John F. Daniell.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 63, 16 March 1931, Page 6

John F. Daniell.

86 Years Ago

By Charles Conway. AX MARCH 13. 1845. the brilliant scientific career of John Frederic Daniell, one of the most illustrious chemists and physicists of the first half of the 19th century, was ended with tragic suddenness, for on that day he dropped dead in the Council Chamber of the Royal Society, immediately after concluding some remarks on a scientific subject which was under discussion. Daniell is possibly best known to the general public as the inventor of the Daniell cell, so extensively used for telegraphy and other purposes, but he also devised a large number of scientific instruments and processes of considerable ingenuity, including a dew-point hygrometer for measuring the quantity of moisture in the atmosphere; an improved form of pyrometer for measuring the changes in the dimensions of solid bodies produced by the application of heat, for which he was awarded the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society; and a process for the manufacture of illuminating gas from turpentine and resin, which was used in New York for a time.

Prior to the researches of Daniell the science of meteorology was in a most rudimentary state, and he was the first to attempt a philosophic study of the subject and to account for the known phenomena of the atmosphere. In his famous “ Meteorological Essays,” which were published in 1823, he demonstrated the fact that the earth was surrounded by two distinct atmospheres, namely, the air and the suspended vapour, whose relation to heat are different, and whose conditions of equilibrium are incompatible with each other, and that, owing to the antagonism of these two fluids, a continual movement is maintained, tending to the most importat results, which are lucidly explained by the scientist, as follows:

“ By an invisible, but ever-active agency, the waters of the deep are raised into the air, whence their distribution follows, as it were, by measure and weight, in proportion to the beneficial effects which they are calculated to produce. By gradual, but almost insensible expansions, the equipoised currents of the atmosphere are disturbed, the stormy winds arise, and the waves of the sea are lifted up; and that stagnation of air and water is prevented which would be fatal to animal existence. But the force which operates is calculated and proportioned; the very agent which causes the disturbance bears with it its own check; and the storm, as it vents its force, is itself setting the bounds of its own fury.” Daniell was born in London op March 12, 1790, and his death, which was caused by apoplexy, occurred on the day following his fifty-fifth birthday. He established his great reputation as a scientist while he was still a young man, and he was only twentythree years of age when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, of which he became the foreign secretary in 1839. In conjunction with Professor Brande, whom he had accompanied on a number of scientific tours, he established the “ Quarterly Journal of Science and Art” in 1816, and fifteen years later he became the first professor of chemistry at the' newly-founded King’s College, London, a post which he retained until his death. He was the first person to enjoy the distinction of being awarded all the three medals in the gift of the Royjl Society, and among his numerous contributions to scientific literature were an “ Essay on Artificial Climate Considered in its Application to Horticulture,” which showed the necessity of a humid atmosphere in hothouses devoted to tropical plants, and gained for him the silver medal of the Horticultural Society; an “ Introduction to the Study of Chemical Philosophy, and a series of extremely valuable and interesting papers written for the Royal Society. (Copyrighted.)