| Silvanus Phillips Thompson | |
 Silvanus Thompson (1851 - 1916)[1] | |
| Born | June 19, 1851 York, England |
|---|---|
| Died | June 12, 1916 |
| Nationality | England |
| Fields | physics |
| Known for | Calculus Made Easy |
Silvanus Phillips Thompson FRS (June 19, 1851 – June 12, 1916) was a professor of physics at the City and Guilds Technical College in Finsbury, England. Events 1179 - The Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. 1851 ( MDCCCLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year York ( is an historic Walled city sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Calculus Made Easy is a 1910 book on Calculus by Silvanus P Thompson, considered a classic and elegant introduction to the subject The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 Events 1179 - The Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. 1851 ( MDCCCLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year Events 1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Finsbury is a small district in the south of the London Borough of Islington and north of the City of London. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland He was elected to the Royal Society in 1891 and was known for his work as an electrical engineer and as an author. The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 Year 1891 ( MDCCCXCI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of Engineering that deals with the study and application of Thompson's most enduring publication is his 1910 text Calculus Made Easy, which teaches the fundamentals of calculus, and is still available as a supplemental textbook. Year 1910 ( MCMX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Calculus Made Easy is a 1910 book on Calculus by Silvanus P Thompson, considered a classic and elegant introduction to the subject [2] Thompson also wrote a popular physics text, Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism,[3] as well as biographies of Lord Kelvin and Michael Faraday. William Thomson 1st Baron Kelvin (or Lord Kelvin) OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, FRSE, (26 June 1824 &ndash 17 December 1907 Michael Faraday, FRS ( September 22 1791 – August 25 1867) was an English
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Biography
Silvanus Thompson was born in the year of the Great Exhibition of 1851 to a Quaker family in York, England. The Great Exhibition, also known as Crystal Palace, was an international exhibition that was held in Hyde Park, London, England, from 1 York ( is an historic Walled city sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland His father served as a master at the Quaker School at Bootham in York. In 1873 Silvanus Thompson was made the science master at Bootham School. Bootham School is an independent Quaker Boarding school in the city of York in North
On February 11, 1876 he heard Sir William Crookes give an evening discourse at the Royal Institution on The Mechanical Action of Light when Crookes demonstrated his light mill or radiometer. Sir William Crookes, OM, FRS (17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919 was an English Chemist and Physicist. The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research based in London. The Crookes radiometer, also known as the light mill, consists of an airtight glass bulb containing a partial Vacuum. Thompson was intrigued and stimulated and developed a major interest in light and optics (his other main interest being electromagnetism). Electromagnetism is the Physics of the Electromagnetic field: a field which exerts a Force on particles that possess the property of In 1876 he was appointed as a lecturer in Physics at University College, Bristol, and later was made Professor in 1878 at the age of 27. Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. University College Bristol was an Education institution which existed from 1876 to 1909
A major concern of Thompson was the area of technical education and he made a series of continental tours to France, Germany and Switzerland to compare the continental approach to that in the UK. In 1879 he gave a paper at the Royal Society of Arts on Apprenticeship, Scientific and Unscientific in which he detailed the deficiencies in technical education in England. The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts Manufactures and Commerce ( RSA) is a British multi-disciplinary institution based in London. In the discussion, the opinion was expressed that England was too conservative to make use of trade schools and that continental methods would not be applicable in the UK. Thompson recognized that technical education was the means by which scientific knowledge could be put into action and spent the rest of his life putting his vision into practical realization.
In 1878 the City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education was founded. Year 1878 ( MDCCCLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The City and Guilds of London Institute ( City & Guilds) is a United Kingdom examining and accreditation body for vocational managerial and engineering training offering Finsbury Technical College was a teaching institution created by the City and Guilds Institute and it was as its Principal and Professor of Physics that Thompson was to devote the next 30 years. Finsbury is a small district in the south of the London Borough of Islington and north of the City of London.
Thompson’s particular gift was in his ability to communicate difficult scientific concepts in a clear and interesting manner. He attended and lectured at the Royal Institution giving the Christmas lectures in 1896 on Light, Visible and Invisible with an account of Röntgen Light. The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures have been held in London annually since 1825 Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year For other uses of röntgen or roentgen, see Roentgen The röntgen or roentgen (symbol R) is a unit He was an impressive lecturer and the radiologist AE Barclay said that: “None who heard him could forget the vividness of the word-pictures he placed before them. ”
Thompson repeated Röntgen's experiments on the day after the discovery was announced in the UK and following this gave the first public demonstration of the new rays at the Clinical Society of London on March 30, 1896. William Hale White said: “The audience was thrilled, most seeing for the first time actual pieces of bones and metal. William Hale White ( December 22, 1831 - March 14, 1913) known by his pseudonym Mark Rutherford, was a British writer and Silvanus Thompson was a prince among lecturers. I have never heard a better demonstration or attended a more memorable medical meeting. ”
He was the first President of the Röntgen Society (later to become the British Institute of Radiology[6]). He described the society as being between medicine, physics and photography. It was his genius that put its stamp on that society and has made it into the rich amalgam of medical, scientific and technical members that it is today. As he said in his presidential address to the Röntgen Society: “The pioneers have opened the way into the wilderness; they are now being followed by those who will occupy the new territory, complete its survey, and map out its features. Not until every corner is explored and charted will the work of our Society be ended. ”
In 1900 Thompson was involved in the unworthy Whitehall attack on Marconi's patents, when the Post Office commissioned both him and Professor Oliver Lodge to produce secret reports. Whitehall is a road in Westminster in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards traditional Marchese Guglielmo Marconi mar'koni (25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937 was an Italian inventor best known for his development of a Radiotelegraph system Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, FRS ( June 12, 1851 - August 22, 1940) born at Penkhull in Stoke-on-Trent and educated The purpose was either to declare the Marconi Company patents invalid, or to produce similar, but technically different equipment: the latter involved Thompson. The Marconi Company Ltd was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company (sometimes presented as Wireless When the Admiralty received the two reports it was the pioneer of wireless telegraphy Captain H Jackson, then commanding HMS Vulcan, whose opinion led a senior naval officer to report, "it would be unworthy to try to evade the Marconi Company's patent. The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. "
Thompson was committed to truth in all aspects and his 1915 Swarthmore Lecture delivered to the Society of Friends was The Quest for Truth, indicating his belief in truth and integrity in all aspects of our lives. Thompson remained an active member of the Religious Society of Friends, throughout his life[7]
Literary works
Thompson wrote many books of a technical nature particularly Elementary Lessons in Electricity & Magnetism (1890), Dynamo Electrical Machinery (1896) and the classic Calculus Made Easy which was first published in 1910, and is still in print. Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Year 1910 ( MCMX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting
Thompson had many interests including painting, literature, the history of science, and working in his greenhouse. He wrote biographies of Michael Faraday and Lord Kelvin. Michael Faraday, FRS ( September 22 1791 – August 25 1867) was an English William Thomson 1st Baron Kelvin (or Lord Kelvin) OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, FRSE, (26 June 1824 &ndash 17 December 1907 He also wrote about William Gilbert, the Elizabethan physician, and produced an edition of Gilbert’s De Magnete at the Chiswick Press in 1900. William Gilbert, also known as Gilbard ( Colchester, England, May 24, 1544 &ndash London, England, November 30 Year 1900 ( MCM) was an exceptional Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar In 1912, Thompson published the first English translation of Treatise on Light by Christian Huygens. Christiaan Huygens (ˈhaɪgənz in English ˈhœyɣəns in Dutch) ( April 14, 1629 &ndash July 8, 1695) was a Dutch
His scientific library of historical and working books is preserved at the Institution of Electrical Engineers and is a wonderful collection (he was President of the IEE). The Institution of Electrical Engineers or IEE (pronounce I-double-E or I-E-E was a British professional organisation for Electronics, It includes many classic books on electricity, magnetism and optics. In Physics, magnetism is one of the Phenomena by which Materials exert attractive or repulsive Forces on other Materials. The collection consists of 900 rare books and 2500 nineteenth and early twentieth century titles, with approximately 200 autograph letters.
Miscellanea
- The first publication of Thompson's Calculus Made Easy listed only "FRS" as the author. [8]
- Thompson is one of the individuals represented on the Engineers Walk in Bristol, England.
- Thompson appears as a character in Edison's Conquest of Mars, where he voyages to Mars along with a number of other prominent scientists of his period to fight the Martians from War of the Worlds. Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett P Serviss, is one of the many Science fiction novels published in the nineteenth century The War of the Worlds (1898 by H G Wells, is an early Science fiction Novel which describes an invasion of England by
- Thompson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1891. The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 [9]
Notes
- ^ Photograph from Thompson's obituary in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 1917-1918, vol. 94, pp xvi-xix. See also Silvanus Thompson, His Life and Letters, Unwin, London, 1920 by Thompson and Thompson.
- ^ The original version is now in the public domain. A new edition has been updated and edited by Martin Gardner. Martin Gardner (b October 21, 1914, Tulsa Oklahoma) is a popular American mathematics and science writer specializing in Recreational mathematics
- ^ Silvanus Phillips Thompson, radiology and the Röntgen Society by Adrian M K Thomas, British Society for the History of Radiology, Department of Radiology, Princess Royal University Hospital, Orpington, Kent BR6 8ND
- ^ Photograph from Silvanus Thompson, His Life and Letters, Unwin, London, 1920 by Thompson and Thompson.
- ^ Photograph from Silvanus Thompson, His Life and Letters, Unwin, London, 1920 by Thompson and Thompson.
- ^ [1] and British Institute of Radiology
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by Arthur Smithells, ‘Thompson, Silvanus Phillips (1851–1916)’, revised by Graeme J. The Dictionary of National Biography ( DNB) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history published from 1885 N. Gooday, online edn, May 2006 [2], accessed 8 Dec 2006
- ^ See Thompson's obituary in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 1917-1918, vol. 94, pp xvi-xix and also A. C. Lynch's "Silvanus Thompson: teacher, researcher, historian" in IEE Proceedings, vol. 136, A(6), pp 306-312.
- ^ See the Royal Society's web page for the date or Thompson's election to membership.
Further reading
Sorted by date.
- Obituary in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 1917-1918, vol. 94, pp xvi-xix
- Obituary in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1917, vol. 77, pp 305-307 - Online at ADS
- Thompson, J. S. and Thompson, H. G. , Silvanus Thompson, His Life and Letters, Unwin, London, 1920.
- Lynch, A. C. , "Silvanus Thompson: teacher, researcher, historian," IEE Proceedings, 1989, vol. 136, A(6), pp 306-312.
- Gay, H. and Barrett, A. , "Should the Cobbler Stick to his Last? Silvanus Phillips Thompson and the Making of a Scientific Career," British Journal for the History of Science, 2002, vol. 35, 151-86
- Shipley, Brian C (August 2003). "Gilbert, Translated: Silvanus P. Thompson, the Gilbert Club, and the Tercentenary Edition of De Magnete". Canadian Journal of History.
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