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Davies Gilbert
(6 Mar 1767 - 24 Dec 1839)
English engineer and author who was President of the Royal Society (1827-30). In this position, he followed Sir Humphry Davy (1820-1827), whose scientific career he had advanced many years earlier by introducing him to Dr. Thomas Beddoes.
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Science Quotes by Davies Gilbert (1 quote)
The poetic beauty of Davy's mind never seems to have left him. To that circumstance I would ascribe the distinguishing feature in his character, and in his discoveries,—a vivid imagination sketching out new tracts in regions unexplored, for the judgement to select those leading to the recesses of abstract truth.
— Davies Gilbert
Presidential Address to the Royal Society on Davy's Death, 1829. Quoted in J. Davy, Fragmentary Remains of Sir Humphry Davy (1858), 314.
See also:
- 6 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Gilbert's birth.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
