Sir David Brewster (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, mostly concerned with the study of the polarization of light and including the discovery of Brewster's angle. He studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity,Thomas J. Bress (2009), "The Influence of Processing and Fluid Parameters on Injection Molding Flow". University of Michigan. . p. 14. thereby creating the field of optical mineralogy.A. D. Morrison-Low (2004) "Brewster, Sir David (1781–1868)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography For this work, William Whewell dubbed him the "father of modern experimental optics" and "the Johannes Kepler of optics."William Whewell (1859) History of the Inductive Sciences. D. Appleton. p. 133
Brewster was a pioneer in photography. He invented an improved stereoscope,John Werge (1890). The Evolution of Photography. Piper and Carter which he called "lenticular stereoscope" and which became the first portable 3D-viewing device.International Stereoscopic Union (2006) "Stereoscopy", Numbers 65–72, p. 18. "In 1849 Scottish scientist Sir David Brewster invents the lenticular stereoscope, the first practical, portable, 3D viewing device. This stereoscope used refractive lenses and began the protocol of having the stereo pairs mounted side by side." He also invented the stereoscopic camera,Sir David Brewster. historiccamera.comThomas L. Hankins, Robert J. Silverman (1995) Instruments and the Imagination. Princeton University Press. . p. 157 two types of polarimeters,Walter G. Egan, Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (1992), "Polarization and remote sensing: 22–23 July 1992", p. 225 the polyzonal lens, the lighthouse illuminator, and the kaleidoscope.
Brewster was a devout Presbyterian and marched arm-in-arm with his brother during the events of the Disruption of 1843, which led to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland. As a historian of science, Brewster focused on the life and work of his hero, Isaac Newton. Brewster published a detailed biography of Newton in 1831 and later became the first scholar to examine many of the papers in Newton's Nachlass (the unpublished documents left after his death). Brewster also wrote numerous works of popular science,In the words of the Round Table Journal (1868): "Sir David Brewster...did more, probably, than has been done by any other one man for the popularization of science." H. E. and C. H. Sweeter, p. 124 and was one of the founders of the British Science Association,. baas.research.glam.ac.ukScience, Optics & You, Pioneers in Optics: "Sir David Brewster", Florida State University of which he was elected president in 1849. He became the public face of higher education in Scotland, serving as Principal of the University of St Andrews (1837–1859) and later of the University of Edinburgh (1859–1868). Brewster also edited the 18-volume Edinburgh Encyclopædia.
Life David Brewster was born in the Canongate in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, to Margaret Key (1753–1790) and James Brewster (c. 1735–1815), the rector of Jedburgh Grammar School and a teacher of high reputation. David was the third of six children, two daughters and four sons: James (1777–1847), minister at Craig, Ferryden; David; George (1784–1855), minister at Scoonie, Fife; and Patrick (1788–1859), minister at the abbey church, Paisley.
At the age of 12, David Brewster matriculated at the University of Edinburgh with the intention of becoming a clergyman. He received his MA in 1800, was licensed as a minister of the Church of Scotland, and then preached around Edinburgh on several occasions. By then, Brewster had already shown a strong inclination for the natural sciences and had established a close association with James Veitch of Inchbonny. Veitch, who enjoyed a local reputation as a man of science and was particularly skilled in making telescopes, was characterized by Sir Walter Scott as a "self-taught philosopher, astronomer and mathematician".
Brewster is buried in the grounds of Melrose Abbey, in Roxburghshire.
Career
Work on optics Though Brewster duly finished his theological studies and was licensed to preach, his other interests distracted him from the duties of his profession. In 1799 fellow-student Henry Brougham persuaded him to study the diffraction of light. The results of his investigations were communicated from time to time in papers to the Philosophical Transactions of London and other scientific journals. The fact that other scientists – notably Étienne-Louis Malus and Augustin Fresnel – were pursuing the same investigations contemporaneously in France does not invalidate Brewster's claim to independent discovery, even though in one or two cases the priority must be assigned to others. A lesser-known classmate of his, Thomas Dick, also went on to become a popular astronomical writer.
The most important subjects of his inquiries can be enumerated under the following five headings: The laws of light polarization by reflection and refraction, and other quantitative laws of phenomena; The discovery of the polarising structure induced by heat and pressure; The discovery of crystals with two axes of double refraction, and many of the laws of their phenomena, including the connection between optical structure and crystalline forms; The laws of metallic reflection; Experiments on the absorption of light.
In this line of investigation, the prime importance belongs to the discovery of the connection between the refractive index and the polarizing angle; biaxial crystals, and the production of double refraction by irregular heating.
These discoveries were promptly recognised. As early as 1807 the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon Brewster by Marischal College, Aberdeen; in 1815 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and received the Copley Medal; and in 1816 the French Institute awarded him one-half of the prize of three thousand francs for the two most important discoveries in physical science made in Europe during the two preceding years. In 1821, he was made a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1822 a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Among the non-scientific public, his fame spread more effectually by his invention in about 1815 of the kaleidoscope, for which there was a great demand in both the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. As a reflection of this fame, Brewster's portrait was later printed in some cigar boxes. Brewster chose renowned achromatic lens developer Philip Carpenter as the sole manufacturer of the kaleidoscope in 1817. Although Brewster patented the kaleidoscope in 1817 (GB 4136),Brewster's patent kaleidoscope, c 1817. ssplprints.comPDF copy of the Brewster Patent GB 4136 a copy of the prototype was shown to London opticians and copied before the patent was granted. As a consequence, the kaleidoscope became produced in large numbers, but yielded no direct financial benefits to Brewster.Gordon, p. 54 It proved to be a massive success with two hundred thousand kaleidoscopes sold in London and Paris in just three months.The Perfectionist Projectionist , Victorian Microscope Slides. Accessed 1 August 2011
An instrument of more significance, the stereoscope, which – though of much later date (1849) – along with the kaleidoscope did more than anything else to popularise his name, was not as has often been asserted the invention of Brewster. Sir Charles Wheatstone discovered its principle and applied it as early as 1838 to the construction of a cumbersome but effective instrument, in which the binocular pictures were made to combine by means of mirrors. A dogged rival of Wheatstone's, Brewster was unwilling to credit him with the invention, however, and proposed that the true author of the stereoscope was a Mr. Elliot, a "Teacher of Mathematics" from Edinburgh, who, according to Brewster, had conceived of the principles as early as 1823 and had constructed a lensless and mirrorless prototype in 1839, through which one could view drawn landscape transparencies, since photography had yet to be invented. Brewster's personal contribution was the suggestion to use prisms for uniting the dissimilar pictures; and accordingly the lenticular stereoscope may fairly be said to be his invention.
A much more valuable and practical result of Brewster's optical researches was the improvement of the British lighthouse system. Although Fresnel, who had also the satisfaction of being the first to put it into operation, perfected the dioptric apparatus independently, Brewster was active earlier in the field than Fresnel, describing the dioptric apparatus in 1812. Brewster pressed its adoption on those in authority at least as early as 1820, two years before Fresnel suggested it, and it was finally introduced into lighthouses mainly through Brewster's persistent efforts.
Other work
Although Brewster's own discoveries were important, they were not his only service to science. He began writing in 1799 as a regular contributor to the Edinburgh Magazine, of which he acted as editor 1802–1803 at the age of twenty. In 1807, he undertook the editorship of the newly projected Edinburgh Encyclopædia, of which the first part appeared in 1808, and the last not until 1830. The work was strongest in the scientific department, and many of its most valuable articles were from the pen of the editor. At a later period he was one of the leading contributors to the Encyclopædia Britannica (seventh and eighth editions) writing, among others, the articles on electricity, hydrodynamics, magnetism, microscope, optics, stereoscope, and voltaic electricity. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1816.
In 1819 Brewster undertook further editorial work by establishing, in conjunction with Robert Jameson (1774–1854), the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, which took the place of the Edinburgh Magazine. The first ten volumes (1819–1824) were published under the joint editorship of Brewster and Jameson, the remaining four volumes (1825–1826) being edited by Jameson alone. After parting company with Jameson, Brewster started the Edinburgh Journal of Science in 1824, 16 volumes of which appeared under his editorship during the years 1824–1832, with very many articles from his own pen.
He contributed around three hundred papers to the transactions of various learned societies, and few of his contemporaries wrote as much for the various reviews. In the North British Review alone, seventy-five articles of his appeared. A list of his larger separate works will be found below. Special mention, however, must be made of the most important of them all: his biography of Sir Isaac Newton. In 1831 he published the Life of Sir Isaac Newton,Sir David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, Vol. 1, Preface a short popular account of the philosopher's life, in Murray's Family Library, followed by an 1832 American edition in Harper's Family Library;The Life of Sir Isaac Newton (1832) Harper's Family Library, New York, No. 26. but it was not until 1855 that he was able to issue the much fuller Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, a work which embodied the results of more than 20 years' investigation of original manuscripts and other available sources."Discovery of gravitation, A.D. 1666" by Sir David Brewster, in The Great Events by Famous Historians, Rossiter Johnson, LL.D. Editor-in-Chief, Volume XII, pp. 51–65, The National Alumni, 1905.