Gooday, G orcid.org/0000-0002-4300-471X (2021) “A many-sided crystal”: Understanding the manifold legacy of Silvanus Phillips Thompson (1851–1916). Centaurus, 63 (3). pp. 459-474. ISSN 0008-8994
Abstract
Was Silvanus Phillips Thompson primarily a physicist, electrical engineer, biographer, or teacher? His obituarists could not agree. I argue Thompson was in fact a polymathic generalist who, as a philanthropic Quaker, worked not to promote his own expertise but rather to ensure the public was swiftly informed of the most important techno-scientific research and applications of his contemporaries. I illustrate this in a comparison of Thompson and his longer-lived friend Oliver Lodge: working in closely-related areas, they had contrasting profiles and commitments. After inspecting Thompson's work as textbook author and bibliophile, I resolve his apparently paradoxical status as both radical critic and figurehead of multiple institutions. Finally, to flesh out his friends' representation of him as a “many-sided crystal,” I analyse Thompson's multi-facetted posthumous reputation, especially in reviews of the Life and Letters written by his widow Jane and daughter Helen exactly 100 years ago.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author. Centaurus published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
Keywords: | legacy; polymath; public benefit; Quaker; specialisation; Silvanus P. Thompson; textbooks |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > School of Philosophy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 25 Aug 2021 12:51 |
Last Modified: | 25 Aug 2021 12:51 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/1600-0498.12399 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:177411 |