Sir David Ferrier was a Scottish neuropathologist. He was born in 1843 near Aberdeen and died in 1928. He studied at Aberdeen University, graduating with distinction in 1863, and in the same year he carried off the Ferguson inter-university scholarship in classics and philosophy. After studying for a short time at Heidelberg, he took the medical course at Edinburgh, and graduated MD in 1870, with very high distinction. In 1872 he became professor of forensic medicine in King's College, London, a chair which he exchanged in 1889 for that of neuro-pathology, specially founded for him, a position which he still helds in 1905. He became FRS in 1876, and in 1890 received a royal medal for his researches on the brain. These experiments included a large number of experiments on living animals, and he was, in consequence, attacked by the anti-vivisectionists. In 1908 he was appointed emeritus professor at King's College London. David Ferrier was knighted in 1911. In 1913 he was president of the Medical Society of London. He was awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham. His results were published in the works on The Functions of the Brain (1876), and Cerebral Localization (1878-1890). Research David Ferrier
Sir Edward Frankland was an English chemist and authority on sanitation. He was born in 1825 near Lancaster and died in 1899. At Lancaster he served an apprenticeship to a chemist, afterwards studying in London under Playfair, and at Marburg and Giessen under Bunsen and Liebig respectively. In 1851 he became professor at the newly founded Owens College in Manchester, and in 1852 suggested the conception of the valency of organic compounds. In 1853 he was elected FRS, and in 1857 received the society's gold medal. From 1863 to 1868 he was Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution, and held a similar post in the Royal School of Mines (afterwards merged in the Royal College of Science) from 1865 to 1885.
He was many years government water-analyst, and in 1868 was appointed a member of the second Royal Commission on river-pollution. He was a member of various foreign scientific academies, and was made KCB in 1897. He and Sir Norman Lockyer were the original discoverers of helium in 1868. In 1877 he published a volume of Experimental Researches in Pure, Applied, and Physical Chemistry, a work on Inorganic Chemistry (with FR Japp in 1884), and many other works and papers. Research Edward Frankland
Sir John Franklin was an English explorer. He was born in 1786 at Spilsby, Lincolnshire and died in 1847. After joining the navy as a midshipman when he was 14 he saw action at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 He afterwards accompanied Captain Flinders on his voyage to the coast of Australia from 1801 to 1803). Shortly after his return he was appointed to the Bellerophon, and had charge of her signals during the battle of Trafalgar. Two years later he joined the Bedford, which was employed successively in the blockade of Flushing, on the coast of Portugal, and on the coast of America. On the last station she took part in the attack on New Orleans in 1814, when John Franklin was slightly wounded. His arctic work began in 1819, when he conducted an overland expedition for the exploration of the north coast of America from Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Coppermine River.
On his return to England he published a narrative of the expedition, was promoted to the rank of captain, and elected a FRS. In a second expedition he surveyed the coast from the mouth of the Coppermine west to Point Beechy, thus traversing in his two expeditions about a third of the distance between the Atlantic and the Pacific. On his return in 1827 he received the honour of knighthood. After serving for some years in the Mediterranean he held the post of governor of Tasmania from 1836 to 1843.
In 1845 he took command of the Erebus and Terror in what proved his last Polar Expedition. The problem was an arctic water-way between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The expedition was seen in Melville Bay two months later, but from that time no direct reports were received from it. Many expeditions were sent in search of him both from Britain and America, but with little success. At last an expedition, sent out under M'Lintock in 1857, discovered in 1859, at Point Victory, in King William's Land, a document which had been deposited in a cairn thirteen years before, and gave the latest details of the ill-fated expedition. This paper stated that Sir John Franklin died on the llth of June, 1847; that the ships were abandoned in April 1848; and that the crews, 105 in number, had started for the Great Fish River. None were ever heard of again, but many relics of the party were subsequently recovered. Research John Franklin
Sir John Gardener Wilkinson was an English explorer and Egyptologist. He was born in 1797 at Westmorland and died in 1875. He spent twelve years from 1821 to 1833 in Upper Egypt and Nubia travelling and making discoveries of buried tombs. On his return to England he was elected FRS and knighted in 1839. He made four subsequent journeys to Egypt in 1841, 1843, 1848 and in 1855. In 1844 he also travelled through Montenegro and Bosnia. He wrote several works on Ancient Egyptian culture and architecture. Research John Wilkinson
Sir Robert Stawell Ball was an Irish astronomer. He was born in 1840 at Dublin 1840. He was educated at Chester and Trinity College, Dublin. In 1865 he was appointed Lord Rosse's astronomer at Parsonstown, and since then held various official posts, including those of Andrews professor of astronomy in the University of Dublin and was appointed astronomer-royal for Ireland in 1874. He was Lowndean professor of astronomy and geometry in the University of Cambridge and director of the observatory in 1892. He became FRS in 1873, and was knighted in 1886. Besides many memoirs and articles, he published The
Story of the Heavens, Starland, In Starry Realms, Time and Tide, The Story of the Sun, Great Astronomers, The Earth's Beginning, Popular Guide to the Heavens etc. Research Robert Ball
HMS Argus is an Italian-built British aviation training ship of 18280 tons displacement. HMS Argus (formerly the Contender Bezant) was bought from Italy in 1984 and converted for military use. She is powered by two Lindholmen SEMT-Pielstick 18PC2.5V diesel engines providing a top speed of 19 knots and a range of 20000 miles. She carries a crew of 254 including flight crew and 3500 tons diesel and 1100 tons of aviation fuel as cargo. Armaments consist of two Oerlikon/DES 30 mm guns and two Oerlikon GAM-BO3 20 mm guns. She has provision to transport twelve British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS 1 aircraft and six WestlandSea King HAS 5 or similar helicopters. Research Argus II
HMS Ark Royal is a British light aircraft carrier of 20000 tons displacement launched in 1981. HMS Ark Royal is powered by four Rolls-RoyceOlympus TM3B gas turbines providing a top speed of 28 knots and a range of 8000 km at 18 knots. HMS Ark Royal is armed with a British Aerospace Sea Dart GWS 30 twin surface-to-air missile launcher; two General Electric/General Dynamics 20 mm Mk 15 VulcanPhalanx guns; three Signaal/General Electric 30 mm 7-barrelled GatlingGoalkeeper guns; two Oerlikon/BMARC 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns; a twin arrangement of Oerlikon/BMARC 30 mm/75 dual purpose guns. Eight or nine British Aerospace Harrier FA2 (Sea Harrier) FRS 1 aircraft and up to nine Westland Sea King HAS 5 and three Westland Sea King AEW 2 helicopters are accommodated. She carries a crew of 666 including 57 officers and a further flight crew of 366 including 80 officers. Research Ark Royal III
HMS Illustrious is a British light aircraft carrier of 20000 tons displacement launched in 1978. HMS Illustrious is powered by four Rolls-RoyceOlympus TM3B gas turbines providing a top speed of 28 knots and a range of 8000 km at 18 knots. HMS Illustrious is armed with a British Aerospace Sea Dart GWS 30 twin surface-to-air missile launcher; two General Electric/General Dynamics 20 mm Mk 15 VulcanPhalanx guns; three Signaal/General Electric 30 mm 7-barrelled GatlingGoalkeeper guns; two Oerlikon/BMARC 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns; a twin arrangement of Oerlikon/BMARC 30 mm/75 dual purpose guns. Eight or nine British Aerospace Harrier FA2 (Sea Harrier) FRS 1 aircraft and up to nine Westland Sea King HAS 5
and three Westland Sea King AEW 2 helicopters are accommodated. She carries a crew of 666 including 57 officers and a further flight crew of 366 including 80 officers. Research Illustrious II
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research David Ferrier
