James Ferguson (1710–1776)
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James Ferguson (1710–1776)
James Ferguson (25 April 1710 – 17 November 1776) was a Scotland, Scottish astronomer. He is known as the inventor and improver of astronomical and other scientific apparatus, as a striking instance of self education and as an itinerant teacher, itinerant lecturer. Biography Ferguson was born near Rothiemay in Banffshire of humble parents. According to his autobiography, he learned to read by hearing his father teach his elder brother, and with the help of an old woman was able to read quite well before his father thought of teaching him. After his father taught him to write, he was sent at the age of seven for three months to the grammar school at Keith, Scotland, Keith and that was all the formal education he ever received. His taste for mechanics was about this time accidentally awakened on seeing his father making use of a lever to raise a part of the roof of his house — an exhibition of strength which excited his wonder. In 1720 he was sent to a neighboring fa ...
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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 (band), Lotion * Jim Ferguson, American movie critic, Board of Directors member for the Broadcast Film Critics Association * Jimmy Ferguson (1940–1997), Irish-Canadian singer, member of The Irish Rovers Politics * James Ferguson, 1st Laird of Pitfour (1672–1734) * James Ferguson, Lord Pitfour (1700–1777) * James Ferguson (Scottish politician) (1735–1820), Scottish Tory politician * James Burne Ferguson, New Zealand politician in 1850s * James E. Ferguson (1871–1944), Governor of Texas * James Ferguson (Australian politician) (1908–1975), South Australian House of Assembly * James Ferguson (Canadian politician) (1925–2013), Canadian politician from Manitoba * Jim Ferguson (public servant) (born 1940), Australian diplomat * James Leo Ferguson, Bangladeshi politician Science * James Ferguson (Scottish astr ...
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John Senex
John Senex (1678–1740) was an English cartographer, engraver and explorer. He was also an astrologer, geologist, and geographer to Queen Anne of Great Britain, editor and seller of antique maps and most importantly creator of the pocket-size map of the world. He owned a business on Fleet Street in London, where he sold maps. He was born in Ludlow, Shropshire and died in London. Importance He was one of the principal cartographers of the 18th century. He started his apprenticeship with Robert Clavell, at the Stationers Company, in 1692. Senex is famous for his maps of the world, some of which have added elevations, and which feature minuscule detailed engravings. Many of these maps can be found in museum collections; rarely, copies are available for private sale. Some copies are held in the National Maritime Museum; many of his maps are now in the possession of Trinity College Dublin. Having worked and collaborated with Charles Price, Senex created a series of engravings f ...
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David Brewster
Sir David Brewster Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order, KH President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, PRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA Scot Fellow of the Scottish Society of Arts, FSSA Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, MICE (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, mostly concerned with the study of the Polarization (waves), polarization of light and including the discovery of Brewster's angle. He studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity, thereby creating the field of optical mineralogy.A. D. Morrison-Low (2004) "Brewster, Sir David (1781–1868)" in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' For this work, William Whewell dubbed him the "father of modern experimental optics" and "the Johannes Kepler of o ...
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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (; 1 July 1742 – 24 February 1799) was a German physicist, satirist, and Anglophile. He was the first person in Germany to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics. He is remembered for his posthumously published notebooks, which he himself called ', a description modelled on the English language, English bookkeeping term "waste books" or "scrapbooks", and for his discovery of the tree-like electrical discharge patterns now called Lichtenberg figures. Life Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was born in Ober-Ramstadt near Darmstadt, Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, the youngest of 17 children. His father, (1689–1751), was a pastor ascending through the ranks of the church hierarchy, who eventually became superintendent for Darmstadt. The mother of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was Katharina Henriette Lichtenberg, nee Eckard (1696–1764), daughter of pastor Johann Peter Eckard (1659–1702). His maternal aunt Sophie Elisabeth Eckard ...
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American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publications, source text, library resources, and community outreach. It was founded by the polymath Benjamin Franklin and is considered the first learned society founded in what became the United States.Philosophical Hall, the society's headquarters and a museum, is located just east of Independence Hall in Independence National Historical Park. In 1965, in recognition of the building's history, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. The society has about 1,000 elected members. As of April 2020, 5,710 members had been inducted since its creation. Through research grants, published journals, the American Philosophical Society Museum, an extensive library, and regular meetings, the society supports a variety of disciplines in the humanitie ...
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William Herschel
Frederick William Herschel ( ; ; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel. Born in the Electorate of Hanover, William Herschel followed his father into the military band of Hanover, before immigrating to Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain in 1757 at the age of nineteen. Herschel constructed his first large telescope in 1774, after which he spent nine years carrying out sky surveys to investigate double stars. Herschel published catalogues of nebulae in 1802 (2,500 objects) and in 1820 (5,000 objects). The resolving power of the Herschel telescopes revealed that many objects called nebulae in the Messier object, Messier catalogue were actually clusters of stars. On 13 March 1781 while making observations he made note of a new object in the constellation of Gemini. This would, after several weeks of verification and consultation with other astrono ...
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Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In the old calendar, the new year began on March 25, not January 1. Paine's birth date, therefore, would have been before New Year, 1737. In the new style, his birth date advances by eleven days and his year increases by one to February 9, 1737. The Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. link gives more detail if needed. – June 8, 1809) was an English-born American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father, French Revolutionary, inventor, and political philosophy, political philosopher. He authored ''Common Sense'' (1776) and ''The American Crisis'' (1776–1783), two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and he helped to inspire the Colonial history of the United States, colonial era Patriot ...
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Privy Purse
The Privy Purse is the British sovereign's private income, mostly from the Duchy of Lancaster. This amounted to £20.1 million in net income for the year to 31 March 2018. Overview The Duchy is a landed estate of approximately 46,000 acres (200 square kilometres) held in trust for the sovereign since 1399. It also has of foreshore. The Duchy was valued at approximately £533 million in 2018. The land is organised into the Lancashire Survey, the Yorkshire Survey, the Crewe Survey, the Needwood Estate and the South Survey. The sovereign is not entitled to the Duchy's capital, but the net revenues of the Duchy are the property of the sovereign in right of the Duchy of Lancaster. While the income is private, the King uses the larger part of it to meet official expenses incurred by other members of the British royal family. Only the King receives payments from Parliament that are not reimbursed by the King. Administrators Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The Chancellor of th ...
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Bath, Somerset
Bath (Received Pronunciation, RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman Baths (Bath), Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, west of London and southeast of Bristol. The city became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, and was later added to the transnational World Heritage Site known as the "Great Spa Towns of Europe" in 2021. Bath is also the largest city and settlement in Somerset. The city became a spa with the Latin name ' ("the waters of Sulis") 60 AD when the Romans built Roman Baths (Bath), baths and a temple in the valley of the River Avon, although List of geothermal springs in the United Kingdom, hot springs were known even before then. Bath Abbey was founded in the 7th century and became a religious centre; the building was rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century, claims were made for the curative properties of water ...
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Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. The town was a spa in the Restoration (England), Restoration and a fashionable resort in the mid-1700s under Beau Nash when the Pantiles, and its chalybeate spring, attracted visitors who wished to take the waters. Though its popularity as a spa town waned with the advent of sea bathing, the town still derives much of its income from tourism. The prefix "List of place names with royal styles in the United Kingdom, Royal" was granted to it in 1909 by King Edward VII; it is one of only three towns in England with the title. The town had a population of 59,947 in 2016, and is the administrative centre of Tunbridge Wells (borough), Tunbridge Wells Borough and in the Constituencies ...
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