Part 4

"becomes like a star "From the abodes where the Eternals are."

ROBERT HUNT.

WILLIAM ALLEN, F.R.S.

Born August 29, 1770. Died December 30, 1843.

William Allen, the eminent chemist, was born in London. His father was a silk manufacturer in Spitalfields, and a member of the Society of Friends. Having at an early period shown a predilection for chemical and other pursuits connected with medicine, William was placed in the establishment of Mr. Joseph Gurney Bevan in Plough Court, Lombard Street, where he acquired a practical knowledge of chemistry. He eventually succeeded to the business, which he carried on in connection with Mr. Luke Howard, and obtained great reputation as a pharmaceutical chemist. About the year 1804, Mr. Allen was appointed lecturer on chemistry and experimental philosophy at Guy's Hospital, at which institution he continued to be engaged more or less until the year 1827. He was also connected with the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and was concerned in some of the most exact experiments of the day, together with Davy, Babington, Marcet, Luke Howard, and Dalton. In conjunction with his friend Mr. Pepys, Allen entered upon his well known chemical investigations, which established the proportion of Carbon in Carbonic Acid, and proved the identity of the diamond with charcoal; these discoveries are recorded in the 'Philosophical Transactions' of the Royal Society, of which he became a member in 1807. The 'Transactions' for 1829 also contain a paper by him, based on elaborate experiments and calculations, concerning the changes produced by respiration on atmospheric air and other gases. Mr. Allen was mainly instrumental in establishing the Pharmaceutical Society, of which he was president at the time of his death. Besides his public labours as a practical chemist, he pursued with much delight, in his hours of relaxation, the study of astronomy, and was one of the original members of the Royal Astronomical Society. In connection with this science, he published, in 1815, a small work entitled 'A Companion to the Transit Instrument.'

Many years before his death Mr. Allen withdrew from business, and purchased an estate near Lindfield, Sussex. Here while still engaged in public schemes of usefulness and benevolence, he also carried out various philanthropic plans for the improvement of his immediate dependants, and poorer neighbours. He erected commodious cottages on his property, with an ample allotment of land to each cottage, and established Schools at Lindfield for boys, girls, and infants, with workshops, outhouses, and play-grounds. About three acres of land were cultivated on the most approved system by the boarders, who also took a part in household work. The subjects taught were land-surveying, mapping, the elements of Botany, the use of the barometer, rain-gauge, &c., and there was a good library with various scientific and useful apparatus.

Mr. Allen died at Lindfield, the scene of his zealous benevolence, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.--English Cyclopædia, London, 1856.--Monthly notices of the Royal Ast. Soc. vol. 6, Feb., 1844.

FRANCIS BAILY, F.R.S. &c.

Born April 28, 1774. Died August 30, 1844.

This eminent English astronomer was born at Newbury in Berkshire, and received his education at the school of the Rev. Mr. Best of that town, where he early showed a propensity to physical inquiry, obtaining among his schoolmates the nickname of 'the Philosopher of Newbury.' Francis Baily quitted this school, when fourteen years old, for a house of business in the city of London, and remained there until his twenty-second year, when, desirous of the enlargement of views which travel affords, he embarked for America in 1795. Mr. Baily remained there nearly three years, travelling over the whole of the United States and through much of the western country, experiencing at various times great hardships and privations.

Shortly after his return to England he commenced business in London as a stockbroker, and was taken into partnership by a Mr. Whitmore, in the year 1799. While engaged in this business he published several works on Life Annuities, one of which, entitled 'The Doctrine of Life Annuities and Insurances analytically investigated and explained,' was published in 1810, with an appendix in 1813, continuing to this day to be a standard work on the subject, and it may serve to give some idea of the estimation in which it was held, to mention, that when out of print, copies used to sell for four to five times their original value.

Although Mr. Baily was thus actively devoting himself to matters of a direct commercial interest, he was still able to find time for works of a more general nature: in 1810 he wrote his first astronomical paper on the celebrated Solar Eclipse, said to have been predicted by Thales, published in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1811, and in 1813 published a work entitled 'An Epitome of Universal History.' Astronomy, however, was his chief pursuit; and shortly after the celebrated fraud of De Beranger on the Stock Exchange in 1814, (in the detection and exposure of which Baily had a considerable share), this science absorbed more and more of his attention. His accounts of the Eclipse of 1820; of the Annular Eclipse of 1836, which he observed at Jedburgh; and the Total Eclipse of July 8, 1842, with its marvellous revelation of the rose-coloured protuberances of the solar atmosphere, since known as 'Baily's Beads,' are among the most interesting and classical of his writings.

In January, 1823, the Royal Astronomical Society was founded, chiefly through the suggestions of Francis Baily and Dr. Pearson, and for the first three years of its existence Mr. Baily filled the office of Secretary, sparing no exertions on its behalf, watching over its early progress with paternal care, and as the Society grew and prospered, contributing to its transactions many copious and valuable papers.

In 1825 Baily retired from the Stock Exchange, having acquired a considerable fortune, and shortly afterwards took a house in Tavistock Place, giving his whole attention to the furtherance of astronomical science. Here, he executed that grand series of labours which has perpetuated his name, and the building in which the Cavendish experiment of weighing the earth was repeated, its bulk and figure determined, and the standard of British measure perpetuated, must continue to be a source of interest to scientific men for many generations to come. The chief works to which Mr. Baily devoted himself during this later portion of his life are:--

1. The Remodelling of the Nautical Almanac.

2. The Determination of the length of the Seconds Pendulum.

3. The Fixation of the Standard of Length.

4. The Determination of the Density of the Earth.

5. The Revision of the Catalogues of the Stars.

6. The Reduction of Lacaille's and Lalande's Catalogues; and

7. The Formation of a New Standard Catalogue.

The benefits which not only astronomy but all England have derived from these laborious investigations, can hardly be too much appreciated. But a short time elapsed, after Baily had completed his observations on the pendulum, and determined the standard of length,--being thereby enabled to compare his new scale with the imperial standard yard,--when the conflagration of the Houses of Parliament in 1834 took place, and both the latter standard, and the original one by Bird (that of 1758) were destroyed. When it is considered that Baily's repetition of the Cavendish Experiment involved untiring watching for more than 1200 hours, and this, too, by one who in early life seemed only able to find food for his vigorous mind amidst the hardships and fatigues of travel, it affords a remarkable instance how a man, active and full of ardour in early youth, can yet be enabled, by the strength of his character, to concentrate the full force of his powers upon a series of researches apparently the most wearying and full of disappointment, an example well fitted for the earnest consideration of all who imagine that the energies of their minds can alone be satisfied by stirring scenes or a life full of activity and adventure. Mr. Baily's last public appearance was at Oxford, to which place he went with some difficulty, to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law. He was distinguished by great industry, which was made more effective by his methodical habits; and also by a suavity of manner which greatly enlarged the circle of his friends. In fact, Mr. Baily effected in the last 20 years of his life, a greater number of complete and refined researches than most other philosophers have accomplished during a whole lifetime.--Memoir of Francis Baily, by Sir John Herschel, Bart. London, 1856.

SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BART., C.B., P.R.S.

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, ETC.

Born February 12, 1743. Died June 19, 1820.

Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society for upwards of forty years, was born in Argyle Street, London. He was the eldest son of Mr. W. Banks, a gentleman of considerable landed property, whose family was originally of Swedish extraction, although it had been settled in England for several generations. The early life of Joseph Banks was passed principally at Revesby Hall, his father's seat in Lincolnshire, and his education was for several years entrusted to a private tutor; in his ninth year he was sent to Harrow and four years after to Eton, from whence he proceeded to Christ's College, Oxford.

During his residence at college, he made considerable progress in classical knowledge, but evinced at the same time a decided predilection for the study of natural history. Botany in particular was his favourite occupation, and one to which his leisure hours were devoted with enthusiastic ardour and perseverance. An anecdote is told of Mr. Banks being on one occasion so intent on exploring ditches and secluded spots, in search of rare plants, as to have excited the suspicions of some countrymen, who, conceiving that he could have no innocent design in acting thus, seized the young naturalist, when he had fallen asleep exhausted with fatigue, and brought him as a suspected thief before a neighbouring magistrate. After a strict investigation he was soon liberated, but the incident occasioned much amusement in the neighbourhood.

In the year 1761 Mr. Banks lost his father, and in 1764, on coming of age, was put in possession of his valuable estates in Lincolnshire. Mrs. Banks, soon after the death of her husband, removed with her family from Lincolnshire to Chelsea, as a spot likely to afford her son Joseph peculiar advantages in the study of botany, from the numerous gardens in the vicinity devoted to the culture of rare and curious plants of every description. And now it was that the great merit of Mr. Banks shone forth. With all the incitements which his age, his figure, and his station naturally presented to leading a life of idleness, and with a fortune which placed the more vulgar gratifications of sense or of ordinary ambition amply within his reach, he steadily devoted himself to scientific pursuits, and only lived for the studies of a naturalist. He remained out of Parliament, went little into any society but that of learned men, while his relaxation was confined to exercise and to angling, of which he was so fond, that he would devote days and even nights to it. Whilst living at Chelsea, Mr. Banks formed the acquaintance of Lord Sandwich, afterwards first Lord of the Admiralty, who as it happened had the same taste, and to the friendship of whom he was in after life indebted for essential aid in the furtherance of his numerous projects for the advancement of scientific knowledge. Soon after attaining his 21st year, Mr. Banks undertook a voyage to Newfoundland and the Labrador coast, for the purpose of exploring the botany of those unfrequented regions. On his return, he brought home valuable collections not only of plants, but also of insects and other natural productions of that district. In 1768, he obtained leave from Government, through the interest of Lord Sandwich, to embark in the ship commanded by the great navigator Cook, who had been commissioned to observe the transit of Venus in the Pacific ocean, by the observation of which phenomenon the sun's parallax might be measured, and to fulfil also the usual object of a voyage of discovery.