John Theodore (Theo) Merz (30 March 1840 – 21 March 1922) was a German British

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

Life

Merz was born in Manchester, England and educated at

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, and

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

universities. Merz was vice-chairman of the

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Company The North Eastern Electric Supply Company (commonly abbreviated to NESCo) was responsible for the supply of electricity to a large amount of North East England, prior to the nationalisation of the British electricity industry with the Electricit ...

, which he founded in 1889. He was chairman of the Tyneside Tramways and Tramroads Company and a member of the senate of

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

. In 1906, he was awarded an LLD degree from the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

. In 1873 Merz married Alice Mary Richardson, a sister of John Wigham Richardson the Tyneside ship builder. Together they had three sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Charles Hesterman Merz (1874-1940), was a successful electrical engineer who pioneered the use of high-voltage three-phase AC power distribution in the United Kingdom. His second son, Norbert Merz (1877-1948), was a chartered accountant. His only daughter,

Teresa Merz Teresa Merz (28 May 1879 – 12 November 1958) was an English social worker, philanthropist and magistrate. Early life Merz was born in Gateshead. She was the third child, and only daughter, of industrial chemist John Theodore Merz (a Quaker ...

(1879-1958), was a social worker, magistrate and philanthropist. His youngest child, Ernest Merz (1881-1909), was a solicitor. Merz was buried in Elswick, St John's Cemetery.

Works

The author of philosophical works on Leibniz, and ''Religion and Science'' (1915), his four volume ''History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century'' consummated

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved distinction in both poetry and mathematics. The breadth of Whewell's endeavours is ...

's ''History of the Inductive Sciences'' (1837) and ''The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon Their History'' (1840) as well as

William Stanley Jevons William Stanley Jevons (; 1 September 1835 – 13 August 1882) was an English economist and logician. Irving Fisher described Jevons's book ''A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy'' (1862) as the start of the mathematical method i ...

' ''Principles of Science'' (1874). Merz' first two volumes describe the development of mathematical and scientific thought, and the final two volumes depict the development of philosophy."The Mental Life of the Nineteenth Century," ''The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art'' (11 March 1905) Vol.99, pp.315-316 Merz stated the following with reference to his history:

It is the object of these volumes to fix, if possible, this possession; to rescue from oblivion that which appears to me our secret property; in the last and dying hour of a remarkable age to throw the light upon the fading outlines of its mental life; to try to trace them, and with the aid of all possible information, gained from the written testimonies or the records of others, to work them into a coherent picture, which may give to those who follow some idea of the peculiar manner in which our age looked upon the world and life, how it intellectualised and spiritualised them.

It was Merz's objective to write this history of thought from the point of view of one who shared in the progress and watched many of the changes and movements, and to set out the inner life of his contemporaries and the secret springs of their judgements and opinions.

Legacy

His mathematical library known as the Merz Collection is held by

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

. It consists of 4000 volumes, including works on philosophy, European history and German Literature. The university's Merz Court was named after the Merz family.Merz Court College Academic Building
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References

External links

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John Theodore Merz (1840–1922), Chemist, Historian and Industrialist
Oil on canvas portrait by unknown artist from the BBC {{DEFAULTSORT:Merz, John Theodore 1840 births 1922 deaths 19th-century English chemists English Quakers 19th-century German chemists University of Bonn alumni English people of German descent German Quakers 19th-century English historians 19th-century German historians Businesspeople from Manchester