Biographical Notes 61 



sanitation in many important reports, till, in 1876, official opponents 

 brought about his retirement, with a C.B. and a special pension. 

 He was elected F.R.S. in 1845, received the Buchanan Medal in 1897, 

 and honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin, was 

 promoted to K.C.B. in 1887, and died after a period of failing health 

 at his house in Kensington on July 23rd, 1904. 



1867. At the Anniversary Meeting, Mr. J. B. Buckton was 

 elected into the vacancy made by the death of Sir G. Everest. 



He was born at Hornsey, near London, on May 24th, 1818, the 

 son of a law-proctor, and was crippled in childhood by an accident. 

 After studying chemistry under Professor Hofmann, he made some 

 important researches on platinum compounds, and was elected 

 F.R.S. in 1857, but when he removed to Haslemere on his marriage 

 in 1865, he devoted himself to entomology, especially the life history 

 of aphides and other minute insects, besides working at astronomy 

 in an observatory which he had erected, where also he had a fall, 

 breaking his leg in two places. He died on Sept. 25th, 1905. 



On Nov. 28th, the vacancies caused by the deaths of 

 the Earl of Rosse and Lord Wrottesley were filled by the 

 election of Sir W. G. Armstrong and Mr. J. Evans. 



SIR WILLIAM GEORGE ARMSTRONG (afterwards Baron Armstrong), 

 the son of a corn-merchant of Newcastle-on-Tyne, was born there 

 on Nov. 26th, 1810. He early showed great interest in mechanism, 

 to which he was drawn away though trained as a solicitor. His 

 invention of a hydroelectric machine, followed by an hydraulic 

 crane, brought him into notice. He was elected F.R.S. in 1846, 

 and next year began the Elswick works. The Crimean War turned 

 his attention to artillery, and he invented the breech-loading Arm- 

 strong gun. When, at last, this received official approval, he 

 presented his patents to the nation, for which he was created knight 

 and C.B. In 1863 the British artillery was the finest in existence, 

 but officials preferred muzzle-loaders to breech-loaders, and by 

 the end of fifteen years the contrary had become true, for other 

 nations had gone on buying from Elswick. A shipbuilding company 

 was also started there, and in 1897 came the combination with the 

 Whitworths. Armstrong, created a baron in January, 1887, was a 

 most liberal benefactor to Newcastle and to science in general, and 

 died at Craighead, his country seat, on Dec. 27th, 1900. 



SIR JOHN EVANS, son of the Rev. Dr. Evans, was born at Britwell 

 Court, Burnham, on Nov. I7th, 1823, and in his eighteenth year entered 

 the paper-making business at Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, where 

 he became a partner in 1850. Few men have combined so much 

 practical ability with such wide interests in science and archaeology. 



