Scientists of Wales – serie

This enthralling biography tells the complete story of one of Tudor England’s most enigmatic figures. A Welshman born in Tenby, south Wales, c.1512, Robert Recorde was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge. This book, a detailed biography of this Tudor scholar, reviews the many facets of his astonishingly wide-ranging career and ultimately tragic life. It presents a richly detailed and fully rounded picture of Recorde the man, the university academic and theologian, the physician, the mathematician and astronomer, the antiquarian, and the writer of hugely successful textbooks. Crown appointments brought Recorde into conflict with the scheming Earl of Pembroke, and eventually set him at odds with Queen Mary I. As an intellectual out of his depth in political intrigue, beset by religious turmoil, Recorde eventually succumbed to the dangers that closed inexorably around him.

This enthralling biography tells the complete story of one of Tudor England’s most enigmatic figures. A Welshman born in Tenby, south Wales, c.1512, Robert Recorde was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge. This book, a detailed biography of this Tudor scholar, reviews the many facets of his astonishingly wide-ranging career and ultimately tragic life. It presents a richly detailed and fully rounded picture of Recorde the man, the university academic and theologian, the physician, the mathematician and astronomer, the antiquarian, and the writer of hugely successful textbooks. Crown appointments brought Recorde into conflict with the scheming Earl of Pembroke, and eventually set him at odds with Queen Mary I. As an intellectual out of his depth in political intrigue, beset by religious turmoil, Recorde eventually succumbed to the dangers that closed inexorably around him.

This book provides an accessible and authoritative biography of the Welsh man of science, William Robert Grove. Grove was an important and highly influential figure in Victorian science. His career as both man of science and leading barrister and judge spanned the Victorian age, and he also played a vital role in the movement to reform the Royal Society. This biography will set Grove’s career and contributions in context, paying particular attention to the important role of Welsh industrial culture in forming his scientific outlook. The place of science in culture changed radically during the course of the nineteenth century, and Grove himself played a key role in some of those transformations. Looking at his life in science can, however, do more than illuminate an individual scientific career – it can offer a way of gaining new insights into the changing face of Victorian science.

Dyma gyfrol sy’n rhoi darlun o fywyd a gwaith y ffisegydd o Gymro, yr Athro Evan James Williams, gŵr a gafodd ei ddisgrifio fel un o’r gwyddonwyr mwyaf galluog a welodd Cymru erioed ac fe’i cydnabyddid fel arbrofwr dyfeisgar a damcaniaethwr disglair. Cymerodd ran flaenllaw yn y chwyldro a ddigwyddodd yn negawdau cyntaf yr ugeinfed ganrif gyda datblygiad ffiseg cwantwm. Cydweithiodd gyda’r arloeswyr (nifer ohonynt yn enillwyr gwobr Nobel) a gwnaeth gyfraniad nodedig ym maes gwrthdrawiadau atomig ac yn narganfyddiad gronyn elfennol newydd. Ym 1939, ymunodd yn y dasg o ddiddymu bygythiad dinistriol llongau tanfor a chyflawnodd waith gorchestol. Amlygir ei alluoedd di-gymar yn y gyfrol hon, a chyflwynir yn ogystal ddarlun o gymeriad hoffus a thwymgalon na gollodd ei ymlyniad na’i gariad tuag at fro ei febyd a’i diwylliant.

Lhwyd, the illegitimate son of a father ruined by the Civil War, had to make his own way in the world. A competent botanist before going up to Oxford as a student, he spent much time there at the Botanical Garden before being appointed to the newly established Ashmolean Museum, where he became its second Keeper. This biography traces the development of his research interests from botany to palaeontology – and then to antiquarian studies, which led to him studying the Celtic languages as a source of linguistic evidence in historical studies. Thus he became the founder of Celtic Studies. Lhwyd’s diverse research interests were underpinned by an evidence-led methodology – the collection (by personal observation where possible) of material, which would then be classified as a preliminary to drawing conclusions – and, as such, his is a valuable contribution to the history of science.

In the long eighteenth century, between 1650 and 1820, Wales and the rest of Europe moved from a world of alchemy to one of steam engines and electricity. The scientists of Wales contributed to that changing world of new ideas, but their contribution often overlooked in many histories of the period. This book is a corrective that details the work of scientists from Wales in the four home nations of the isles, covering the intellectual changes of the period and their impact on religion; how scientists were educated in Wales; and, in a lengthy final section, some of the practical science undertaken and the social benefits that resulted.

Dyma gyfrol sy’n croniclo bywyd a gwaith Griffith Davies (1788–1855), o’i blentyndod tlawd yn ardal chwareli Arfon i’w waith fel sefydlydd ysgolion mathemateg yn Llundain cyn gosod sylfaen i’r proffesiwn actiwari. Tri mis yn unig o addysg ffurfiol a dderbyniodd Davies, a dyna pryd y sylweddolwyd fod ganddo allu rhyfeddol mewn mathemateg. Mentrodd i Lundain, ac ar ôl blynyddoedd wedi ymroi i hunan ddysgu cyhoeddodd lyfrau mewn mathemateg, ac yn y pen draw fe’i penodwyd yn brif actiwari i gwmni yswiriant y Guardian yn y ddinas. Wrth i’w yrfa ddatblygu, daeth yn Gymrawd o’r Gymdeithas Frenhinol a derbyniodd glod ac anrhydeddau am ei waith. Bu’n weithgar ym mywyd Cymraeg Llundain gan sefydlu cyfres o ddarlithoedd gwyddonol yn ei famiaith, ac ymgyrchodd yn llwyddiannus dros hawliau tyddynwyr bro ei febyd a thros addysg i’w gyd-wladwyr. Mae hanes bywyd Griffith Davies yn stori sy’n ysbrydoli.

In 1880, Griffith Evans, an army veterinary surgeon in India, made the seminal discovery that blood parasites – then universally considered benign – were pathogenic. Spurned by peers and colleagues, his conclusions from experiments with diseased horses were acknowledged by Koch and Pasteur, but it took many years before his achievement received general recognition. The son of a farmer near Tywyn, Meirionnydd, Evans was commissioned as a veterinary officer in the Royal Artillery. He was first posted to Canada where, in his spare time, he qualified in medicine. An irrepressible adventurer, he visited North America during the Civil War, meeting Abraham Lincoln and touring the Union front line.  Evans’s talent for engagement with people and cultures characterised his life in Canada and in India. During a long and productive retirement in north Wales, he immersed himself in local and national affairs. At his centenary in 1935, Evans received the accolades of his profession, community and family, dying peacefully in his hundredth year. Since that time, his name has faded into obscurity.

Joseph Harris, elder brother of the methodist preacher Howell Harris, made important contributions to the sciences and public life of Great Britain in the eighteenth century. A protégé of Edmond Halley and an apprentice to globe and mapmakers, Harris made a lasting impression on some of the most illustrious scientists of his day, contributing to our understanding of astronomy, longitude, navigation, instrument making and optics. And, as assay master at the Royal Mint, he influenced the standardisation of weights and measures, and became a confident of politicians, Prime Ministers and Chancellors of the Exchequer. His essays on our monetary system still impact on political structures today. Remarkably, Harris also found time to make astronomical observations and teach navigational techniques for the Royal Society, and in 1761 was the only man in Wales to record the Transit of Venus.

This book provides an accessible and authoritative biography of the Welsh man of science, William Robert Grove. Grove was an important and highly influential figure in Victorian science. His career as both man of science and leading barrister and judge spanned the Victorian age, and he also played a vital role in the movement to reform the Royal Society. This biography will set Grove’s career and contributions in context, paying particular attention to the important role of Welsh industrial culture in forming his scientific outlook. The place of science in culture changed radically during the course of the nineteenth century, and Grove himself played a key role in some of those transformations. Looking at his life in science can, however, do more than illuminate an individual scientific career – it can offer a way of gaining new insights into the changing face of Victorian science.

This book presents the life and work of Professor Evan James Williams, described as one of Wales's most eminent scientists. Williams played a prominent part in the early twentieth-century revolution in physics with the emergence of quantum physics, and was an able experimentalist and brilliant theoretician who made notable contributions in atomic physics and the discovery of a new elementary particle. From humble beginnings in rural Cardiganshire, his stellar career is charted in this book as he climbed the academic ladder at a number of universities, culminating in his appointment as professor of physics at Aberystwyth and election to a fellowship of the Royal Society. During the Second World War, he was instrumental in applying operational research to thwart the threat of German submarines in the Atlantic. His career was cut short, however, by his early death in 1945.