Chambers, EPHRAIM

Chambers, EPHRAIM, an amiable but frugal and free-thinking encyclopædist, was born about 1680 at Kendal, and began life as an apprentice to a globe-maker in London, where he conceived the idea of a cyclopædia that should surpass Harris's Lexicon Technicum (1704). It appeared in 2 folio vols. in 1728, and reached a 6th edition in 1750, Chambers having died meanwhile on 15th May 1740. A French translation gave rise to the more famous Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert; itself expanded into Rees's Encyclopædia. Dr Johnson told Boswell that he had partly formed his style upon Chambers's Proposal for his Dictionary. See ENCYCLOPÆDIA.