Dionysius Lardner

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Dionysius Lardner, Edith Fortunée , National Portrait Gallery London

Dionysius Lardner (born April 3, 1793 in Dublin , † April 29, 1859 in Naples ) was an Irish physicist , mathematician and encyclopedist .

Life

Dionysius Lardner studied science and mathematics at Cambridge and in 1817 became a mathematics teacher at Trinity College , Cambridge. He gained fame through the works Treatise on algebraical geometry (London 1823) and On the differential and integral calculus (London 1825, 2nd ed. 1828) and in particular through his Cabinet Cyclopaedia in 133 volumes (2nd ed. 1854 ff., 135 Vol.). Lardner himself wrote articles on mechanics , hydrostatics , geometry , arithmetic and (with CV Walker) Manual of electricity, magnetism and meteorology (2 vol.) For this work . From 1828 to 1831 he was Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at University College London .

In 1815 Lardner married Cecilia Flood, with whom he had three children. After five years of marriage, they separated in 1820, whereupon Lardner began a relationship with Mary Boursiquot, who gave birth to the future writer and playwright Dion Boucicault around 1820 . Lardner then went to Paris, later to the United States, but returned to Europe and died on April 29, 1859 in Naples.

Lardner's life was in conflict with the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel . He was employed as chief engineer at the Great Western Railway , where he was responsible, among other things, for building the necessary infrastructure. Lardner particularly criticized the drilling of the Box Tunnel on the Great Western Main Line between Bath and Chippenham . The tunnel should have a slope of 10 ‰; Lardner feared that if the train brakes failed at the higher end of the tunnel, the train would roll uncontrollably down the slope and accelerate to a speed of 120 mph (about 193 km / h). The passengers would then no longer be able to breathe and would suffocate.

"Rail travel at high speeds is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia."

"Traveling by train at high speeds is not possible because passengers would not be able to breathe and suffocate."

- Dionysius Lardner

Brunel refuted this claim by showing that Lardner hadn't included friction or drag in his calculations.

Lardner's research contradicted Brunel's research in other areas as well. For example, he rejected the project to cross the Atlantic with the paddle steamer SS Great Western , which Brunel had designed in 1837. Two years earlier, Lardner had set the theoretical maximum limit for steamship travel at 2,500 miles (about 4,000 kilometers) because he thought it was impossible to store enough coal on board for longer trips. Brunel disagreed; in fact, the Great Western crossed the Atlantic in record time in 1838, for which it was awarded the Blue Ribbon .

Since 1826 he was a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Fonts

  • The steam engine: a popular textbook on the history of its invention and description of its gradual improvement to the present point of view; with constant application to technical business, steam navigation, railways and highways & c; for technicians and friends of mechanics. Heilbronn a. Neckar: Claß, approx. 1832 (numerous editions in German).
  • Mechanics textbook with an appendix on pendulum and balance . Stuttgart, 1836.

Reprints

  • Christian Schmidt: The steam engines . Reprint of the translation of Dionysius Lardner's work. Carey and Hart, Philadelphia 1836. Salzwasser, 2009 (English: The Steam Engines Familiarly Explained and Illustrated, with additions and notes by James Renwick .).

literature

Web links

Commons : Dionysius Lardner  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ entry on Lardner; Dionysius (1793-1859); Scientific Writer in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
  2. ^ Martin Wroe: Back to the Future 2008 . In: The Sunday Times , December 23, 2007; Retrieved December 27, 2010.
  3. ↑ Derrick Beckett: Brunel's Britain . David & Charles, Newton Abbot 2006, ISBN 0-7153-2360-1 , pp. 64 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  4. ^ John H. Lienhard: Engines of Our Ingenuity. No. 550: Steam Across the Atlantic . University of Houston website . Retrieved December 27, 2010.
  5. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 30, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Lardner, Dionysius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish physicist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1859
Place of death Naples , Italy