Samuel Hunter Christie (22 March 1784 – 24 January 1865) was a British scientist and mathematician.
He studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was second wrangler. He was particularly interested in magnetism, studying the earth's magnetic field and designing improvements to the magnetic compass. Some of his magnetic research was done in collaboration with Peter Barlow. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1826, delivered their Bakerian Lecture in 1833 and served as their Secretary from 1837 to 1853. In 1833 he published his 'diamond' method, the forerunner of the Wheatstone bridge, in a paper on the magnetic and electrical properties of metals, as a method for comparing the resistances of wires of different thicknesses. However, the method went unrecognised until 1843, when Charles Wheatstone proposed it, in another paper for the Royal Society, for measuring resistance in electrical circuits. Although Wheatstone presented it as Christie's invention, it is his name, rather than Christie's, that is now associated with the device.
Christie taught mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich from 1838 until his retirement in 1854. A portrait photograph of Christie in 1865 by Ernest Edwards is held by the National Portrait Gallery. He had ten children (five with each wife), of which eight survived him. His eldest son was the astronomer William Henry Mahoney Christie (1845–1922).
Samuel Christie is the son of one James Christie, although this was almost certainly not the auctioneer James Christie (founder of the great auction house). Instead he was probably the son of a James Christie who in 1821 described himself as a tailor, late of Leicester Square but then of Newman Street, and who died in 1825 aged eighty-six. Because they had the same name, some confusion has arisen between the two James Christie's and many websites incorrectly state that he was the son of the auctioneer. But, as the latter occupied a house in Pall Mall from 1768 until 1803, and died in that year, it seems certain that the James Christie who lived in Leicester Square was not the auctioneer.
Read more about Samuel Hunter Christie: Marriages
Famous quotes containing the words samuel, hunter and/or christie:
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 5:5.
The third of the Beatitudes, from the Sermon on the Mount. The words recall those in Proverbs 37:11, “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” In his Notebooks, the author Samuel Butler wrote, “I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.” (Samuel Butler’s Notebooks, p. 220, 1951)
“I don’t see black people as victims even though we are exploited. Victims are flat, one- dimensional characters, someone rolled over by a steamroller so you have a cardboard person. We are far more resilient and more rounded than that. I will go on showing there’s more to us than our being victimized. Victims are dead.”
—Kristin Hunter (b. 1931)
“An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.”
—Agatha Christie (1891–1976)