- Hipparchus
- Statue of Newton, Trinity College, Cambridge
- Statue of Francis Bacon in Westminster Abbey
- Descartes
- Copernicus
- Blaise Pascal
- Bernard Palissy
- Agricola
- Von Guericke
- Tycho Brahe
- Torricelli
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Roger Bacon
- Paraclesus
- Laplace
- Kepler
- Huyghens
- Galileo
- Francis Bacon
- Hippocrates of Cos
Hippocrates - Hippocrates of Cos
Two other men with names greatly celebrated among the ancients may be referred to here, as representatives of what may be termed the Natural History group of sciences. One of them was a contemporary of Plato, the other was a pupil of Aristotle. The first is the famous physician HIPPOCRATES B.C. 470-375), to whom is attributed the foundation of medicine as a science. The healing of wounds and the cure of diseases is an art, and as such must have been practised in some form at a period coeval with the existence of mankind. The successful practice of this art depends largely upon knowledge of the causes, symptoms, and course of diseases, and upon a knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the human body. - Plato (from an ancient gem)
PLATO (B.C. 427 -374), whose name is so illustrious in philosophy has directly and indirectly largely influenced the course of intellectual development and scientific thought. Before Plato had become the disciple of Socrates, he had been a student of the philosophY of Heraclitus, one of whose prominent doctrines was that all things are in a state of ceaseless change, so that, for example, no one could ever be twice on the same river, inasmuch as the water is ever changing. About the age of twenty Plato became a disciple of Socrates, and continued so until the death of the latter, nine years afterwards. Plato then visited various countries, as Egypt, Persia, Sicily, and Italy. On returning to Athens he established his renowned school of philosophy amid the groves of Academus, near Athens; and this place has given a common title to schools of art, learning, and science throughout the world. Plato lived to an advanced age and left behind him many writings, now esteemed amongst the most precious legacies that antiquity has bequeathed to us. It was the practice of Socrates to constantly seek for definitions of justice, beauty, and so on, and this of course implied that he thought that in some things at least there was something permanent. Plato managed in his famous doctrine of Ideas to reconcile and combine the conflicting views of Heraclitus and of Socrates. This doctrine gave rise aftenvards to endless disputations, which for the most part diverted men's minds from the observation- of nature. - Nathan Read
Born in Warren, Mass., July 2, 1759. Died near Belfast, Me., January 20, 1849. Graduated from Harvard College in 1781, Read was a tutor at Harvard for four years. In 1788 he began experimenting to discover some way of utilizing the steam engine for propelling boats and carriages. - Oliver Evans
Oliver Evans Born in 1755 or 1756, in Newport, Del. Died in Philadelphia, April 21, 1819. Little has been preserved respecting the early history of Oliver Evans, who has been aptly styled “The Watt of America.” His parents were farming people, and he had only an ordinary common-school education. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a wheelwright or wagonmaker, and continued his meager education by studying at night time by the light that he made by burning chips and shavings in the fireplace. - Richard Trevithick
Richard Trevithick Born in Illogan, in the west of Cornwall, England, April 13, 1771. Died in Dartford, Kent, April 22, 1833. In 1780 he built a double-acting high-pressure engine with a crank, for Cook’s Kitchen mine. This was known as the Puffer, from the noise that it made, and it soon came into general use in Cornwall and South Wales, a successful rival of the low-pressure steam vacuum engine of Watt. - Thomas Blanchard
Thomas Blanchard Born in Sutton, Mass., June 24, 1788. Died, April 16, 1864. Blanchard was a prolific inventor, having taken out no less than thirty or forty patents for as many different inventions. He did not reap great benefit from his labors, for many of his inventions scarcely paid the cost of getting them up, while others were appropriated without payment to him, or even giving him credit. - William Murdock
William Murdock Born in Bellow Mill, near Old Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, August 21, 1754. Died at Sycamore Hill, November 15, 1839. When he was twenty-three years of age he entered the employment of the famous engineering firm of Boulton & Watt, at Soho, and there remained throughout his active life. Watt recognized in him a valuable assistant, and his services were jealously regarded. On his part he devoted himself unreservedly to the interests of his employers. - Carl Benz
Carl Benz Born, November 26, 1844, at Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany. Died, April 4, 1929, Ladenburg, Germany In 1880 he began to commercialize a two-cycle stationary engine. In 1883 he organized his business as Benz & Co., and produced his first vehicle in 1884. In the beginning of 1885 his three-wheeled vehicle ran through the streets of Mannheim, Germany, attracting much attention with its noisy exhaust. This was the subject of his patent dated January 29, 1886, claimed by him to be the first German patent on a light oil motor vehicle. This embodied a horizontal flywheel belt transmission through a differential and two chains to the wheels; but it is noteworthy primarily as having embodied a four-cycle, water jacketed, three-quarter horse-power engine, with electric ignition.