John William Strutt was born on 12 November 1842 in Langford Grove. An English physicist, known as Lord Rayleigh, Strutt made major contributions to the study of waves, sound and optics. He explained why the sky is blue, through Rayleigh scattering, and wrote the influential treatise The Theory of Sound. With William Ramsay he discovered the inert gas argon, after noticing a discrepancy between the density of nitrogen from air and from chemical sources, and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904. He also served as Cavendish Professor at Cambridge and as president of the Royal Society. He later served as chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
Before and after
- 11 January 1842Birth of William James
- 9 March 1842Premiere of Nabucco
- 29 August 1842Treaty of Nanjing
- 21 September 1842Birth of Abdul Hamid II
- 12 November 1842Birth of John William Strutt
- 27 November 1842Birth of Peter Kropotkin
- 1843Launch of The Economist
- 1843Discovery of terbium
- 1843Discovery of erbium
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.