A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N DFrancis Hauksbee (now Hawksbee) : c.1687 - 1763
Francis Hauksbee, (b. 1687 - d. Jan. 11, 1763), English instrument maker, scientist, and lecturer. As early as about 1714 Hauksbee began giving lectures, with demonstrating experiments. By 1723 he had secured a sufficient reputation to be elected clerk and housekeeper to the Royal Society, Britain's major scientific society. Meanwhile he had established a manufactory in Fleet Street, where he made and sold air pumps, hydrostatic balances, and reflecting telescopes. Over the years he authored or co-authored a number of treatises dealing with such subjects as laboratory methods, chemistry, astronomical instruments, electricity, and pneumatics.
January, 2001 As is always a pleasure, I have just received the following information regarding the Hawksbee family structure. As it comes direct from the family - all other material below should be based upon it. Dr Russ Naughton (Ed.)
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 Francis Hauksbee (The Elder) : c.1666 - 1713
Born: Colchester (?), c.1666, Died: London, May or June 1713 2. Father Occupation: Merchant Richard Hauksbee was a draper in Colchester. 4. Education No university education. 6. Scientific Disciplines Primary: Physics, Electricity Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects, 1709. Sustained experimentation of electricity began with Hauksbee. He also performed important experiments on capillary phenomena. Also on the propagation of sound in compressed and rarified air, on freezing of water, and on elastic rebound. He measured specific gravities and refractive indices. He investigated the law of magnetic attraction and the time of fall through air. 7. Means of Support Primary: Merchant, Art, Scientific Society Secondary: Schoolmastering, Publishing Apprenticed in the trade to his older brother, 1678-87. Ran his own shop, 1687-1703--this appears to mean a retail shop. He was a small merchant. Guerlac speculates (on the basis of fragmentary evidence) that Hauksbee may have been Boyle's assistant. Hauksbee emerged out of obscurity at the meeting of the Royal Society on 15 Dec. 1703. He became the Royal Society's paid performer of experiments from that time until his death, though he was never formally the Curator of Experiments. Apparently he had already made himself known to some people as an experimenter. We know that he was giving demonstrations in his shop in 1704 and in 1710 was offering public lectures. He also made and sold instruments--e.g., cupping glasses used in surgery, air pumps, and barometers. Hauksbee published Physico-Mechanical Experiments himself and sold the copies from his home. 8. Patronage Types: Scientist, Aristrocrat The Royal Society--or better, Newton, who stood behind his appointment to the society. Hauksbee dedicated Physico-Mechanical Experiments to Lord Somers, former President of the Royal Society. 9. Technological Involvement Type: Instruments Scientific instruments for physical experiments--an improved air pump (though no one seems able to define precisely what Hauksbee's improvements were), and what was, in effect, the first static electric or frictional electric machine, a glass globe mounted on an axle, and also a primitive electroscope to detect electric charges. 10. Scientific Societies Membership: Royal Society He collaborated with Newton on experiments at the Royal Society, and influenced some of Newton's ideas, both with his capillary and with his electrical experiments. Royal Society, 1705-13.
Compiled by: Richard S. Westfall Department of History and Philosophy of Science edited by Russell Naughton
Hauksbee also spelled Hawksbee and known as (the Elder) (d. c. 1713), self-educated English scientist and eclectic experimentalist whose discoveries came too early for contemporary appreciation of their significance. Hauksbee determined with reasonable accuracy the relative weights of air and water. Investigating the forces of surface tension, he made the first accurate observations on the capillary action of tubes and glass plates. In 1706 he produced an electrostatic generator. His Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects appeared in 1709. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1705, he contributed numerous papers to the society's Philosophical Transactions, including an account of a two-cylinder pump that served as a pattern for vacuum pumps and remained in use with minor modifications for some 200 years.
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