Robert Boyle, Brooke Taylor 77 



It is comparatively rare to find an eminent mathema- 

 tician among amateurs, but a noteworthy example is 

 furnished by Brooke Taylor (1685-1731), a wealthy man 

 who, having completed his studies, soon acquired a reputa- 

 tion by his researches, and was elected into the Royal 

 Society in 1712; two years later, he became one of the 

 secretaries of that body. Taylor's theorem is known to 

 every student of mathematics; in the subject of mathe- 

 matical physics we owe to him the formula which connects 

 the period of vibration of a stretched string with its length, 

 cross-section and tension. 



The meetings of the Royal Society in the early days 

 of its activity were only partly occupied by the reading 

 of papers. Experiments were shown and discussed, and 

 new subjects were proposed for investigation; particular 

 questions were occasionally assigned to individual Fellows 

 for enquiry and report. In this manner scientific research 

 was organized more successfully than has ever since been 

 possible. To assist the Society's work, a curator was 

 appointed, whose special duties consisted in preparing the 

 experiments for the meetings. A wide range of subjects 

 was therefore brought to the notice of the meetings in an 

 attractive form, and we find that many Fellows extended 

 their researches in consequence of the stimulus received 

 at the meetings. The inducement to do so was more 

 especially strong with those who acted as curators, and this 

 may be one of the reasons why Robert Hooke, the first 

 who occupied that position, touched upon such a variety 

 of subjects in widely different fields of enquiry. Among 

 those who were employed at the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century to prepare experiments, though he does not seem 

 to have received the title of curator, was Francis Hauksbee, 

 to whom we owe many interesting observations. Passing 

 a strong current of air over the reservoir of a barometer, 

 he found that the height of the column of mercury dimi- 

 nished by two inches, thus proving the reduction of pressure 

 accompanying the increase of kinetic energy in fluid 

 motion. He connected this observation with the fall of 

 the barometer during a gale of wind. He was the first 

 who investigated the transmission of sound through water, 



