Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wright, Thomas (fl.1740-1760)
WRIGHT, THOMAS (fl. 1740–1760), author of ‘Louthiana,’ is stated to be ‘of Durham’ (Brit. Mus. Cat.) His published writings are: 1. ‘The Use of the Globes, or the General Doctrine of the Sphere,’ London, 1740, 8vo. 2. ‘Clavis Celestis, being the Explication of a Diagram entituled a Synopsis of the Universe, or the Visible World epitomised,’ London, 1742, 4to. 3. ‘Louthiana, or an Introduction to the Antiquities of Ireland in upwards of ninety Views and Plans, representing with Explanations the principal Ruins, Curiosities, and Antient Dwellings in the County of Louth,’ with a portrait, London, 1748, 4to; a second edition, 1758, with some few additions, Londonn, 1758, 3 pts. 4to. 4. ‘An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe, founded upon the Laws of Nature’ (London, 1750, 4to. An edition of this work was published in Philadelphia, with notes by C. Rafinesque, in 1837.
[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Allibone's Dict. of Eng. Lit.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.285
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 128 | ii | 3-1 f.e. | Wright, Thomas (fl. 1740-1760) : for (fl. 1740-1760) . . . (Brit. Mus. Cat.), read (1711-1786), natural philosopher, was born at Byer's Green, near Durham, and brought up as a philosophical instrument maker. Subsequently he taught private pupils in mathematics, and became so well known that he was offered, but declined, the professorship of mathematics at the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. In his 'Original Theory . . . of the Universe' (London, 1750, 4to) he anticipated the modern physico-philosophical theory of the material of the universe. He 'gave the theory of the Milky Way, which is now considered established,' and predicted the 'ultimate resolution of the rings of Saturn into congeries of small satellites' (De Morgan in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, Phil. Mag. vol. xxxii.) He died at Byer's Green in 1786. |
| 129 | i | 21 | after Lit. insert Gent. Mag. 1793, i. 9, 126, 213; Kant's Kosmogony, ed. 1900, pp. 193-205 |