Petty, Sir William

SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

[br]

b. 26 May 1623 Romsey, Hampshire, England

d. 16 December 1687 London, England

[br]

English scientist, medical practitioner, researcher and founder member of the Royal Society of London.

[br]

Despite coming from modest circumstances, Petty had an illustrious career, which started with college in France at the age of 13, followed by service on a small coastal ship and then studies at the medical schools of Ley den and Paris. In 1651 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Oxford, and by this time was attending meetings of fellow scientists and philosophers which culminated in the founding of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. In 1652 Petty was sent to Ireland as PhysicianGeneral for the Army; he was soon involved in many matters of an intellectual and experimental nature. He took responsibility for the first proper survey of the country and produced maps and an Irish atlas, Hiberniae Delineatio, published in 1685. His investigations into political economics had a profound effect on seventeenth-century thinking. Of equal importance were his radical proposals for ship design; he presented many papers on naval architecture to the Royal Society and at one time suggested floating harbours similar to the Mulberry harbours of nearly three centuries later. In 1662 he built the pioneer catamaran Invention II (described at the time as a double-bottomed ship!), which was capable of lifting 5 tons of cargo.

[br]

Principal Honours and Distinctions

Knighted 1661.

Further Reading

P.G.Dale, 1987, Sir W.P. of Romsey, Romsey: LTVAS Group.

FMW