John Hewitt Jellett
John Hewitt Jellett (born December 25, 1817 in Cashel, County Tipperary , † February 19, 1888 in Dublin ) was an Irish mathematician, natural scientist and theologian.
Jellett came from a Huguenot family, his father Morgan Jellett was a clergyman. He studied at Trinity College Dublin with a bachelor's degree in 1838 and a master's degree (MA) in 1843. In 1840 he became a fellow of the college. He became a professor of science at Trinity College and graduated in 1866. Initially he studied mathematics, physics and chemistry and later he became a theologian. He earned a degree in theology (Bachelor of Divinity) and received his doctorate in theology (DD) in 1881. In 1870 he became a senior fellow of Trinity College and thus on its board of directors and in 1881 he was Provost.
Walter Nernst published his chemical-optical investigations in Ostwald's Klassiker, recognizing him for his early contributions to the law of mass action , which is mostly attributed to Cato Maximilian Guldberg and Peter Waage (1864). For his investigations, Jellett used a newly developed polarimeter with which he measured the rotation of the plane of polarization with the compensation method (compensation of the rotation by a substance with opposite rotation ability) in an instrument he had developed. He applied this to saccharimetry, for example , or to acid-base reactions, from which his theoretical contribution (1873) to the law of mass action arose (independent of Guldberg and Waage).
As a mathematician, he wrote a book on the calculus of variations , which was also translated into German, and as a physicist, he dealt with the theory of friction.
In 1868 he became Commissioner of Irish National Education. In 1851 he received the Cunningham Medal from the Royal Irish Academy for his book on calculus of variations. In 1881 he received the Royal Medal of the Royal Society .
In 1855 he married his cousin Dorothea Francis Morris Morgan. He was the father-in-law of physicist George Francis FitzGerald .
From 1869 to 1874 he was President of the Irish Academy, in whose Transactions he mostly published.
With Samuel Haughton he published the Collected Works of James MacCullagh in 1880 .
Fonts
- An Elementary Treatise of the Calculus of Variations, Dublin 1850, Archives
- German translation: The basic doctrines of the calculus of variations, Braunschweig 1859, archive
- A Treatise on the Theory of Friction, London 1872, Archives
- Walter Nernst (ed.): Jellett, chemical-optical investigations, Ostwalds Klassiker, Leipzig: W. Engelmann 1908 (translator L. Frank, who also contributed a biography), archive
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Lectures from 1860, 1863, 1873, printed in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1875
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jellett, John Hewitt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish mathematician, theologian and natural scientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 25, 1817 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | County Tipperary |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 19, 1888 |
| Place of death | Dublin |