Samuel Morland

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Samuel Morland

Sir Samuel Morland , 1 st (* Baronet 1625 today in Sulhamstead Bannister, Sulhamstead , Berkshire , † the 30th December 1695 in Hammersmith , Middlesex ) was an English scholar, diplomat , spy , inventor and mathematician .

education

The son of Thomas Morland, pastor of Sulhamstead Bannister Parish Church in Berkshire, was tutored at Winchester School and Magdalene College at Cambridge University , where he spent much of his time studying mathematics. He became a skilled Latinist and was proficient in Greek, Hebrew, and French - the language of culture and diplomacy at the time. During his school days in Cambridge he first met Samuel Pepys , to whom he had a lifelong acquaintance.

diplomat

Passionate about public affairs, he left Cambridge and entered the public service. He made a trip to Sweden in 1653 , and in 1655 he was sent on a mission to Italy by Oliver Cromwell to protest actions by the Duke of Savoy against the Waldensians . He stayed in Geneva for some time as ambassador and also wrote a book: The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont (1658) .

spy

While serving as secretary to John Thurloe , a Commonwealth government official on espionage matters , Morland became disillusioned with the Commonwealth government (allegedly after the discovery of a plot by Sir Richard Willis , Thurloe and Richard Cromwell over the future King Charles II ). As a double agent , Morland began working towards the Stuart Restoration and engaged in espionage and cipher activities that later helped him enter royal service.

Inventor and scientist

On July 18, 1660 he was given the title of baronet and given a small role in court. He earned his main income by applying his knowledge of mathematics and hydraulics to design and maintain various machines - most notably "water motors," an early type of water pump. For example, he was hired on projects to improve the water supply at Windsor Castle , where over time (around 1675) he found a piston valve pump capable of "handling large quantities of water, with far less amount of force than by a chain or other Pump, to lift ”, patented. He also experimented with the use of gunpowder to create a vacuum that would draw in water (practically the first internal combustion engine) and worked on ideas for a steam engine. Morland's pumps have found applications in the home, marine and industrial sectors, for example in wells, drainage ponds, mines and for fire fighting.

At the same time, he also made inventions in other areas. He invented a non-decimal adding machine (working with English pounds, shillings and pence), a machine that performed trigonometric calculations, and a calculating machine that is said to have mastered all four basic arithmetic operations (it is considered by some to be the world's first multiplying machine ; an example is on display at the Science Museum in South Kensington ).

In 1666 he was also granted a patent for making metal fire stoves, and in 1671 he claimed credit for inventing the speaking trumpet, an early form of the megaphone . He later got a contract to supply the king with mirrors and to set them up and to maintain the royal printing presses. In 1681 he was appointed Master of Mechanics by the King for his work on the Windsor water system. He also corresponded with Pepys about gunships, designed a machine to weigh ship's anchors, developed new forms of barometers, and designed a coding machine.

From 1677 he lived in Vauxhall in central London and in 1684 he moved to a house in Hammersmith . He became progressively blind and lost his sight around 1692. He died three years later on December 30, 1695 and was buried in Hammersmith Church on January 6, 1696.

He also recognized the sexes of plants and pollination by pollen in a work published in 1703. He was stimulated by the microscopic discovery of sperm cells by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek .

Works

  • The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont . 1658.
  • A new, exact and most expeditious method of delineating all manner of fortifications . London 1672.
  • The description and use of two arithmetick instruments: together with a short treatise, explaining and demonstrating the ordinary operations of arithmetick: as likewise, a perpetual almanack, and several useful tables . M. Pitt, London 1673.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gottfried Wilhelm Bischoff, Textbook of Botany, Volume 3, Schweitzerbart 1839, p. 499
  2. ^ Robert L. Williams, Botanophilia in Eighteenth-Century France: The Spirit of the Enlightenment, Kluwer 2001, p. 11
personal data
SURNAME Morland, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English scholar, diplomat, spy, inventor and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH 1625
PLACE OF BIRTH Sulhamstead Bannister, now Sulhamstead , Berkshire
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1695
Place of death Hammersmith , Middlesex