John Robison

John Robison was a British physicist and mathematician who lived from 4 February 1739 to 30 January 1805. He taught natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, which was the forerunner of modern science. He served as the first general secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1783-98) and was a member when that organization acquired its royal warrant. In addition to creating the siren, Robison collaborated with James Watt on an early steam automobile. Robison lost interest in several...See more

John Robison was a British physicist and mathematician who lived from 4 February 1739 to 30 January 1805. He taught natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, which was the forerunner of modern science. He served as the first general secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1783-98) and was a member when that organization acquired its royal warrant. In addition to creating the siren, Robison collaborated with James Watt on an early steam automobile. Robison lost interest in several aspects of the Enlightenment after the French Revolution. In 1797, he wrote Proofs of a Conspiracy, a polemic in which he claimed that Weishaupt's Order of the Illuminati had penetrated Freemasonry. Sir John Robison, an inventor, was his son (1778-1843). James Watt and Robison collaborated on an early steam automobile. This failed experiment had nothing to do with Watt's later development of the Newcomen steam engine. He testified about Watt's uniqueness and how his main concept of the Separate Condenser was unrelated to their own ideas, along with Joseph Black and others. See less