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Croll to Hilgard Croll, James (1821-1890), physical geologist, was born Little Whitefield, Perthshire. The boy went to the village school, and his first impulse to real study came, when about eleven years old, from accidentally falling in with the ‘Penny Magazine.’ After an apprenticeship to a wheelwright at Collace he got work at Banchory as a joiner. His constitution, however, was not sound, and a boil on the elbow, accidentally injured when he was about ten years old, never healed, and in 1846 became so serious that he was compelled to seek a less laborious occupation, and next year opened a shop at Elgin. On 11 Sept. 1848 he married Isabella Macdonald. Then came an illness, which substituted an ossified joint for an inflamed elbow. But it injured his business, and in the summer of 1850 he left Elgin for Park, and early in 1852 he opened a temperance hotel at Blairgowrie, making much of the furniture himself. That, however, was not a success, and in 1853 he became an agent for the Safety Life Assurance Society, residing at Glasgow, at Edinburgh, and then at Leicester. A serious failure in his wife's health obliged him to resign this appointment and return to Scotland, where, in 1858, he got work on the ‘Commonwealth,’ a weekly paper, and was appointed in the following year keeper at the Andersonian University and Museum, Glasgow. He had already begun to write, and extended his studies, working mostly at physical questions and at the glacial deposits of South-western Scotland, publishing his first scientific paper, the forerunner of a long series, on an experiment of Ampère, in the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ for 1861. In September 1867 he was appointed to the Geological Survey of Scotland, as keeper of the maps and correspondence. He now pursued his studies, especially in physical geology, with even greater ardour, but in the face of unusual difficulties. His health had never been good; from boyhood he had suffered from pains, apparently neuralgic, in the head, and afterwards in the eyes. Still, by husbanding his powers and living by rule, he succeeded in writing many papers, and produced his most important book, ‘Climate and Time,’ in 1875. The following year he was elected F.R.S., and received from St. Andrews the degree of LL.D. But in 1880 another trivial accident did some permanent injury to the brain, and obliged him to retire from the Geological Survey. The treasury adhered to the letter of the law in regard to his pension; two prime ministers of opposite politics refused him one from the civil list; so Croll, with a world-wide reputation, retired invalided with less than 60l. per annum. Friendly efforts, however, slightly augmented his income, and with his scanty savings from literary work he purchased an annuity of 55l. on the joint lives of himself and his wife. For some time he moved from place to place in search of health, but at last, about 1886, settled down near Perth. There he died, after much suffering, but with unclouded mind, and working, so far as he could, to the last, on 15 Dec. 1890. Besides the distinctions already mentioned Croll three times received complimentary awards of funds from the Geological Society of London. He wrote three books: ‘The Philosophy of Theism,’ 1857; ‘Climate and Time,’ 1875; and ‘The Philosophic Basis of Evolution,’ 1890, besides about ninety separate papers, the majority on questions in physical geology, such as ocean currents, climate, and the causes of the glacial epoch. The last subject is discussed at length in ‘Climate and Time,’ Croll maintaining that the low temperature occurred when the eccentricity of the earth's orbit had a high value, but was modified by the precessional movement of the earth's axis. Croll's advocacy of this hypothesis, whatever be its ultimate fate, was characterised by patient research and acute reasoning, and will give his name an honourable place in the history of geology. Many of his writings, as may be supposed, were controversial, but his industry, energy, and love for truth won for him the respect of adversaries, who, even if they could not accept his views, thought them worthy of careful consideration.
He wrote 1 tidal letter.
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Cunningham D 1f
DaCunha 1t Darwin, Sir George Howard (1845-1912) Darwin, Sir Horace (1851-1928), civil engineer, was born at Down, Kent. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1874. After an apprenticeship in the works of Messrs. Easton & Anderson, engineers, of Erith, Kent, he returned to Cambridge, where the rest of his life was spent. During the years from 1875 to 1900 the natural science school at Cambridge grew rapidly. The laboratories which were erected needed apparatus, and in supplying this Darwin found his life work. Darwin and A. G. Dew Smith joined partnership and began the design and manufacture of scientific instruments. In 1885 the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company was established with Darwin as its chairman and chief shareholder. Darwin's own views on design are expressed in his Wilbur Wright lecture delivered to the Royal Aeronautical Society (1913), and more fully in the article, ‘The Design of Scientific
Instruments’. Darwin became an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1877 and a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1878. He was elected F.R.S. in
1903. Darwin married the Hon. Emma Cecilia Farrer. He wrote 2 tidal letters. Darwin, William (1839-1914): he wrote 2 tidal letters.
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Endor AR Evans, Sir Frederick John Owen (1815-1885), hydrographer. He entered the navy as a second-class volunteer in 1828. After serving in the Rose and the Winchester he was transferred in 1833 to the Thunder, Captain Richard Owen, and spent three years in surveying the coasts of Central America, the Demerara River, and the Bahama banks. In 1841 Evans was appointed master of the Fly, and for the next five years he was employed in surveying the Coral Sea, the great barrier reef of Australia, and Torres Straits. Beete Jukes, the geologist, was on board the Fly, and wrote an account of the expedition. Shortly after his return to England Evans married Elizabeth Mary, eldest daughter of Captain Charles Hall, R.N., of Plymouth. By this time Evans had become known by his scientific qualifications, and in 1855 he was appointed superintendent of the compass department of the navy. He had at once to consider a difficult problem, the use of the compass in iron ships and armour-clads. It was necessary to deal with the disturbing elements arising from the iron and the magnetisation of the ships. Evans, in co-operation with Archibald Smith, F.R.S., accomplished the task satisfactorily. He contributed seven papers, all dealing with the magnetism of ships, to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society, of which he was elected a fellow in 1862. In 1865 he was appointed chief naval assistant to the then hydrographer to the admiralty, Captain G. H. Richards, whom he succeeded in 1874. He was made C.B. in 1873, and K.C.B. in 1881. He was vice-president of the Royal Geographical Society from 1879 to 1881, and president of the geographical section of the British Association in 1876. In 1881 he contributed a paper to the latter body on ‘Oceanic or Maritime Discovery from 1831 to 1881’, published in the proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society. After resigning the post of hydrographer in 1884, Evans was appointed one of the British delegates to the International Conference held at Washington in 1885, to fix a prime meridian and universal day. He died at his residence, 21 Dawson Place, Pembridge Square, London. He wrote 9 tidal letters, chiefly to Thomson and received 2. Foster, ? probably Michael (1836-1907) Ferrel,
William (1817-1891): Ferrel
conjectured that tides should retard the Earth’s rotation, an effect dismissed
by After
Laplace, Ferrel was chief founder of the subject now known as geophysical fluid
dynamics. He gave the first general formulation of the equations of motion for a
body moving with respect to the rotating earth and drew from them the
consequences for atmospheric and oceanic circulation. He worked with the
American Nautical Almanac from 1858 to 1867 when he then joined the U.S. Coast
Survey. His first paper was published in B. A. Gould Astronomical Journal 1853.
Since After
three more papers published locally, Ferrel returned to tidal theory in 1856
with his second paper in Gould’s Astronomical Journal. In it he suggested that
In
both these early papers Ferrel established the basis of his contributions to the
theory of tides. After
joining the Coast Survey, Ferrel made important contributions to the techniques
of tidal prediction. He extended the nonharmonic developments of the
tide-producing potential beyond the points reached by Laplace and Lubbock, and
he gave the first reasonably complete harmonic development. Here his endeavours
were parallel to those of Kelvin, who was responsible for the first
tide-predicting machine (probably the earliest piece of large-scale computing
machinery). In 1880 Ferrel, too, designed a tide predictor, which went into
service in 1883. Although it was an analogue machine like Kelvin’s, Ferrel’s
gave maxima and minima rather than a continuous curve as its output. Ferrel also
made considerable progress in dealing with the shallow-water tidal components
and in using tidal data to calculate the mass of the moon [Ferrel’s
major work on tides is his Tidal Researches, appended to the Coast Survey Report
for 1874 He was also a trustee of the British Museum and a director of the P. and O. and other companies.
Godley married Sarah James. There is a portrait of Lord Kilbracken at Rugby. Gordon, Andrew R
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Guyon Haughton, Samuel (1821-1897), man of science, born in Carlow. He was educated at first at a school in Carlow and, at the age of seventeen, entered Trinity College, Dublin. Here he obtained first gold medal in mathematics (1843), and, six months afterwards, was a successful candidate at the fellowship examination (1844). He graduated B.A. in 1844 and M.A. in 1852. He was ordained deacon in 1846 and priest in 1847. In physical geology Haughton studied the effect on the position of the earth's axis of elevations and depressions caused by geological changes, with the resulting changes of climate (Proc. Roy. Soc. 1877). His final conclusion on the length of geological time, based on the probable rate of formation of stratified rock, was that the whole duration was about two hundred millions of years. He also investigated the question of geological climate in connection with Rossetti's law of cooling, and arrived at the conclusion that the secular cooling of the sun has been the chief factor in the changes of geological climate. In connection with this and other geological questions Haughton undertook a laborious series of calculations on solar radiation, the object of which was to determine the effects on terrestrial climates of alterations in the temperature of the sun and in the constitution of the atmosphere. He also made a research on the effect of the great ocean currents on climate (Trans. Roy. Irish Acad. xxvii. 1881; Cunningham Memoir, 1885). In 1854 Haughton commenced the work of reducing and discussing the tidal observations which had been carried out in 1850-1 at various stations on the coast of Ireland under the direction of the committee of science of the Royal Irish Academy. The results of this work are to be found in numerous papers published in the ‘Transactions’ of the Royal Irish Academy, the ‘Proceedings’ of the Royal Society, and the ‘Philosophical Magazine.’ In consequence of this work he was entrusted with the reporting of the observations made on the tides of the Arctic seas by the expedition in the yacht Fox under Sir Leopold McClintock, which went in search of the Franklin expedition, as well as those made on board H.M.S. Discovery (Proc. Roy. Soc. 1875-8). His final papers on this subject appeared in 1893-5 (Trans. Roy. Irish Acad. xxx.). Among the honours conferred on Haughton by learned bodies may be mentioned the following: F.R.S. 1858, D.C.L. Oxon. (hon. causa) 1868, LL.D. Cantab. 1881, LL.D. Edin. (hon. causa) 1884, M.D. Bologna (hon. causa), 1888. He was elected president of the Royal Irish Academy in 1887.
He wrote1 tidal letter. Heath, Douglas Denon
(1811-1897), classical and mathematical scholar, was born in Chancery Lane,
London. After schooling at Greenwich, he spent the greater part of 1826-7 with friends of his father's in France; among the latter was his godfather, the savant Denon, master of the mint to Napoleon I. He went into residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October
1828. Heath obtained a scholarship at Trinity on 23 April 1830, and two years later graduated senior wrangler, and took the first Smith's prize. He was called to the bar in 1835. In 1846
to 1865 (when he had to retire through deafness) he edited the legal remains of Bacon for the seventh volume of the great edition of the ‘Works of Francis Bacon’ (1859, ed. Spedding, Ellis, and Heath). The several manuscripts of Bacon's professional writings were carefully collated, and many passages for the first time made intelligible.
Hennessey JBN 1t Hilgard, Julius E
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