26 Facts About David Brewster

Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE was a Scottish scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator.

David Brewster studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity, thereby creating the field of optical mineralogy.

David Brewster invented an improved stereoscope, which he called "lenticular stereoscope" and which became the first portable 3D-viewing device.

David Brewster invented the stereoscopic camera, two types of polarimeters, the polyzonal lens, the lighthouse illuminator, and the kaleidoscope.

David Brewster was a devout Presbyterian and marched arm-in-arm with his brother during the events of the Disruption of 1843, which led to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland.

David Brewster published a detailed biography of Newton in 1831 and later became the first scientific historian to examine many of the papers in Newton's Nachlass.

David Brewster wrote numerous works of popular science, and was one of the founders of the British Science Association, of which he was elected president in 1849.

David Brewster became the public face of higher education in Scotland, serving as Principal of the University of St Andrews and later of the University of Edinburgh.

David Brewster was the third of six children, two daughters and four sons: James, minister at Craig, Ferryden; David Brewster; George, minister at Scoonie, Fife; and Patrick, minister at the abbey church, Paisley.

At the age of 12, David Brewster matriculated at the University of Edinburgh with the intention of becoming a clergyman.

David Brewster received his MA in 1800, was licensed as a minister of the Church of Scotland, and then preached around Edinburgh on several occasions.

David Brewster is buried in the grounds of Melrose Abbey, in Roxburghshire.

David Brewster chose renowned achromatic lens developer Philip Carpenter as the sole manufacturer of the kaleidoscope in 1817.

David Brewster pressed its adoption on those in authority at least as early as 1820, two years before Fresnel suggested it, and it was finally introduced into lighthouses mainly through David Brewster's persistent efforts.

David Brewster was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1816.

In 1819 David Brewster undertook further editorial work by establishing, in conjunction with Robert Jameson, the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, which took the place of the Edinburgh Magazine.

David Brewster contributed around three hundred papers to the transactions of various learned societies, and few of his contemporaries wrote as much for the various reviews.

David Brewster was a close friend of William Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of the calotype process, who sent Brewster early examples of his work.

David Brewster was a prominent member of the club until its dissolution sometime in the mid-1850s; however, his interest in photography continued, and he was elected the first President of the Photographic Society of Scotland when it was founded in 1856.

David Brewster was a man of highly honourable and fervently religious character.

David Brewster's method was empirical, and the laws that he established were generally the result of repeated experiment.

David Brewster stated that Darwin's book combined both "interesting facts and idle fancies" which made up a "dangerous and degrading speculation".

Lady David Brewster famously fainted at the Oxford evolution debate of 30 June 1860.

David Brewster died in 1868, and was buried at Melrose Abbey, next to his first wife and second son.

David Brewster appears as a minor antagonist in the 2015 video game Assassin's Creed Syndicate as a scientist working for the game's opposing faction.

David Brewster is assassinated by one of the protagonists, Evie Frye.