Robert Barker (died 1745) was a British physician and inventor. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society from 1732.
Barker invented both a reflecting microscope, exhibited in 1736, and "Barker's mill", a prototype reaction turbine (1743). According to James Dodson, he was a friend of Charles Labelye. He died in London, on 9 September 1745.
Barker's Mill
Barker's Mill, a rotating device powered by water and Newton's Third Law, is sometimes described as a 17th-century invention. It is attributed to Dr Robert Barker F.R.S., in 1743. It was published by John Theophilus Desaguliers in his book Experimental Philosophy of 1744. Desaguliers, who himself demonstrated the mill to the Royal Society, attributed the principle involved to Antoine Parent. French terms for the mill are tourniquet hydraulique, moulin de Parent or roue à réaction.
A complex timeline of development ensued.
- As the Segner wheel, practical application of the idea is often credited to Johann Andreas Segner (1750).
- Leonhard Euler with the Euler wheel of 1754 developed Segner's concept.
- James Ferguson the lecturer notices in 1767 "a model of Dr. Barker's water mill".
- c.1790 James Rumsey had an "improvement upon Dr. Barker’s mill: a mode to allow circular or retrograde motion mills with a smaller quantity of water to be moved or turned".
- 1827 water turbine of Benoît Fourneyron.
- In 1839 James Whitelaw and James Stirrat of Paisley obtained a patent for a water turbine based on "Barker's Mill".
Notes
- "Royal Society Fellow details Barker; Robert (- 1745)". Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- Ratcliff, Marc J. (24 February 2016). The Quest for the Invisible: Microscopy in the Enlightenment. Routledge. p. 30. ISBN 9781317018407. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- ^ Dickinson, Henry Winram (17 February 2011). A Short History of the Steam Engine. Cambridge University Press. p. 187. ISBN 9781108012287. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- Dodson, James (1742). The Anti-logarithmic Canon: Being a Table of Numbers, Consisting of Eleven Places of Figures, Corresponding to All Logarithms Under 100000 ... With Precepts and Examples ... To which is Prefix'd, an Introduction, Containing a Short Account of Logarithms ... J. Dodson and J. Wilcox. p. x. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- Hawkins, Edward, Herbert Appold Grueber (1885). "Medallic illustrations of the history of Great Britain and Ireland to the death of George II". Internet Archive. London: British Museum. p. 588. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Barker's Mill" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Project Technology, Schools Council (Great Britain) (1975). Industrial Archaeology of Watermills & Waterpower. Heinemann Educational Books. p. 85. ISBN 9780435759100. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- Musson, Albert Edward; Robinson, Eric (1989). Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution. Taylor & Francis. p. 45. ISBN 9782881243820. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- ^ Viollet, Pierre-Louis (2005). Histoire de l'énergie hydraulique: moulins, pompes, roues et turbines de l'Antiquité au XXe siècle (in French). Presses des Ponts. p. 139. ISBN 9782859784140. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- Recueil de la Société polytechnique: ou Recueil industriel, manufacturier, agricole et commercial, de la salubrité publique, et des actes de l'administration propres à encourager les diverses branches de l'économie publique. Société polytechnique. 1828. p. 119.
- Ferguson, James; Henderson, Ebenezer (1867). Life of James Ferguson, F. R. S.: In a Brief Autobiographical Account, and Further Extended Memoir. A. Fullarton. p. 154. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- "Rumsey Exhibit – 3-4 – the Museum of the Berkeley Springs". Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- Hall, A. Rupert; Smith, Norman (30 September 2016). History of Technology. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 9781350017382. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- "Whitelaw and Stirrat, Grace's Guide". Retrieved 8 August 2018.