Robert Hunt (6 September 1807 – 17 October 1887) was a British mineralogist, as well as an antiquarian, an amateur poet, and an early pioneer of photography. He was born at Devonport,

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

and died in London on 17 October 1887.

Life and work

Early life

Hunt's father, a

naval officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent cont ...

, drowned while Robert was a youth. Robert began to study in London for the medical profession, but ill-health caused him to return to settle in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

. In 1829, he published ''The Mount’s Bay; a descriptive poem ... and other pieces'' but received little critical or financial success.Alan Pearson, 'Hunt, Robert (1807–1887)’,

Oxford 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 ...

, Oxford University Press, 200
Retrieved 16 Jan 2011
/ref> In 1840, Hunt became secretary to the

Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society (commonly known as The Poly) is an educational, cultural and scientific charity, as well as a local arts and cinema venue, based in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The Society exists to promot ...

at Falmouth. Here he met Robert Were Fox, and carried on some physical and chemical investigations with him.

Career

He was appointed Professor of Mechanical Science,

Government School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioen ...

. In 1845, he accepted the invitation of Sir Henry de la Beche to become keeper of mining records at the Museum of Economic (afterwards Practical) Geology, and when the school of mines was established in 1851 he lectured for two years on mechanical science, and afterwards for a short time on

experimental physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and o ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

in 1855. In 1858, he founded, with the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, The Miners Association. His principal work was the collection and editing of the ''Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom'', and this he continued to the date of his retirement (1883), when the mining record office was transferred to the Home Office. He was elected fellow of 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, r ...

in 1852. In 1884, he published a large volume on ''British Mining'' in which the subject was dealt with very fully from an historical as well as a practical point of view. He also edited the fifth and some later editions of

Andrew Ure Andrew Ure FRS (18 May 1778 – 2 January 1857) was a Scottish physician, chemist, scriptural geologist, and early business theorist who founded the Garnet Hill Observatory. He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal So ...

's ''Dictionary of Arts, Mines and Manufactures''.

Other interests

Hunt had many interests outside of mineralogy, and published several popular books on various topics. He was an early pioneer in photography, a poet, and an antiquarian with a keen interest in folklore. Following Daguerre's development of the

daguerreotype Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre ...

in 1839, Hunt took up photography with great zeal. Just two years later, in 1841, he published his ''Manual of Photography'', which was the first English treatise on the subject. Hunt also experimented generally on the action of light, and published ''Researches on Light'' in 1844. He also developed the actinograph in 1845. Hunt had a long-abiding interest in poetry as well. He regularly wrote and published poetry and tried in the 1830s to pursue a career as a playwright. In 1848, Hunt published the hugely ambitious work ''The Poetry of Science'', which outlined most of the important discoveries that had been made in natural philosophy until that time, while also communicating the aesthetic aspects of science to the general reader. In it, Hunt was attempting to make it clear that science and objective discovery were subjects worthy of poetic language. He also collected and wrote ''Popular Romances of the West of England'' (1865),''Popular Romances of the West of England'' full text online of the third edition (1903)
/ref> which included a record of myths and legends of old Cornwall, and proved so popular that it went through a number of editions.

Death and legacy

He died in London on 17 October 1887. A mineralogical museum at

Redruth Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also includes Carn Brea, Illogan a ...

Mining School was established in his memory, but this closed in 1950 and the minerals were transferred to the School of Metalliferous Mining now the

Camborne School of Mines The Camborne School of Mines ( kw, Scoll Balow Cambron), commonly abbreviated to CSM, was founded in 1888. Its research and teaching is related to the understanding and management of the Earth's natural processes, resources and the environment. ...

References

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External links

*
Photographic and manuscript collection of Robert Hunt at the Natural History Museum

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Robert 1807 births 1887 deaths Scientists from Plymouth, Devon Geologists from Cornwall Fellows of the Royal Society Pioneers of photography Folklore writers Cornish folklore Writers from Cornwall