Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/332

 relinquished the drapery trade, and devoted his time, capital, and energies to the newspaper. Within a few years he acquired the shares held by Maclaren and others, and became sole proprietor of the ‘Scotsman.’ Under his direction, on 30 June 1855, the paper first appeared as a penny daily. He entered the town council of Edinburgh in 1844, and was a magistrate of the city from 1845 to 1847. In 1849–50 he was chairman of the chamber of commerce. He was one of the founders of the united industrial school. He died on 21 Dec. 1870, at the age of ninety-three. His wife died in 1831.

[Biographical Sketch of William Ritchie, by Charles Maclaren, reprinted from the Scotsman, 1831; The Story of the ‘Scotsman’ (privately printed, 1886); Memoir of Charles Maclaren, prefixed to his Selected Writings, 1869; Obit. notice of John Ritchie in Scotsman, 22 Dec. 1870; information supplied by Mr. J. R. Findlay, proprietor of the Scotsman, and grandson of the only sister of William and John Ritchie; cf. art. .] 

RITCHIE, WILLIAM (1790–1837), physicist, was born about 1790. Educated for the church of Scotland, he was licensed to preach; but, abandoning the church for the teaching profession, he became rector of the Royal Academy of Tain, Ross-shire. After saving a little money, he provided a substitute to perform his duties and went to Paris, where he attended the lectures of Thénard, Gay-Lussac, and Biot. He soon acquired great skill in devising and performing experiments in natural philosophy. He became known to Sir John Herschel, and through him he communicated to the Royal Society papers ‘On a New Photometer,’ ‘On a New Form of the Differential Thermometer,’ and ‘On the Permeability of Transparent Screens of Extreme Tenuity by Radiant Heat.’ These led to his appointment to the professorship of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, where he delivered a course of probationary lectures in 1829. In 1832 he was appointed professor of natural philosophy in the London University. Shortly afterwards he published two small treatises on geometry (1833; 3rd edit. 1853) and the differential and integral calculus (1836; 2nd edit. 1847). He communicated to the Royal Society—of which he was elected a fellow—papers ‘On the Elasticity of Threads of Glass and the Application of this Property to Torsion Balances,’ and also various experimental researches on the electric and chemical theories of galvanism, on electromagnetism, and voltaic electricity. His memoirs were more remarkable for the practical ingenuity shown in the contrivance and execution of the experiments than for theoretical value. Ritchie was subsequently engaged on experiments on the manufacture of glass for optical purposes, and a commission was appointed by the government to inquire into his results. A telescope of eight inches aperture was constructed by Dollond from Ritchie's glass, at the recommendation of the commission, but its performance was not so satisfactory as to sanction further expenditure on the experiments. He died on 15 Sept. 1837 of a fever caught in Scotland. Though the traces of an imperfect education are too manifest in his theoretical researches, he was an experimenter of great ingenuity and merit. He was ‘a man of clear head, apt at illustration, and fond of elements.’ Abstracts of his papers read before the Royal Society will be found in the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ and ‘Annals’ (new ser.) (vi. 52, viii. 58, x. 226, xi. 448) and ‘London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine’ (iii. 37, 145, x. 220, xi. 192). Papers contributed to the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ will be found in vols. i.–xii.

[Philosophical Mag. xii. 275–6 (biographical notice); Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen; Allibone's Dict.] 

RITCHIE, WILLIAM JOHNSTONE  (1813–1892), chief justice of Canada, son of Thomas Ritchie, judge of the court of common pleas in Nova Scotia, and Eliza Johnstone, was born at Annapolis in that province on 28 Oct. 1813. He was educated at Pictou College, Nova Scotia, and studied law at Halifax in company with his brother, who afterwards became judge in equity for Nova Scotia. He was called to the bar of New Brunswick in 1838. In 1846 he entered the assembly as member for St. John's, retaining the same seat till 1851, but not making any special mark as a politician. After some years' successful practice he became a Q.C. in January 1854. In October 1854 he was appointed a member of the executive council of New Brunswick, but resigned on 17 Aug. 1855 on becoming a puisne judge for that province. In 1865 he was the representative of Nova Scotia on the colonial confederate council, which assembled to consider the question of commercial treaties. In December 1865 he was promoted to be chief justice of New Brunswick.

On 8 Oct. 1875 Ritchie was appointed a puisne judge of the Dominion supreme court, and on 11 Jan. 1879 was made chief justice. On 1 Nov. 1881 he was created knight bachelor. He acted as deputy governor of the Dominion during Lord Lorne's absence from July 1881 to Jan. 1882, and again in