Calvert Jones, Lady Brewster (Jane Kirk Purnell), Mrs. Jones, David Brewster and Miss Parnell (seated)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000718022/?tag=2022091-20
1987
(David Brewster (1781-1868) wrote this fascinating treatis...)
David Brewster (1781-1868) wrote this fascinating treatise to illustrate the use of scientific principles by ancient governments and religious orders to frighten and delude the populace for their own advantage. He also covers a variety of other scientific curiosities and marvels (optical, auditory, chemical, mechanical, atmospheric, etc.), providing logical reasoning to counter superstition, while recognizing the hand of the Creator.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161646075X/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1514356775/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1376148838/?tag=2022091-20
(An instrument of more significance, the stereoscope, whic...)
An instrument of more significance, the stereoscope, which - though of much later date (1849) - along with the kaleidoscope did more than anything else to popularise his name, was not as has often been asserted the invention of Brewster. Sir Charles Wheatstone discovered its principle and applied it as early as 1838 to the construction of a cumbersome but effective instrument, in which the binocular pictures were made to combine by means of mirrors. A dogged rival of Wheatstone's, Brewster was unwilling to credit him with the invention, however, and proposed that the true author of the stereoscope was a Mr. Elliot, a "Teacher of Mathematics" from Edinburgh, who, according to Brewster, had conceived of the principles as early as 1823 and had constructed a lensless and mirrorless prototype in 1839, through which one could view drawn landscape transparencies, since photography had yet to be invented. Brewster's personal contribution was the suggestion to use prisms for uniting the dissimilar pictures; and accordingly the lenticular stereoscope may fairly be said to be his invention.
1849
David Brewster was born on February 11, 1781 in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, United Kingdom, to Margaret Key (1753–1790) and James Brewster (c. 1735–1815), the rector of Jedburgh Grammar School and a teacher of high reputation. David was the third of six children, two daughters and four sons: James (1777-1847), minister at Craig, Ferryden; David; George (1784-1855), minister at Scoonie, Fife; and Patrick (1788-1859), minister at the abbey church, Paisley.
At the age of 12, David Brewster was sent to the University of Edinburgh (graduating Master of Arts in 1800), being intended for the clergy. He was licensed a minister of the Church of Scotland, and preached around Edinburgh on several occasions. He had already shown a strong inclination for natural science, and this had been fostered by his intimacy with James Veitch of Inchbonny, a man who was particularly skilful in making telescopes.
In 1799 David Brewster was induced by his fellow-student, Henry Brougham, to study the diffraction of light. The results of his investigations were communicated from time to time in papers to the Philosophical Transactions of London and other scientific journals, and were admirably and impartially summarized by James D. Forbes in his preliminary dissertation to the eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Among the non-scientific public his fame was spread more effectually by his rediscovery about 1815 of the kaleidoscope, for which there was a great demand in both England and America.
David Brewster began literary work in 1799 as a regular contributor to the Edinburgh Magazine, of which he acted as editor at the age of twenty. In 1807 he undertook the editorship of the newly projected Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, of which the first part appeared in 1808, and the last not until 1830. The work was strongest in the scientific department, and many of its most valuable articles were from the pen of the editor. At a later period he was one of the leading contributors to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (seventh and eighth editions), the articles on Electricity, Hydrodynamics, Magnetism, Microscope, Optics, Stereoscope, Voltaic Electricity, &c. , being from his pen. In 1819 Brewster undertook further editorial work by establishing, in conjunction with Robert Jameson (1774-1854), the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, which took the place of the Edinburgh Magazine. The first ten volumes (1819-1824) were published under the joint editorship of Brewster and Jameson, the remaining four volumes (1825-1826) being edited by Jameson alone. After parting company with Jameson, Brewster started the Edinburgh Journal of Science in 1824, sixteen volumes of which appeared under his editorship during the years 1824-1832, with very many articles from his own pen. To the transactions of various learned societies he contributed from first to last between three and four hundred papers, and few of his contemporaries wrote so much for the various reviews.
Brewster’s relations as editor brought him into frequent communication with the most eminent scientific men, and he was naturally among the first to recognize the benefit that would accrue from regular intercourse among workers in the field of science. In an article in the Quarterly Review he threw out a suggestion for “an association of our nobility, clergy, gentry and philosophers, ” which was taken up by others and found speedy realization in the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Its first meeting was held at York in 1831. In 1838 David Brewster was appointed principal of the united colleges of St Salvator and St Leonard, St Andrews. In 1849 he acted as president of the British Association; and ten years later David Brewster accepted the office of principal of the university of Edinburgh, the duties of which he discharged until within a few months of his death, which took place at Allerly, Melrose, on the 10th of February 1868.
(David Brewster (1781-1868) wrote this fascinating treatis...)
David Brewster was a Presbyterian and walked arm in arm with his brother on the Disruption procession which formed the Free Church of Scotland.
In 1815 David Brewster was made a member of the Royal Society of London. He was also a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Institute of France.
Quotes from others about the person
James David Forbes: "His scientific glory is different in kind from that of Young and Fresnel; but the discoverer of the law of polarization of biaxial crystals, of optical mineralogy, and of double refraction by compression, will always occupy a foremost rank in the intellectual history of the age."
David Brewster married twice. His first wife, Juliet Macpherson (c. 1776-1850), was a daughter of James Macpherson (1736-1796), a probable translator of Ossian poems. They married on 31 July 1810 in Edinburgh and had four sons and a daughter: James (1812-), Charles Macpherson (1813-1828), drowned. David Edward Brewster (17 August 1815 -) became a military officer (Lieutenant Colonel) serving in India. Henry Craigie (1816-1905) became a military officer and photographer.
Brewster married a second time in Nice, on 26 (or 27) March 1857, to Jane Kirk Purnell (b. 1827), the second daughter of Thomas Purnell of Scarborough. Lady Brewster famously fainted at the Oxford evolution debate of 30 June 1860.
(c. 1735-1815)
(1753-1790)
Margaret Maria Gordon (1823–1907) wrote a book on Brewster, which is considered the most comprehensive description of his life
(1774-1854)
