1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781980503321

Autore

Carpenter Audrey T.

Titolo

John Theophilus Desaguliers : a natural philosopher, engineer and freemason in Newtonian England / / Audrey T. Carpenter

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London ; ; New York : , : Continuum International Pub. Group, , 2011

ISBN

1-4725-9955-1

0-8264-3148-8

1-283-30778-2

9786613307781

1-4411-7347-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (356 p.)

Disciplina

001.09

Soggetti

Physicists - Great Britain

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages [299]-325) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction - New Ideas in a Changing Society -- 1. Early Life - From Forebears in La Rochelle to Education at Oxford -- 2. Lectures in London and Beyond, Royal Recognition and Ecclesiastical Preferment -- 3. Demonstrator and Fellow of the Royal Society -- 4. Freemasonry - Desaguliers's Contribution to the Early Years of Grand Lodge -- 5. Translations from French and Latin, and Troubles with Booksellers -- 6. Fire, Water and Air - Desaguliers the Engineer -- 7. Patronage - Desaguliers at the Service of the Duke of Chandos and His Great Estate at Cannons -- 8. Desaguliers's Influential Work on Contemporary Science - The Publication of A Course of Experimental Philosophy and A Dissertation Concerning Electricity -- 9. Poems, Plays and Pictures - a More Personal Perspective -- 10. The House in Channel Row - Family, Lodgers, Health and Descendants -- Appendices  -- Bibliography -- Index. --

Sommario/riassunto

John Theophilus Desaguliers made his mark on the eighteenth century in several diverse ways. He was an assistant to Sir Isaac Newton and later elucidated the difficult concepts of Newtonian physics in private lectures. He was a member of the Royal Society, and was presented with the Society's highest honour, the Copley Medal, no less than three



times. He was a pioneering engineer: the water supply of Edinburgh, the ventilation of the Houses of Parliament and the first Westminster Bridge all owed him a debt. In a different sphere, Desaguliers became the third Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of