Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anderson, Adam (d.1846)
ANDERSON, ADAM, LL.D. (d. 1846), writer on physics, sometime rector of the Perth Academy, afterwards professor of natural philosophy at St. Andrew's University, died 5 Dec. 1846. He contributed original papers on the measurement of the heights of mountains by the barometer, the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, the dew point, and the illuminating power of coal gas, to Nicholson's ‘Journal,’ vol. xxx. 1812, to Thomson's ‘Annals of Philosophy,’ vol. ix. 1817, and to the ‘Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ vols. ii, iv, xi, xii, xiii, &c. The Perth gasworks were originally constructed under his superintendence, and he introduced many improvements leading to the economical production of gas. He wrote the articles ‘Barometer,’ ‘Cold,’ ‘Dyeing,’ ‘Fermentation,’ ‘Evaporation,’ ‘Hygrometry,’ ‘Navigation,’ and ‘Physical Geography’ in Brewster's ‘Edinburgh Encyclopædia’ (completed 1830), and the article ‘Gaslight’ in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’
[Gent. Mag. 1847, xxvii. 221; Royal Soc. Cat. Sci. Papers, vol. i.]