Talk:Erasmus Darwin

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I have the Darwin family tree done in PowerPoint. Please post on my talk page to request changes or email me to get a copy of the PowerPoint.Cutler 21:22, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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[edit] Mistake in dating?

I can't help but notice that after speaking of his death in 1802, the article discusses a person he referenced in a work he completed in 1803, was this information checked? Shinzen 04:32, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Added Big Bang and Big Crunch Details

Text added that proves Erasmus Darwin theorized and documented the Big Bang and Big Crunch theories over a century before anyone else. --GBoehm 20:08, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Rocket engine?

The foll was posted by an anon: I have removed it until anyone can verify it. The idea seems unlikely, but not impossible, given Priestley's recent work with gases. But I would certainly question whether such an arrangement would be for propulsion, or simply for experiment/water creation. JackyR 19:43, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

===Rocket engine===
In notes dating 1779, a sketch of a simple liquid-fuel rocket engine can be found, with hydrogen and oxygen tanks connected by plumbing and pumps to an elongated combustion chamber and expansion nozzle, a concept not to be seen again until one century later.
Here you can read: "He suggested the oxygen-hydrogen rocket engine," . If you google "Erasmus Darwin" and "rocket engine" or "Erasmus Darwin" and "ramjet" or "rocketry", you find various references. I reestablish the paragraph if you don't mind. Hektor 22:34, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
  • See also the book Darwin among the machines by George Dyson. Hektor 20:30, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
I removed 'ramjet', which refers only to an engine using external air. The way, the truth, and the light 05:24, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Practice/practise

Chambers dictionary (Edinburgh) gives:

  • "practice n"
  • "practise, (N Am) practice vt".

So this article, being about a Brit, should use practise for the verb. JackyR 19:55, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Erasmus

He was apparently the first member of his family to be named this, which must be after Erasmus. Interesting; is there any source that may explain this? The way, the truth, and the light 05:24, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Not the case. He was descended from Erasmus Earle, a prominent legal officer (I can't remember his title off hand) under Cromwell. There had actually been at least one other Erasmus Darwin before him. King-Hele has an edited family tree (going back much further than the Darwin-Wedgwood wiki one), but the full genealogy can be found in Darwin of Downe, Burke's Landed Gentry 1968 Francis Hoar (talk)Francis HoarFrancis Hoar (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 18:11, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] in fiction

There were a series of fictional stories about E. Darwin..

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 16:16, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I'm not sure if this can be useful here.

Found this source on a website that another editor pointed me towards...

"The world itself might have been generated, rather than created; that is, it might have been gradually produced from very small beginnings, increasing by the activity of its inherent principles, rather than by a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty fiat. What a magnificent idea of the infinite power of THE GREAT ARCHITECT! THE CAUSE OF CAUSES! PARENT OF PARENTS! ENS ENTIUM! For if we may compare infinities, it would seem to require a greater infinity of power to cause the causes of effects, than to cause the effects themselves." E. Darwin, Zoonomia; The Laws of Organic Life (J. Johnson, London 1794), vol. 1, p. 509

Hope this is useful. -- Low Sea (talk) 20:50, 16 April 2008 (UTC)