Subjects  |  Science

Sir Francis Beaufort

Admiral and hydrographer (map making for sailors). Developed the Beaufort Scale (for winds) in 1805. Born Co. Meath, Ireland. He kept journals, written in code, and these reveal that, as a widower ...

Person, Armed Forces, Science, Ireland

Lydia Becker

President of NUWSS prior to Millicent Fawcett and campaigned for voting rights of unmarried women and widows. Also an amateur scientist with interests in biology and astronomy. Best remembered for ...

Person, Gender Issues, Journalism / Publishing, Science

George Bentham

Botanist. Born in Stoke, near Plymouth. His family moved to St Petersburg in 1805, where he becam proficient in several languages. In France he studied at the universities of Tours and Montpelier. ...

Person, Science, France, Russia

Richard Bentley

Person, Literature, Philosophy, Science

John Desmond Bernal, MA, FRS.

Crystallographer. John Desmond Bernal was born on 10 May 1901 in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, the eldest of the five children of Samuel George Bernal (1864-1919) and Elizabeth Bernal née Mil...

Person, Armed Forces, Emergency Services, Science, Ireland

Marcellin Berthelot

Organic and physical chemist. Born and died in Paris. Very successful and well-known in his lifetime. Achieved high office in the Chemical Society of Paris and in the French Academy of Sciences.

Person, Science, France

Bicycle - hobby horse

From the picture source website: "The forerunner of the bicycle, the 'Hobby' or 'Dandy Horse' was invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais in France in 1817. It was introduced to England by Deni...

Vehicle, Science

John Bird

Mathematical instrument maker, notable for inventing the sextant. He came to London in 1740 where he worked for Jonathan Sisson and George Graham. By 1745, he had his own business in the Strand. Bi...

Person, Craft / Design, Science

Patrick Blackett

Physicist. Born Kensington, Served in the navy in WW1. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948. Government and military advisor in WW2. Created a life peer in 1969 as Baron Blackett of Chelsea....

Person, Science

Nathaniel Bliss

Astronomer. The fourth Astronomer Royal 1762-64. Studied at Oxford University and later became the Savilian Professor of Geometry. He made important meridian observations of a comet and a solar ecl...

Person, Science