Robert Barker (physician)

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Robert Barker, 1744 medal by Jacques-Antoine Dassier, the reverse side mentioning his membership of the Royal Society Robert Barker MET DP-1424-047.jpg
Robert Barker, 1744 medal by Jacques-Antoine Dassier, the reverse side mentioning his membership of the Royal Society

Robert Barker (died 1745) was a British physician and inventor. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society from 1732. [1]

Barker invented both a reflecting microscope, exhibited in 1736, and "Barker's mill", a prototype reaction turbine (1743). [2] [3] According to James Dodson, he was a friend of Charles Labelye. [4] He died in London, on 9 September 1745. [5]

Barker's Mill

Barker's Mill, a rotating device powered by water and Newton's third law, is sometimes described as a 17th-century invention. [6] It is attributed to Dr Robert Barker F.R.S., in 1743. It was published by John Theophilus Desaguliers in his book Experimental Philosophy of 1744. [7] [3] Desaguliers, who himself demonstrated the mill to the Royal Society, attributed the principle involved to Antoine Parent. [8] French terms for the mill are tourniquet hydraulique, moulin de Parent or roue à réaction. [9] [10]

A complex timeline of development ensued.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Royal Society Fellow details Barker; Robert (- 1745)" . Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  2. ↑ Ratcliff, Marc J. (24 February 2016). The Quest for the Invisible: Microscopy in the Enlightenment. Routledge. p. 30. ISBN   9781317018407 . Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  3. 1 2 Dickinson, Henry Winram (17 February 2011). A Short History of the Steam Engine. Cambridge University Press. p. 187. ISBN   9781108012287 . Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  4. ↑ Dodson, James (1742). The Anti-logarithmic Canon: Being a Table of Numbers, Consisting of Eleven Places of Figures, Corresponding to All Logarithms Under 100000 ... With Precepts and Examples ... To which is Prefix'd, an Introduction, Containing a Short Account of Logarithms ... J. Dodson and J. Wilcox. p. x. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  5. ↑ Hawkins, Edward, Herbert Appold Grueber (1885). "Medallic illustrations of the history of Great Britain and Ireland to the death of George II". Internet Archive . London: British Museum. p. 588. Retrieved 9 August 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Barker's Mill"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  7. 1 2 Project Technology, Schools Council (Great Britain) (1975). Industrial Archaeology of Watermills & Waterpower. Heinemann Educational Books. p. 85. ISBN   9780435759100 . Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  8. ↑ Musson, Albert Edward; Robinson, Eric (1989). Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution. Taylor & Francis. p. 45. ISBN   9782881243820 . Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  9. 1 2 Viollet, Pierre-Louis (2005). Histoire de l'énergie hydraulique: moulins, pompes, roues et turbines de l'Antiquité au XXe siècle (in French). Presses des Ponts. p. 139. ISBN   9782859784140 . Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  10. ↑ Recueil de la Société polytechnique: ou Recueil industriel, manufacturier, agricole et commercial, de la salubrité publique, et des actes de l'administration propres à encourager les diverses branches de l'économie publique. Société polytechnique. 1828. p. 119.
  11. ↑ Ferguson, James; Henderson, Ebenezer (1867). Life of James Ferguson, F. R. S.: In a Brief Autobiographical Account, and Further Extended Memoir. A. Fullarton. p. 154. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  12. ↑ "Rumsey Exhibit – 3-4 – the Museum of the Berkeley Springs" . Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  13. ↑ Hall, A. Rupert; Smith, Norman (30 September 2016). History of Technology. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 238. ISBN   9781350017382 . Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  14. ↑ "Whitelaw and Stirrat, Grace's Guide" . Retrieved 8 August 2018.
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