Robert Were Fox FRS (26 April 1789 – 25 July 1877) was a British geologist,

natural philosopher 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 developme ...

and inventor. He is known mainly for his work on the temperature of the Earth and his construction of a compass to measure magnetic dip at sea.

Life and family

Fox was born on 26 April 1789 at Falmouth, England, the eldest son of Robert Were Fox (1754–1818) and his wife, Elizabeth Tregelles. He had nine siblings. The Fox family were members of the

Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

(Quakers), and were descended from members who had long settled in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, although they were not related to

George Fox George Fox (July 1624 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 13 January 1691 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English Dissenters, English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Quakers, Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as t ...

who had introduced the community into the county. In 1814, Fox the Younger married Maria Barclay (1785–1858), daughter of Robert and Rachel Barclay of Bury Hill, near Dorking, Surrey. Maria's sister, Lucy, married Fox's cousin, George Croker Fox (1784–1850). Robert Were Fox the Younger and his wife had three children, Anna Maria (1816–1897), Barclay (1817–1855) and Caroline (1819–1871). Both Caroline and Barclay Fox's journals have been published. Robert Were Fox the Younger died on 25 July 1877 and was buried at the Quaker Burial Ground at Budock.

Business interests

Fox was involved in many aspects of his family's businesses, along with several of his brothers. He also served as Honorary

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

of the USA in Falmouth from 1819 to 1854. Fox and Joel Lean were granted a patent in 1812 for their modifications of steam engines. The grant of patent was described thus: ''Specification of the Patent granted to Robert Were Fox and Joel Lean, of Budock, near Falmouth; for certain Improvements on Steam Engines, and the Apparatus needful or expedient to be used with the same''.

Horticultural interests

Fox's gardens at Rosehill and Penjerrick, near Falmouth, became noted for the number of exotic plants which he and his son, Barclay, had naturalised. Both are now both open to the public.

Scientific work

Fox's work was in what today would be referred to as

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

. He was distinguished for his researches on the internal temperature of the Earth, contributing papers to the

Royal Geological Society of Cornwall The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is a geological society originally based in Penzance, Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall, and is the second oldest geological society in ...

, and being the first to prove that temperature definitely increases with depth (the

geothermal gradient Geothermal gradient is the rate of change in temperature with respect to increasing depth in Earth's interior. As a general rule, the crust temperature rises with depth due to the heat flow from the much hotter mantle; away from tectonic plat ...

), his observations being conducted in Cornish mines from 1815 for a period of forty years. In 1829 he began a set of experiments on the artificial production of miniature metalliferous veins by means of the long-continued influence of electric currents, and his main results were published in 1836. In 1834 Fox constructed an improved form of deflector dipping needle compass, or dip circle, for polar navigation. One was used by Sir

James Clark Ross Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of both the northern and southern polar regions. In the Arctic, he participated in two expeditions led by his uncle, Sir John Ross, John ...

on his Antarctic expedition and used to discover the position of the South magnetic pole. He was a key person in the development of the

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

and its promotion of scientific research and training. He was an active member of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a Charitable organization, charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Scienc ...

. On 2 June 1838 Fox was elected a member of the newly-formed London Electrical Society Robert Were Fox, his cousin, George Croker Fox (1784–1850) and brother, Alfred Fox, assembled excellent collections of minerals, which are now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, given by Arthur Russell.

Honours and activities

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 ...

(Elected 9 September 1848) :: The Society owns a collection of letters addressed to Fox and his family.See thi
listing of archives
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Selected writings

The following is a very incomplete list of Fox's writings. According to the ''

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 ...

'' (1889), Fox authored 52 scientific papers.

Notes

References

* * * – Information on Bury Hill, Maria Fox's parental home *, Paperback * * * * * * * *. This unsigned article tells the history of the family of Robert Barclay (1751–1830), the Anchor Brewery, Southwark, which brought them wealth and their home, Bury Hill, Westcott, a village to the West of Dorking. Attribution *

External links

Image of R W Fox Dip circle at the Science Museum

Description of the Fox dip circle
– ''The Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1888). 9th edition, New York, volume 16, page 161.
Biographical information
– ''The Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1910). 11th edition, New York, volume 10, pages 767 – 768. * – Dedicated to Robert Were Fox the Younger {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Robert Were 1789 births 1877 deaths Inventors from Cornwall Geologists from Cornwall Mineralogists from Cornwall British geophysicists British scientific instrument makers Fellows of the Royal Society British Quakers People from Falmouth, Cornwall Robert Were