FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...
LLD (11 January 1825 – 27 June 1883) was an English
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
,
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
and partner in the printing and publishing firm
Eyre & Spottiswoode
Eyre & Spottiswoode was the London-based printing firm established in 1739 that was the King's Printer, and subsequently, a publisher prior to being incorporated; it once went by the name of Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & co. ltd. In April 1929, it ...
. He was president 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, re ...
from 1878 to 1883.
Biography
Early life
Spottiswoode was born in London on 11 January 1825, the son of Andrew Spottiswoode and his wife, Mary Longman. His father was descended from an ancient Scottish family, represented
Colchester
Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''.
Colchester occupies the ...
in parliament for some years, and in 1831 became junior partner in the firm of
Eyre & Spottiswoode
Eyre & Spottiswoode was the London-based printing firm established in 1739 that was the King's Printer, and subsequently, a publisher prior to being incorporated; it once went by the name of Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & co. ltd. In April 1929, it ...
, printers.
William was educated at Laleham Lea School,
Eton College
Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
, and
Harrow School
Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...
. He then studied Mathematics and Physics at
Balliol College
Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world.
With a governing body of a master and ar ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
. His talent for science showed itself while he was still a schoolboy, and indeed his removal from Eton to Harrow is said to have been occasioned by an accidental explosion which occurred whilst he was performing an experiment for his own amusement. At Harrow he obtained a Lyon scholarship in 1842, and at Oxford in 1845 a first-class in mathematics, in 1846 the junior and in 1847 the senior university mathematical scholarship.
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
In 1846 he left Oxford to take his father's place in the business, in which he was engaged until his death.
In 1847 Spottiswoode issued five pamphlets entitled ''Meditationes Analyticae'', that explored complex mathematical ideas through analytic methods, particularly focusing on functions and calculus. These pamphlets, among other things, exhibited advanced mathematical analytics and solutions to complex equations that examined the behavior of mathematical functions more deeply and precisely. These were his first publications of original mathematical work. From then on, he published new research almost every year.
In 1856 Spottiswoode travelled in eastern
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, and in 1860 in
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
and
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
; of the former expedition he has left a record, ''A Tarantasse Journey through Eastern Russia in the Autumn of 1856'' (London, 1857).
In 1870 he was elected president of the
London Mathematical Society
The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...
. In 1871 he began to turn his attention to experimental physics, his earlier researches bearing upon the light polarization and his later work upon the electrical discharge in rarefied gases. He wrote a popular treatise on the former subject for the ''Nature Series'' in 1874. In 1878 he was elected president of the
British Association
The British Science Association (BSA) is a 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 Science (BA). The current Chief ...
and in the same year president 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, re ...
, of which he had been a fellow since 1853.
He died in London of
typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...
on 27 June 1883 and was buried in the south transept of
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
.
As a mathematician, he occupied himself with many branches of his favorite science, more especially with higher algebra, including the theory of
determinant
In mathematics, the determinant is a Scalar (mathematics), scalar-valued function (mathematics), function of the entries of a square matrix. The determinant of a matrix is commonly denoted , , or . Its value characterizes some properties of the ...
s, with the general calculus of symbols, and with the application of analysis to geometry and mechanics.
The following brief review of his mathematical work is quoted from the obituary notice which appeared in the '' Proceedings of the Royal Society'' (xxxviii. 34):
His papers, numbering over 100, were published principally in the ''Philosophical Transactions'', '' Proceedings of the Royal Society'', ''
Quarterly Journal of Mathematics
The ''Quarterly Journal of Mathematics'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed mathematics journal established in 1930 from the merger of '' The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics'' and the '' Messenger of Mathematics''. According to the '' ...
'', ''
Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society
The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...
'' and ''Crelle's Journal'', and one or two in the '' Comptes Rendus'' of the Paris Academy; a list of them, arranged according to the several journals in which they originally appeared, with short notes upon the less familiar memoirs, is given in ''
Nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
'', xxvii, 599.
Publications
* Retrieved October 22, 2013. .
* Retrieved March 13, 2013. .
* Retrieved August 31, 2023. (publication); (article).
* Retrieved April 20, 2019. ; (print), (online); .
(Abridgements = Summaries or Shortened Versions of the Original Patents).
Gallery
File:Large Apps-Spottiswoode induction coil.png , An induction coil built in 1876 by British electrical instrument maker Alfred Apps (1839–1913) for Spottiswoode. Among the largest of its kind, this coil could generate a spark 42 inches (106 cm) long, equating to an approximate voltage of 1.2 million volts. It was powered by 30 quart size liquid batteries and a separate interrupter.
See also
*
List of presidents of the Royal Society
The president of the Royal Society (PRS), also known as the Royal Society of London, is the elected Head of the Royal Society who presides over meetings of the society's council.
After an informal meeting (a lecture) by Christopher Wren at Gresh ...
William
William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...