Young, Thomas ( 1730 -1783): letters to

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0117 MS/242
Held at	: Royal Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://royalsociety.org/collections/ ›
Full title	: Young, Thomas ( 1730 -1783): letters to
Date(s)	: 1847
Level of description	: Sub-fonds
Extent	: 1 volume, 52 items
Name of creator(s)	: Arago | François Jean Dominique | 1786-1853 | mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician Biot | Jean-Baptiste | 1774-1862 | scientist Bessel | Friedrich Wilhelm | 1784-1846 | Prussian astronomer Berzelius | Friherre Jöns Jacob | 1779-1848 | Swedish chemist
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Thomas Young was born, 1773; Made pioneering contribution to the understanding of light by demonstrating interference patterns, known as 'Young's fringes' (1800) which led to the Young-Fresnel undulatory theory. He also formulated an important measure of elasticity, known as 'Young's Modulus'. First to explain the accommodation of the eye; discovered the phemomenon of astigmatism; and proposed the three colour theory of vision which was later known as the Young-Hemholz theory, and was finally confirmed experimentally in 1959. Appointed to a professorship of natural philosphy at the Royal Institution (1801). His lectures at Royal Institution (1802-1803) were described by Joseph Larmor as "the greatest and most original of all general lecture courses". Undertook seminal work on the Rosetta Stone, deciphering the second type of Egyptian script on the stone, known as demotic, though the credit for finally reading the hieroglyphs belongs to Jean-Francois Champollion. A major scholar in ancient Greek, and a phenomenal linguist who coined the term 'Indo-European' for the language family which includes Greek and Sanscrit. Also a distinguished physician at St. George's Hospital, adviser to the Admiralty on shipbuilding, secretary of the Board of Longitude, and superintendent of the vital 'Nautical Almanac' from 1818 to 1829. Contributed many entries to the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' (1816-1825). Physician to and inspector of calculations for the Palladian Insurance Company (1824-1829).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Letters to Thomas Young from Messrs Arago, Biot, Bessel and Bergelius.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Table of contents at front of volume; catalogued in archive card catalogue.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Feb 2009.