George Forbes (scientist)
Encyclopedia
George Forbes FRS was an electrical engineer, astronomer
, explorer, author
and inventor, some of whose inventions are still in use.
in 1849, Forbes was the second son of James David Forbes and Alicia Wauchope. His father was later Principal of St Andrews University. Forbes was educated at Edinburgh Academy, the University of St Andrews
, Christ’s College
and St Catharine’s College
Cambridge University.
). In his lectures he advocated using electricity to power transportation. His main work at this time, however, was research into the velocity of light.
Arguably his most important work was as a supervising engineer for several pioneering hydroelectric schemes. From 1891 to 1895, Forbes was consulting engineer on the Niagara Falls
hydroelectric scheme. He also advised on other schemes, in India (1893), South Africa (1895), New Zealand (1896) and Egypt (1898).
In 1880 Forbes resigned from Anderson's University and moved to London. For the next two decades he devoted himself to electrical power engineering. Commissioned to report on how the City and South London Railway should be powered, he recommended electricity. Soon the entire London Underground
would follow his advice. In 1881 he served as a juror at the Paris Exposition Internationale d'Electricite
. He was subsequently admitted to the French Legion of Honour.
In 1906 he built a home near Pitlochry
to house his library. Forbes' family had frequently holidayed in Pitlochry and his father had befriended the Butters - the area’s main landowners - who initially leased and eventually sold Forbes the land on which his house stood. This house, which he called The Shed was a large wooden structure with an observatory on the upper storey. It overlooks the valley that in the 1950s would be flooded to create Loch Faskally
and the hydroelectric scheme Forbes had proposed in the early 1900s. In Pitlochry he returned to an earlier interest, from 1906 to 1930 delivering the David Elder lectures on Astronomy at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow
.
with the Russian army in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, reporting for The Times. He received the Russian Order of St George for this work.
He wrote and lectured widely about astronomy for professional and popular audiences. He predicted the existence of a trans-Neptunian planet fifty years before the discovery of Pluto.
would prove outstandingly successful and it is in universal use in electricity generation to this day. He could have become a rich man with such an innovation but he sold his American patent rights to Westinghouse Electric for £2,000. There is no evidence that he received any UK royalties. In the obituary published in the Proceedings of the Philosophical Society, G L Addenbroke wrote that 'Forbes always referred to this work with much modesty, but there can be no doubt that, he presented to the World an idea of great engineering and commercial value, the importance of which he does not seem to have fully grasped at the time.'
After the turn of the century, Forbes turned to military work, studying techniques of gunnery
. Between 1903 and 1906 working with the Admiralty he developed a rangefinder
that was still in use by the Navy at the outset of the Second World War. During the First World War he was involved in devising methods of signalling for submarines.
, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
, MInstCE and Member of the Vienna Astronomiches Verein. Forbes was elected a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers
and received an honorary LLD from St Andrews
.
The University of Strathclyde
honoured his memory in 1987 by naming a new student hall of residence after him.
on 22 October 1936.
George Forbes was described in his obituaries as a man with a ‘stern code of honour’ who ‘thought much of his work and little of his reward’. A friend, the engineer Samuel Mavor, was more effusive: for him, Forbes ‘was the best type of Scottish gentleman, of tall and handsome appearance... he had a singularly attractive personality, fine character, a brilliant intellect and the manners of a courtier.’
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, explorer, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and inventor, some of whose inventions are still in use.
Early life
Born in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
in 1849, Forbes was the second son of James David Forbes and Alicia Wauchope. His father was later Principal of St Andrews University. Forbes was educated at Edinburgh Academy, the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
, Christ’s College
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...
and St Catharine’s College
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
Cambridge University.
Career
In 1872 he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at Anderson's University, Glasgow, (the nucleus of the University of StrathclydeUniversity of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...
). In his lectures he advocated using electricity to power transportation. His main work at this time, however, was research into the velocity of light.
Arguably his most important work was as a supervising engineer for several pioneering hydroelectric schemes. From 1891 to 1895, Forbes was consulting engineer on the Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...
hydroelectric scheme. He also advised on other schemes, in India (1893), South Africa (1895), New Zealand (1896) and Egypt (1898).
In 1880 Forbes resigned from Anderson's University and moved to London. For the next two decades he devoted himself to electrical power engineering. Commissioned to report on how the City and South London Railway should be powered, he recommended electricity. Soon the entire London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
would follow his advice. In 1881 he served as a juror at the Paris Exposition Internationale d'Electricite
International Exposition of Electricity, Paris
The first International Exposition of Electricity in Paris ran from August 15, 1881 through to November 15, 1881 at the Palais de l'Industrie on the Champs-Elysees. It served to display the advances in electrical technology since the small electrical display at the 1878 Universal Exposition...
. He was subsequently admitted to the French Legion of Honour.
In 1906 he built a home near Pitlochry
Pitlochry
Pitlochry , is a burgh in the council area of Perth and Kinross, Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. Its population according to the 2001 census was 2,564....
to house his library. Forbes' family had frequently holidayed in Pitlochry and his father had befriended the Butters - the area’s main landowners - who initially leased and eventually sold Forbes the land on which his house stood. This house, which he called The Shed was a large wooden structure with an observatory on the upper storey. It overlooks the valley that in the 1950s would be flooded to create Loch Faskally
Loch Faskally
Loch Faskally is a man-made reservoir in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, northwest of Pitlochry.The loch lies between steeply wooded hills and is approximately in length, narrowing to around wide...
and the hydroelectric scheme Forbes had proposed in the early 1900s. In Pitlochry he returned to an earlier interest, from 1906 to 1930 delivering the David Elder lectures on Astronomy at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
.
Astronomy Expeditions and Explorations
Forbes led the British party to observe the Transit of Venus from Hawaii in 1874. He returned to Scotland via Peking and St Petersburg, crossing the Gobi desert and Siberia in 1875. Nearly 25 years later Forbes wrote up his overland odyssey - it was a journey that few seasoned western explorers had made, much less lone travellers in their mid-20s. With contacts made on this journey, Forbes was able to become the only British war correspondentWar correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
with the Russian army in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, reporting for The Times. He received the Russian Order of St George for this work.
He wrote and lectured widely about astronomy for professional and popular audiences. He predicted the existence of a trans-Neptunian planet fifty years before the discovery of Pluto.
Inventions
In 1882, Forbes became manager of the British Electric Light Company, manufacturers of carbon filaments and arc lamps. He experimented with using carbon for the brushes in electric motors, rather than wire or gauze and in 1885 took out a patent for the Improved Means for Establishing Electric Connection between Surfaces in Relative Motion Applicable to the Collectors of Dynamo Machines. This advocated carbon as a current collector for rotating electrical machines. The inventionInvention
An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
would prove outstandingly successful and it is in universal use in electricity generation to this day. He could have become a rich man with such an innovation but he sold his American patent rights to Westinghouse Electric for £2,000. There is no evidence that he received any UK royalties. In the obituary published in the Proceedings of the Philosophical Society, G L Addenbroke wrote that 'Forbes always referred to this work with much modesty, but there can be no doubt that, he presented to the World an idea of great engineering and commercial value, the importance of which he does not seem to have fully grasped at the time.'
After the turn of the century, Forbes turned to military work, studying techniques of gunnery
Gun
A gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew-served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm like a rifle or pistol,...
. Between 1903 and 1906 working with the Admiralty he developed a rangefinder
Rangefinder
A rangefinder is a device that measures distance from the observer to a target, for the purposes of surveying, determining focus in photography, or accurately aiming a weapon. Some devices use active methods to measure ; others measure distance using trigonometry...
that was still in use by the Navy at the outset of the Second World War. During the First World War he was involved in devising methods of signalling for submarines.
Honours and awards
Forbes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1887. He was also Fellow of the Royal Society of EdinburghRoyal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
Royal Astronomical Society
The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society that began as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to support astronomical research . It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV...
, MInstCE and Member of the Vienna Astronomiches Verein. Forbes was elected a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers
Institution of Electrical Engineers
The Institution of Electrical Engineers was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and Information Technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. The I.E.E...
and received an honorary LLD from St Andrews
St Andrews
St Andrews is a university town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle.St Andrews has a population of 16,680, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
.
The University of Strathclyde
University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...
honoured his memory in 1987 by naming a new student hall of residence after him.
Later Life
Forbes did not marry and, in his last years, became something of a recluse, disillusioned that his obvious talents had earned him neither fame nor fortune. He lived in increasing poverty, though in 1928 friends did successfully petition a variety of organisations for assistance on his behalf. Until close to the end of his life, Pitlochry was his home. Eventually, however, friends insisted that he move south where he could be more easily cared for. He died in an accident at his home in WorthingWorthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
on 22 October 1936.
George Forbes was described in his obituaries as a man with a ‘stern code of honour’ who ‘thought much of his work and little of his reward’. A friend, the engineer Samuel Mavor, was more effusive: for him, Forbes ‘was the best type of Scottish gentleman, of tall and handsome appearance... he had a singularly attractive personality, fine character, a brilliant intellect and the manners of a courtier.’