Brewster, David

Brewster, David.The life of Sir Isaac Newton the great philosopher revised and edited by W.T. Lynn. Edited by W.T. Lynn. London Gail Inglis, 1855. 

Brewster, David. Memoirs of the life, writings and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. With a new introd. by Richard S. Westfall. New York Johnson Reprint Corp., 1965. 2 vols... 

Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832. Scottish novelist and poet. His writings contain many interesting allusions to his uncle, Dr. Daniel Rutherford. Scott s circle of friends included Dr William Hyde Wollaston, Sir David Brewster, Dr. John Davy, Sir Humphry Davy, and Joseph Black. 

Sir David Brewster 1781-1868, Scottish physicist famous for his researches on tire absorption, reflection, refraction, and polarization of light, and on doubly refracting crystals. One of the founders of the British Association for die Advancement of Science. He invented the kaleidoscope and improved the stereoscope. His optical researches led to great improvement in the construction of lighthouses. 

Fox Talbot (24), an English scientist, found in 1834 that, with the aid of a prism, he could distinguish lithium from strontium, even though the salts of both give red flames (4, 26, 32). He stated that the dark lines previously observed by Sir David Brewster (33) in the spectrum of light which had passed through vapors of nitrous acid were caused by absorption of light (5,25). 

Brewster s Stereoscope.—The stereoscope, modified by Sir David Brewster, is ehown in its most popularform in Pig. 418. It is a box having an apertoro at the bottom, but most generally at the front, as seen in the drawing an aperture at tha side allows the slide bearing the pictures to be introduced. 

The Curie brothers were drawn to the subject of piezoelectricity because of their familiarity with a phenomenon known for many centuries, that of pyroelectricity. Pyroelectricity refers to the tendency of certain materials to generate an electric current when they are heated. The phenomenon was first described in 314 b.c.e. by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus (ca. 370-ca. 285 b.c.e.), who observed the effect with the mineral tourmaline. Little research was done on pyroelectricity until the early 1800s, when the effect was rediscovered and studied in detail by the Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster (1781-1868). Then in 1878, William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), offered an explanation of the atomic changes that take place when pyroelectric effects occur. These developments in the understanding of pyroelectricity led the Curie brothers to study the possibility of producing electricity from crystals by physical means other than heating. 

By this time, scientists were studying light from as many sources as they could conjure. In 1822, the Scotsman David Brewster (1781-1868) invented a device that, by means of a flame, vaporized small amounts of material. The light from this vaporized material could then be smdied. He added 1,600 new spectral lines to those discovered by Fraunhofer and other investigators. During the same year, 1822, John Herschel (1792-1871), William Herschel s son, vaporized various metallic salts and established that the light from the flames could be used to detect the presence of these metals in very small samples. A few years later, William Talbot (1800-1877) showed that the spectrum of each of the chemical elements was unique and that it was possible to identify the chemical elements from their spectra. 

School of Engineering and Physical Science, David Brewster Building, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EHI4 4AS, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK... 

In the 1820s, David Brewster (1781-1868), Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), and William Henry Fox Talbot performed similar types of experiments on the absorption of light to those by Fraunhofer. Independently, these researchers made the observation that flame spectra obtained by burning compounds of different compositions varied in systematic ways. These three researchers all produced line spectra, which they tried to relate to the dark lines observed by Fraunhofer... 

David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, UK Email Stephen.Thomas ed.ac.uk... 

Kaleidoscope (Sir David Brewster) The name for Brewster s kaleidoscope comes from the Greek words halos (beautiful), eidos (form), and scopos (watcher). Kaleidoscope, therefore, literally means beautiful form watcher. ... 

In the period 1830-1845, David Brewster, John F. Daniell and William H. Miller made important discoveries regarding absorption spectra. When white Hght passes through sulfur vapor the violet part of the spectrum was exHnguished by the sulfur absorpHon in this part of the spectrum. On the contrary, iodine vapor absorbed in the middle region of the spectrum. When the Hght passed nitrous fumes, NOX, hundreds of lines or bands were formed in the spectrum. A similar effect was obtained when the absorpHon spectrum of bromine was studied. 

In 1812, even before Maxwell, Kelvin and Boltzman, the Scottish scientist Sir David Brewster (1781-1868) discovered that certain transparent optically isotropic solids (e.g., glass) when loaded developed optical characteristics of natural crystals. That is, he found that such a solid when loaded exhibited birefringence or double refraction and thus behaved as a temporary crystal. His discovery was the beginning of the well-known photoelastic method by which it is possible to experimentally determine the state of stress or strain on the interior of a loaded elastic body using polarized light. Maxwell (as well as F. E. Neumann at an earlier date) also studied the technique and deduced the relationship between stress and the optic effect now known as the Maxwell-Neumann stress-optic law. The impor-... 

When fully purified and prepared as a solid block, caoutchouc is transparent. The good optical quality of pure caoutchouc led Faraday to carry out optical experiments. Relaxed and annealed caoutchouc is isotropic, both physically and optically. When stretched, it becomes birefringent. The production of optical anisotropy fascinated Faraday. It was also observed by Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), the noted optician. 

David McGookin, Maya Gibbs Annu-Maaria Nivala, and Stephen Brewster ... 

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