Scientist of the Day - Mark Beaufoy
Headpiece, engraving after C.M. Curtis, Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with Numerous Scientific Miscellanies, by Mark Beaufoy, detail of Preface, page i, vol. 1 (all published), 1834, copy 1 (Linda Hall Library)
Mark Beaufoy, an English Army officer and would-be naval engineer, was born Mar. 4,1764, in Lambeth, Surrey. His father manufactured Beaufoy Vinegar (as would his grandson, later), but Mark does not seem to have participated in the family business, except to spend a good portion of its profits.
Portrait of Mark Beaufoy, stipple engraving, Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with Numerous Scientific Miscellanies, by Mark Beaufoy, vol. 1 (all published), 1834, copy 1 (Linda Hall Library)
His life was oddly lived. He eloped with his cousin in 1784, to Switzerland, where they had a baby girl, and where, in August of 1787, he climbed Mont Blanc, for no other reason, apparently, than that Horace Bénédict de Saussure had done so a few days earlier. Beaufoy became the fourth person to climb Mont Blanc, and the first Englishman. He wrote an account of the ascent and deposited it with the Royal Society of London, where it resided in their archives and was only published later (1817).
Title page, Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with Numerous Scientific Miscellanies, by Mark Beaufoy, vol. 1 (all published), 1834, copy 1 (Linda Hall Library)
We include Beaufoy in this series because he published (posthumously) a book on nautical engineering that we have in our Library. It is called: Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with Numerous Scientific Miscellanies (third image). Details of the research behind it are scanty, but apparently, he spent years at Greenland Dock in London experimenting on the effects of hull shapes and sizes on drag. If the plate in his book is any indication (fourth image), these were large-scale experiments (find the horse by the capstan for a size comparison). Why the Army would be interested in naval architecture, I have no idea; perhaps this had nothing to do with his army career, about which details are few (except concerning his court-martial in 1814, which we will not go into here). Supposedly, Beaufoy discovered some facts about friction and drag that Isambard Kingdom Brunel later used in designing his own massive ships, like the Great Eastern, but I could not confirm this. Very little has been written about Beaufoy's contributions to ship design.
Experiments on hull shapes in a tank, engraving by J. Scott, Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with Numerous Scientific Miscellanies, by Mark Beaufoy, plate 1, vol. 1 (all published), 1834, copy 1 (Linda Hall Library)
I confess that the main reason I included Mark Beaufoy as a Scientist of the Day was to have an excuse to show the pair of engraved headpieces that appear at the top of page 1 of the preface to his book (first and fifth images). The caption at left says: "The art itself is Nature - Shakespeare," while on the right is "Art is but Nature better understood - Pope." Of all of Nature's wonderful designs for maneuvering at sea, why anyone would choose as an example the ability of the paper nautilus to sail upon the waves (a mythical and emblematic ability only) is a mystery. But perhaps the creator is being clever and is arguing, in matters of sailing, human Art can do better than Nature, if the paper nautilus is any indication. The headpieces are signed "C.M. Curtis," whom I cannot otherwise identify. So Beaufoy gets the credit.
Preface, page i, with engraved headpiece, Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with Numerous Scientific Miscellanies, by Mark Beaufoy, vol. 1 (all published), 1834, copy 1 (Linda Hall Library)
Beaufoy died in 1827. Presumably, most of the work on his book had been completed before he died. His son in 1834 published what he called Volume One of a three volume set, but the other two volumes were never published. The first volume does have a portrait, although it is only a silhouette (second image). The editor (Mark’s son Henry) claims at the bottom that this is the only known likeness of Beaufoy.
Beaufoy was buried in St. John the Evangelist Churchyard, Stanmore, Harrow, Greater London. If he has a grave marker, I could not find it online.
William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.
