Alexander Bryce

Alexander Bryce (1713–1786) was a Church of Scotland minister, mathematician, astronomer, scientist and poet who was Chaplain in Ordinary to King George III from 1770 to 1786.

He was a polymath and a friend of Robert Wallace and Colin Maclaurin.

In 1772 he explained the principles of creating an altimeter ultimately put into use to create the instruments.

Life

He was born at Boarland in Kincardine-on-Forth in 1713. He was educated at both Doune and Kilmadock School. He graduated MA from Edinburgh University in 1735. From 1740 he acted as a private tutor in mathematics and astronomy (under patronage of Colin Maclaurin) in the Caithness area for three years where he became locally unpopular for mapping and tabulating shipwrecks on the coast in an attempt to prove a higher than expected number as evidence of "wreckers". However, "A Map of the North Coast of Britain" which he published in 1744 was the first to show this coastline accurately.

He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Dunblane in June 1744.

In August 1745 he was ordained as minister of Kirknewton Parish Church under the patronage of James, Earl of Morton. In 1750, under the patronage of the Duke of Buccleuch, he translated to East Calder Parish Church (St Cuthbert's). Later poems had a religious tone.

A map: " A Map of the North Coast of Britain from raw Stoir of Assynt to Wick in Caithness" (published 1744 by the Royal Society).

A map: "Map of the Three Lothians" (1773) the survey thereof

An Account of a Comet Observed by Rev A Bryce (1766) a paper to the Royal Society A New Method of Measuring the Velocity of the Wind An Experiment to Ascertain to What Quantity of Water a Fall of Snow on the Earth's Surface is Equal Observations of the Transit of Venus: 6 June 1761 Observations of the Transit of Venus: 3 June 1769 Remarks on the Barometer for Measuring Altitude (1772) creating the theory for the altimeter