Adam Anderson

Who was Adam Anderson?

Adam Anderson FRSE was a Scottish physicist and encyclopedist. He was the rector of the Perth Academy, afterwards professor of natural and experimental philosophy at St Andrews University.

Anderson designed and supervised the water supply system in Perth, and supervised the construction of the royal burgh's gasworks.

He contributed original papers on the measurement of the heights of mountains by the barometer, the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, the dew point, and the illuminating power of coal gas, to Nicholson's Journal, vol. xxx. 1812, to Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, vol. ix. 1817, and to the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vols. ii, iv, xi, xii, xiii, &c. The Perth gasworks were originally constructed under his superintendence, and he introduced many improvements leading to the economical production of gas. He wrote the articles ‘Barometer,’ ‘Cold,’ ‘Dyeing,’ ‘Fermentation,’ ‘Evaporation,’ ‘Hygrometry,’ ‘Navigation,’ and ‘Physical Geography’ in Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia, and the article ‘Gaslight’ in the Encyclopædia Britannica.