Papers relating to James Bowman Lindsay

Chinese-English dictionary, compiled by James Bowman Lindsay c.1830; "James Bowman Lindsay, Scientist and Philologer and other Pioneers of Invention" by A.H. Millar, c.1922; article from the [Portsmouth] Evening News re. Lindsay's experiments with transmarine telegraphy 1963

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Millar, Alexander H, James Bowman Lindsay;
James Bowman Lindsay was born in 1799 at Carmyllie. As a child he was trained as a handloom weaver, but he educated himself at the same time. Recognising his potential, his parents saved up to send him to college and in 1821 he matriculated at St. Andrew's University. He was appointed Lecturer in Science and Mathematics at the Watt Institution in Dundee in 1829. From 1841 he taught at Dundee Prison, but resigned in 1858 after being granted an annual pension of £100 by the Prime Minister 'in recognition of his great learning and extraordinary attainments'. He died in 1862. Lindsey had many interests, including philology, astronomy, mathematics and science. He conducted much research into electricity and wireless telegraphy, particularly 'transmarine telegraphy' by which the electric current was transmitted through and across water. From 1828 to his death he also worked on his Pentecontaglossal Dictionary, a dictionary of synonyms in 107 languages, and in 1858 he published his 'Chrono-Astrolabe', a set of astronomical tables intended to assist in fixing historical dates.

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Description compiled by Kenneth Baxter

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James Bowman Lindsay's Pentecontaglossal Dictionary is deposited at Dundee Central Library

Published

Catalogued

MS 123