John Whitehurst

John Whitehurst FRS (10 April 1713 – 18 February 1788) of Cheshire, England was a clockmaker and scientist, and made significant early contributions to geology. He was an influential member of the Lunar Society.

Life and work

Whitehurst was born in Congleton, Cheshire, to a clockmaker, the elder John Whitehurst. In 1722 he invented the "pulsation engine", a water-raising device that was the precursor of the hydraulic ram. In 1736 Whitehurst moved to Derby. In 1774, he obtained a post at the Royal Mint in London, receiving the title "Stamper of the Money Weights" in 1775. [cite web | title = Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History | url = http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/digital_guides/industrial_revolution/brief%20chronology.aspx | access-date = 2008-04-25] In 1778 Whitehurst published his theory on geological strata in "An Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth". He became a Fellow of the Royal Society on 13 May 1779.

Selected writings

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References

Further reading

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* Andrew Graciano, “‘The Book of Nature is Open to All Men’: Geology, Mining and History in Joseph Wright’s Derbyshire Landscapes” The Huntington Library Quarterly (68: 4, 2005), 583-600.

* Andrew Graciano, ed., "Visualising the Unseen, Imagining the Unknown, Perfecting the Natural: Art and Science in the 18th and 19th Centuries", Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.

External links

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* [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/ List of the Royal Society's Fellows]