| 词条 | Henry Dircks |
| 释义 |
|image = |image_size = |alt = |caption = |name = Henry Dircks |native_name = |native_name_lang = |nationality = English |citizenship = |birth_name = |birth_date = {{Birth date|1806|08|26|df=y}} |birth_place = Liverpool, England |death_date = {{Death date and age|1873|09|17|1806|08|26|df=y}} |death_place = Brighton, England |resting_place = |resting_place_coordinates = |education = |spouse = |parents = |children = |discipline = |institutions = |practice_name = |employer = |significant_projects = Perpetual motion |significant_design = Pepper's ghost |significant_advance = |significant_awards = |signature = }} Henry Dircks FRSE FCS (26 August 1806 – 17 September 1873) was an English engineer who is considered to have been the main designer of the projection technique known as Pepper's ghost in 1858. It is named after John Henry Pepper who implemented a working version of the device in 1862. Dircks also investigated attempts at the invention of a perpetual motion device, writing that those who sought to create such a thing were "half-learned" or "totally ignorant". Life and careerDircks was born in Liverpool on 26 August 1806. He was apprenticed to a mercantile firm and spent much of his free time studying practical mechanics, chemistry, and literature. Around the mid-1820s he began lecturing about chemistry and electricity while writing literary articles in the local press and scientific papers in the Mechanics' Magazine and other journals. In 1837 he became a life member of the British Association, and afterwards contributed papers to its proceedings. Two years later he wrote a pamphlet regarding a proposed union of mechanics' and literary institutions. He also wrote a short treatise entitled "Popular Education, a series of Papers on the Nature, Objects, and Advantages of Mechanics' Institutions", first printed in Liverpool in 1840.[1] He became a practical engineer, conducting railway, canal, and mining works, before progressing to the role of consulting engineer. He continued to investigate technologies and invent new devices, taking out several patents between 1840 and 1857.[1] Dircks joined the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and other scientific bodies. In 1867 he was elected a full Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being William John Macquorn Rankine.[2] In 1868 he was given an honorary degree (LL.D.) from Tusculum College in Tennessee.[1] Dircks died in Brighton on 17 September 1873.[1] Books
Pepper's ghost{{main|Pepper's ghost}}Spiritualists and phantasmagoria performers plied their trade by attempting to convince audiences that they were able to contact the dead. To add weight to their claims they would use various projection techniques, particularly magic lanterns, that would seemingly make a ghost appear. Dircks was frustrated by such trickery and developed a better technique that could help dispel the simpler methods. He saw this as a triumph of enlightenment over superstition and hoped that the scientific explanations would educate people enough to keep them away from such charlatans.[3]Dircks developed a way of projecting an actor onto a stage using a hidden room, a sheet of glass, and a clever use of lighting, calling the technique "Dircksian Phantasmagoria". The actor would then have an ethereal, ghost-like appearance while seemingly able to perform alongside other actors.[3] Dircks is believed to have described this invention to the British Association in 1858.[1] The unwieldy implementation of his system meant that theatres would need to be entirely rebuilt to accommodate the technique and some refinements would therefore be needed if it were to be adopted on a wide scale.[3] Popular science lecturer John Henry Pepper saw the concept and replicated it on a larger scale,[4] taking out a joint patent with Dircks. Pepper debuted his creation with a Christmas Eve production of the Charles Dickens play The Haunted Man in 1862 and Dircks signed over all financial rights to Pepper.[5] Some reports have suggested that, at the time, Pepper claimed to have developed the technique after reading the 1831 book Recreative Memoirs by famed showman Étienne-Gaspard Robert.[6] Either way, the effect became known as "Pepper's ghost" and this name was used by those who replicated the technique. Because of this Dircks became increasingly convinced that his invention had been stolen from him, believing that a conspiracy had been perpetrated against him at first by the Polytechnic and then latterly by the newspapers and advertisers who omitted his name.[3] Dircks' original plan to give rational explanations to dispel the popular appetite for spiritualism was certainly helped by Pepper.[5] Further, Pepper's ghost has been hailed as a key development in stage magic and "the cornerstone upon which much subsequent magic was founded".[7] In one of his later books Pepper would insist that Dircks should have a share of the credit, and though the technique is still today named after the man who popularised it Dircks is hailed as the originator of the invention.[4][7] The pair's involvement in the development of Pepper's ghost was summarised in an 1863 article from The Spectator: This admirable ghost is the offspring of two fathers, of a learned member of the Society of Civil Engineers, Henry Dircks, Esq., and of Professor Pepper, of the Polytechnic. To Mr. Dircks belongs the honour of having invented him, or as the disciplines of Hegel would express it, evolved him from out of the depths of his own consciousness; and Professor Pepper has the merit of having improved him considerably, fitting him for the intercourse of mundane society, and even educating him for the stage.[3][8] Perpetual motionDircks had an interest in the search for a perpetual motion machine. His book Perpetuum mobile; or, Search for self-motive power, published in 1861, examined many attempts at creating such a device,[9] and has since been cited by other science writers on the subject.[10] Dircks summarised the ongoing efforts of inventors: A more self-willed, self-satisfied, or self-deluded class of the community, making at the same time pretension to superior knowledge, it would be impossible to imagine. They hope against hope, scorning all opposition with ridiculous vehemence, although centuries have not advanced them one step in the way of progress. and: There is something lamentable, degrading, and almost insane in pursuing the visionary schemes of past ages with dogged determination, in paths of learning which have been investigated by superior minds, and with which such adventurous persons are totally unacquainted. The history of Perpetual Motion is a history of the fool-hardiness of either half-learned, or totally ignorant persons.[11] References1. ^1 2 3 4 {{cite DNB|wstitle=Dircks, Henry|last=Sutton|first=Charles William|volume=15|accessdate=20 August 2012}} 2. ^{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0 902 198 84 X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf}} 3. ^1 2 3 4 {{cite book|title=Scare Quotes from Shakespeare: Marx, Keynes, and the Language of Reenchantment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWGzfQ5caI4C&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27|first=Martin|last=Harries|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-3621-3|date=1 September 2000|accessdate=20 August 2012|pages=27–40}} 4. ^1 {{cite web|url=http://www.precinemahistory.net/1860.htm|title=The History of the Discovery of Cinematography|publisher=precinemahistory.net|first=Paul|last=Burns|accessdate=15 August 2012}} 5. ^1 {{cite web|url=http://www.sciencemag.org/content/297/5587/1648.full|title=Quick and Magical Shaper of Science|publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science|work=Science|date=6 September 2002|first=J. A.|last=Secord|accessdate=15 August 2012}} 6. ^{{cite web|url=http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ:210118/s00855804_1974_1975_9_6_116.pdf|title=John H. Pepper – Analyst and Rainmaker|publisher=Queensland Institute of Technology|first=R. F.|last=Cane|date=28 August 1975|accessdate=15 August 2012}} 7. ^1 {{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3627163/Smoke-and-mirrors.html|title=Smoke and Mirrors|publisher=Telegraph Media Group Limited|work=The Telegraph|first=John|last=Preston|date=9 November 2004|accessdate=20 August 2012}} 8. ^{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8819348|title=The Patent Ghost|publisher=The Mercury|date=21 July 1863|accessdate=19 August 2012}} 9. ^{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/perpetuummobile01dircgoog|title=Perpetuum mobile; or, Search for self-motive power (1861)|publisher=Archive.org|accessdate=17 August 2012}} 10. ^{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/foiblesandfallac029520mbp/foiblesandfallac029520mbp_djvu.txt|title=Foibles and fallacies of science|first=Daniel|last=Hering|year=1924|accessdate=17 August 2012}} 11. ^{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lEWF9o2Ba4kC&pg=PA1|title=Perpetuum Mobile: Or, A History of the Search for Self-motive|first=Henry|last=Dircks|page=354|year=1861|accessdate=17 August 2012}} External links
6 : 1806 births|1873 deaths|People from Liverpool|English engineers|Fellows of the Chemical Society|Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |
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