Young, THOMAS

Young, THOMAS, physicist, was born of Quaker parents at Milverton, Somersetshire, June 13, 1773, studied medicine at London, Edinburgh, Göttingen, and Cambridge, and started as doctor in London in 1800, but soon devoted himself to scientific research, and in 1801 became professor of Natural Philosophy to the Royal Institution. His Course of Lectures (1807) expounded the doctrine of Interference (q.v.), which established the undulatory theory of Light (q.v.). He was secretary to the Royal Society and to the Board of Longitudes, and did valuable work in insurance, hæmodynamics, and Egyptology (see HIEROGLYPHICS). He died May 10, 1829. See his Life by Peacock (1855).