Gerrit Moll
Gerard "Gerrit" Moll LLD (1785–1838) was a Dutch scientist and mathematician. A polymath in his interests, he published in four languages.[1]
Life
From a family background in Amsterdam of commerce, Moll was drawn towards science.[2] His teacher at the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam was Jean Henri van Swinden. He took up astronomy with Jan Frederik Keijser in 1801.[3] In 1809 he was awarded a Candidaat degree by Leiden University;[4][5] and in 1810 he went to Paris, where he studied under Delambre.[4][6] Moll is noted for his later animus against "Napoleonic science", the tradition of the revolutionary period in France.[7]
In 1812 Moll was appointed director at Utrecht Observatory, a position he then held for 26 years; and in 1815 professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Utrecht, receiving an honorary Ph.D. (under Johannes Theodorus Rossijn).[4][5] He became member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands in 1815.[8]
During the "declinist" controversy in British science around 1830, Moll spoke in praise of the British tradition, against the trend of increasing professionalisation.[9] A friend of Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday, he wrote a pamphlet On The Alleged Decline of Science in England (1831), which Faraday edited, in reply to Charles Babbage's On The Alleged Decline of Science in England (1830).[10] In relation to claims that French scientists had tried to diminish the impact of Davy's work, Moll relayed unfounded allegations to Faraday.[11]
Moll died of typhoid on 17 January 1838.[2]
Works
Moll developed the electromagnet of William Sturgeon, publishing with priority over Joseph Henry.[12]
Notes
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- ↑ Robert Fox, Scientific Enterprise and the Patronage of Research in France 1800–70, Minerva Vol. 11, No. 4 (October 1973), pp. 442–473, p. 445 note 16. Published by: Springer. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41820168
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- ↑ Joseph Agassi, An Unpublished Paper of the Young Faraday, Isis Vol. 52, No. 1 (Mar., 1961), pp. 87-90, at p. 87. Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/228343
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