Henry Baker (polymath)

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Henry Baker on a lithograph by Hannah Sarah Turner (1808–1882) after a pencil drawing by William Shipley (1715–1803)

Henry Baker (pseudonym Henry Stonecastle of Northumberland ; born May 8, 1698 in London , † November 25, 1774 ibid) was an English polymath . He was the founder of the Royal Society's Baker Lecture .

Live and act

In 1713, Henry Baker began a seven-year apprenticeship with John Parker, a bookseller on Pall Mall . In April 1720 he spent his vacation in Enfield, Middlesex (now the London Borough of Enfield ), where he began teaching a relative's deaf daughter to read, write and lip-read . The methods he used - which he always kept secret - proved to be very successful. When Baker was treating a patient in Newington , he met Daniel Defoe in 1724 , whose youngest daughter, Sophia, he married on April 30, 1729. The couple had two sons and lived on London's Strand .

In 1723 Baker published his first literary work with An Invocation of Health: A Poem , which was followed by two collections of poetry by 1727. Under the pseudonym Henry Stonecastle of Northumberland , he published the first issue of The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal on October 12, 1728 , for which he wrote articles until 1733 and in which Daniel Defoe also published. Under his direction, the bilingual volume of poetry Medulla Poetarum Romanorum was created , which contained classical Latin poems and the versions translated by various English poets. Together with the playwright James Miller (1703-1743), Baker translated the works of Molière , which appeared in a ten-volume edition in 1739.

In 1740 Baker became a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London , and on March 12, 1741 he was inducted into the Royal Society , for which he served on its council for four years. Between 1740 and 1758, Baker published 32 articles in the Society's Philosophical Transactions, covering very different subjects. For example, Baker studied the optical properties of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes , which were owned by the company, investigated the healing properties of currant jelly for sore throats, and investigated the medical uses of electricity . His first scientific book, The Microscope made Easy , was published in 1743 and was an introduction to microscopy for beginners. In the same year, Baker published a study on the common freshwater polyp ( Hydra vulgaris ). For his microscopic investigations into the crystallization and arrangement of salt particles, Baker received the Copley Medal in gold in 1744 . The results of these investigations, supplemented by a description of the life of insects , appeared in 1753 as Employment for the Microscope . He was one of ten members of the Royal Society of Arts , who founded it on March 22, 1754.

Baker played an essential role in introducing the rhubarb species Rheum palmatum to Great Britain. Their powdered roots were a popular medicine and were subject to a Russian trade monopoly. The botanist John Hope (1725–1786) succeeded in the Edinburgh Botanical Garden in 1767, successfully growing and multiplying the species from seeds.

John Baker was buried in the St. Mary le Strand cemetery.

Baker lecture

In his will, Baker left a sum of £ 100 to the Royal Society for an annual speech or lecture on a natural philosophical subject to be determined by the President and Council of the Society and read or read by a member of the Royal Society. The first of the Bakerian Lectures was given by Peter Woulfe . Important speakers from the first 50 years of the Baker Lecture are Tiberius Cavallo , who gave a total of 13 lectures on various topics, Humphry Davy with six lectures on electrolysis and alkalis, and Michael Faraday , who spoke three times about the optical properties of glass and electricity .

Fonts

As an author

  • An invocation of health: A poem . J. Parker, London 1723.
  • Original poems: serious and humourous . 2 volumes, London 1725–1726.
  • The Universe, a poem intended to restrain the Pride of Man . 1727
  • The microscope made easy . R. Dodsley, London 1743, online .
  • An attempt towards a natural history of the polype: in a letter to Martin Folkes, Esq; president of the Royal Society. Describing Their different Species; the places where to seek and how to find them; their wonderful production and increase; the form, structure and use of their several parts . London 1743, online .
  • Employment for the Microscope . R. Dodsley, London 1753, online .

As editor

  • Medulla poetarum Romanorum: or, the most beautiful and instructive passages of the Roman poets. ... With translations of the same in English verse . 2 volumes, London 1737, volume 1 , volume 2
  • The Works of Molière . 10 volumes, J. Watts, London 1739

proof

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ To Account of Mr. Leeuwenhoek's Microscopes; By Mr. Henry Baker, FRS In: Philosophical Transactions . Volume 41, 1739-1741, pp. 503-519, doi : 10.1098 / rstl.1739.0085 .
  2. ↑ Some Observations concerning the Virtue of the Jelly of Black Currants, in Curing Inflammations in the Throat. By Henry Baker, FRS In: Philosophical Transactions . Volume 41, 1739-1741, pp. 655-660, doi : 10.1098 / rstl.1739.0113
  3. ^ A Letter from Mr. Henry Baker FR S, to the President, concerning Several Medical Experiments of Electricity . In: Philosophical Transactions . Volume 45, 1748 pp. 270-275, doi : 10.1098 / rstl.1748.0027

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Baker, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stonecastle of Northumberland, Henry (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English polymath, founder of the Baker Lecture
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1698
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1774
Place of death London