James Six FRS (1731 – 25 August 1793) was a British scientist born in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

. He is noted for his invention, in 1780, of Six's thermometer, commonly known as the maximum- minimum thermometer. This device is still in common use today and widely sold in garden centres.

Life

Six was from a family of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

refugees from the Continent who had settled in England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and who had worked as silk weavers for generations. James Six himself had trained in the family business, but by his time this was in decline because of cheap imported silks from India and Persia. He became interested in

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

, and devoted himself to

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

and

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

. In 1782 The

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

of London published an account of the thermometer that Six had invented two years earlier. In 1784, Six was elected a Foreign Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in Philadelphia. He became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1792, his election was the result of this and other papers he had published on meteorology. In 1783 he performed a number of thermometrical measurements on Canterbury Cathedral in conjunction with Sir John Cullum, who wrote about them for ''

Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the second journ ...

'' in ''"Account of extraordinary Frost, 23 June 1783"'', (''Philosophical Transactions'', lxxiv (1784)). These experiments showed that at night, and particularly on clear nights, the temperature near the ground became colder than air above it, now known to be caused by the radiative cooling of the ground, a result that Six called "extraordinary". Six wrote about his invention in his book, ''The Construction and Use of a Thermometer for Showing the Extremes of Temperature in the Atmosphere, during the Observer's Absence, together with Experiments and Variations of Local Heat; and other Meteorological Observations''. This was published posthumously in London, in 1794, a year after he died. Six died in 1793; he and his wife Mary are buried in Westgate Church,

References

* ''The Construction of a Thermometer by James Six'', Nimbus Publishing Ltd,1980; {{DEFAULTSORT:Six, James 1731 births 1793 deaths People from Canterbury English meteorologists English inventors Fellows of the Royal Society International members of the American Philosophical Society