Thomas Pigot (academic)

Thomas Pigot (Pigott, Piggott) (1657–1686) was an English cleric, academic and Fellow of the Royal Society. He is known for work in acoustics, and as a committee member for the Society's universal language project.

Life

He was born in Brindle, Lancashire. He graduated B.A. (1676) at Wadham College, Oxford, becoming Fellow there in 1677, and graduating M.A. in 1678. He was presented to the living of Yarnton in 1681, and was appointed chaplain by James Butler, Earl of Ossory. He died in Ossory's house.[1][2]

Works

Pigot as an undergraduate did research work on acoustics: it revealed the way in which the vibrating string could have stationary nodes. The discoveries (1674) may have been jointly made, with William Noble of Merton College, and the project is thought by some to have been supervised by John Wallis;[3] in any case Wallis wrote up the results for publication (1677).[4] It followed on from earlier work of Francis North, written up in his essay also published in 1677.[5] The nodal points and the related discoveries on sympathetic resonance and the harmonic series were incorporated in the textbook by Wallis, De algebra, in 1693.[6] The resulting theory did not, however, amount to an account of overtones in the modern sense: the connection between vibration in "aliquot parts", and the higher harmonics, was not clarified in this period.[7] Research was taken further by Joseph Sauveur.[8]

Pigot was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1679,[1] and took part in the committee discussions on linguistics. He may have been involved in these debates already by 1678, on John Aubrey's account.[9] John Wilkins, an influential figure in the Society's founding, had died in 1672, and the project of his An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (1668) was a legacy taken up by Fellows.[10] Debate had started in earnest in 1676, over whether the taxonomic scheme of Wilkins for a universal language could be implemented effectively;[11] committee members included Aubrey, Robert Hooke, Francis Lodwick, John Ray, and Andrew Paschall.[9] Pigot was one of those who remained sceptical about progress on a universal language.[11] But he took part in testing its potential, for example when he joined Paschall and Richard Towneley in making translations of the design by Hooke of a watch mechanism, back from Hooke's "real character" version.[12]

Pigot reported an Oxford earthquake of 1683 in the Philosophical Transactions.[13]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Royal Society record, Thomas Pigot.
  2. ↑ Mary Helen Alicia Dolman Stapleton, Three Oxfordshire Parishes; a history of Kidlington, Yarnton and Begbroke (1893), pp. 225–6;archive.org.
  3. ↑ Norman Davy (editor), British Scientific Literature (1953), p. 56; archive.org.
  4. ↑ Arthur Schuster, Arthur Everett Shipley, Britain's Heritage of Science (1917), p. 50;archive.org.
  5. ↑ Jamie Croy Kassler; Baron Francis North Guilford (June 2004). The beginnings of the modern philosophy of music in England: Francis North's A philosophical essay of musick (1677) with comments of Isaac Newton, Roger North and in the Philosophical transactions. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 69–. ISBN 978-0-7546-0139-5. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  6. ↑ David Damschroder; David Russell Williams (1990). Music theory from Zarlino to Schenker: a bibliography and guide. Pendragon Press. p. 374. ISBN 978-0-918728-99-9. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  7. ↑ Thomas Street Christensen (16 December 2004). Rameau And Musical Thought In The Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-521-61709-3. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  8. ↑ Katharine Park; Lorraine Daston (3 July 2006). The Cambridge History of Science: Early modern science. Cambridge University Press. p. 609 note 29. ISBN 978-0-521-57244-6. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  9. 1 2 Joseph L. Subbiondo (1992). John Wilkins and 17th-century British linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 351. ISBN 978-90-272-4554-0. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  10. ↑ Barbara J. Shapiro (1969). John Wilkins 1614-1672. University of California Press. p. 220. GGKEY:BA7AHU7B3TC. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  11. 1 2 Julie Robin Solomon; Catherine Gimelli Martin (2005). Francis Bacon and the refiguring of early modern thought: essays to commemorate The advancement of learning (1605-2005). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-7546-5359-2. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  12. ↑ William Lynch (2001). Solomon's child: method in the early Royal Society of London. Stanford University Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-8047-3291-8. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  13. ↑ William Poole (1 June 2009). The World Makers: Scientists of the Restoration and the Search for the Origins of the Earth. Peter Lang. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-906165-08-6. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
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