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 On this day in engineering
history, the Royal Society was founded at Gresham
College in London, England.
Although members of this early scientific organization had convened as an
"invisible college" since the mid-1640s, their meeting of November 28, 1660 is
regarded as the group's official foundation date. Today, the Royal Society is the
United Kingdom's
official academy of sciences. With an annual budget of £30 million
pounds, the organization awards 44 Royal Society Fellowships each year. According
to the Royal Society's web site, receiving one of these prestigious awards "is
the highest accolade a scientist can have, short of a Nobel prize".
During the 1840s, a group of
so-called "natural philosophers" began meeting to discuss the ideas of Francis
Bacon, an English essayist whose own Baconian method served as a forerunner to
the scientific method of inquiry. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell and the
short-lived English
Republic, members of this
loosely-organized group met in secret to avoid the wrath of religious
authorities. With the restoration of the monarchy and the reign of King Charles
II, however, the group received approval and encouragement.
On November 28, 1660, 12
natural philosophers attended a lecture by Christopher Wren, the Gresham
Professor of Astronomy. Later, they agreed to found "a Colledge for the
Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning." Members included
Wren himself, an astronomer and architect who would help rebuild Britain after
the Great Fire of London; Robert Boyle, an Irish scientist best known for his
formulation of Boyle's Law; John Wilkins, an English clergyman who served as
the first secretary of the Royal Society; and Sir Robert Moray, a Scottish
soldier whose meeting with Charles II gained the group the monarchy's official
blessing.
Resources:
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=2176
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkins
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1019
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Francis_Bacon
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