Article ID: CBB696854016

“A many-sided crystal”: Understanding the manifold legacy of Silvanus Phillips Thompson (1851–1916) (2021)

unapi

Was Silvanus Phillips Thompson primarily a physicist, electrical engineer, biographer, or teacher? His obituarists could not agree. I argue Thompson was in fact a polymathic generalist who, as a philanthropic Quaker, worked not to promote his own expertise but rather to ensure the public was swiftly informed of the most important techno-scientific research and applications of his contemporaries. I illustrate this in a comparison of Thompson and his longer-lived friend Oliver Lodge: working in closely-related areas, they had contrasting profiles and commitments. After inspecting Thompson's work as textbook author and bibliophile, I resolve his apparently paradoxical status as both radical critic and figurehead of multiple institutions. Finally, to flesh out his friends' representation of him as a “many-sided crystal,” I analyse Thompson's multi-facetted posthumous reputation, especially in reviews of the Life and Letters written by his widow Jane and daughter Helen exactly 100 years ago.

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Authors & Contributors
Gaya, Hannah
Anderson, Robert G. W.
Arapostathis, Stathis
Bourke, Joanna
Bud, Robert
Cantor, Geoffrey N.
Journals
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Engineering Studies
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
The Bridge: Journal of the National Academy of Engineering
British Journal for the History of Science
Bulletin for the History of Chemistry
Publishers
Oxford University Press
The Boydell Press: Cambridge University Library
Concepts
Public understanding of science
Teaching; pedagogy
Science and religion
Quakers and Quakerism
Engineering
Science education and teaching
People
Thompson, Silvanus Phillips
Beattie, James
Faraday, Michael
Hack, Maria
Hume, David
Meldola, Raphael
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, early
21st century
20th century
17th century
Places
England
Great Britain
United States
Pennsylvania (U.S.)
Europe
France
Institutions
Royal Polytechnic Institution (London, England)
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