Scope and Contents
Dates
- 1616 - 1861
- Majority of material found within 1770 - 1800
Creator
Language of Materials
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Arrangement
Extent
3.34 Linear Feet (8 boxes)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
Sir Charles Blagden (1748-1820)
Blagden was elected one of the secretaries of the Royal Society in 1784, and remained loyal to its president Joseph Banks throughout the many controversies of the following decade. He visited continental Europe annually until the French Revolution and was elected a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in 1789; his friends included Antoine Lavoisier, Georges Cuvier, and Claude Louis Berthollet.
Blagden was involved in the "water controversy" that began in 1783. This was a dispute among Lavoisier, Cavendish, and James Watt over who was the first to discover that water is a compound; as Cavendish's assistant and secretary of the Royal Society, Blagden played a central role in the still-unsettled contest. The most important of Blagden's own discoveries was published in 1788. His demonstration that the freezing point of a solution decreases in direct proportion to the concentration of the solution is known as "Blagden's law."
Although Blagden courted Lavoisier's widow and Count Rumsford's daughter, among others, he remained unmarried. He died of apoplexy at the home of his friend Berthollet, near Paris, in March of 1820, and was buried in the cemetery of Père Lachaise.
Processing Information
- Banks, Joseph, 1743-1820
- Blagden, Charles, Sir, 1748-1820
- France -- Description and travel
- Great Britain -- Description and travel
- Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 18th century
- Hale, John Blagden
- Hale, Richard Blagden
- Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 1743-1794
- Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
- Roy, William, 1726-1790
- Royal Society (Great Britain)
- Science -- Great Britain
- Science -- Societies, etc.
- Scientists -- Great Britain
- Title
- Guide to the Sir Charles Blagden Papers
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- by Diane J. Ducharme and Olivia Hillmer
- Date
- July 2010
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
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