William Petrie II
From BrethrenPedia
William Petrie II (1821-1908) was an electrical engineer, best known for the development of the arc lamp.
Contents
Life
He was born Jan. 21, 1821 at King's Langley, Hertfordshire, England. He was the eldest of four sons of William Petrie (1784-1842), and his wife Margaret Mitton, daughter of a banker. His brother Martin's family was involved with the founding of Westfield College, a constituent college of the University of London, which in 1989 amalgamated with Queen Mary College, and since 2013, is known as Queen Mary University of London.
In 1829, William's father was sent to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa where he acted until 1837 as deputy commissary-general. Their neighbor was Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), who had a profound impact on William Petrie's interest in science. John was a polymath astronomer who invented the blueprint, and originated the use of the Julian day system in astronomy. He named seven moons of Saturn, and four moons of Uranus. He also made contributions to the science of photography, investigating color blindness and the chemical power of UV rays. His Preliminary Discourse (1831) advocated an inductive approach to scientific experiment and theory-building.
John's father, Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) built a 40-foot telescope in 1785, which was the largest scientific instrument that had been built at that time. He is crediting with discovering the planet of Uranus, initially named the "Georgian star" (with respect to King George III), but known as "Herschel" in France. He also discovered two moons of Saturn (Mimas & Enceladus) in 1789, and two moons of Uranus (Titania & Oberon), and introduced the concept of the asteroid. He also pioneered the use of astronomical spectrophotometry, discovered infrared radiation, and was the founding president of the Royal Astronomical Society, started in 1820.
Education and Science
Petrie studied medicine for a year in 1836 at Cape Town Hospital, but transferred the next year to King's College in London, eventually studying electromagnetism in Frankfurt in 1840. In 1841, he took out a patent in England for an electric generator. In 1847-8, he was credited with the invention of a self-regulating arc lamp. In 1848, he made public displays with a lamp of 700 candlepower from the portico of the National Gallery, and in 1849 from the Hungerford suspension bridge in London. Unfortunately, a lack of good generators prevented business success promoting electric illumination, so he turned to electrochemistry which led to other patents.
Marriage
William married Anne Flinders (1812-1892), the only child of Capt. Matthew Flinders, who led the first circumnavigation of Australia. She was a linguist, and studied Egyptology, and contributed essays to various periodicals under the name "X.Q" and "Philomathes". They had one son, William Matthew Flinders Petrie, a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology, and had the distinction of holding the first chair in Egyptology in the U.K. W.M.F. Petrie's son John Flinders Petrie (1907-1972) was a noted mathematician whom the Petrie polygon in geometry is named.
Brethren influence
The family was active with the Plymouth Brethren, although it is presently unknown when or how they were introduced.
