“The Home Life of Sir David Brewster”
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David Brewster
Sir David Brewster 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 of light and including the discovery of Brewster's angle. He studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity, thereby creating the fi…
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science · British astronomer and mathematician (1781–1868) · botanist · civil engineer · physicist · mathematician · astronomer · philosopher · inventor · writer · university teacher · biographer · also David Brewster, Sir David Brewster, Brewster, Brewster D
Born 11 December 1781 · Died 10 February 1868 · Q168468
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1869· 1 entry
1868· 4 entries
Died 1868-02-10.
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And was buried at Melrose Abbey, next to his first wife and second son
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“Although every part of the human frame has been fashioned by the same Divine hand and exhibits the most marvellous and beneficent adaptions for the use of men, the human eye stands pre-eminent above them all as the light of the body and the organ by which we become acquainted with the minutest and the nearest, the largest and most remote of the Creator’s work”
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Brewster died in 1868, and was buried at Melrose Abbey, next to his first wife and second son.
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1862· 1 entry
Responded to Darwin's On the Origin of Species and published the article The Facts and Fancies of Mr Darwin in Good Words
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1855· 1 entry
The government of France made him an Officier de la Légion d'honneur
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1849· 1 entry
Acted as president of the British Association and was elected one of the eight foreign associates of the Institute of France in succession to J
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1845· 1 entry
Wrote a highly critical review of the evolutionist work Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, in the North British Review
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1839· 1 entry
Through which one could view drawn landscape transparencies, since photography had yet to be invented
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1838· 1 entry
Was appointed Principal of the united colleges of St Salvator and St Leonard, University of St Andrews
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1833· 1 entry
Brewster's sister-in-law, Ann Macpherson, became laird of Belleville on the death of her half-brother, James
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1831· 2 entries
And later became the first scholar to examine many of the papers in Newton's Nachlass (the unpublished documents left after his death)
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Published the Life of Sir Isaac Newton, a short popular account of the philosopher's life, in Murray's Family Library, followed by an 1832 American edition in Harper's Family Library; but it was not until 1855 that he
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1830· 1 entry
Won Royal Medal (1830).
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1829· 1 entry
Won Keith Medal (1829).
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1824· 1 entry
16 volumes of which appeared under his editorship during the years 1824–1832, with very many articles from his own pen
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1821· 1 entry
Was made a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1822 a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
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1819· 1 entry
Brewster undertook further editorial work by establishing, in conjunction with Robert Jameson (1774–1854), the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, which took the place of the Edinburgh Magazine
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1818· 1 entry
Won Rumford Medal (1818).
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1817· 1 entry
(GB 4136), a copy of the prototype was shown to London opticians and copied before the patent was granted
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1816· 1 entry
Awarded Grand prix des sciences mathématiques (1816).
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1815· 2 entries
Won Copley Medal (1815).
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Was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and received the Copley Medal; and in 1816 the French Institute awarded him one-half of the prize of three thousand francs for the two most important discoveries in
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1807· 1 entry
Undertook the editorship of the newly projected Edinburgh Encyclopædia, of which the first part appeared in 1808, and the last not until 1830
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1800· 1 entry
Was licensed as a minister of the Church of Scotland, and then preached around Edinburgh on several occasions
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1781· 1 entry
Born 1781-12-11.
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