire Royal Medal winners British crystallographers Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Professors of Mineralogy (Cambridge)