John Theophilus Desaguliers FRS (12 March 1683 – 29 February 1744) was a French-born British natural philosopher, clergyman, engineer and freemason who was elected to the Royal Society in 1714 as experimental assistant to Isaac Newton.
His son, who now used the anglicised name John Theophilus, attended Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield[3] until 1705 when he entered Christ Church, Oxford and followed the usual classical curriculum and graduated BA in 1709.
He kept his lectures up to date, published notes for his auditors, and designed his own apparatus, including a renowned planetarium to demonstrate the solar system, and a machine to explain tidal motion.
Desaguliers's "Dissertation concerning Electricity" (1742), in which he coined the terms conductor and insulator, was awarded a gold medal by the Bordeaux Academy of Sciences.
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos appointed Desaguliers as his chaplain in 1716,[9] but probably as much for his scientific expertise as his ecclesiastic duties.
He was also gifted the living of St Lawrence Church, Little Stanmore, which was close to the Duke's mansion called Cannons, then under construction at nearby Edgware.
As the chapel at Cannons was not completed until 1720, the church was the location of first performances of the so-called Chandos Anthems by George Frideric Handel who was, in 1717/18, like Desaguliers, a member of the Duke's household.
[14] This much-needed second crossing of the Thames was not completed until 1750, after his death, but construction work resulted in the demolition of Desaguliers's home in Channel Row.
During a lecture trip to the Netherlands in 1731, Desaguliers initiated into Freemasonry Francis, Duke of Lorraine (1708–65) who later became Holy Roman Emperor.
When forced to leave due to work on Westminster Bridge, they separated and John Theophilus took lodgings at the Bedford Coffee House in Covent Garden and carried on his lectures there.
[19] The Desaguliers had four sons and three daughters,[18] for most of whom they acquired aristocratic godparents, but only two children survived beyond infancy: John Theophilus jnr (1718–1751) graduated from Oxford, became a clergyman, and died childless, while Thomas (1721–1780) had a distinguished military career in the Royal Artillery, rising to the rank of General.
He became chief firemaster at the Arsenal, Woolwich, and seems to have been the first to be employed by the English army to apply scientific principles to the production of cannon and the powers of gunnery, for which he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
[22] He died at his lodgings in the Bedford Coffee House on 29 February 1744 and was buried on 6 March 1744 in a prestigious location within the Savoy Chapel in London.
How he who taught two gracious kings to view All Boyle ennobled, and all Bacon knew, Died in a cell, without a friend to save, Without a guinea, and without a grave.
These are taken from a long poem entitled "The Vanity of Human Enjoyment" (1749) in which the poet attempted to draw attention to the general lack of funding for men of science and not Desaguliers in particular.