James Ferguson (Scottish astronomer)

[3] His taste for mechanics was about this time accidentally awakened on seeing his father making use of a lever to raise a part of the roof of his house — an exhibition of strength which excited his wonder.

[2] In 1734 he went to Edinburgh, where he began to make portraits in miniature, by which means, while engaged in his scientific studies, he supported himself and his family for many years.

Subsequently, he settled at Inverness, where he drew up his Astronomical Rotula for showing the motions of the planets, places of the sun and moon, &c., and in 1743 went to London, England, which was his home for the rest of his life.

[6][better source needed] In 1748, Ferguson began to give public lectures on experimental philosophy, which he repeated in most of the principal towns in England.

[2] As the inventor and improver of astronomical and other scientific apparatus, and as a striking instance of self education, he claims a place among the most remarkable Scottish scientists.

[9] The German experimental physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg admired Ferguson: "Everything was done by experiments – he had not even chalk and sponge.