Colchester Engineering Society

The Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, Suffolk features an exhibition of past Engineering activity in Colchester. This includes a number of products and models produced by local engineering companies together with interesting illustrations and diagrams.

Museum Logo The exhibition is open to the public during the normal opening hours of the museum. Out of Season the museum will be open on a limited basis from Monday to Friday, 10.00- 15.00.

For further information contact the secretary (see Officers & Contacts) or the museum directly at (01449) 612229 and the website www.suffolkcc.gov.uk/tourism/meal/

We are pleased to promote the Norwich Engineering Society. For details of Contacts, Meetings, and other information visit them by clicking the following www.norwichengineeringsociety.co.uk/

We are pleased to promote the Norwich Engineering Society. For details of Contacts, Meetings, and other information visit them by clicking the following http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/essexgroup/eindex.html

A Gilberd Society has been formed in Colchester. This is separate from the Colchester Engineering Society but we are pleased to promote it. Anyone interested in joining or finding out more should contact one of:

Peter Noakes 01206 872907 (pdn@essex.ac.uk)

Ken Rickwood 01206 571917 (krr@essex.ac.uk)

David Tilley 01255 830151 (patdavidtilley@aol.com)

The Next Meeting To be advised shortly

William Gilberd was born in Colchester on May 24, 1544, and died in London on November 30, 1603. He achieved eminence as a physician, finally as President of the College of Physicians. However, his lasting fame is based more on his achievements in physics, or natural philosophy as it was then known. In his great work De Magnete (On the Magnet), published in 1600, he laid the foundations of the sciences of electricity, magnetism and geomagnetism. De Magnete was a revolutionary work, in that all the results are proved by careful reasoning based on experiment. The most far-reaching of Gilberd’s results was his proof, based on experiments with a magnetic sphere, that the earth itself is a great magnet. The fact that a compass needle points north had been known in China since perhaps the 5th Century, and in Europe since the 12th, but it was not until the publication of De Magnete that the reason was known.

Gilberd was clearly proud of his Colchester roots and describes himself as Colcestrian on the title page of De Magnete. Sadly nowadays even in the town of his birth few people recognise his importance as the first great experimental scientist, and therefore the first truly modern man of science. Last year we started to redress the balance with a well-attended Town-Gown lecture in the Moot Hall, followed by a Day School in the Castle Museum. We should now like to maintain the momentum through the William Gilberd Society, with the object of enlarging the appreciation of Gilberd’s achievements, both in Colchester and more widely. We envisage a programme of talks, visits and discussions, together with efforts to improve public understanding of Gilberd’s place as one of the most important pioneers of modern science and engineering.

Anyone interested should contact one of us by email below.

Peter Noakes 01206 872907 (pdn@essex.ac.uk)

Ken Rickwood 01206 571917 (krr@essex.ac.uk)

David Tilley 01255 830151 (patdavidtilley@aol.com)