Gerrit Moll

Gerrit Moll (left) shakes hands with John Dalton

Gerard Moll, called Gerrit Moll (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.^[6][4] 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).^[5][4] 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]

Mol; died of typhoid on 17 January 1838.^[2]

Works

Moll developed the electromagnet of William Sturgeon, publishing with priority over Joseph Henry.^[12]

Notes

1. Lewis Pyenson (1989). Empire of Reason: Exact Sciences in Indonesia, 1840-1940. BRILL. p. 21. ISBN 90-04-08984-5.
2. Klaas Van Berkel; Albert Van Helden; L. C. Palm (1999). The History of Science in the Netherlands: Survey, Themes and Reference. BRILL. p. 531. ISBN 90-04-10006-7.
3. Huibert J. Zuidervaart; Rob H. van Gent (2013). Between Rhetoric and Reality: Instrumental Practices at the Astronomical Observatory of the Amsterdam Society 'Felix Meritis', 1786-1889. Uitgeverij Verloren. p. 84. ISBN 978-90-8704-363-6.
4. Pieter C. van der Kruit (18 November 2014). Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn: Born Investigator of the Heavens. Springer. p. 29. ISBN 978-3-319-10876-6.
5. "Moll, Gerard - Springer". The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers 2007. p. 794. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
6. Huibert J. Zuidervaart; Rob H. van Gent (2013). Between Rhetoric and Reality: Instrumental Practices at the Astronomical Observatory of the Amsterdam Society 'Felix Meritis', 1786-1889. Uitgeverij Verloren. p. 150. ISBN 978-90-8704-363-6.
7. 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: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41820168
8. "Gerard (Gerrit) Moll (1785 - 1838)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
9. Richard Yeo (18 September 2003). Defining Science: William Whewell, Natural Knowledge and Public Debate in Early Victorian Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-521-54116-9.
10. 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: http://www.jstor.org/stable/228343
11. David Knight; David M. Knight (1975). Sources for the History of Science, 1660-1914. CUP Archive. p. 85. GGKEY:07DR2AJ2N9B.
12. Maury Klein (1 September 2010). The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-59691-834-4.