25 Facts About Andrew Crosse

Andrew Crosse was a British scientist who was born and died at Fyne Court, Broomfield, Somerset.

Andrew Crosse became known after press reports of an electrocrystallization experiment he conducted in 1836, during which insects "appeared".

Andrew Crosse was the first son of Richard Andrew Crosse and Susannah Porter.

Around the age of 12, Andrew Crosse persuaded one of his teachers to let him attend a series of lectures on the natural sciences, the second of which was on the subject of electricity.

Andrew Crosse first began experimenting with electricity during his time in the sixth form, when he built a Leyden jar.

Andrew Crosse studied mineralogy and became interested in the formation of crystalline deposits in caves.

Andrew Crosse returned to the subject again from around 1817 and in subsequent years produced a total of 24 electrocrystallised minerals.

Andrew Crosse's results were published by his friend George Singer in 1814, as part of Singer's Elements of Electricity and Electro-Chemistry.

Andrew Crosse became known locally as "the thunder and lightning man".

In 1836, Andrew Crosse was persuaded to attend a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Bristol.

Andrew Crosse went on to separate copper from its ores using electrolysis, experimented with the electrolysis of sea water, wine and brandy to purify them, and examined the effects of electricity on vegetation.

Andrew Crosse was interested in the practical uses of electricity and magnetism, including the development of loudspeakers and telegraphy although he did not do research in these areas himself.

Andrew Crosse identified them as being members of the genus Acarus.

Puzzled, Andrew Crosse mentioned the incident to a couple of friends.

Some readers apparently gained the impression that Andrew Crosse had somehow "created" the insects, or at least claimed to have done so.

Andrew Crosse received angry letters in which he was accused of blasphemy and trying to take God's place as a creator.

Andrew Crosse obtained the same results as Crosse, but due to the controversy that Crosse's experiment had sparked his work was never published.

Andrew Crosse did not claim that he had created the insects.

Andrew Crosse assumed that there were insect eggs embedded in his samples.

Andrew Crosse wrote a great many poems and enjoyed walking on the Quantock Hills, in which Fyne Court is set, "at all hours of day and night, in all seasons".

Andrew Crosse advocated the benefits of education for the lower classes, argued against emigration, and supported a campaign by local farmers against falling food prices and high taxes during the 1820s.

Andrew Crosse was active in party politics, speaking in support of friends at election meetings.

Andrew Crosse suffered a stroke while dressing on the morning on 26 May 1855.

Andrew Crosse died on 6 July 1855, in the same room in which he had been born.

The Italian writer Dacia Maraini is his great-great-granddaughter, the socialite Cornelia Edith "Yoi" Andrew Crosse being his granddaughter and her grandmother.