Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/48

 Brunel, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, and a miniature on ivory of Mrs. Fry.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1862, i. 397; Seguier's Critical and Commercial Dict. of the Works of Painters, 1870; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1791–1844; British Institution Exhibition Catalogues (Modern), 1807–43.] 

DRUMMOND, THOMAS (d. 1835), botanical collector, was the younger brother of James (1784?–1863) [q. v.] He was born in Scotland, and during the early part of his life was at Don's nursery, Forfar. He first became known to botanists by his distributed sets of mosses, ‘Musci Scotici,’ and afterwards was attached as assistant-naturalist to Dr. Richardson in Sir John Franklin's second land expedition. He accordingly sailed from Liverpool 16 Feb. 1825, and reached New York on the 15th of the following month. The expedition moved westward by the river Hudson and lakes Ontario and Winnipeg to the Mackenzie river. Drummond quitted the main party at Cumberland House to explore the Rocky Mountains. In the spring of 1831 Drummond journeyed on foot by the Alleghany Mountains, reaching St. Louis in July, where he fell ill. In consequence of this delay he was unable to join the fur traders on their expedition to the north. He therefore was compelled to confine his explorations to New Orleans and thereabouts. Hence he made a botanical tour in Texas; at Velasco an attack of cholera prostrated him, but on recovering he continued his labours. He embarked finally for Havana 9 Feb. 1835, and died at that port early in March. The plants sent home by Drummond were described by Sir William Hooker in his ‘Flora Boreali-Americana,’ his ‘Journal of Botany,’ and ‘Companion to the Botanical Magazine.’

[Lasègue's Bot. Mus. Delessert, pp. 196–8, 204; Hooker's Bot. Misc. (1830), i. 178–219; Hooker's Journal Bot. (1834), i. 50–60, (1840) ii. 187.] 

DRUMMOND, THOMAS (1797–1840), engineer and administrator, was born in Edinburgh on 10 Oct. 1797. His father, James Drummond, was a member of the society of writers to the signet and the representative of a branch of a Scotch family of ancient lineage. James Drummond married in 1792 Elizabeth, daughter of James Somers of Edinburgh, a lady of personal attractions and great force of character. Thomas was the third child of this marriage. At the age of thirteen he entered the university of Edinburgh. Professor Leslie said of him: ‘No young man has ever come under my charge with a happier disposition or more promising talents.’ In 1813 he became a cadet at Woolwich, and in 1815 entered the royal engineers. Drummond's progress at Woolwich was rapid, and the esteem in which he was held by his teachers great. ‘At the last examination,’ he writes on 13 April 1813, ‘I got from the bottom of the sixth academy to be fifth in the fifth academy, by which I took fifty-five places and was made by Captain Gow (the commanding officer) head of a room.’ Professor Barlow spoke of his originality, independence, ‘steady perseverance,’ and kindliness of heart, which were distinguishing traits at every period of his life.

In 1819 Drummond became acquainted with Colonel Thomas Frederick Colby [q. v.] in Edinburgh, and in 1820 joined that officer in the work of the ordnance survey. Drummond was now twenty-three years of age, and he entered into his new labours with zeal. He devoted himself with increased energy to his favourite studies, mathematics and chemistry, in which he made rapid progress under Professors Brand and Faraday at the Royal Institution. Among the difficulties felt in carrying out the survey the labour of making observations in murky weather was very great. This labour was minimised by the scientific genius of Drummond. His two inventions—a limelight, better known as ‘the Drummond light,’ and an improved heliostat, an instrument consisting of a mirror connected with two telescopes, and used for throwing rays of light in a given direction—immensely facilitated the work of observation both by day and night, and armed the survey officers with powerful weapons for carrying on their operations. The light soon made a sensation in the scientific world. Sir John Herschel describes the impression produced when the light was first exhibited in the Tower: ‘The common Argand burner and parabolic reflector of a British lighthouse were first exhibited, the room being darkened, and with considerable effect. Fresnel's superb lamp was next disclosed, at whose superior effect the other seemed to dwindle, and showed in a manner quite subordinate. But when the gas began to play, the lime being brought now to its full ignition and the screen suddenly removed, a glare shone forth, overpowering, and as it were annihilating, both its predecessors, which appeared by its side, the one as a feeble gleam which it required attention to see, the other like a mere plate of heated metal. A shout of triumph and of admiration burst from all present.’

In 1824–5 the survey of Ireland commenced, and in the autumn of the latter