|
David Gregory (physician)
David Gregory (20 December 1625 – 1720) was a Scottish physician and inventor. His surname is sometimes spelt as Gregorie, the original Scottish spelling. He inherited Kinnairdy Castle in 1664. Three of his twenty-nine children became mathematics professors. He is credited with inventing a military cannon that Isaac Newton described as "being destructive to the human species". Copies and details of the model no longer exist. Gregory's use of a barometer to predict farming-related weather conditions led him to be accused of witchcraft by Presbyterian ministers from Aberdeen, although he was never convicted. Ancestry and early life Gregory, born on 20 December 1625, was the second-eldest son of John Gregorie (1598–1652), minister at the small parish village of Drumoak in Aberdeenshire, where Gregory was born. The family surname is sometimes spelt Gregorie, as in the original Scottish. His mother was Janet Anderson, whose father David was said to be exceptionally talented in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinnairdy Castle
Kinnairdy Castle is a tower house, having five storeys and a garret, two miles south of Aberchirder, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.Lindsay, Maurice (1986) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Constable. p. 317 The alternative name is Old Kinnairdy. History The castle is built on land that belonged to the Innes family from the late 14th century; an earlier tower was probably built in about 1420, which replaced a wooden motte and bailey structure. The castle was sold by the Innes family to Sir James Crichton of Frendraught in 1629. Subsequently it came to the Reverend John Gregory in 1647, then passed to his brother David, a doctor who has been claimed to be the constructor of the first barometer. David's success in forecasting the weather with the help of the barometer led to his being accused, but not convicted, of witchcraft. The property was sold by his third son to Thomas Donaldson, a merchant from Elgin, who restored and re-roofed the castle during the eighteenth century, transforming ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis to help find surface Trough (meteorology), troughs, pressure systems and weather front, frontal boundaries. Barometers and pressure altimeters (the most basic and common type of altimeter) are essentially the same instrument, but used for different purposes. An altimeter is intended to be used at different levels matching the corresponding atmospheric pressure to the altitude, while a barometer is kept at the same level and measures subtle pressure changes caused by weather and elements of weather. The average atmospheric pressure on the Earth's surface varies between 940 and 1040 hPa (mbar). The average atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1013 hPa (mbar). Etymology The word ''wikt:barometer, barometer'' is derived from the Ancient Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish Inventors
Scottish inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques either partially or entirely invented, innovated, or discovered by a person born in or descended from Scotland. In some cases, an invention's Scottishness is determined by the fact that it came into existence in Scotland (e.g., animal cloning), by non-Scots working in the country. Often, things that are discovered for the first time are also called "inventions" and in many cases there is no clear line between the two. Some Scottish contributions have indirectly and directly led to controversial political ideas and policies, such as the measures taken to enforce British hegemony in the time of the British Empire. Scottish inventions have been noted as "revolutionising" the world numerous times, made possible by the "boundless imagination and inspired creativity" of the inventors who created them. Even before the Industrial Revolution, Scots have been at the forefront of innovation and discovery across a wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18th-century Scottish Medical Doctors
The 18th century lasted from 1 January 1701 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCI) to 31 December 1800 (MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the Atlantic Revolutions. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures. The Industrial Revolution began mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. The European colonization of the Americas and other parts of the world intensified and associated mass migrations of people grew in size as part of the Age of Sail. During the century, slave trading expanded across the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, while declining in Russia and China. Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revoluti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lairds
Laird () is a Scottish word for minor lord (or landlord) and is a designation that applies to an owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those holding official recognition in a territorial designation by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. They are usually styled 'name'' 'surname''of 'lairdship'' However, since "laird" is a courtesy title, it has no formal status in law. Historically, the term bonnet laird was applied to rural, petty landowners, as they wore a bonnet like the non-landowning classes. Bonnet lairds filled a position in society below lairds and above husbandmen (farmers), similar to the yeomen of England. An Internet fad is the selling of tiny souvenir plots of Scottish land and a claim of a "laird" title to go along with it, but the Lord Lyon has decreed these meaningless for several reasons. Etymology (earlier ) is the now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
17th-century Scottish Medical Doctors
The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCI), to December 31, 1700 (MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the latter part of the Spanish Golden Age, the Dutch Golden Age, the French ''Grand Siècle'' dominated by Louis XIV, the Scientific Revolution, the world's first public company and megacorporation known as the Dutch East India Company, and according to some historians, the General Crisis. From the mid-17th century, European politics were increasingly dominated by the Kingdom of France of Louis XIV, where royal power was solidified domestically in the civil war of the Fronde. The semi-feudal territorial French nobility was weakened and subjugated to the power of an absolute monarchy through the reinvention of the Palace of Versailles from a hunting lodge to a gilded prison, in which a greatly expanded ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1625 Births
Events January–March * January 17 – Led by the Benjamin de Rohan, duc de Soubise, Duke of Soubise, the Huguenots launch Huguenot rebellions#Second, a second rebellion against King Louis XIII, with a Battle of Blavet, surprise naval assault on a French fleet being prepared in Port-Louis, Morbihan, Blavet. * February 3 – Francesca Caccini's opera ''La liberazione di Ruggiero'' has its premiere, stated in Florence in Italy. The opera will continue to be staged almost 400 years later, as late as the year 2018. * February 6 – Bogislaw XIV, Duke of Pomerania, Bogislaw XIV becomes the final Duke of Pomerania, an office that becomes extinct after his death in 1637. * February 8 – Hafız Ahmed Pasha is designated as the new List of Ottoman grand viziers, grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Murad IV, 11 days after the death of Çerkes Mehmed Pasha. * February 11 – Dutch–Portuguese War: One of the largest naval battles ever fought in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1720 Deaths
Events January–March * January 21 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm (Great Northern War). * February 10 – Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal for England. * February 17 – The Treaty of The Hague is signed between Spain, Britain, France, Austria and the Dutch Republic, ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance with effect from May 20. * February 24 – Battle of Nassau: Spanish forces assault the British settlement of Nassau, Bahamas at the end of the War of the Quadruple Alliance. * March 11 (February 29 Old Style) – Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden resigns, to let her husband Frederick I take over as king of Sweden. She had desired a joint rule, in a similar manner to William III and Mary II in Britain, but as the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates refuses this, she abdicates in her husband's favour instead. April–June * April 4 – The Riksdag of the Estates elects Frederick I new King of Sweden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dictionary Of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives. First series Hoping to emulate national biographical collections published elsewhere in Europe, such as the (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co., planned a universal dictionary that would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the '' Cornhill Magazine'', owned by Smith, to become the editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus only on subjects from the United Kingdom and its present and former colonies. An early working title was the ''Biographia Britannica'', the name of an earlier eighteenth-century reference work. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacobite Risings
Jacobitism was a political ideology advocating the restoration of the senior line of the House of Stuart to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British throne. When James II of England chose exile after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England ruled he had "abandoned" the English throne, which was given to his Protestant daughter Mary II of England, and his nephew, her husband William III of England, William III. On the same basis, in April the Convention of Estates (1689), Scottish Convention awarded Mary and William the throne of Scotland. The Revolution created the principle of a contract between monarch and people, which if violated meant the monarch could be removed. A key tenet of Jacobitism was that kings were appointed by God, making the post-1688 regime illegitimate. However, it also functioned as an outlet for popular discontent, and thus was a complex mix of ideas, many opposed by the Stuarts themselves. Conflict between Charles Edward Stuar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savilian Professor Of Astronomy
The position of Savilian Professor of Astronomy was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded (at the same time as the Savilian Professorship of Geometry) by Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton College. He appointed John Bainbridge as the first professor, who took up his duties in 1620 or 1621. There have been 21 astronomy professors in all; Steven Balbus, the current professor, was appointed in 2012. Past professors include Christopher Wren (1661–73), architect of St Paul's Cathedral in London and the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford; he held the professorship at the time of his commission to rebuild the cathedral after it was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Three professors have been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society: Charles Pritchard (1870–93), Harry Plaskett (1932–60) and Joseph Silk (1999–2012). The two Savilian chairs ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weather Forecasting
Weather forecasting or weather prediction is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for thousands of years and formally since the 19th century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere, land, and ocean and using meteorology to project how the atmosphere will change at a given place. Once calculated manually based mainly upon changes in atmospheric pressure, barometric pressure, current weather conditions, and sky conditions or cloud cover, weather forecasting now relies on numerical weather prediction, computer-based models that take many atmospheric factors into account. Human input is still required to pick the best possible model to base the forecast upon, which involves pattern recognition skills, teleconnections, knowledge of model performance, and kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
