Everything about William Hopkins totally explained
William Hopkins FRS (
2 February 1793 –
13 October 1866) was an
English mathematician and
geologist. He is famous as a private tutor of aspiring
undergraduate Cambridge mathematicians, earning him the
sobriquet the
senior-wrangler maker.
He also made important contributions in asserting a solid, rather than fluid, interior for the Earth and explaining many geological phenomena in terms of his model. However, though his conclusions proved to be correct, his mathematical and physical reasoning were subsequently seen as unsound.
Early life
Hopkins was born at
Kingston-on-Soar, in
Nottinghamshire, the only son of William Hopkins, a gentleman
farmer. In his youth he learned practical agriculture in
Norfolk before his father rented him a small farm at
Bury St Edmunds,
Suffolk. However, Hopkins was unsuccessful as a farmer and, when his first wife died sometime around
1821, he took the opportunity to mitigate his losses and enter
St Peter's College (now Peterhouse) at the University of Cambridge, taking his degree of
B.A. in
1827 as seventh
wrangler and
M.A. in
1830.
Wrangler maker
Before graduation, Hopkins had married Caroline Frances Boys (1799–1881) and was, therefore, ineligible for a
fellowship. He instead maintained himself as a private tutor, coaching the young mathematicians who sought the prestigious distinction of
Senior Wrangler. He was enormously successful in the role, earning the
sobriquet senior wrangler maker and grossing £700-800 annually. By
1849, he'd coached almost 200 wranglers, of whom 17 were senior wranglers including
Arthur Cayley and
G. G. Stokes. Among his more famous pupils were
Lord Kelvin,
James Clerk Maxwell and
Isaac Todhunter.
Francis Galton praised his teaching style: In
1833, Hopkins published
Elements of Trigonometry and became distinguished for his mathematical knowledge.
There was a famous story that the theory of
George Green (1793-1841) was almost forgotten. In 1845,
Lord Kelvin (William Thomson, a young man in 1845) got some copies of Green's 1828 short book from William Hopkins. Subsequently,
Lord Kelvin helped to make Green's 1828 work famous according to the book "George Green" written by D.M. Cannell.
Geology
About 1833, through meeting
Adam Sedgwick at
Barmouth and joining him in several excursions, he became intensely interested in
geology. From then on, in papers published by the
Cambridge Philosophical Society and the
Geological Society of London, he defined the discipline of
physical geology, making mathematical investigations dealing with the effects that an elevatory force, acting from below, would produce on a portion of the
Earth's
crust, in fissures and
faults. In this way he discussed the elevation and denudation of the
Lake District, the
Wealden area, and the
Bas Boulonnais.
Hopkins conceived of a largely solid but dynamic Earth threaded with cavities whereby hot
vapours or
fluids could create locally elevatory pressures. Such a model was at odds with the ideas of
Charles Lyell whose theory was of a "steady state" with a largely
liquid terrestrial interior, inside a solid crust no more than 100
miles thick. Hopkins presented a series of papers at the
Royal Society between
1838 and
1842 analysing the
Earth's rotation, including its
precession and
nutation, and using observations to support his theory, contending that they were inconsistent with a fluid interior. He also interpreted
earthquakes and
volcanoes through the same model in an
1847 British Association report.
As part of his investigations, Hopkins sought to quantify the effects of enormous
pressures on the
melting point and
thermal conductivity of various substances. With the support of a grant from the Royal Society, he invoked the assistance of Thomson,
James Prescott Joule and
William Fairbairn to make measurements which he interpreted as supporting his theory. He further asserted that the cooling of the Earth had had no real impact on
climate.
He read a paper to the Geological Society
On the Causes which may have produced changes in the Earth's superficial Temperature (1851).
In his second address as president of the Geological Society of London (1853) he criticized
Elie de Beaumont's theory of the elevation of mountain-chains and the imperfect evidence on which he saw it as resting.
Ultimately, it was Thomson who tactfully pointed out that, though Hopkins's conclusions about the Earth's structure were correct, his mathematical and physical reasoning was unsound.
Glaciology
He wrote also on the motion of
glaciers and the transport of
glacial erratics
but trespassed on the sensitivities of
J. D. Forbes who saw the subject as his personal fiefdom and was contemptuous of Hopkins's lack of observational experience in the subject.
Private life
Hopkins enjoyed
music,
poetry and landscape
painting. He spent the end of his life in a
lunatic asylum in
Stoke Newington. He died there of chronic
mania and
exhaustion.
He had, with his second wife, one son and three daughters, among them morality campaigner
Ellice Hopkins.
Honours
Further Information
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