To meet William Morgan is to encounter the eighteenth-century world of finance, science and politics. Born in Bridgend in 1750, he claimed Welsh heritage, but his influence went far beyond national borders and the legacy of his work continues to shape life in the twenty-first century. This biography, which draws on archival research and a cache of unpublished Morgan family letters, tells the story of his life and intellectual contributions. At the age of twenty-five—and with no formal training—Morgan became an actuary at the Equitable, then a fledgling life insurance company. It was the first step on a path that would lead him to be dubbed “the father of actuarial science” and earn him the Copley Medal, the most prestigious award given by the Royal Society. His interests went far beyond actuarial tables, however—his papers on his electrical experiments reveal that, albeit unwittingly, he constructed the first X-ray tube. And as a political radical, his outspoken views put him at risk of imprisonment during Pitt’s Reign of Terror. This accessible biography introduces readers to a fascinating polymath whose influence is still being felt today.
...More
Chapter
Radelet-de Grave, P.;
(2006)
Studies of Magnetism in the Correspondence of Daniel Bernoulli
(/isis/citation/CBB000774504/)
Article
David Evan Pence;
(2022)
Closing the Loop: Ewald von Kleist and the Origins of the Leyden Jar
(/isis/citation/CBB256458041/)
Book
Bevilacqua, Fabio;
Fregonese, Lucio;
(2000)
Nuova Voltiana: Studies on Volta and His Times
(/isis/citation/CBB000600691/)
Book
Brockliss, L. W. B.;
(2002)
Calvet's Web: Enlightenment and the Republic of Letters in Eighteenth-Century France
(/isis/citation/CBB000501661/)
Book
Bresadola, Marco;
(2011)
Luigi Galvani: Devozione, scienza e rivoluzione
(/isis/citation/CBB001221170/)
Book
Giuseppe Olivi;
Cinzio Gibin;
(2004)
Lettere di Giuseppe Olivi (1769-1795): naturalista
(/isis/citation/CBB892739348/)
Book
Dr Emily Winterburn;
(2018)
The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel: The Lost Heroine of Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB492810255/)
Book
Stén, Johan C. E.;
(2014)
A Comet of the Enlightenment: Anders Johan Lexell's Life and Discoveries
(/isis/citation/CBB001500577/)
Book
Jelved, Karen;
Jackson, Andrew D.;
(2011)
The Travel Letters of H. C. Ørsted
(/isis/citation/CBB001221166/)
Book
Matthias Schönhofer;
(2014)
Letters from an American Botanist: The Correspondences of Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Mühlenberg (1753-1815)
(/isis/citation/CBB864326208/)
Article
Brigitte Wirth;
(2007)
Maria Sibylla Merian, Baltasar Scheid und Richard Bradley - Die Künstlerin und Naturforscherin, ein Kaufmann und ein Botaniker.
(/isis/citation/CBB976589239/)
Book
Gauss, Carl Friedrich;
Reich, Karin;
Roussanova, Elena;
Lehfeldt, Werner;
(2012)
Carl Friedrich Gauss und Russland: sein Briefwechsel mit in Russland wirkenden Wissenschaftlern
(/isis/citation/CBB001200102/)
Book
Black, Joseph;
Anderson, R. G. W.;
Jones, Jean;
(2012)
The Correspondence of Joseph Black
(/isis/citation/CBB001200114/)
Article
Irina A. Gavrilina;
(2018)
“In Me You Will Find Your Defender”: F. M. Klinger as the First Curator of the Dorpat University and His Relationship with G. F. Parrot
(/isis/citation/CBB776253720/)
Article
Antonio J. Heras;
Pierre-Charles Pradier;
David Teira;
(2020)
What Was Fair in Actuarial Fairness?
(/isis/citation/CBB253254427/)
Article
Goulding, Robert;
(2014)
Thomas Harriot's Optics, between Experiment and Imagination: The Case of Mr Bulkeley's Glass
(/isis/citation/CBB001321044/)
Article
Ana Patrícia Martins;
(2020)
An Overview on the History of Actuarial Calculus in Portugal Until the Late 19th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB573284495/)
Book
Shaw, Ann;
Reeves, Carole;
(2009)
The Children of Craig-y-nos: Life in a Welsh Tuberculosis Sanatorium, 1922--1959
(/isis/citation/CBB001250121/)
Book
Rowland Wynne;
(2020)
Evan James Williams: Atomic Physicist
(/isis/citation/CBB544993527/)
Article
Reich, Karin;
(2013)
Die Beziehungen zwischen Kopenhagen und Göttingen auf dem Gebiete des Erdmagnetismus: Ergebnisse einer Analyse der Briefe, die Hans Christian Oersted mit Carl Friedrich Gauß und Wilhelm Weber wechselte
(/isis/citation/CBB001212615/)
Be the first to comment!