b. August 24, 1785 and d. September 29, 1829

American inventor who studied machine. Among his inventions is a new musical instrument in which the notes are produced by glasses of different chemical composition; also a steam engine with which, in 1824, he ran a wagon through the streets of Louisville, Ky. He claimed to have discovered a new motive power derived from combustion without the aid of water and steam which is now utilized in the air engines of John Ericsson and others. He also originated what he called “the music of light,” to be produced by means of “harmonic colors luminously displayed.” He was the author of the “Philosophy of Human Nature” (1812).

Why, man of idleness, labor has rocked you in
the cradle, and nourished your tempered life;
without it, the woven silk and wool upon your vest
would be in the shepherd’s fold. For the meanest
thing that ministers to human want, save the air of
heaven, man is indebted to toil; and even the air,
in God’s wise ordination, is breathed with labor.

—Chapin

The idea of an artificial tone system is thoroughly
incompatible with our reason; a regular tone system
has no more been invented by the musicians than poets
invented the words of their language and the
grammatical combinations of those words.

—Dr. Hauptmann

b. June 14, 1736 and d. August 23, 1806

French engineer and electrician. He made important investigation of the distribution of electricity and the measurement of electric forces. He invented the torsion balance, and by means of this he established experimentally the law known as Coulomb’s law, that the force exerted between two charges of electricity is directly proportional to their product and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. In recognition of his services the electro-magnetic unit of quantity has been called the “Coulomb.”

“What were they?” you ask; you shall presently see;
These scales were not made to weigh sugar and tea;
Oh no; for such properties wondrous had they,
That qualities, feelings and thoughts they could weigh;
Together with articles small or immense,
From the mountains or planets to atom of sense.

Naught was there so bulky but there it would lay,
And naught so ethereal but there it would stay,
And naught so reluctant but in it must go-
All which some examples more clearly will show.

—The Philosopher’s Scales: Jane Taylor

1802—Romagnosi of Trent observed that a wire conveying a current would deflect a compass needle.

1820—Oersted discovered the principle of the galvanometer.

b. August 23, 1769 and d. May 13, 1832

French philosopher and naturalist. He produced in 1816 his “Animal Kingdom” by which he made a new arrangement of animals into four divisions, the Vertebrata, the Mollusca, the Articulata, and the Radiata. He is considered the founder of the science of comparative anatomy. He made great discoveries and classifications in geology.

Almighty Cause! ’tis thy preserving care
That keeps thy works for ever fresh and fair;
Hence life acknowledges its glorious Cause,
And matter owns its great Disposer’s laws;
Hence flow the forms and properties of things;
Hence rises harmony, and order springs.
The watchful providence o’er al intends;
Thy works obey their great Creator’s ends,
Thee, Infinite! what finite can explore!
Imagination sinks beneath thy power.
Yet present to all sense thy power remains,
Reveal’d in Nature, Nature’s Author reigns.

—Boyse

Instead of feeling a poverty when we encounter a
great man, let us treat the newcomer like a
travelling geologist, who passes through our estate,
and shows us good slate, or limestone, or anthracite,
in our brush pasture.

—Experience: Emerson

1737-1814—Saint-Pierre de Jacques Henri Bernardin lived. He is best known as the author of “Studies of Nature.”

1801—Abbe Rene Just Hauy published his treatise on “Mineralogy.”