Thompson, William
Thompson, William
The group of sciences (excluding biology and chemistry) which treat of the phenomena, and the laws governing the phenomena associated with matter in general. It therefore treats of:
matter, its constitution and properties
mechanics, which includes statics and dynamics, and treats of the action of forces on material bodies
acoustics, which treats of the phenomena of sound and its laws, etc.
heat, which treats of the effects produced by the force of the form of energy known as heat
optics, which treats of all connected with the phenomena of sight
electricity and magnetism, which treat of the agency of electricity and phenomena caused by it, and of the laws of magnetic force
Among those who have made important contributions to the science are:
CATHOLICS
Ampere, Andre Marie
Babinet, Jacques
Beccaria, Giovanni Battista
Becquerel, Antoine Cesar
Becquerel, Antoine Henri
Branley, Edward
Coulomb, Charles Augustin
Delany, Patrick Bernard
Fizeau, Armand Hippolyte Louis
Foucault, Jean Bernard Leon
Fraunhofer, Joseph van
Fresnel, Augustin-Jean
Galilei, Galileo
Galvani, Luigi
Gramme, Zenobe Theophile
Grimaldi, Francesco Maria
Hay, Ren Just
Mariotte, Edme
Matteucci, Carlo
Melloni, Macedonio
Nobili, Leopoldo
Regnault, Victor
Torricelli, Evangelista
Volta, Alessandro
OTHER CHRISTIAN PHYSICISTS
Boyle, Robert
Brewster, David
Faraday, Michael
Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand van
Hertz, Heinrich Rudolf
Huygens, Christian
Joule, James Prescott
Maxwell, James Clerk
Mayer, Julius Robert
Newton, Isaac
Oersted, Hans Christian
Ohm, Georg Simon
Rankine, W. J. Macquom
Siemens, Werner von
Stokes, George Gabriel
Strutt, John William
Thompson, Benjamin
Thompson, William
Young, Thomas
New Catholic Dictionary
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Thompson, William
an eminent English Wesleyan preacher, was born in the county of Fermanagh, Ireland, in 1733. He was converted young, and in 1757 he commenced his ministry among the Methodists. In 1758 he went to England, and soon learned what kind of a work it was which he had undertaken. On one occasion, when Mr. Thompson was preaching, a mob, instigated by a minister of the Church of England, arose and carried him and the principal Methodists on board a transport which was ready to sail with a war-fleet, England then being engaged in war on the Continent. Through the exertions of lady Huntingdon, however, the government ordered their release. In 1760 Thompson labored in Scotland, but with little success. After 1782 he traveled some of the principal circuits in England. His last was Manchester. He died at Birmingham, May 1, 1799, of a disease the seeds of which had been sown in 1764 by sleeping in a damp bed, an indiscretion which killed many of the early Methodist preachers. William Thompson was one of the men who piloted the bark of Methodism-through the troublous waters after the death of the great helmsman, Wesley. He was a man of that calmness, sagacity, and statesmanlike cast of mind which were so much needed at that time, and which led to his election as president of the first Conference (1791) after Wesley’s death. He was one of the committee appointed to converse with Kilham. With the endorsement of Benson, Bradburn, Hopper, and others, he sent out the Halifax Circular, which marked out a basis for the preservation and government of the infant Church. Mather and Pawson consulted him on the state of the connection. He arbitrated in regard to the settlement of the Bristol disputes in which Benson was embroiled; he approved Mather’s Letter to the Preachers; and he gave to Methodism its district meetings and Plan of Pacification. He was one of the ablest speakers and closest reasoners in the British Conference. Fewer traces, says Bunting (in his Life of his father, Jabez Bunting, ch. vi), are to be found of him than of any of his eminent contemporaries. My father used to speak of the old man’s gravity of speech, spirit, and demeanor, and of the advantages he himself derived from his example and ministry. See Atmore, Meth. Memorial, s.v.; Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1799; Stevens, Hist. of Methodism, 3, 25, 33, 140; Memoir of Entwisle, ch. 3; Smith, Hist. of Wesl. Methodism, vol. 1, 2 (see Index, vol. 3).