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Authorised form of nameLardner; Dionysius (1793 - 1859); scientific writer
Dates1793 - 1859
Place of birthDublin, Ireland
Date of birth03 April 1793
Place of deathNaples, Italy
Date of death29 April 1859
OccupationClergyman
Research fieldMathematics
Astronomy
ActivityEducation:
Trinity College, Dublin. BA (1817); MA (1819); LLB; LLD (1827)
Career:
Began training for the law, but gave it up; gave a series of lectures on the steam engine, to the Dublin Royal Society; took holy orders probably with a view to becoming a Fellow of Trinity College but was never appointed; undertook literary and scientific work; gold medallist of the Royal Dublin Society (1826); moved to London under the patronage of Lord Brougham (1828); first Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, London University (1828-1833); resigned from professorship to concentrate on publication of the 'Cabinet cyclopaedia' (1829); eloped with the wife of Captain Richard Heaviside (1840) whose marriage was dissolved by Act of Parliament (1845), during which period Lardner gave a lecture tour in the United States; settled in Paris (1845); wrote on railways and astronomy
Memberships:
FRSE; FRAS; FLS; FZS; FCPS (Honorary); Statistical Society of Paris; MRIA; Fellow of the Society for Promoting Useful Arts in Scotland
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election28/02/1828
RelationshipsSon of a Clare solicitor, William O'Brien Lardner; married: 1) (1815) Cecilia Flood (died 1862) granddaughter of the Irish parliamentarian Henry Flood, with whom he had three children, they separated (1820) and divorced (1849); 2) Mary, divorced wife of Captain Heaviside (?1849); father of Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot (b 1820) who became known as Dion Boucicault, playwright and author of 'The Shaughran'
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Irish Innovators
References:
W Johnson, 'Contributors to Improving the Teaching of Calculus in Early 19th-Century England' in NR 1995 vol 49 pp 93-103
R A Buchanan, 'Science and Engineering: A Case Study in British Experience in the Mid-Nineteenth Century' in NR 1977-8 vol 32 pp 215-223
G Ferrari and A McConnell, 'Robert Mallet and the 'Great Neapolitan earthquake' of 1857 in NR 2005 vol 59 pp 45-64
Notes:
Certificate headed: 'residence [in ink] Jermyn St [in pencil]'; part of certificate missing; parts of Citation deliberately obscured
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/56680641
CodeNA3370
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1828/08Lardner, Dionysius: certificate of election to the Royal Society
MC/1/355Letter from Dionysius Lardner, 122 Regent Street, to Dr. [Peter Mark] Roget, Secretary of the Royal Society16 December 1831
IM/002632Lardner, Dionysiusnd
RR/1/137Referee's report by William Hasledine Pepys, on a paper 'On certain properties of vapour' by Dionysius Lardner[c.1832]
MC/1Volume 1 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1800-1831
AP/15/22Unpublished paper, 'On certain properties of vapor' by Dionysius Lardner[1832]
AP/20/9Unpublished paper, regarding railways by D [Dionysius] Lardner1836
RR/1/138Referee's report by James Cumming, on a paper 'On certain properties of vapour' by Dionysius Lardner[c.1832]
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