Dates

• Existence: 1800 - 1875

Biography

Robert Willis (1800-1875) was born in London on 27 February 1800. He entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1822 (B.A., 1826), and was ordained deacon and priest in 1827. He was Jacksonsian professor of applied mechanics at Cambridge, 1837-1875, and a lecturer in applied mechanics at the government school of mines from 1853. Willis invented the odonotograph (1837) and cymagraph (1841), and in 1841 published his Principles of mechanism. He also published works on architecture in the Middle Ages and on the mechanical construction of English cathedrals. In 1843 he became a member of the Archaeological Institute. He died at Cambridge on 28 February 1875. Willis bequeathed his unfinished manuscript of the 'Architectural History of the University of Cambridge' to his nephew John Willis Clark (1833-1910), man of science and archaeologist, who completed the work on the book, and oversaw its publication (4 volumes; Cambridge, 1886).

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