William Hallowes Miller
| William Hallowes Miller | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 April 1801 Llandovery, Carmarthenshire |
| Died | 20 May 1880 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Mineralogy Crystallography |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Miller indices Millerite |
| Notable awards | Royal Medal (1870) |
William Hallowes Miller FRS (6 April 1801 – 20 May 1880) was a Welsh mineralogist and laid the foundations of modern crystallography.[1]
Life and work
Miller was born in 1801 at Velindre near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, North Wales.[2] He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1826 as fifth wrangler.[3] He became a Fellow there in 1829. For a few years Miller was occupied as a college tutor and during this time he published treatises on hydrostatics and hydrodynamics.
Miller also gave special attention to crystallography, and at 31 years old, on the resignation of William Whewell he succeeded in 1832 to the professorship of mineralogy, a post he held until 1870. Miller's chief work, on Crystallography, was published in 1839. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1838 and received the Royal Medal in 1870, and in the same year was appointed on the International Commission du Metre.
Miller indices are named after William Hallowes Miller, the method having been described in his Treatise on Crystallography (1839).[4] The mineral known as millerite is named after him.
In 1852 Miller edited a new edition of H. J. Brooke's Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy.
Miller was the main thrust in reforming the Parliamentary standards of length and weight, after a fire which in 1834 destroyed the old standards. He was a member of the committee as well as on the Royal Commission which oversaw these new standards.[5]
Miller died in 1880 at Cambridge, England.
Selected writings
- William Hallowes Miller (1831) The Elements of Hydrostatics and Hydrodynamics
- William Hallowes Miller (1833) An Elementary Treatise on the Differential Calculus
- William Hallowes Miller (1839) A Treatise on Crystallography
- William Phillips, William Hallowes Miller, & Henry James Brooke (1852) An Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy
- William Hallowes Miller (1863) A Tract on Crystallography
References
- ↑ Encyclopaedia of Wales; University of Wales Press; 2008; page 627.
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- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary Online, May 2007
- ↑ See Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1856
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- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
- 1801 births
- 1880 deaths
- Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
- Welsh mineralogists
- People from Carmarthenshire
- Royal Medal winners
- Crystallographers
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
