THE IRISH MIND
»
polar trip was as third officer on Scott’s expedition to Antarctica in 1901. He returned there in 1907 as leader of the Nimrod expedition and managed to travel further south than anyone had up until that stage. He is also known for the Endurance or Im- perial Trans-Antarctic expedition from1914 to 1917.
FrancisBeaufort (1774–1857), who was born in Navan, Co Meath, is best known for developing the Beaufort scale, which classifies the force of wind velocity at sea. He also developed a systemof classifying the weather’s various states by letters of the alpha- bet. He was in active service in the British Royal Navy for more than 20 years. He was latter appointed hydrog- rapher to the Admiralty.
WilliamParsons, Third Earl of Rosse (1800–1867), was born in Eng- land and brought up at Birr Castle, Co Offaly. In 1845, he built a reflecting tel- escope at Birr with a 1.83m (72-inch) diameter mirror, making it the world’s largest telescope for the next 70 years. Using the telescope, Parsons was able to discover that many galaxies are spi- ral in shape.
FrancisBeaufort
her home in Bantry. She contributed to James Townsend Mackay’s (1775– 1862) Flora Hibernica.William Henry Harvey (1881–1866), professor of botany in Trinity College, wrote about her: “To her the botany of Ireland is under many obligations, particularly the cryptogamic branch, in which field, until her time little explored, she was particularly fortunate in detecting new and beautiful objects, several of which remain the rarest species to the present day.”
CynthiaEvelyn Longfield (1896– 1991) was a dragonfly expert and ex- plorer, who was born in Cloyne, Co Cork. Froman Anglo-Irish family, she had a strong interest in botany. For much of her life she volunteered at the Natural History Museumin London. She travelled extensively throughout
Europe, South America, the Pacific, Africa and Asia. Her books include TheDragonflies of the British Isles and Dragonflies.
MaryWard (1827–1869) was born near Ferbane, Co Offaly as Mary King and was a first cousin of astronomer William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse. She is known as a microscopist, artist, entomologist and author. Her books include TheWorld ofWonders Revealed by theMicroscope and Telescope Teach- ings.
HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY/ ASTRONOMY Sir ErnestHenry Shackleton (1874– 1922) was born in Kilkea House, Kil- dare but moved to England with his family at the age of 11. His first major
WilliamRowan Hamilton (1805– 1865) was born in Dublin and is re- puted to have been familiar with up to 15 languages by the age of 10. He was appointed professor of astronomy at Trinity College, Dublin and Royal As- tronomer of Ireland by the time he was 22. As well as being an as- tronomer, he was a physician and mathematician and, probably most no- tably, was the inventor of the method of quanternions.
PHYSICS/ENGINEERING Nicholas Joseph Callan (1799–1864) was born near Ardee, Co Louth, and was ordained as a priest in 1823. He was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Maynooth in 1826. Callan had a strong interest in electrical phe- nomena and his most notable contri- bution was inventing the induction coil, which ultimately resulted in the modern step-up voltage transformer.
Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 77
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80