An analysis of a course of lectures on the principles of natural philosophy, read in the University of Cambridge
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
George Atwood was a British mathematician and physicist. He is noted for his invention of a machine for illustrating the effects of Newton's first law of motion.
Background
George Atwood was born in Westminster, with the date remaining unknown, but presumed to have been shortly before his baptism on 15 October 1745. George Atwood's parents were Isabella Sells of Inglesham, Wiltshire, and Thomas Atwood who was the curate of the parish of St Clement Danes, Westminster, where George was baptized on 15 October (the exact date of his birth is unknown). George was the eldest of his parents sons and he had two younger brothers James and Thomas.
Education
Atwood attended Westminster School and was awarded a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of nineteen. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1769, and then received his Masters of Arts in 1772.
After receiving his Masters of Arts degree from the Trinity College, Cambridge in 1772, Atwood then became a fellow and tutor at his college. His lectures were well attended and well received because of their delivery and their experimental demonstrations. These experiments, published in 1776, the year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, consisted of simple demonstrations to illustrate electricity, optics, and mechanics.
Among his admirers was William Pitt, who in 1784 gave Atwood an office in the treasury, at £500 a year, so that, according to an obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine, he could “devote a large portion of his time to financial calculation” in which he was apparently employed “to the great advantage of revenue.” His only published work in this connection was A Review of the Statutes... (1801), in which he analyzed the cost of bread. The price that the baker could charge for a loaf of bread was governed by statute and was determined by the cost of grain plus an allowance for profit. Central to the problem was how much grain was required to make a loaf of bread. Atwood’s work, an attempt to rationalize the standards, was based on computation as well as on the results of experiments carried out by Sir George Young in 1773.
The work for which Atwood is best known and which bears his name - Atwood’s machine - is described in A Treatise on the Rectilinear Motion... (1784), which is essentially a textbook on Newtonian mechanics. Atwood’s machine was designed to demonstrate the laws of uniformly accelerated motion due to gravity and was constructed with pulleys, so that a weight suspended from one of the pulleys descends more slowly than a body falling freely in air but still accelerates uniformly.
Most of Atwood’s other published work consisted of the mathematical analysis of practical problems. In “A General Theory for the Mensuration...” (1781), he derived equations for use in connection with Hadley’s quadrant; and in “The Construction and Analysis...” (1796) and “A Disquisition on the Stability of Ships” (1798), he extended the theories of Euler, Bougier, and others to account for the stability of floating bodies with large angles of roll. For “The Construction and Analysis...” he was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. His work on arches, A Dissertation on the Construction and Properties of Arches (1801), based on the assumption that the material of an arch is perfectly hard and rigid and that the only critical forces are those relating to the wedging action of the individual arch units, is now totally superseded. It was published with a supplement containing Atwood’s questions about the proposed new London Bridge over the Thames, which was to be of iron.
George Atwood died unmarried in Westminster at the age of 61, and was buried there at St. Margaret's Church.
On 13 June 1776 Atwood was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
the Royal Society of London
,
United Kingdom
1776 - 1807
Personality
Atwood was a renowned chess player whose skill for recording many games of his own and of other players, including François-André Danican Philidor, the leading master of his time. One of most interesting features of Atwood as a chess player is that he recorded and preserved some of his games, an unusual practice at that time.
Interests
chess
Connections
George Atwood died unmarried in Westminster at the age of 61.
The mathematical practitioners of Hanoverian England, 1714-1840: A sequel to 'The mathematical practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England' by the same author
A sequel to Taylor's The mathematical practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England, published in 1954. Prof. Taylor in this volume carries her study down to 1840 by which time the independent practitioner had virtually disappeared, absorbed into universities, larger firms and organizations. In addition to a chronological account of this period, the book includes a catalog of over 2,200 names of practitioners, whether maker or user of mathematical instruments, teacher or writer.