Thomas Young (scientist)

Thomas Young (June 13, 1773 – May 10, 1829) was an English scientist and researcher. He is sometimes considered to be The Last Person to Know Everything: that is, he was familiar with virtually all the Western academic knowledge at that point in history. Clearly this can never be verified, and other claimants to this title are Gottfried Leibniz, Leonardo da Vinci and Francis Bacon, amongst others.

Biography

Young belonged to a Quaker family of Milverton, Somerset, where he was born in 1773, the youngest of ten children.

Related Topics:
Quaker - Milverton - Somerset - 1773

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At the age of fourteen he was acquainted with Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Amharic. Beginning to study medicine in London in 1792, he moved to Edinburgh in 1794, and a year later went to Göttingen, where he obtained the degree of doctor of physics in 1796. In 1797 he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In the same year the death of his grand-uncle, Richard Brocklesby, made him financially independent, and in 1799 he established himself as a physician in Welbeck Street, London.

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Greek - Latin - French - Italian - Hebrew - Chaldean - Syriac - Samaritan - Arabic - Persian - Turkish - Amharic - London - 1792 - Edinburgh - 1794 - Göttingen - 1796 - 1797 - Emmanuel College, Cambridge - Richard Brocklesby - 1799 - Welbeck Street

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Appointed in 1801 professor of physics at the Royal Institution, in two years he delivered 91 lectures. These lectures, printed in 1807 (Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy), contain a remarkable number of anticipations of later theories. He resigned his professorship in 1803, fearing that its duties would interfere with his medical practice.

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1801 - Royal Institution - 1807 - 1803

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In 1802, he was appointed foreign secretary of the Royal Society, of which he had been elected a fellow in 1794. In 1811 he became physician to St. George's Hospital, and in 1814 he served on a committee appointed to consider the dangers involved by the general introduction of gas into London. In 1816 he was secretary of a commission charged with ascertaining the length of the seconds pendulum, and in 1818 he became secretary to the Board of Longitude and superintendent of the HM Nautical Almanac Office.

Related Topics:
1802 - Royal Society - 1794 - 1811 - St. George's Hospital - 1814 - London - 1816 - 1818 - Board of Longitude - HM Nautical Almanac Office

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A few years before his death he became interested in life assurance, and in 1827 he was chosen one of the eight foreign associates of the French Academy of Sciences. He died in London on May 10, 1829.

Related Topics:
1827 - French Academy of Sciences - London - May 10 - 1829

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