Lives of Illustrious ShoemakersWinks, W. E. (William Edward)
History
Lives of Illustrious Shoemakers
Winks, W. E. (William Edward)
Shoemakers -- Biography
Pictorial Bible," "The Pictorial Sunday Book," "Cyclopædia of Biblical
Literature," "The Lost Senses," "Journal of Sacred Literature," and
"Daily Bible Illustrations," a work of great value, in eight volumes. In
1844 the University of Giessen conferred on him the diploma of D.D., and
in the following year he was elected a Fellow of the Society of
Antiquaries. Notwithstanding his immense labors and the great value of
his writings, he was, toward the close of his life, considerably
embarrassed by pecuniary difficulties, which were alleviated, but not
entirely removed, by a Government pension of £100 per year. John Kitto
died and was buried at Cannstatt, in Germany, 25th November, 1854, at
the age of forty-nine.
SCIENCE.
WILLIAM STURGEON, THE ELECTRICIAN.
The name of _William Sturgeon_, so honorably connected with the science
of electricity and magnetism, has a fair claim to be entered on this
list. Sturgeon was a Lancashire man, born at Wittington in that county
in 1783. All his youth was spent at the shoemaker's stall. On arriving
at manhood he abandoned this quiet, peaceful occupation for the life of
a soldier. After two years' service in the militia he enlisted in the
Royal Artillery. Like William Cobbett, he found it possible to read in
the midst of the distractions of the barrack-room. His chief attention
was given to the study of electricity and magnetism, which at that time
were attracting a great deal of attention on the part of men of
science.[178] The first proof Sturgeon gave of special and extensive
knowledge on the subject was in the papers which he contributed to the
_Philosophical Magazine_ in 1823-24. In 1825 he published an account of
certain magneto-electric appliances, for which the Society of Arts
awarded him their silver medal and a purse containing £30. About this
time, that is, soon after leaving the army, he was appointed to the
chair of experimental philosophy in the East India Company's Military
Academy at Addiscombe. His pamphlet, published in 1830, on "Experimental
Researches in Electro-Magnetism and Galvanism," described his own
experiments, which issued in an improved method of preparing plates for
the galvanic battery; a method still found, in many respects, to be the
best. He invented the electro-magnetic-coil machine, now used very
frequently by medical men in giving a succession of shocks to the
patient, and still preferred by the faculty to other instruments for
this purpose. This industrious and original investigator was also the
inventor of a method of driving machinery by electro-magnetism; but he
little dreamt, it may be, of the extent to which electricity would be
employed in these days as a motive power and for lighting purposes. He
edited the "Annals of Electricity, Magnetism, and Chemistry," and
published his own works in one volume a few years before his death. Like
many inventors, he never made a fortune, but died poor. A Government
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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