Lazarus Fletcher

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Sir Lazarus Fletcher (born March 9, 1854 in Salford , † January 6, 1921 in Grange-over-Sands ) was a British mineralogist and crystallographer.

Fletcher came from a humble background and already excelled as a student at the Manchester Grammar School and then as a student at Balliol College at Oxford University , where he studied mathematics and physics, among other things. From 1875 he was a demonstrator in physics at the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford and from 1877 a lecturer . By studying Groth's textbook on crystallography, he turned to mineralogy and in 1878 became assistant to the mineralogical collection (at that time under Maskelyne ) of the British Museum, which under Fletcher's direction moved to its current location in the Natural History Museum in South Kensington in 1881. From 1880 to 1919 he was chief curator of the mineralogical collection. From 1909 to 1919 he was director of the Natural History Museum.

In 1889 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society , in 1916 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor and in 1912 he received the Wollaston Medal . From 1885 to 1889 he was President and then Secretary General of the Mineralogical Society. 1910 to 1912 he was Vice President of the Royal Society, 1890 to 1892 Vice President of the Geological Society of London and 1895 to 1897 Vice President of the Physical Society.

To mark the tricentenary of the King James Bible in 1911, he contributed a Biblical Minerals section to the Natural History Museum's exhibition catalog.

He was honorary doctor of the University of Berlin and the University of St. Andrews , member of the Bavarian and (from 1901) the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and the New York Academy of Sciences .

He was married twice and had a daughter. Most recently he lived in Ravenstonedale , where he is buried.

Fonts

  • Guide to the study of meteorites , 1881 (Natural History Museum)
  • Guide to the study of minerals , 1884 (Natural History Museum)
  • Introduction to the study of rocks , 1895 (Natural History Museum)
  • The optical indicatrix and the transmission of light in crystals , 1891

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 82.
personal data
SURNAME Fletcher, Lazarus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British geologist and mineralogist
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Salford
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1921
Place of death Grange-over-Sands